Units / Oregon / Unit MALHEUR RIVER
Unit research · Oregon · Unit MALHEUR RIVER
MALHEUR RIVER — Oregon
68% public hunting land across 1,853,206 ac. Road access is easy — only 9% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.
Computed from primary government data by the AGPL pipeline. See the code →
Tags & season
Draw hunts on this ground.
17 limited-entry black bear, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on Unit MALHEUR RIVER: apply in the Oregon draw, by the agency's deadline below.
Season dates: see Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's regulations
Oregon black bear, elk and pronghorn draw calendar
- May 15, 2027 — application deadline
- May 15, 2027 — application deadline
Fees and draw dates from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-15. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a unit that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: ODFW — Licence, tag and permit fees (2026) · ODFW — Controlled hunt applications and tags · ODFW — How to navigate the controlled hunt process (standing May 15 deadline).
Land & access
Backcountry
Where the ground sits
Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band
Slope mix
Which way the slopes face
Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing
North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.
USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →
Unit intelligence report · Pro, $5 a month or $49 a year
733,769 ac of this unit has burned — 40% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 48%. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.
Season conditions — measured, not vibes
Historical temperatures · 2000–2025
Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month
Measured at BURNS MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 46 km from the unit’s center. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.
Harvest — agency survey estimates
Deer · 2017 · controlled hunts
32.9% success
367 taken by 1,117 hunters
Deer hunter success · 2015–2017 · 45% → 33%
Season breakdown · 2017
| Season | Success | Harvest | Hunters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muzzleloader | 7% | 3 | 41 |
| Antlerless | 40% | 4 | 10 |
Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.
Elk · 2017 · controlled hunts
16.7% success
5 taken by 30 hunters
Elk hunter success · 2015–2017 · 38% → 17%
Season breakdown · 2017
| Season | Success | Harvest | Hunters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muzzleloader | 17% | 5 | 30 |
Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.
Pronghorn · 2017 · controlled hunts
58.7% success
135 taken by 230 hunters
Pronghorn hunter success · 2016–2017 · 68% → 59%
Estimated harvest from ODFW's MANDATORY HARVEST SURVEY — every tag holder is required to report, and the department extrapolates from the returns. These are estimates by construction and ODFW labels them so; the success rates are the department's own and are carried verbatim. Weapon is the VARIANT, because in Oregon a rifle, archery and muzzleloader hunt are separate controlled hunts with separate tags rather than methods within one season. A hunter appears in exactly one. These summaries are also the only published link from an Oregon hunt to its unit. ODFW names its controlled hunts in prose — "Alsea - Stott Mtn", "Aldrich 01 Bow" — and publishes no hunt-to-unit table anywhere; the Unit Name column here is the crosswalk, and without it the draw statistics could not reach a unit page at all. ⚠️ ODFW SPELLS ITS OWN UNITS TWO WAYS. The harvest summaries say "Alsea", "Lookout Mountain", "Murderer's Creek"; the boundary service says "ALSEA", "LOOKOUT MTN", "MURDERERS CREEK". Every harvest row is mapped through the LAYER's ids so a unit named here always exists on the map. Seasons are uneven: the current summaries carry one year each and the dated archive reaches back to 2014, but several of those older files use a layout this reader does not handle and are omitted whole rather than in part. Source: ODFW Big Game Hunting Harvest Statistics (estimated harvest by unit and hunt).
How these numbers are made
Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, tell us at support@openhuntmaps.com — the fix ships for everyone.
Ready to scout it?
Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.
Take Unit MALHEUR RIVER into the field
Download Oregon’s pack and this unit works with no signal — boundaries, ownership, roads, elevation. Record your hunt with the screen off. Check what’s visible from any ridge.
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