OpenHunt for Android is on Google Play — take your plan into the field. Send it to your phone →

Units / Oregon / Unit OWYHEE

Unit research · Oregon Unit OWYHEE

Unit OWYHEE — Oregon

80% public across 1,935,660 ac. Road access is easy — only 14% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

Open in map
Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, new legal closures, fire near the unit, weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.
Elk draw odds (5)Pronghorn draw odds (2)Odds and pins: free, no account
Unit OWYHEEFull map — ownership, roads, wind →
2,170–6,480 ft

elevation range

80%

public land

14%

of public >1 mi from a road

2,890 ac

landlocked public

1.52

road miles per mi²

3,852 mi

maintained trails

Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

7 limited-entry elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on Unit OWYHEE: apply in the Oregon draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 5 draw hunts (2026)$66.00 resident · $670.00 nonresident
Pronghorn tag · 2 draw hunts (2026)$68.00 resident · $453.00 nonresident
Plus: Oregon annual hunting licence$39.00 resident · $193.00 nonresident

Season dates: see Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's regulations

ODFW — Licence, tag and permit fees (2026)

Oregon elk and pronghorn draw calendar

  • May 15, 2027application deadline
  • May 15, 2027application 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

BLM 73%SDOL 7%USBR 1%□ Private 20%
Unit area1,935,660 ac
Public land1,556,973 ac (80%)
Landlocked public2,890 ac (0.2%)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)4,592 mi
Maintained trails3,852 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road218,066 ac (14% of public)
Road density1.52 mi/mi²
Managed byBLM 1412k ac · SDOL 131k ac · USBR 11k ac
Elevation2,170–6,480 ft
Median elevation4,050 ft
Median slope

Where the ground sits

2,170 ft6,480 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 21%
E 31%
S 19%
W 29%

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

558,632 ac of this unit has burned — 29% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 33%. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F37° high24° lowJFMAMJJASOND

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at ONTARIO MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 83 km from the unit’s center and ~1,900 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Deer · 2024 · controlled hunts

57.2% success

278 taken by 486 hunters

Deer hunter success · 2015–2024 · 57% → 57%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery29%1862
Antlerless77%2330

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Elk · 2024 · controlled hunts

32% success

8 taken by 25 hunters

Elk hunter success · 2015–2024 · 31% → 32%

Season breakdown · 2024
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Muzzleloader32%825

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Pronghorn · 2024 · controlled hunts

64.5% success

60 taken by 93 hunters

Pronghorn hunter success · 2016–2024 · 64% → 65%

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

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby units

Unit MALHEUR RIVER68% public · 9% remoteUnit BEULAH57% public · 12% remoteUnit WHITEHORSE90% public · 21% remoteUnit STEENS MTN64% public · 23% remoteUnit LOOKOUT MTN38% public · 11% remoteUnit SUMPTER45% public · 4% remote

Ready to scout it?

Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

Take Unit OWYHEE 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.

Scan to install OpenHunt for Android. Open this page on the phone afterwards and it lands in the app.

QR code for openhuntmaps.com/appGet it on Google Play
Open Unit OWYHEE in the map
What happens nextMay 15Elk application deadline · details →May 15Pronghorn application deadline · details →
Watch this unit — freeReturned and leftover tags, new legal closures, fire near the unit, weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.