Went out this last week for High Cascade buck hunt west of Waldo Lake. Dismal. We hunted in an area that traditionally, like for the last thirty years, has been at least very good if not exceptional hunting. The lack of fresh tracks, scat, any sign was unbelievable. Except one set of bobcat tracks around a couple of high mountain lakes, it was very was discouraging to say the least.

Talked to some people who had been there hunting for several days also. Same thing. A couple young guys said they had hiked the area over twenty-six miles in the last day and a half, no sign, no animals.

There was an ODFW study a few years ago called the Highway 97 Study that concluded that about one third of game animals taken every year were taken by hunters; one third by poachers and one third by predators.

Maybe they need to issue tags for poachers. It could be a year round tag, no bag limit, day or night hunting. And they need to bring back hunting with dogs for cougar and bear.

I guess their feeling is the predator population will subside once there are no more game animals for them to eat.

Deer populations are not as good here as they were 30 years ago. I have been working at 7000 feet, 11 hour days, the last three weeks. I haven't seen more than 20 mule deer. And traveling back and forth, I haven't seen 10 does and fawns on any hay fields in a 45 mile drive at day break. 15 years ago you would see 300 to 400 head on the same fieldsand you had better drive slow. Not sure what is going on, and I don't think the G&F knows either.

I would love it if somehow a rep from each state's F & G would come on these forums and answer questions such as this. They either know what's going on or they don't.....either way, we have a right to know. Those are some sad and scary observations in the first 2 posts.

Opening weekend of regular deer season was this last weekend. I didn't bother with the first weekend, hardly ever do, prefer to hunt during the week and the last ten days as the weather is usually better.

I talked to many at work on Monday that did hunt the weekend. Same thing as what I had experienced a couple of weeks ago. Not many shots taken, and a lot less animals spotted than in years past.

One of the guys went east for a draw tag (bowhunt) he drew last year also and several times over the last ten years. He saw less than 25% of the legal animals he saw last year, and a much smaller number of non shooters, also. He ended up on the next to last day taking a 3X2 that was pretty small (he had pictures) and we compared it to last years bull taken in the same unit. Not even close.

The F&G people had better figure this out and soon. If this continues, we won't have to worry about anti-hunting groups, because most people will have given up on hunting long before they can stop us.

Monday talked to the same guy who shot the 3X2 elk bowhunting. Several weeks ago, he removed his tree stands and game cameras from a place up east of Oakridge where he has been very successful for the last six or seven years bow and rifle hunting. This is lower elevation (+/- 2500') than the place we hunted in in the post above (2600'- 6000') and about five to ten miles west.

After he ran the SD cards and found ZERO animal activity (cameras were up for over six weeks) he said screw it and pulled his hardware. All but two of the cameras still had battery power because they hadn't been activated enough to drain them. Last year he went up after less than six weeks and they were all dead from taking pictures. Lots of pictures.

He decided to take his wife up to some areas past Big Fall Creek that both he and I have hunted for twenty + years. I have personally taken five animals in this general area (it's a big area) over the last ten years.

He drove 147 miles of gravel and dirt roads looking to cut a trail or see fresh sign. Zereoed his trip odom at the dam, 15 miles from his house before daybreak (half hour before and after is legal here) drove until past legal sundown, saw ZERO animals, shooters or not. They saw zero fresh sign no trails.

He and his wife hiked a couple of places that have produced good sized animals in the past, not even sign of deer, elk, bear or cougar. No old sign either. No old scrapes, scat, tracks, nothing.

He said he is seriously considering not hunting in Oregon at all next year. He has hunted out-of-state several times in the last five years for specific hunts in both Montana and Arizona. He has family in both Montana and Arizona which makes it easier to do. He was successful every time he went out of state.

Between the predation and the poachers, it's getting worse.

I grew up in K. Falls, hunted all around there and remember as a kid seeing hundreds of deer in the fields in the evenings. You can drive the same area in the evening now and be lucky to see fifty. Not in one field, but all together.

There are so many mountain lions around the basin that trappers are catching them without trying. In fact, they've been trying to figure out ways to keep them out because it's ruining their season.

Obviously not the only contribution to the downturn but a part.

I don't think DFG has a clue.

The DFG sent out a report two years ago that they had used some formula to determine approximately how many cougar were in Oregon. Two years ago the number was north of 6000.

Now let's do some math. The same report stated the calorie requirement for an average cougar was roughly equivalent to one deer a week unless it was a mother with kits then it was one and a half. Let's just say for the sake of argument it is one deer per cougar per week.

Now 6000 (number of cougar in Oregon) X 52 (number of weeks in a year) = 312,000 deer per year.

That was numbers from 2010. Take those numbers and times them by four (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), rounded down to 250,000 and it is very close to a million. That doesn't take into consideration any other predators, poachers and hunters.

Idaho is in the same condition. Very little game and a large number of Wolves. I think the game herds are in very poor shape in most of the West. Very sad to see the fish and game continue to act like nothing is wrong. I really think that there is 1 deer where there were 10 deer 15 years ago. The Elk are being destroyed by the wolves and the game department. I feel fortunate to have hunted when there were 30 inch bucks around and 350+ Elk on public land. Those days are gone forever sadly. On a positive note we were able to kill eleven bears this spring season in a very small area. I know this will help the fawn and calf survival in this area. Ross