As to planes: Historical rumor had it our Oregon Moose and Goose boys flew the evening before elk season and flour bombed herds to break them up. Given the frequency of such stories across the state, they must have had at least 100 craft in the air. Never saw any flour bombs, but have seen substantial aircraft circling in our wilderness areas the evening before opener.
Locally, we've had a few red neck pilots that worked elk for their families opening morning. Also a few power gliders taking deer/elk from the air.
We've also had some high dollar governor's tag guides use aircraft to haze trophy sheep and elk into their area. Mostly an issue in our NE Washington/Oregon canyons where the trophy happens to be across the state line. With some of those guide fees getting into the $20 to 30k range there's likely a little impetus to come up with a record book trophy.
I've personally done only one guided hunt in NE Oregon. No aircraft were involved but lots of folks can sit at their breakfast tables and scan rugged mountainsides and canyons for game or spot something during their travels. About every other morning across 11 days, my guide would get calls on sightings, and I suspect he might slide a C note or two to the source if they generate a score. In all but one case we were too far out of the country to take advantage of such. We were indeed following up on a call though when I scored my kill. It was not, however, part of the reported herd as he was on the wrong side of the mountain.
Last edited by 1minute; 08/19/22.
