I'm a resident in Oregon. I'm known as Jerkoff Jeff because I got stuck all winter in a Basque sheeperherders cabin with just a pile of Playboys and a 55-gal drum of lotion............
We have elk, but not "lots". It's a lower-percentage game across the board than the major elk factory states. There are tags we can get that approximate what you guys see, but you'll only get those tags every 4-5-6-7-?? years and in between you hunt some pretty chitty hunts by Idaho or Montana standards.
Jayco I've got a spot I hunt deer & grouse near Cottage Grove and there's elk there. I've seen them twice (out of season). But you simply can't imagine how thick it is around there off the logging roads. Visibility of 10, 20, maybe 30 yards. You can try to catch them in a clearcut but our critters have wised up (or got shot) as far as GENERALLY being in cuts in season during shooting hours.
The one time I hunted elk out of state (Colorado) it was a revelation to me on three levels. First- an "any elk" tag. We don't get those, in fact I've hunted a few seasons with the dreaded spike tag... second, to be hunting deer and elk at the same time. We don't get to do that. Third, I could SEE! Even the timbered ares weren't too thick to glass "into" from an opposing hillside. Here, you just see treetops so glassing anything other than a cut is useless. Oh, one more thing... our seasons are only 5 days, typically, on the east side of the state. .
Anyway with opportunities being few and far between here, you won't catch me using a "small" rifle and restricting myself to broadside shots under 200 yards blah blah blah. Give me all the rifle I can handle.
