Deer Hunt Area FX-01 (Fox 01)

Four units under one tag

Fox 01 draws mostly from the Desolation unit, with a good piece of Ukiah, plus smaller parts of Heppner and Sumpter. ODFW walks the line from Ukiah along Highway 244, down the Tower Mountain and Granite-Ukiah roads, across Greenhorn Road and Highway 7, then back by Highway 395 and the Middle Fork and North Fork of the John Day River. Four of every five acres inside are public. Vinegar Hill, Ben Harrison Peak, Sunrise Butte, Boulder Butte and Indian Rock are the named summits.

The Fox herd range

ODFW's Umatilla County forecast covers the Fox herd range. It says mule deer are steady to slightly decreasing, but buck ratios in Fox are above management objective. Fawn ratios across the district's herd ranges averaged about 40 per 100 does. The forecast doesn't pick specific basins in this hunt area, so use burns and edges as your starting guide: ODFW's general advice is that deer favor country that burned five to fifteen years ago. The named roads give you a feel for the layout: CR 20 and US 395 on the western and northern edge, and forest roads NF 45, FR 2010 and NFD 5225 cutting into the middle. Pilot Rock, Ukiah, Sumpter and Long Creek are the nearest towns.

The ground ODFW draws for this hunt

ODFW's Deer Hunt Area FX-01 covers about 1,009 square miles measured on ODFW's own polygon, and ODFW rates it 82% public land. It takes in parts of these WMUs: Desolation (about 57%), Ukiah (about 22%), Heppner (about 11%) and Sumpter (about 10%). Named features inside the line fall in Grant County, Umatilla County and Baker County. Elevation runs from about 2,438 to 8,113 feet. The highest named points are Vinegar Hill (8,113 ft), Ben Harrison Peak (7,779 ft) and Sunrise Butte (7,736 ft). ODFW's line is the legal one, so check it against a current land-ownership map, and get permission before you cross private ground or a locked gate inside it.

Pick a drainage and stay with it

With this much public ground, the biggest mistake is driving all day. Pick a drainage off a named road like NF 45, FR 2010 or NFD 5225, walk past the first mile of road hunters, and glass until you find a buck. Black Butte Camp, Tollbridge Campground, North Fork John Day Campground and Olive Lake Campground put you close to different parts of the area.

Two hunts, two approaches

The rifle hunt is for a buck with visible antler, and it brings the most hunters. The bow hunt is a whitetail tag, so look for whitetails along lower, brushier creek cover instead of ridgelines. Early bow hunters should hunt water, with morning and evening sits over trails. Rifle hunters can cover more ground, glassing open slopes from a saddle at daybreak and again before dark. Break a deer down where it falls on steep slope. Haul meat out in several loads.

ODFW's 2026 buck deer hunts on this ground

Seasons, bag limits and tags come from ODFW's 2026 regulations. Check the current book before you apply or go, because these change every year.

• FX101 Fox 01, Oct. 3 - Oct. 14: 880 tags, one buck with visible antler.
• FX101R Fox 01 Bow, Aug. 29 - Sep. 27: 715 tags, one white-tailed deer.

The 2025 harvest in ODFW's numbers

ODFW has no harvest figures on the new hunt areas yet. Its 2025 statistics are by WMU, for all deer hunters, every season and tag type, so these are the units this area was drawn from, and each covers more or less ground than the area does.

• Desolation (about 57% of this area): 525 hunters, 199 animals, 38% success over 2,784 hunter days.
• Ukiah (about 22% of this area): 841 hunters, 192 animals, 23% success over 4,140 hunter days.

Roads in and the nearest towns

The longest named roads through this ground are CR 20, CR 15, OR 244 and US 26. The nearest towns are Ukiah (21 mi), Long Creek (22 mi) and Sumpter (27 mi), measured from the centre of the unit.