Deer Hunt Area MC-01 (Mid Columbia 01)
Oregon Hunting Guide — Deer (Buck), Deer (Antlerless)
Mid Columbia 01 spans the White River and Biggs units east of Mount Hood, from the Deschutes and Columbia rivers up to Lookout Mountain at 6526 ft. ODFW says the herd is slowly recovering, with a buck ratio just above objective.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit MC-01
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Oregon Unit MC-01 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.
Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.
Deer (Buck) Hunting in Unit MC-01
Mid Columbia 01 spans the White River and Biggs units east of Mount Hood, from the Deschutes and Columbia rivers up to Lookout Mountain at 6526 ft. ODFW says the herd is slowly recovering, with a buck ratio just above objective.
Where to Find Bucks in the Mid Columbia 01 Hunt Area: from the Deschutes rim up the western edge
The White River and Biggs units
Most of the area comes from the White River unit, with the rest from Biggs. ODFW starts at the mouth of the Deschutes River, follows it south to the Warm Springs boundary, then runs west along Highway 216 and US 26 to Highway 35 and Hood River, and returns along the Columbia. Lookout Mountain, Badger Butte, Gunsight Butte, Bonney Butte and Echo Point are the named high points. A fenced-off block of public watershed lies southwest of The Dalles.
Where the forecast sends you
ODFW says most deer in MC-01 summer on the western edge of the unit at higher elevations or on private land near agriculture. It tells hunters to start at higher elevations, away from other hunters. For the Mid-Columbia herd, ODFW estimates 27 bucks per 100 does, slightly above the objective of 25, and a fawn ratio of 43. The herd is slowly recovering from a decline in 2016. Part of the hunt area sits inside the Mt Hood National Forest boundary, and ODFW's hunt description separates out that portion. The Dalles Watershed is its own tightly bounded public parcel, so check the map before you plan around it.
The ground ODFW draws for this hunt
ODFW's Deer Hunt Area MC-01 covers about 1,248 square miles measured on ODFW's own polygon, and ODFW rates it 37% public land. It takes in parts of these WMUs: White River (about 75%) and Biggs (about 24%). Named features inside the line fall in Wasco County, Hood River County and Clackamas County. Elevation runs from about 87 to 6,526 feet. The highest named points are Lookout Mountain (6,526 ft), Badger Butte (5,970 ft) and Gunsight Butte (5,901 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.
Unit MC-01 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 595–4,923 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 2,137 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 1,247.8 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- BLM — 15%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 17%
Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 305 tanks
- 151 springs
- 1,013 stream segments
- 35 lakes
Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Lookout Mountain (6,526 ft), Badger Butte (5,970 ft), Gunsight Butte (5,901 ft), Bonney Butte (5,583 ft)
Holding ground: High Prairie (6,047 ft), Bonney Meadows (5,197 ft), Eightmile Meadow (5,063 ft)
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How to Hunt Bucks in the Mid Columbia 01 Hunt Area: go up, get away from the crowd
Pick your window
This hunt area offers an early season, rifle, bow, late, youth and muzzleloader tags, all for a buck with visible antler. The early hunt falls while summer patterns still hold, so water and shaded benches matter. The rifle hunt brings crowds. The late hunt nears the rut, which helps when you've found a buck and want to watch for him chasing does.
Roads and camps
OR 216, US 197, OR 218 and I-84 frame the area. Knebal Springs, Devil's Half Acre, Frog Lake and Pebble Ford campgrounds are listed for the higher side, and Tygh Valley, Dufur, Grass Valley and Moro are the closest towns. Follow ODFW's advice: drive up and past the road hunters, then walk. If you hunt near orchards or farm edges, ask permission and respect closures. Glass long at daybreak and dusk, and shoot only when you can retrieve the deer. On steep terrain, plan to quarter it and pack it out.
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.
- MC101 Mid-Columbia 01, Oct. 3 - Oct. 14: 1,265 tags, one buck with visible antler.
- MC101R Mid-Columbia 01 Bow, Aug. 29 - Sep. 27: 165 tags, one buck with visible antler.
- MC101-1 Early Mid-Columbia 01, Sep. 12 - Sep. 20: 55 tags, one buck with visible antler.
- MC101-2 Late Mid-Columbia 01, Nov. 15 - Nov. 29: 10 tags, one buck with visible antler.
- MC101T Mid-Columbia 01 Youth, Nov. 14 - Nov. 25: 7 tags, one buck with visible antler.
- MC101M Mid-Columbia 01 Muzzleloader: see ODFW's table in the 2026 regulations for the season and tag count.
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.
- White river (about 75% of this area): 840 hunters, 406 animals, 48% success over 3,705 hunter days.
- Biggs (about 24% of this area): 1,116 hunters, 623 animals, 56% success over 3,974 hunter days.
Roads in and the nearest towns
The longest named roads through this ground are OR 216, OR 35, Cooper Spur Road and US 26. The nearest towns are Dufur (9 mi), Tygh Valley (11 mi) and The Dalles (16 mi), measured from the centre of the unit.
Getting in and staying out: unit MC-01
Named routes and what they need
- OR 216 — 16.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
- OR 35 — 14.5 mi · Paved (all rigs)
- Cooper Spur Road — 7.7 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
- US 26 — 6.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
- I 84;US 30 — 6.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
- NF 44 — 4.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.
Nearest services
- Dufur — 8.7 mi · no services listed
- Tygh Valley — 10.6 mi · no services listed
- The Dalles — 15.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
- Dallesport — 17 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
- Chenoweth — 17.1 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Developed camps
- Unnamed camp site
- Knebal Springs Campground · Fee
- Devil's Half Acre Campground
- Frog Lake Campground — 33 sites · reservable
- Pebble Ford Campground
Season weather and signal
- Jan41° / 28° · 2.1" precip
- Aug88° / 53° · 0.2" precip
- Sep80° / 47° · 0.4" precip
- Oct65° / 39° · 1.1" precip
- Nov49° / 32° · 1.8" precip
- Dec40° / 28° · 2.5" precip
Best signal is Verizon at about 26% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.
Oregon rules that decide your day
Summarised from ODFW regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.
Legal shooting hours
Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.
Motorized retrieval
Oregon has no general off-road retrieval allowance; several travel-management areas close roads during hunting season.
Tagging
Validate the tag and attach it to the carcass before leaving the kill site.
Leaving meat
Wasting edible meat is illegal.
Where you may not shoot
- Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public road, and no shooting within range of an occupied dwelling without permission.
Deer (Buck): where to put the shot
Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.
Shots to refuse
- Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
- Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
- Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.
Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.
Deer (Buck) Success Rates
Unit 41: 406 of 840 hunters, 48%; Unit 43: 623 of 1,116 hunters, 56%. Figures are ODFW's own 2025 harvest statistics, by WMU, because the new hunt areas have no history yet.
Deer (Buck) Draw Odds
Draw odds data not available for this specific unit/species combination in our database.
Search Oregon Draw OddsODFW's eastern deer hunts carry new numbers from 2026, so the regulations list them as NEW, with no applicant history to quote. Treat any older WMU draw figures as a different hunt.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Planning Notes
Camp Sites
Developed campgrounds: Knebal Springs Campground, Devil's Half Acre Campground, Frog Lake Campground, Pebble Ford Campground.
Road Conditions
OR 216, OR 35 and Cooper Spur Road are the longest named roads.
Terrain Difficulty
Named features run from 87 to 6,526 ft. More than 4,000 feet of relief, so plan the pack-out before the shot.
Weather
Season normals: Sep 80/47°F, 0.4 in.; Oct 65/39°F, 1.1 in.; Nov 49/32°F, 1.8 in.; Dec 40/28°F, 2.5 in..
Nearest Town
Dufur (9 mi), Tygh Valley (11 mi), The Dalles (16 mi)
Permit Notes
Check ODFW's 2026 regulations for hunt boundaries, seasons and tag rules before you go.
Frequently Asked Questions
What ground does this Oregon buck deer page cover?
What's the biggest 2026 buck deer hunt here?
What was hunter success for buck deer here in 2025?
What ground does this Oregon antlerless deer page cover?
What's the biggest 2026 antlerless deer hunt here?
What was hunter success for antlerless deer here in 2025?
Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro
Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.
Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-30.
- 2026 Oregon Big Game Hunting Regulations — Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife · supports: Hunt areas and boundary descriptions, Seasons, bag limits and 2026 tags · accessed 2026-10-30
- Big Game hunting forecast, 2026/27 — Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife · supports: Field reports by hunt area and WMU · accessed 2026-10-30
- Mid Columbia Hunt Area MC-01 — Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife · supports: Boundary description, Public-land share · accessed 2026-10-30
- Big game hunting harvest statistics, 2025 — Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife · supports: Hunters, harvest and success · accessed 2026-10-30
- 2026 Eastern Oregon Deer Hunt Areas (ArcGIS) — Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife · supports: 1,248 square miles · accessed 2026-10-30
- Geographic Names Information System — named features inside the boundary — U.S. Geological Survey · supports: Lookout Mountain 6,526 ft, Badger Butte 5,970 ft · accessed 2026-10-30