Deer Hunt Area NE-04 (Northeast 04)

Ridges and canyon rims

The boundary starts at Troy and follows the Grande Ronde River to Elgin, then takes Hwy 204 to Tollgate and FR 64 to the state line. Milk Shakes, Round Butte and Lookout Mountain are the high points, with West Mountain and Jones Butte lower. Forest roads such as NF 64, NF 63, NF 6415 and Grouse Creek Road give access, and Jubilee Lake, Grizzly Flats and Woodland Campground are the named camps. Wináha'ay Spring Camp is another.

Maps for this ground are Umatilla National Forest and ODF.

Mule deer and whitetails

ODFW's forecast says whitetail numbers are good in all units, while mule deer are still well below objective with moderate recruitment. The hunt area has separate mule deer and whitetail buck hunts, plus bow and muzzleloader hunts. ODFW's muzzleloader hunt also takes in part of NE-06 south and east of Summit Road, so it's a bigger area than the buck hunt alone.

The unit is mostly public, so the Umatilla National Forest map is your best tool. Compare the draws that fall toward the Grande Ronde with the ridges that run toward Tollgate. Deer will use both, depending on where the feed and water are holding.

The ground ODFW draws for this hunt

ODFW's Deer Hunt Area NE-04 covers about 412 square miles measured on ODFW's own polygon, and ODFW rates it 73% public land. It takes in parts of these WMUs: Wenaha (about 100%). Named features inside the line fall in Union County and Wallowa County. Elevation runs from about 1,718 to 6,057 feet. The highest named points are Milk Shakes (6,057 ft), Round Butte (5,887 ft) and Lookout Mountain (5,230 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.

Walk the roads, then leave them

Roads like NF 64 and NF 63 are your starting point. Park, walk a ridge and glass the north-facing sides, where ODFW says forage holds up longer in a dry year. Deer are expected to be localized near good feed and water, so find the green before you find the buck.

Don't expect good luck by driving. Stop, glass, then move.

Sit for the whitetail

Whitetail bucks here are nocturnal, per ODFW. The patient approach it describes is to sit between bedding and feeding areas. Set up near a draw edge before first light and stay still. Mule deer bucks are often found on the open faces above the draws. Pack-out on this ground can be long and steep, so quarter your deer where it falls and carry it in stages. With much of the ground public, you'll often see other hunters, so look for the walk-in spots away from the roads.

A frame pack beats a drag on this kind of ground, so bring one.

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.

• NE104 Northeast 04 Mule Deer, Oct. 3 - Oct. 14: 242 tags, one mule deer buck with visible antler.
• NE104-1 Northeast 04 Whitetail, Oct. 3 - Oct. 14: 77 tags, one white-tailed deer buck with visible antler.
• NE104M Northeast 04 Muzzleloader: see ODFW's table in the 2026 regulations for the season and tag count.
• NE104R Northeast 04 Bow Mule Deer: see ODFW's table in the 2026 regulations for the season and tag count.
• NE104R1 Northeast 04 Bow Whitetail: 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.

• Wenaha (about 100% of this area): 208 hunters, 86 animals, 41% success over 929 hunter days.

Roads in and the nearest towns

The longest named roads through this ground are OR 204, NF 6415, NF 64 and Grouse Creek Road. The nearest towns are Elgin (20 mi), Wallowa (23 mi) and Imbler (28 mi), measured from the centre of the unit.