This is why you'd take the drive out to the Imnaha Unit. Trophy mule deer, as well as whitetails, are in good, healthy herds. Photo courtesy of Vic Coggins, ODFW.

In the far northeastern corner of Oregon, where the Wallowa Mountains tower over the Snake River, some of the state's biggest mule deer roam the canyon country. They bring in hunters who want a shot at a trophy buck in the secluded, rugged terrain of one of the West's premier big-game destinations.

With success rates near 40 percent, and the potential to bag a record-book mule deer, the Imnaha Unit sits near the top of Oregon's most prized hunts.

"There is a lot of roadless country and deep canyons. It's a lot more open. That's a big attraction for most," said Vic Coggins, the longtime Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife district biologist stationed in Enterprise.

"The hunters who come here like being able to see," he said. "If you get out into the canyon portion of the Imnaha, there are a lot of big, open slopes with timbered north slopes. There are a lot of areas you can glass."

Aside from exceptional visibility, the Imnaha Unit also has vast stretches of public land, sizable number of tags compared with other nearby units, good deer numbers and the high success rate.

An estimated 4,000 mule deer live in the unit, and it's been fairly consistent over the years.

Hunters have around a 70 percent chance of drawing an Imnaha tag as their first choice. Those who get a tag will find countless areas to hunt, good access roads, detailed maps and healthy numbers of mule deer.

TROPHY POSSIBILITIES
This fall, hunters who drew an Imnaha Unit tag can expect to see plenty of young deer, and perhaps some trophy mulies. But there may be fewer deer in the middle age-classes.

"We expect to have a pretty good fawn survival," Coggins said. "They came into the winter in really good shape, in contrast to the year before, when we had the drought summer and fall. We had pretty substantial losses a few years ago."

Those young bucks that survived the lean 2007-08 winter will be in prime shape this fall, as spring arrived early this year in Wallowa County. While the last winter got off to a cold start, there weren't many wildlife losses from snow or predators.

"We had good greenup and the deer are in really good physical condition," Coggins said.

No major winterkill was reported during the winter of 2008-09. Deer losses to coyotes and other predators also didn't appear to be out of the ordinary last winter.

Many of the largest deer will summer high in the Wallowa Mountains and make their way down to the lower elevations of the Imnaha Canyon during the winter. Big mulies are also in the agriculture areas, many of which border timbered public lands.

DRAWING A TAG
With one of the bigger deer populations in far northeastern Oregon, the Imnaha has a good number of tags compared with its neighboring units. This year, 825 tags were available, the same as in 2008.

That compares with 660 for the Minam, 605 for Chesnimnus, 495 for Wenaha, 358 for Pine Creek and 330 for Snake River.

The Sled Springs Unit has more tags, with 1,925 this year, but the Imnaha and Snake River units tend to produce the biggest mule deer bucks in the region.

Last year, 1,139 hunters applied for the 825 Imnaha tags as their first choice. It's a unit that is somewhat easy to draw compared with other northeastern Oregon units that also have trophy deer.

An estimated 80 percent of the hunters who draw Imnaha Unit tags are from out of the area, mainly the Willamette Valley and Portland areas.

The 2009 season runs Oct. 3-14.

FINDING DEER
Mule deer are spread throughout the Imnaha Unit.