Oregon’s beautiful and diverse terrain offers an equally diverse array of opportunities for the big-game hunter. Deer hunters can pursue the challenging and elusive black-tailed deer in the thick forests of the coastal mountains and western Cascades, or they can choose to hunt mule deer in the wide-open High Desert country of eastern and northeastern Oregon. There are also white-tailed deer in the southwest and northeast corners of the state. Both over-the-counter and draw tags are available for deer. Oregon also has two varieties of elk: Rocky Mountain elk are found in eastern Oregon, and Roosevelt elk are found in western Oregon, with most Roosevelts concentrated in the Coast, Cascade, and Blue Mountain ranges. Both draw tags and over-the-counter tags are available for elk in Oregon. Oregon has both spring and fall bear seasons. The fall bear hunt is a general season; spring bear hunters must draw tags in certain areas. Mountain lions are hunted in Oregon as well, but the use of dogs is not permitted. Oregon has about 25,000 pronghorn antelope, which are native to the Columbia Plateau and the High Desert of eastern Oregon. About 2,500 tags are available each year, spread across rifle, archery and muzzleloader hunts. All tags are issued through a drawing, and it can take several years of accumulating preference points to draw a tag. Bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain goat populations are growing and expanding their range, but fewer than 100 bighorn sheep tags and 20 goat tags were offered in 2015. These are once-in-a-lifetime tags. Oregon has a plethora of upland birds including chukar, quail, partridge, and pheasants, as well as excellent waterfowl hunting. Learn more about hunting in Oregon at http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/big_game/.