Encouraging buck ratios could make for an exciting rifle deer hunting season this fall in Central Oregon.

Controlled buck hunting season begins Saturday and runs through Oct. 12 throughout Central and Eastern Oregon.

In the Ochoco District — which includes the Grizzly, Ochoco and Maury wildlife management units — hunters can expect to see more bucks than usual, according to wildlife biologist Meg Eden of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“Our populations are down in all the units overall, but our buck ratios are up,” Eden said this week.

She explained that abundant spring rains this year have produced favorable forage conditions and filled empty reservoirs, allowing deer to be more widely scattered across their range.

Rifle buck tags have been issued in about the same numbers as last year for all three units: 3,080 in the Ochoco Unit, 1,188 in the Grizzly Unit, and 385 in the Maury Unit.

The number of tags offered in the Maury Unit was reduced by half in 2009, as part of the ODFW’s Mule Deer Initiative to help restore the deer population in that area.

The buck-to-doe ratio in the Maury Unit has improved from 16 bucks per 100 does last year to 26 bucks per 100 does this year, according to Eden.

“We’ll have to maintain that for three years before we can increase the tags again,” Eden said. “Hunters are pretty pleased with that unit.”

Eden added that ODFW biologists are starting to see larger bucks in the Maury Unit, but about 60 percent of the bucks in the Ochoco District are smaller yearlings with forked horns.

The buck ratio for the Ochoco Unit is 18 bucks per 100 does, and 19 bucks per 100 does in the Grizzly Unit. Both of those ratios well exceed ODFW management objectives, Eden noted.

About 70 percent of the Grizzly Unit is on private lands, making access difficult for hunters, who must receive landowner permission to hunt on private lands. The hunter success rate was about 40 percent in the unit during last year’s rifle buck season. The success rate was 45 percent in the less-hunted Maury Unit, and it was 23 percent in the Ochoco Unit.

Eden observed that archery hunters struggled this September, as deer and elk were fairly inactive in the heat.

“I haven’t talked to too many successful archers,” she said.

Buck ratios are near or above management objectives in the Deschutes District, which comprises the Metolius, Upper Deschutes and Paulina units.

According to ODFW wildlife biologist Steve George, the buck ratio in the Metolius Unit is 27 bucks per 100 does. The ratio is 15 bucks per 100 does in the Upper Deschutes and Paulina units.

In all three units, decent numbers of mature and yearling bucks should be available relative to the population size, George said.

But the biologist added that hot, dry and dusty conditions could make hunters noisy, potentially spooking the deer.

“Conditions don’t look like they will improve much,” George said. “They will be favorable to deer. They (deer) are very active in morning and evening. But there’s virtually no activity past 9 or 10 in the morning.”

Hunter success rates during last year’s rifle buck season were 13 percent in the Upper Deschutes Unit, 18 percent in the Paulina Unit and 32 percent in the Metolius Unit, all fairly typical rates for the past several years. The Metolius Unit is limited to fewer than 500 hunters, while the Upper Deschutes and Paulina units each has more than 2,000.

Most of the deer in the Metolius Unit are located in the western portion of the unit, George said.

The ODFW is reminding hunters that cash rewards are offered to individuals who provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of poachers. The number for the Turn-In-Poachers (TIP) program is 1-800-452-7888, and the e-mail address is TIP@state.or.us.

Hunters should also remember that the new “hunter orange” rule is in effect: Hunters younger than age 18 must wear a bright-orange upper garment or hat while using a firearm to hunt game mammals and upland birds, except turkeys.

The local wildlife biologists added that hunters should be aware of fire danger before setting out into the field. Hunters should check with the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service, as both agencies can adopt fire restrictions.