My son drew an any deer tag for the Skookumchuck unit, and building the shop and house has taken time away from scouting. Not looking for a clearcut, tree and log to start my hunt from, just an entry point into the forest to start from, and we'll take it from there. IM is fine, as we'll probably head out tomorrow evening after we pour a slab and wire the shop.

Never hunted the unit at all, as I usually stay west of I-5, close to home, or head east to E-burg and the surrounding hills.

Help would be appreciated.

Any issues hunting in the Vail tree fram area, like closure times, etc?

Thanks!

The vail tree farm is only open to Traffic on Saturdays and Sundays, and has opening and closing times, and very limited entry points. The line in the morning is enough that I won't hunt there. You can, however, walk in at anytime. I have no real advice as I have had a hard time finding them in the places I have walked in on. There is a lot of land that can be accessed by the Skookumchuck River, but there always a lot of people in the area. I would look towards the other end of the unit and see what I can find. I have used google earth in the past to find clearcuts that are behind closed gates. If you know the area, it works pretty well. If you are just looking for a doe, by all means go to the vail farm enterance off of the Vail Loop road. From what I have heard, you shouldn't have a hard time. Just expect a ton of pressure.

Only 60 tags are out there for the youth hunt, which begins today, so pressure should be lower than the standard season.

We might scout some of the area on our own, find the entrance to the tree farm, and hunt hard tomorrow. Hopefully enough kids tag out today that the pressure will be much lower tomorrow. It should be fun seeing all of those young kids in the field. I'll try to take some good pics.

Thanks for the heads up. Any other suggestions are welcome.

there are some gates of Johnson creek rd you should be able to walk in on the east side back towards the pipe line.or the deschutes river.these gates are before Alice's restaurant.

shoot me a pm. I'll give you some good info for the kid to hunt only. I have been out with my ML looking for elk but only seen deer. Could have killed 4 deer but don't have a tag.

PM Sent.

Thanks!

I sent you a PM as well

Found a great spot, thanks to some guidance. Saw 11 deer, 9 does and a spike, and one monster 3-point plus that we chased after for a while. We got to the woods at 4:15pm. Not bad for 2.5 hours in the woods.

Even though Hunter had an "any deer" tag, I wouldn't let him drop the hammer on a doe just yet. If I had, we wouldn't have seen that monster. We'll chase him where he lives tomorrow, and then if he doesn't have a buck down by 10am, he can drop a doe.

They took 30 deer out of there today, so traffic should be way down. It was great seeing so many kids out with their dads. The WDFW does do a few things right, these kid's hunts rock.

Keep up the good work Dogfish. Between you and Sal you guys are raising kids that are going to be the future of hunting and fishing.