The Oregon Department of Fish and wildlife has increased the number of staff available to take hunter reports by phone and encourages hunters to report their big game or turkey tag(s) as soon as possible. Call 1-866-947-6339 (the reporting number printed on all 2018 tags) to report your hunt, or report online via MyODFW.com.
As of Friday, more than 108,000 hunters still need to report hunt results, including for about 207,000 deer or elk tags which must be reported by April 15 to avoid a $25 penalty fee.
ODFW extended the reporting deadline to April 15 this year (from Jan. 31) after hunters attempting to call in and report their hunt by phone experienced longer hold times. The extension was also meant to give hunters more time to get familiar with ODFW’s new licensing system that launched Dec. 1, 2018.
Any hunter who purchased a 2018 deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, cougar, bear or turkey tag is required to report their hunt results by April 15—even if they were not successful or didn’t go hunting. Not reporting a deer or elk tag results in a $25 penalty (for 2018 tags, the penalty is assessed when purchasing 2020 hunting licenses).
Ways to report your hunt
- By phone – Call 1-866-947-ODFW (6339) during regular business hours (Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. PT).
- Online at MyODFW.com – The fastest and easiest way to report. Go to MyODFW.com and click the green “Buy License/Report Hunt” button. If you have not already verified your account on the new system, use the “Verify/Look Up your account” button and enter your Hunter/Angler ID (printed on all 2018 and prior licenses and tags) as the ODFW ID, or your email or phone number plus last name and date of birth, to find your profile in the system. After completing account verification online, go under Outcome Reporting and click “Mandatory Reporting” or “Hunting & Fishing Outcome Reporting” to complete your reports for each big game or turkey tag. Note that a unique email address (not shared by anyone else in the system, including a relative) is required for anyone age 12 and older to use their MyODFW.com online account.
- Computers are also available at some ODFW offices (Adair Village/Corvallis, Bend, Clackamas, La Grande, Portland-Sauvie Island, Roseburg, Salem Headquarters, Springfield, Tillamook) to Verify/Look Up your account and report online.
The information hunters provide through mandatory reporting is used to help understand big game population trends and for setting controlled hunt tag numbers and hunting seasons. Hunter reports help ODFW determine how many people went hunting, how many big game animals were harvested, plus antler points and success rates for each hunt—information which is posted at ODFW’s Big Game Hunting Harvest Statistics page at https://myodfw.com/articles/big-game-hunting-harvest-statistics
As an incentive to report on time, ODFW randomly chooses three hunters who report by the deadline each year to win a special big game tag. Hunters chosen can pick an elk, deer or pronghorn tag which will be valid statewide from Aug. 1-Nov. 30, 2019.