Oregon Elk · Unit 52 Starkey
Oregon Unit 52 covers 517,088 acres and lies 15 miles south-west of La Grande and 35 miles north-west of Baker City. 64% of it is public land, mostly national forest (62%) and state land (1%). In 2025, 3,348 people hunted elk here and took 694, a 21% success rate (sum of published weapon rows). Its most applied-for hunt, 252R, put up 1,300 tags (all residencies) in the 2026 draw for 181 nonresident first-choice applicants, 42 of whom drew.
9 licenses · NR capped at 5%
first choice, NR
2025, all licenses
62% Forest Service
517,088 acres
Boundaries are drawn for orientation only. The written boundary description in the regulations governs.
Best Bets at 0 Points
Ranked by your odds times how often that license type's hunters filled their tag in 2025. Nonresident, first choice, 2026 draw; licenses with at least 10 tags that anyone can buy.
- Success
- 21%
- Season
- Oct 28 – Nov 1
- Tags / Apps
- 385 / 127
- If Drawn
- $863
- Success
- 21%
- Season
- Nov 21–29
- Tags / Apps
- 440 / 23
- If Drawn
- $863
- Success
- 21%
- Season
- Oct 31 – Nov 8
- Tags / Apps
- 17 / 5
- If Drawn
- $863
- Success
- 21%
- Season
- Aug 29 – Sep 27
- Tags / Apps
- 1,300 / 181
- If Drawn
- $863
Every License in Unit 52
| What | Season | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 252A1 | Starkey No. 1 | 5% | 7 ▲1 | |
| 252A2 | Starkey No. 2 | 100% | 0 | |
| 252B1 · private | Starkey Private | 100% | 0 | |
| 252B2 | Starkey | 31% | 1 ▼1 | |
| 252C1 | Starkey Experimental Forest No. 1 | 6% | 5 ▲2 | |
| 252C2 | Starkey Experimental Forest No. 2 | <1% | 27 ▲5 | |
| 252R | Starkey Bow | 100% | 0 | |
| 252T1 · youth | Starkey Youth | 8% | 8 ▲2 | |
| 252T2 · youth | Glass Hill Youth | <1% (small sample) | 16 ▲2 |
First-choice nonresident odds at your points, 2026 draw. Cut = points the last tag went at; ▲ = points added since the earliest draw on file. Not in the table, with no 2026 result: 252B.
Draw results: ODFW 2026 Preference Point Draw Report, retrieved Aug 31, 2026.
If you draw (2026 nonresident fees): $863 ($203 to apply). Open Dec 1, 2026 – May 15, 2027 (expected). Full fee breakdown.
Harvest
| Year | Hunters | Elk | Success |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 (summed) | 3,348 | 694 | 21% |
| 2024 (summed) | 3,280 | 638 | 19% |
| 2023 (summed) | 3,351 | 544 | 16% |
| 2022 (summed) | 3,065 | 553 | 18% |
| 2021 (summed) | 3,809 | 567 | 15% |
| 2025 by License | Hunters | Elk | Success |
|---|---|---|---|
| 252a1 starkey no. 1 | 341 | 114 | 33% |
| 252a2 starkey no. 2 | 497 | 56 | 11% |
| 252b1 starkey private | 265 | 112 | 42% |
| 252b2 starkey | 327 | 97 | 30% |
| 252c1 starkey experimental forest no. 1 | 16 | 1 | 8% |
| 252c2 starkey experimental forest no. 2 | 15 | 9 | 58% |
| 252t1 starkey youth | 26 | 18 | 70% |
| 252t2 glass hill youth | 6 | 3 | 50% |
| Rocky mtn 2nd season | 808 | 76 | 9% |
| 200r oregon youth bow | 20 | 5 | 25% |
| 252r starkey unit bow | 1,027 | 203 | 20% |
2025 split: rifle 486 (70%) from 2,301 hunters, 21%, archery 208 (30%) from 1,047 hunters, 20%
What Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife publishes after each season, for everyone who hunted the area: harvest statistics, not draw odds. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife publishes no whole-unit line for 2025; a year's total is the sum of published weapon rows, added only where the lines do not overlap. Oregon requires every tag holder to report, but the numbers ODFW publishes are survey estimates expanded from the reporting rate — the agency's own tables are titled "Estimated harvest... based on Mandatory Harvest Survey Reports" — not a count of animals checked in. Source: ODFW 2025 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest…; ODFW 2025 Estimated Archery Elk Harvest by Zone; ODFW 2024 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest….
The Ground
| National Forest | 321,425 ac | 62% |
| Private | 185,240 ac | 36% |
| State land | 7,581 ac | 1% |
| BLM | 2,134 ac | <1% |
| Bureau of Reclamation | 499 ac | <1% |
| Tribal | 322 ac | <1% |
Source: Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office 2026 BLM /Washington Land Status Ownership.
▸ Sources 15
- ODFW 2026 Preference Point Draw Report draw results, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
- ODFW 2026 OAR chapter 635 division 060 fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
- ODFW 2026 Recreational Fee Schedule fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
- ODFW 2025 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest… harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2025 Estimated Archery Elk Harvest by Zone harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2024 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest… harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2024 Estimated Archery Elk Harvest by Zone harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2023 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest… harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2023 Estimated Archery Elk Harvest by Zone harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2022 Estimated Archery Elk Harvest by Zone harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2022 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest… harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2021 Estimated Archery Elk Harvest by Zone harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2021 Estimated Any Legal Weapon Elk Harvest… harvest, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- ODFW 2026 Wildlife Management Unit boundaries boundary, area description, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
- Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office 2026 BLM /Washington Land Status Ownership land ownership, retrieved Sep 1, 2026
About These Numbers
Odds are from the 2026 draw, the latest on file, computed from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's published results. They are what happened in that draw, not a forecast. Under five tags a percentage carries a *, because one applicant either way swings it. A dash means the agency did not publish the number, and a date marked expected is last cycle's schedule rolled forward.
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We don't take applications: check Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's site and apply there.
Prior-draw odds from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's results, not a forecast · All Oregon elk hunts