Oregon hunter, angler can boast about their record efforts.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg / The Register-Guard

OREGON - HOME of world-record hunting and fishing!

That could be the new motto for the state tourism industry, given that Oregon sportsmen appear to have bagged two world records in recent weeks.

One record is for the Roosevelt elk with the largest set of antlers. The other is for the biggest salmon caught on a fly.

Philomath High School shop teacher Scott Ballard appears to be a shoo-in for getting his name on a world record for Roosevelt elk, and retired Grants Pass teacher Grant Martinson appears headed for the game fishing record books.

Ballard shot a monster bull with nine antler points on one side and eight on the other during a controlled hunt in early August. Last weekend, after its antlers had dried, the bull was scored at 404 6/8 points on the Boone & Crockett Club scale for rating big game trophies.

"It is the first of its species to eclipse the magic 400 mark, something no one ever thought possible," said Springfield hunting and fishing author Scott Haugen, who was present when Glenn Abbott, an official B&C scorer from Portland, measured the antlers.

The existing world record Roosevelt elk scored 396 5/8 points. That was a 10-point and nine-point bull taken by Karl W. Minor in 1997 near Campbell River, B.C.

Ballard's trophy will be listed as a "pending" world record until it is checked by a Boone & Crockett Club scoring panel that verifies all new records.

The bull was part of a large herd that hangs out on and near the Finley Wildlife Refuge north of Monroe. The refuge is not open to hunting. But as the herd grew and expanded its range in recent years, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife came under pressure to curtail the agricultural damage the elk cause to surrounding farms.

So the department begun issuing controlled hunt tags for the Finley area only. Only 30 tags were issued this year, plus some landowner "preference tags." For the tags to be of any use, a hunter had to obtain permission to hunt on private land, which Ballard did.

Martinson, meanwhile, blew the existing salmon record for fly-fishers right out of the water.

The former biology teacher and high school football coach made history with a 71 1/2 -pound chinook salmon caught while fly-fishing on the Rogue River on Oct. 21. His salmon is 8 1/2 pounds heavier than the current record certified by the International Game Fishing Association.

For more details about Martinson's catch, see The Associated Press account that appears on page 7D.

TWO FATALITIES in the first weeks of hunting season have prompted state game officials to remind hunters of steps they can take to protect themselves (and other hunters).

The most important step, of course, is wearing blaze orange. Oregon is one of a handful of states that does not have a law on the books requiring hunters to wear bright colors. But common sense requires it. And so does any objective look at Oregon's accident records.

Between 1980 and 2000, 58 accidents in which hunters shot individuals they mistook for game were recorded in Oregon. The victim wore blaze orange in only 10 of those 58 mishaps.

Secondly, all downed game should be marked with colorful flagging, either an article of clothing or a piece of material brought along for that purpose.

Such marking would probably have prevented the death of 42-year-old Thomas Peabody of Eagle Point. He was walking back to his vehicle on opening day of the Cascade elk season - carrying the head of an elk he had just shot on his back - when he was fatally shot.

Another hunter saw the movement of the elk head and fired his rifle, killing Peabody instantly.

Without any red tape or flagging on the antlers, "it looked like it was an elk walking around," said a Douglas County Sheriff's deputy who helped conduct a re-enactment of the shooting.

Finally, of course, hunters should make certain they know exactly what they're shooting at and where the bullet could land.

OREGON HUNTERS raised $265,557 this year for wildlife habitat and hunter-access projects throughout the state. About $165,000 of that came from the 51,000 hunters who purchased tickets for nine "raffle hunts." The remainder came from the successful bidders for nine hunts for which tags were sold at auction.

The auction hunts included four statewide deer hunts, four statewide elk hunts and a governor's statewide combination hunt. The raffle hunts included three statewide hunts and six regional hunts. All the special hunts provided extended seasons.

Sponsoring organizations that help with the auctions (such as the Oregon Hunters Association, The Mule Deer Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, etc.) keep up to 10 percent of the auction proceeds to help finance their own conservation efforts. The reminder of the revenue goes into the Oregon Access and Habitat Program Fund, which also gets the $2 surcharge charged on all hunting licenses. Created by the Oregon Legislature in 1993, the A&H Fund finances grants for wildlife habitat improvement and hunter access projects throughout the state.

Mike Stahlberg is the Register-Guard's outdoor writer. He can be reached at [e-mail].