I've been out a few times already not much for sign where i was. Just so noisy in the bush walking around.
If you have a stand give it a try it won't hurt any.
Nothing is like climbing a mountain, and then feeling like you are at the top of the world.
I would be out there today but busted a spark plug at the threads and cannot get it out of my truck and looks like I might have to replace the cylinder head - F me!
Went out once in mid September. My blacktail spots are beyond Hope (literally and figuratively) and along hwy 3. This is the first year I did not get out and scout this summer and clear trails in my blacktail spots as was too busy with renos and work. So it came as a major shock when the rivers/creeks I use for access, some of them had changed completely from the major storm last November, landslides galore and now there's so much debris, trees, rocks, earth etc that has made access to one of my go-too spots now impossible. Pretty devastating. Never again will I neglect summer scouting
Like Nature Girl said, its so friggin dry right now that its almost impossible to sneak up on them in the timber when there's no wind. I figure the best strategy right now, until the rains come and quieten the ground to make it possible to still hunt effectively, is to get up as high as possible above a cut block just inside the timber and get as big of a vantage point as possible and hope to spot something in dark/cool areas on the edges of the cut block below at first or last light. Spot and stalk. Either that or if you can into the timber quietly, really early in the dark and setup a blind/stand and be prepared to sit the entire day, that might work too (but only if you know the deer are in the area).
You're right about blacktails being harder to hunt than both WT and MD. They're just as leery and on alert and as elusive as WT, except they live in the steep thick salal and devils club jungle. Add to that the fact that there's simply way less of them population-wise to begin with, and the fact that they also do a little bit of migrating (i.e. they'll be in one drainage for a good chunk of the summer, but as soon as the leaves start falling they're often nowhere to be found). That was the big thing I learned hunting BT's - learn when they are and are not in the areas you hunt. Trail cams are very useful for that kind of intel
Good luck! Keep building on your success from last year
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority." - Benjamin Franklin
"The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it" - George Orwell
Yeah, as HTL says, they migrate. I was lucky enough to connect with one last year in a spot that an old timer told me about years ago. The intel came from a guy I know who is a recluse (but literally a genius and super nice guy) who has lived off the land since the 1960s. He put me on to the migration route for the local BT population back when I just started hunting. I was having a crap year last year, not finding much on my WT hunts, and then remembered his spot. I saw a bunch of does one day, then went back the next day and popped my buck. Having grown up in the Squamish area, BT are what we had. I first hunted WT only about 4 years ago.
If we’re not supposed to eat animals, how come they’re made out of meat?
BHA, BCWF, CCFR, PETA, Lever Action Addict.
Shot a nice fork opening morning. A buddy just shot one yesterday. Both on the island.
The only thing I like as much as trucks, is guns.
Went out today, was super smokey and the whole area was a gong show of people. Probably going to wait until we get some rainy days and everyone else stays home before I’ll head back down there. Heading to my spot in region 3 next weekend to get after some mulies or maybe a black bear.