Blacktail hunters, anyone tagged one yet?

[savage10]

First time hunting BT's was last year so I have limited knowledge, and others could provide more/sound information but I did get a spiker and 4X2 with my compound bow so i'll give you some for what it's worth.

For my area the ones I keep tabs on rain and heavy rain and snow I seem to find them moving, they are random and not habitual, these Deer are not migrators and seem to live in a small area. Close to water and feed which can more south slopes in this area however small those slopes may be where more sun hits and feeds grows.

All the beds I find here are at the base of large trees like cedar that keep the rain off of them. Either on small benches or flat spots under these large trees on ridges or slopes with a vantage point and almost always wind blowin from behind them. My place has a lot of rubs and there is a good number of Bucks.

Snow makes it much easier to hunt them, heard they can be rattled and called in with good success. They seem to be with the Does and start to rut a little earlier than the other two, got mt 4X2 with a Doe last year neck fat and packing fat on Oct. 16th.

Most of my scouting was for Elk this year so I am still pretty new to BT as well, but I find them much harder to both hunt and locate than either MD or WT.

Chilliwack may be a little different but both there and here still very coastal BT. I plan on scouting Chilliwack very very hard next year, up high more so though.

Really appreciate the tips! I’m definitely excited to start putting in the work to learn them and hopefully am able to find a couple pockets of them. Cheers

[nature girl]

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.

[TheObserver]

More inland than coastal.

Not much of a story, just a lesson in patience and hope that things will go well.

After sitting in the tree stand for two hours Tuesday evening, five hours Wednesday moring and two hours in the afternoon and sighting only two chipmunks, which might have been the same one twice, I was starting to wonder if the unseasonal high temperatures were keeping deer from moving.


Thursday morning I got to the stand just before daybreak and around 7:05 I heard "crunch-crunch-crunch" on the dry ground, twigs and cones and saw a deer coming along. In my flurry of activity putting earplugs in and mounting the rifle, the deer stopped behind a tangle of brush 25 yards away, looking up at me. Busted! And he wouldn't move. I was concerned he'd suddenly bolt out of there not giving me a shot.


I had a hard time finding it in the scope at first, looked with the naked eye again, then the scope and finally got a good view, but only of the head and a bit of neck. I saw it had antlers. Looked like long tall spikes to me. I aimed a little lower where the neck should be and shot. The deer dropped but then kicked around and shoved himself downhill into my sight, trying to get up. I put another one in the neck and he was down. The first shot had hit the spine. Either I flinched and pulled left or the 140 grain 280 Remington bullet deflected.

I hiked back to the truck and got my cargo pack. Gutted and skinned out the deer on the spot, cut it up into five pieces; lower back and hind quarters, chest and neck, the two front legs and shoulders and head. Packed it out to the truck in three trips. Shot at 7:08 and all packed up and in the truck headed home at 11:08.



Turned out to be a three-point. I had not seen the ends of the antlers as I described earlier. They had blended in with the branches of the bush the deer had been hiding behind.

Hahaha right on man, cool!

My first time in a stand this year and spent 8 hrs in it one day in the rain in early Sept, among other days. It is definitely a good pateince builder

[TheObserver]

Really appreciate the tips! I’m definitely excited to start putting in the work to learn them and hopefully am able to find a couple pockets of them. Cheers

I use my binos a lot too even when I think it is redundant/useless in pretty thick timber, because when their coats change to more brown in the fall they can blend in incredibly well

[Redthies]

My first time in a stand spent 8 hrs in it one day in the rain in early Sept. It is definitely a good pateince builder

You have WAY more patience than I do. I’m lucky to make it 3-4 hours on a dry day…

[Redthies]

Got this guy at first light on Thursday at around 7:08 despite the day before reporting record temperatures in various places across BC.

Congrats Michel. Nice little buck! Takes some of the pressure off the rest of the season for sure!

[Harvest the Land]

Anyone that has been out for Blacktail's how has it been with this drought/heat? Anyone tagged one?

Got a stand up and was going to start sitting again when the moon calms down a bit was hoping for rain and cooler weather for mid October.

So far last month things were really dead as far as sightings and my cams. Have some additional spots up high to go to in Nov and when it snows but no cams up there.

Interested to hear from you guys

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

[Redthies]

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.

[Squamch]

Shot a nice fork opening morning. A buddy just shot one yesterday. Both on the island.

[savage10]

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.