Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Columbian blacktail question

So there are some nice bucks out there. To get one, you may have to pass up the little ones and risk tag soup.

Tom

GREAT posts Fireball!

I can't really speak to killing big blacktails with any authority. I've killed a bunch of blacktail bucks (and several that were clearly blacktail/whitetail hybrids, and one "benchleg" or "bentleg" which is our colloquial term for the mule deer/blacktail hybrids you see up at the crest of the Cascades). Mostly, as I was learning to hunt them (I didn't start deer hunting until ~ 1999, in my mid-30's) I tormented the fork horn population. Then I figured out how to more reliably kill 3x3's or small 4x4's and had a good run with those. I've only killed one big blacktail. He was with a hot doe at the onset of the rut. She busted me, he was focused on gettin' some tail and didn't see me until it was too late.



Seafire mentioned that there's a population of whitetails near Roseburg; if you are after a "prototype" blacktail you'll want to avoid the area east and north of Roseburg up to about Sutherlin as there's a lot of hybrids. My honey hole was about 10 miles north of Sutherlin and I was clearly in a fringe whitetail area with those genetics present.

I hear rumors of deer killed all the way up by me, in the Eugene area, with whitetail genes. Have not seen that.

My advice would be to come at the end of the season, very late October into early November. October itself is often hot and dry, terrible conditions for killing a blacktail. MUCH better after the rains come in and the rut starts! On that note, hunting in the rain is my favorite. Not a downpour, just our classic drizzle.... it energizes the deer, the dripping from the trees really helps cover your sounds, and everything on the ground gets much quieter to walk on.

One thing that might be an unpleasant surprise to a Southerner is how low the deer densities are. Be prepared for that. I don't know why that's the case, but as a rule, it is. There are exceptions. I will be very happy to give you my best spots if you do come out. Still, just be ready to NOT see deer. You can hunt hard, do everything right, and get back to the truck in the dark having not seen so much as a doe. That's routine... It can be hard to keep your morale up.

For a rifle any deer cartridge will work. Hard to argue against a 7-08 or .308... but I would advise putting some care into the optic, in terms of low-light performance. Our low light, in western Oregon, has to be experienced to be really understood.... with dense clouds at low levels, huge trees, fog, and steep terrain it can be DARK while still legal to shoot. My best low light scope is a 3-10x42 Swaro AV. My next best are my Conquests. Obviously YMMV here but a 40 or 42mm objective and etched reticle are your friend. Be sure to outfit the scope with Butler Creek or other flip-ups and practice using them.

I also think a good pair of high quality monoculars (that's for Skane! grin) is crucial equipment. I use Swaro 8x30 SLC's and they are perfect for still-hunting. I use them constantly.

Then, there's a whole other type of blacktail hunting... that's to get out into the big clearcuts in the coast range (that's where the logging is, not on NF land anymore) and see who you can catch in the open. This is usually going to be a longer-range affair. Guys make whole careers out of hunting them that way. It often amounts to road hunting. Still, you can locate and "snipe" treelines or feeding areas that would be hard to hunt any other way.

Killing a big boy would be awesome but to me, any public land buck is a worthy kill... However I can certainly see that a guy flying from afar away might want to hold out for a big one.

There's several books out... Boyd Iverson's "Blacktail Trophy Tactics" is probably "the" one to buy if you just buy one.