Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Which medium big game animal is spookiest.

My vote would be for a mature blackatail. We hunt all three species here and a mature blacktail has always been the most difficult for me to score on.

I watched a big mature black tail buck literally crawl on its knees across a muskeg like opening keeping his head down as crawled. Craziest thing to watch and I couldn't tell that it was a buck because he kept his head below the grass height. Once he got to the tree line he jumped up and was gone.

This is crazy........

Like the ol bull looks for who is

Willing.

New question which one is the dullest? I want that one.

For spookiest.....

I would have to agree cats would be number one.

Antelope and whitetail does also can be deal busters aka PIA.

Wow Jerry a stomach full of polk berries had to be a real mess . You could paint a barn with that much purple

There were many years that I opened the stomachs of Doe & Bucks to see what they were eating.

Another time a hunting friend killed a very nice 8 pt, we opened his stomach>>>FULL>> white oak acorns. I should have said, WHOLE w.o. acorns. He was between Pine plantation regrowth fixin (gettin ready) to bed up for the day.

The one w/polk berries is the ONLY one I ever saw with many p bs at all.

Jerry

There are 3-4 "magic" days during any particular animal's breeding season in which even the smartest and most wily mature old critter becomes DUMB.

I've been fortunate to capitalize on this a few times with whitetails, 2 Mule-deer, a respectable Antelope, a couple of bears, and one big old fight-scarred coyote.

Day in-Day out, a mature coyote is smarter, sneakier, and tougher to sneak up/catch off-guard and kill than any other mammal I've hunted (deer, elk, moose, antelope, black bear).

Horse & others I don't mean to be smart.

WE (including myself) have talked about Cougar, Wolves, Coyotes, etc. the thread title is about Big Game animals.
Are these 'Game' animals or vermin, predators, etc. ?

In my mind Game Animals are those we EAT.

What do y'all think ?

Jerry

I disagree that eating is a requirement to be included in the definition of a game animal. Here's a list that's regularly accepted as all the big game species in North America.

http://www.superslam.org/super-slam

Okay, No problem.

Thanks

Jerry

The eating criteria may not be so good just ask Doggzapper about eating Cougar. His remark was "Best puzzy I ever ate". I might not go that far but they are delicious like a mix of veal and lamb.

Wariest? What ever is alluding me at the time.

Blacktail because of terrain are tuff. Hunted but never shot one and in fact the only thing I saw with gun in hand was their hooves and only by laying with my head down in the ferns on the Olympic peninsula. I would say any rainforest game like Bongo are going to be tuff. For years it was disputed if these and the Okapi existed. It wasn't until they were regularly hunted with dogs that they were even a very viable option to hunt unless you had weeks to devote to a safari.

I don't think I could say that IF I had ever eaten Cougar ! !

Jerry

I'd second Okie John re mature Columbia blacktails in the PNW (not those pseudo blacktails in California!) We're talking real rain deer.

You can spend the money and tag a big mature mule deer or a large antlered whitetail-- but not a mature large antlered blacktail. There are few guides for rain country blacktails, not because of hunter disinterest nor the scarcity of bucks but because guiding for them is a recipe for failure. One of the best blacktail guides said in his Sportsman Show seminar that he counts any blacktail buck with at least three points on one side to be a trophy for his clients.

I live amid blacktails and hunt them plus mule deer and whitetails every Fall. Like Dancing Bear, my experience is that the blacktails are by far the hardest to tag. There is a reason why hordes of coastal hunters in WA, OR and BC don't bother to hunt blacktails where they live and go east over the mountains every Fall to hunt. Many never hunt their local blacktails. I went to a sport show seminar on deer hunting put on by a man from the coast, looking for blacktail info. He started by saying that all of his info was for hunting mule deer because the blacktails where he lived were so difficult to hunt that he did not bother. I slipped out the back.

Mountain lions? No question in my mind that they win the sneaky prize for North America. Oddly, they often don't act spooked or afraid when a human ever gets a rare look at one of them.

Man I'm eager to do Blacktail. It's going to have to be next year at this point. Seems like every year I find myself saying next year.

Come on out, their an over the counter tag, in Oregon. The fires this year will help hunting in the near future! If these fires keep up the cover will be pockets of forest left!

My vote goes to a western Washington/ NW Oregon blacktail.

After reading the post on Melania's shoes on the Campfire forum, I'd have to say that this cougar is the spookiest critter I've ever encountered. Can you imagine having this creep into your tent at night?

Wolves. Followed by old whitetail does. I know old does that live right in and amongst people that NEVER show themselves. They know people well, know their habits, know their schedules and can tell time.

WT bucks just hang out in a different locale depending on time of year. Spend a little time whee they are living and they get a lot easier.

I know of nothing more man shy than wolves who've been shot at and live around traps. Coyotes are smart and wary, but nothing like a wolf.

Yet the largest come from Oregon. Southern Oregon first, then Marion county second! Yep I'd go to Washington????

Yep that "open" country in Jackson, Josephine, and even lane county county, simply ain't the same.... oh and I live in the B&C world record county... hint

And that's why California isn't even in the equation.... re hint