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The CA A Zone season runs from the 2nd Saturday in August for 44 consecutive days which makes it end around the 20 something of September. You have to apply for the tags but they have never reached quota. The northern area of Ca around Mendocino county is some of the best hunting. From SF Bay southwards the lions have been hammering the herds. The rut kicks in towards the later half of September making them easier to hunt. There are seasons open later in Ca but those are primarily mule deer areas.

2nd deer I ever killed, and still my best blacktail

Great thread, and I hate to be the downer, but the reality is in extreme northern Calif, Shasta and Siskiyou Co's many factors have conspired to decimate the Blacktail population. Check the stats before you book a hunt. Probably the highest mortality for incidental kills is ancient migration routes between high country and winter range, are transected by high speed highways. Cal-Trans in Yreka district used to respond, 10 yrs ago to 20+ dead deer a day. Now they tell me it's 1 or 2 a week. Change in predator hunting laws, mountain lions..nope, black bears..no dogs or bait, nope. And then, after the numbers were decimated and the reported numbers of legal kills was down alarmingly, the CDFW continued to sell 2 tags per hunter with an unlimited quota. The B zones were the cash cow of the CDFW, have to keep the cash flowing in to fund the study of non game species. And, now of course, oh joy, we have wolves. How many predators can any species withstand at the top of the food chain?

Wa and Oregon tags are otc mike. Dunno about California

Oregon has some good hunts. Honestly any blacktail hunt around here can be a winner.

This.

The deer on this thread are epic monsters compared to typical rain-forest deer.


Okie John

ryoyshi;
Good afternoon - almost - to you sir, I hope the weekend has been treating you acceptably and this finds you well.

Thanks for posting the photo, it looks to me like he's what would be considered a cranker either on the Gulf Islands or Vancouver Island where I've seen/hunted most of the Columbia Blacktail I've encountered.

In those locales, the deer themselves are quite a bit smaller overall than the ones Steve hunts up by Whistler and Pemberton.

Going off of a bit of a foggy memory, I'd say the 2 point I killed on Salt Spring Island way back in the day went about 75-80 lb carcass weight and the locals who saw it said it was a pretty decent buck. There was one hanging I looked at which must have gone a bit more than 90lb carcass and had a rack almost the size of the one in your photo, but I don't recall the bases being quite that thick.

As my friend Okanagan said, they're a different breed of cat than even the whitetail I've chased in a couple provinces, though to me they much more mirrored whitetail responses to seeing people/pressure, etc. than anything a mulie has ever done around me.

The biggest bodied Columbia Blacktail I've ever seen was outside our daughter's dorm room window at the University of Victoria! It was by my estimate about a hand higher at the withers than any other bucks on campus - and there's no shortage of them there either I must add.

Thanks again for the photo and thanks for the thread and those who've contributed. It's interesting reading everyone's experiences and how they differ.

All the best to you all as spring continues to show up.

Dwayne

Santiam Unit blacktails, both taken 2nd to the last day of the season.

A-Zone a few seasons ago on California central coast

Oh boy that gets my blood going. looks familiar.

I've hunted Santiam and McKenzie a good bit. This one was a McKenzie unit buck. Most of the big bucks I used to hunt there had the crab claw points.

Fireball2, you have sure killed some really great blacktails. I struggle most years to even see a legal buck, they are just evil little deer but man is it nice when you do finally find a good buck!!!

Evil little deer, I hafta remember that one! Yeah, lots of fun to hunt.

OK thanks.

Good day to you sir! This buck lives not far from the GI/VI, just south of the border actually. He will likely die of old age or be hit by a car unless he develops wanderlust and some lucky hunter gets him, as he lives near/in town.

Hey, Dwayne. Re Blacktail behavior, I'd agree that northern rain country blacktails act more like whitetails. IME, the California blacktails act more like mule deer. It is a very general observation, but northern blacktails tend to sneak and hide, and southern blacktails tend to bust out and run like a mule deer. That's one of the reasons why I lean with the folks who make a distinction between northern and southern blacktails rather than lumping them together as the same deer. They don't look the same, act the same and they are waaaay different to hunt in the extremely different terrain/vegetation/climates they inhabit. And the southern ones have fleas!

ryoushi, don't know where the buck in your photo comes from and won't ask, but his antlers look remarkably like a buck that lived in the suburbs of Mission, BC.

Very nice animals, Frank! Did you hang the buck on the gravel road on a wall? 😎

That buck in the road is a dandy!!! I've hunted up outta sweet home before, Gordon lakes area. Big country.

2018 Buck

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