Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Toughest buck to kill??

I’m sure it’s a Coues whitetail but for a buck that most have the opportunity hunt if they want I’m going with a black tail.

all these old bucks and kinds can be tuff but these old whitetail bucks that live in wolf country ,thess old bucks are hunted year around by wolves so rifle hunters to these buck`s are easy to avoid . but when these old whitetail bucks get too old and beat up from the rutt they either die or killed by the cold , wolves or maybe a late season muzzleloader or archery hunter , i have killed a couple of very nice old bucks last week of December when its cold and snow is deeper that`s when a old monarch buck might come to a small food plot in the woods right before sunset once in a while , this does not happen every year either for me . now i am getting to the age or just old its harder on my body , but i have learned plenty while on a stand in the woods of the when ,why,how to have a chance at a old monarch buck with my bow, and i have missed a few too ! good luck this fall,Pete53

How about a net B&C buck of any species on public land? Gotta be pretty tough!
Is it the habitat or the habits of blacktail that make them so tough? Is there an actual skill to killing mature blacktail bucks? Or just tenacity and being in the right place at the right time? I’m truly curious. I’ve never hunted them before. I’m really intrigued and admire the big woods whitetail guys who consistently track big bucks and make the shot to seal the deal.

Love me some coues deer, love the country they inhabit and the species themselves! 👊🏻 Super cool critters

I would love to hunt them but with life I’m going to have to stick with Blacktails for a while. The granddaughter wouldn’t be happy with me hunting something without her around.

Hardest to kill meaning requires most firepower?

Or

Hardest to obtain an opportunity to kill?

What's the best sitka you've killed?

None they all die when hit in the vitals no such thing as to tough /smart to kill

We have three major species here in Oregon and I have hunted all three since the early 60's. A lot of the3 difficulty comes from the habitat they live in and the availability of alrm animals in their vicinity.

1. Hardest - Blacktail - I killed my largest buck in a clearing in the salal about 30x50'. It was about 800 yards to a house. He stood up, probably to pee. I had never seen him before. Nighht or day.

2. Second - Whitetail - I killed a nice six point four years ago. He was the third deer that came out from behind a slash pile on their way to bed. Unfortunately, the big one was next in line.

3. Third - Mule Deer - I killed a huge one when I was young. He was standing on a cut bank muching grass. I was walking up a logging road. They have gotten tougher to kill since.

There is also a fourth species- the Colunmbian whitetail which is relatively rare. Though we lived in Umpqua where they exist I have never taken one. The tags are tough to come by.

Yep, they hardly ever appear in daylight. They don't make very many mistakes either. Once a buck makes it to 4.5 years old or older, he's very hard to kill.

You would have got him had you been a 1970s-80s East Texas oil field trash redneck with a q-beam and a 22 magnum rifle.

I'm with you. Public land bucks that have made through a season or 2 are tough. I've killed a ton of blacktail but it was all on private land-no comparison to public land bucks. The deal with blacktail is as soon as their horns are hard, they go find the gnarliest, thickest patch around and never come out. I've seen them do this on private land with zero hunting pressure. You see a big buck as his antlers are growing but as soon as they are hard he disappears until the rut.

Getting a mature Coues whitetail killed is no easy task. They are some smart critters for sure.

Not the buck….but the big ass matriarch 130# doe THT sits in the timber and blows at the 12 other deer in the field….while your motionless with the wind in your face

From a bowhunter's perspective:

---One P&Y Sitka Blacktail buck, arrowed the first and only day I ever hunted them (Kodiak Island). Wish I'd bought more tags....I'd rate them the easiest
---Three P&Y Mule deer bucks taken including a Non-Typical in around 25 seasons of serious hunting
---Five P&Y Whitetail bucks arrowed in around 25 seasons of seriously chasing them
---Six P&Y Coues bucks arrowed in around 20 seasons of seriously hunting them
---Zero P&Y Blacktail bucks arrowed over 4 times hunting them....all 5-6 day hunts so not a lot of time into them. I've killed Blacktails with the bow but never a large one, although a big fork horn I got was aged at 5 years old by a biologist that did a teeth ring count. I'd rate them the hardest as I've yet to see a big Blacktail buck in my limited time bowhunting them...mostly during the rut.

None of the mature bucks of any species seem very easy except the Kodiak Island Sitka Blacktails in my experience. And I did see a fair number of decent bucks after I'd filled my tag...just out looking around when I was tired of catching fish. It was the peak rut around Thanksgiving week and there were alot of deer back in 1986.

Oooops, your gonna piss off the hardcore desert hunters off. Haha

Blacktail

When y'all say hard to kill, I can think of only animal. That would be Hubert D. Buck.

It was The Rifle Opener of 2005. I was up in my favorite stand. This was my first trip out with The Whelenizer, my Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen. I had it loaded with Remington 200 grain PSPCLs over H4895. This same rifle had a perfect record of 10 1-shot kills over the next decade, but today things were not going to go as planned.

Hubert D. Buck Meets Mister Whelen

I would freaking LOVE to sit with a warden and watch that action - and hopefully be close enough to hear conversations inside the cab (assuming windows are open and more than one person). LOLOL

The funny part about the above photo is when we drove down that road some time later, there was a live, smallish buck standing next to robo deer - perfect scenario.

I'd have taken more time to snap another photo but didn't want to bugger the operation for the warden (or pi$$ him off).[/quote

I'd love to have a shot at a robot buck knowing what it was.

Supposedly there was a local guy who spotted the setup one day driving home. He got his hunting crap together and went after it, circling around
and coming up on it from the woods side. He had around a dozen rounds
in it until they somehow stopped him.

I support what they are attempting, but the game somehow pisses me off.
And, as a game, it makes me want to play.

This is a never ending argument and one that will never convince the next or previous poster.
Suffice to say, that the hardest animal I have hunted is the ones I knew to be there but never saw or got a change to shoot and those are mature dear on the back half of age that were always smarter than me. Fallow and Sambar come to mind immediately, though I do have a 208 inch Fallow buck on the wall.