Blacktail Tactics - what works for you?

[bow4elk]

Slowly switching gears to late deer season and wanted to hear from all you expert blacktail hunters on what works for you, stories of your best buck, etc.

I'm no expert, but I like to hunt from a treestand and hang my rattling antlers from a cord and jig them off the ground.  This keeps the sound down low where it would really be and adds the sounds of brush moving.  You can hold them above ground and lightly twitch the cord for light tickling sounds as well.  I like to use fawn and doe bleats and end a rattling sequence with some grunts.

WA bow season opens 11/20, which is after peak rut making it tough to coax in deer so I also like still hunting on rainy day without a lot of wind.  I focus on alder patches and transition areas between reprod, big timber and alder thickets.

Still hunting for a book buck...

[Bofire]

I am not an expert. But about the rut, The late rifle season,Thanksgiving. where I hunt the Blacktails are rutting hard especially if there is really bad weather. I love to still hunt them.
Carl

[saylean]

I like to glass for them after some real crappy weather...my biggest is just a 2x3 taken with a bow....but im no expert either. I like the horn on a string idea. Since i really dont have much luck when I go over to the okanagon with the fam...I will more than likely be chasing the black tails this year again...especially since I have a multiseason permit.

Good luck~

[deerslyr]

Im no expert either I like to still hunt the old growth when its piss pourin...Ive got most my deer that way.

[HardCorpsHuntr]

Lived in central Lewis County for four years and never tagged a blacktail (archery).  Though, in 1999 I killed a yearling doe late one summer night westbound SR-12 on the Randle Flats (eastbounder blinded me).  Two of the four years I had muleys in the freezer before I would have hunted though.  I used to see some dandy's along SR-12 late at night.

I tried hard, but couldn't get used to the style needed to succeed.  I like the semi-open type county.

My first buck was a forky blacktail off my grandfather ranch in Cali. when I was 12.  It's time for another one.

IMO a four point blacktail is the toughest deer to consistently harvest.

[BC CHASER]

I have shot a few good bucks over the last 10 years.  Growing up they were really the only thing I hunted because they were local and we had an abundance of them.  So here is what I can tell you!  First off I do not know what kind of terrain you are hunting or where you are at.  I typically will stay in the timber but on occasion you  will catch me in clearcuts or in meadows.  When hunting the timber I stay on the top of ridges still hunting.  Work your way down the fingers coming off the ridges the bucks typically bed on these or at the ridge tops.  Check under the cedar trees and in the salal for their beds, glass, glass, glass!  If you do kick them out of their beds try to listen where they go or see where they go and circle them and cut them off.  If that does not work head back to where you jumped them and sit it out.  50% of the time the will return to the same area within an hour.  I always try to stay above them if possible. 

When hunting relatively flat areas  I find that they will bed in the thickest patches of alder, devils club or reprode.  Same thing hunt it slow and glass.  It might seem funny glassing in such thick areas but a lot of the time the older bucks will sit tight if they feel they have been undetected.  I have walked past them not knowing that they were there only to turn around and have them split.  Sitting on well used trails works too.  I like to find a relatively open areas with a ton of fresh sign on hillsides to sit in.  I have treestand hunted for them several times and get frustrated when I see them and cannot move to them.  Rattling does work and grunting as well.  Last year I did a quick little hunt after work and we jumped a deer.  I pulled out the grunt tube and grunted him right back to us.  I shot him a 30 yards. 

If you can get into an area that has been clearcut and gets little or no pressure you can glass them.  A lot of times the will bed in them as well.  Look over it real well.  Don't just spend 15 minutes glassing it.  I will sit and glass a 10 acre clearcut for a few hours.  Look for tines above the brush, most the time that is all you will see if you see them at all.  When glassing I like to picture myself being in the clearcut walking through it real slow.  Hold as still as you can while glassing as well.  It is a lot easier to pick up their movement when you are as still as possible.  I will not hunt on bluebird days either.  I will only hunt on days right after a rain, while it is raining or cold and lots of over cast.  I could go on for days.  I hope this will help you out a little.  I hope you enjoy the game, once you figure them out you will be hooked and produce nice deer every year!  Good luck!

[PolarBear]

Im no expert either I like to still hunt the old growth when its piss pourin...Ive got most my deer that way.

+1
I also prefer to hunt the timber and thick stuff during rain or a full out trash mover.  I have never been a big fan of clearcuts for mature bucks.  Go in deep and look for small trails in and out of really thick stuff.

[Alchase]

Great info in this thread!
All I can add is get in the thick and look for the little patches of light in the middle of the forest. Glass carefully and watch for ear flicks or tail movement. Glass every moving leaf, it might be the ear of a bedded buck. And be prepared to be totally soaked through, lol

[Houndhunter]

im definetly an expert , i like to hunt wilderness, however when they rut its usually got to much snow and they aint up high. so we move down lower into old growth with some helicopter cuts and that seems to be the trick. i personally have seen really nice bucks feed out into clear cuts on well travled rds during rut, but i think the big guys do that more if your 4-5 miles behind a gate or somthin

[workstohunt]

Good informaton so far. Hard to add to BC
I am no expert, but have killed a couple blacktails.
The single best advice I can offer---
Invest in a GOOD pair of binoculars(I use cabelas 12X50). It doesn't matter if your hunting timber or the clearcuts---use them. ALL THE TIME!!
 Most big blacktails don't move in the daytime, you have to find them in their beds. Younger bucks will at least get up a couple of times during the day, and if your looking, you will find them.
Good Luck!

[heavy hauler]

you can rattle or grunt blacktails.you just have to find some that are not getting tons of pressure  ( hell hole/ honey hole ,depends on if you get something there) i have used a tree stand successfully also.

[Buckoholic]

Wait tell it rains and plant yourself on a clearcut!!!! Eventually they will come out!!!

[Crunchy]

I will only hunt a couple of days in the early rifle season.  Late season is soooo much better.

[mwhite]

General season I do a lot of hiking in the dark to get on mountain tops or ridgetops that I can sit and glass from all day.  I tend to see a lot of deer and quite a few nice bucks, but seldom do I find the really big bucks this way.  For them I hunt extended buck, still hunting old logging roads in heavy brush so you can kill bucks like this-

[longstevo]

I think debating (I know we're not debating) deer tactics is like talking politics and religion.  If you ask five hunters for tactics, you'll get six different stories. 

I believe each hunter has their own technique that works for them.  Not one is always right, and not one is always wrong. 

The number #1 factor in successful deer hunting, and I think almost everyone will agree here, is time in the woods.  The more time you spend in the woods, the more chances you'll have.  If you don't go out, you won't see anything.  Duh! 

That being said, the tactics that I've been successful, or almost successful (I've done more shooting than killing) is still hunting oaks and clearcuts when there's no snow.  But once the snow falls, I hit the old growth and hunt between clearcuts.  I've seen bucks every year doing that.  But like I said, I do way more shooting that hitting.   

Althought I shot my biggest buck ever from the road!