Baiting Blacktail seminar?

[singleshot12]

I'm not getting sucked into this one again.

  You already are

People can kill all the bucks they want over bait and feel proud of it,don't bother me as long as i'm miles away from them

[ghostshell]

ill say i have tried most things on blacktails for the purpose of trying to see whats in my areas with the most sign.... the mountain blacktails i have found really are not interested in anything foreign. as far as mature bucks curiosity will have them show themselves to your trail cam thats about it.  i have found natural mineral licks really are the only thing they touch. blacktails are at least to me too smart for those tricks and or non sense... perhaps lower elevation blacktail are different, my interest are for the alpine blacktail that ghost through the mountains...hard work, luck and persistance with time in the woods is more realistic. the high and lows of those S.O.B's......besides baiting blacktails seems to cheapen them..... i think the illusive grey ghost of the northwest deserves more than that.... just a dude with an opinion.

[buckfvr]

When you have several guys baiting in an area......it becomes counter productive.  It will make them all nocturnal so fast its not funny.......there are many better tactics to employ before resorting to bait.   It is not the holy grail for whitetail.

[YoterHunter]

I'm 52 I've hunted black tails my hole life. I don't care what any buddy says blacktail and whitetail are two different breeds. White tail you can bait and pattern . Put a feeder out they will be there like clock work . A blacktail will show when he wants if he does at all. They are the tuffest to hunt of all deer especially on public land . Ask some of the people on this form that's been hunting them for years and still have not killed one yet .

[buckfvr]

I'm 52 I've hunted black tails my hole life. I don't care what any buddy says blacktail and whitetail are two different breeds. White tail you can bait and pattern . Put a feeder out they will be there like clock work . A blacktail will show when he wants if he does at all. They are the tuffest to hunt of all deer especially on public land . Ask some of the people on this form that's been hunting them for years and still have not killed one yet .

Leads me to believe you've never put out a feeder for whitetail..........if so, you're talking does and dinks.............

[ghostshell]

I don't know about blacktails, but just one look at the walls of whitetail hunters that bait and the ones that don't will tell you all you need to know about effectiveness of baiting whitetails.

Blacktails are bound to be similar, but the terrain difference might make it tougher.  Nocturnal deer is the main issue of baiting.  If you can figure that out, you'll do fine.

you can use feeders that have timers on them.  Once they are used to a different life they really aren't much different than whitetails.  Just look at the neighborhoods with deer problems like Whidbey or on the peninsula---deer come running when it is feeding time just like the whitetails.

island deer/mountain deer..... not even the same.

[YoterHunter]

White tail you see all the time early morning late evning. And you can pattern   Black tail are a lot different . A lot of people won't even see a deer. Ask a lot of people on this form that's been hunting for years and still have not killed a black tail. A white tail will run way before you see them.  Black tails will lay right there and lit you walk past them. Like the west siders say . They don't get called the grey ghost for no resson.

[MountainWalk]

I guess it's a regional thing.  Seems like everyone thinks what they hunt is the hardest. It's normal.    I grew up slaying WT in AR and MO. Ive guided for miles in MT, ID, with great success. I had a few tough years in WA as after BT, but now I score on three and four pt bucks year after year.  After all, they are all deer, and require the same things: food, cover, water. I do not think one is inherently "harder" to hunt.   I love em all, but I don't elevate them to be any more than ends what they are, just adeer.

[Dr. Death]

Shelby is shady to say the least. I have a guy who works for me who had a deer on his property shot by Shelby or one of his clients, private property mind you too and he did not have access to. My buddies neighbor ratted Shelby out as it was done while my buddy was at work.

Baiting can be good for BT's. We tried it this year and had 5 bucks on camera. My kid shot a 3x4 off of it. We did pattern them to a point, waited for the right time and wind and went in and shot his buck the 1st time in the stand, had another buck there at the same time.

I wont shoot one there unless its a toad, but good for those who havent shot many critters. just my  .....

[Birddogman]

IMO the blacktail can't be patterned due to all of the food sources.  Some food sources are: Cotton wood leaves, legumes, apples, idiots feeding them corn cuz they can't hunt!  My hunts have been successful after heavy rains or over cast which slowed the night time feeding, not from baiting.  That is just asinine

[MountainWalk]

And just what do woodland WT eat?  They aren't all baited in. Not all live near farms. There is a big difference from an eastrn WAWT, and an uppper michegan WT.BUT not enough to keep you from killing either.  Aroynd Gmus 624,627,621bucks are a lil slick, but in some places, the bucks were dumber than bricks,out of the rut. But I kill both.

[REHJWA]

I guess it's a regional thing.  Seems like everyone thinks what they hunt is the hardest. It's normal.    I grew up slaying WT in AR and MO. Ive guided for miles in MT, ID, with great success. I had a few tough years in WA as after BT, but now I score on three and four pt bucks year after year.  After all, they are all deer, and require the same things: food, cover, water. I do not think one is inherently "harder" to hunt.   I love em all, but I don't elevate them to be any more than ends what they are, just adeer.

I agree with everything except....I give black tail the edge. A trophy deer of any species is a worthy adversary but a mature 4x4 blacktail with eye guards has got to be one of the rarest harvested of any trophy in North America. Every year we see dozens of trophy caliber mule deer and whitetails but only a hand full blacktails. I know there are fewer black tails and as a percentage of harvest they are probably proportional but the nubers's don't lie...
As far as getting dialed in like you have, I am sure you have put in your dues to get to the level your at. The gray Ghost schools me every year. I will get my trophy one day. 

[boomstick]

There is baiting deer just to shoot one. But feeding deer to improve quality is a good thing the only problem is the person feeding never benefits from it. Some one comes on your property shoots your deer and then brags about it like they are a mighty hunter.

[PolarBear]

Blacktails in general have much more to choose from as far as forrage than whitetails, especially whitetails in Eastern WA and therefore much harder to pattern or bait.  As someone who has hunted and killed Sitka blacktails. cascade blacktails, Columbia blacktails, mule deer, eastern and western whitetails, I can tell you that Columbia blacktails are definitely the toughest to hunt, that is for mature bucks.

[singleshot12]

I'm not sure if they're any harder to bait.Blacktail like any other deer are lazy and opportunists. They will travel the easiest route and feed on the easiest,sweetest food source with the most calories to get them through the winter. They don't care if it's all in a big pile in the middle of the woods. They are just like us and have a sweet tooth preferring molasses,corn,and apples any day over salad.