New Hunter Need Some Advice Please

[svent0341]

Hope everyone's opening weekend is going well.

I am 38 and only started hunting last year (with no success). I have read everything I can find about hunting black tail up here, and lurked on this forum all year, but I still have yet to even see a doe. I am super conscious about the wind. I try to use scent gone stuff on all my clothes/gear before I go out. I get out of the car and hunt in behind gates, still hunting the thick stuff, glassing the edges of clear cuts and reprod and nothing. I did glass up 7 elk this week all within 400 yards so I don't think I am spooking deer off on my way in. I was out all this week with my son who had a youth draw, and my only other chance will be next sunday-wed. Does calling with Doe bleats work this early? is there something else I could be doing to try and see some deer? Thanks in advance for any advice.

[brokentrail]

I don't know how old your son is but I know my kids couldn't get the still hunting.  In order for them to kill deer, we had to get behind locked gates and watch 3 to 5 year old clear cuts.  Find a slash pile, or if you can get above a cut, and glass, glass, glass.  All of my boys have been successful this way but, you don't see deer on every sit, a lot of times you don't see anything.  But, once you do see one, they are usually unaware that you are there and the youth has plenty of time to try and make a good shot.

That is the best advice I can give you based on what has worked for my own kids.  I have a youth hunting an antlerless tag as well and we have seen one doe in over a weeks hunting.  Unfortunately, she gave him the slip into a thicket, within the clearcut,  and we never saw her again.

Best of luck to you and your son!

[svent0341]

Thank you, I appreciate the response.

[Tball77]

Find some deer sign and post up down wind.  Patience is key.  You can sit days without a sighting not hunting isn’t about seeing animals.  It’s about beating them at their own game. 

[Buzzsaw461]

Hope everyone's opening weekend is going well.

I am 38 and only started hunting last year (with no success). I have read everything I can find about hunting black tail up here, and lurked on this forum all year, but I still have yet to even see a doe. I am super conscious about the wind. I try to use scent gone stuff on all my clothes/gear before I go out. I get out of the car and hunt in behind gates, still hunting the thick stuff, glassing the edges of clear cuts and reprod and nothing. I did glass up 7 elk this week all within 400 yards so I don't think I am spooking deer off on my way in. I was out all this week with my son who had a youth draw, and my only other chance will be next sunday-wed. Does calling with Doe bleats work this early? is there something else I could be doing to try and see some deer? Thanks in advance for any advice.

General Season has always been tough hunting for Blacktails at least for me. If you can hunt the late hunt those 4 days in November. I have killed just about all my Bucks then.

[JakeLand]

It’s slow going as usual right now don’t despair! Really put your time in the 28th-31st that’s when the magic can and does happen especially Halloween find Does and stay on them as bucks will show themselves on those days
Good luck !

[h20hunter]

I haven't even bought my deer tag yet! I know.....i know.  My advice is hunt when you xan but you have to be out there the last few days of the month. Be out before 1st light and be prepared to hunt all day. Walk logging roads,  watch reprod etc. Last year I had a lil ol forky step right out at 70 yards and was a gimmie. Just keep at it and like others said.....end of month is go time.

[bkaech]

It's tough to find blacktails. While you are out always be very conscious of looking for deer tracks on roads and clearcuts. If you find areas with good deer sign (tracks, trails, and poop) then you know you are in the right spot, just be patient. I always focus on clearcuts and will do some hunting through the timber in the middle of the day just for something to do, But finding sign and sitting clearcuts is the best way I've found to find blacktails. The last 3 days of Oct is the best time to find bucks in the daylight, second to that is the late season. In my opinion. Good luck and keep at it, I regularly go several days without seeing anything, then out of no where have a day where I see 12 does and 3 bucks, just how it is.

[GASoline71]

I grew up in Orting hunting up in the St. Regis land (that is now Hancock).  Also hunted a lot along the Puyallup River near Electron.  But Now you have to pay to get in to Hancock, and I doubt you can access the area near the river anymore.  That was back in the 70's and 80's.

Any day out in the woods with your kids is a good day in my book.  You just have to keep going out.  One day it will all come around and you'll have deer in front of you.  Opening weekend, I didn't even see any deer poop, little alone a deer.    Remember, the hunt is what you are after.  The harvest is just icing on the cake. 

Gary 

[Humptulips]

No secret to it. I spend some time before season walking around looking for sign. You can still do that as you hunt. Hunt most where you see the most sign. Pretty obvious right? That and time in the woods.
I like to hunt behind gates to avoid others scaring game off before you. Being quiet is nice but you should still see deer if you end up making noise.
Persistence + deer sign + some luck= deer in front of you. Don't get discouraged because you don't see deer for a day or two. It happens to everyone.
One more thing, make the most of bad weather. Those days are made for hunters. 

[Jpmiller]

I'm not exactly sure how to remedy this but I started hunting with a family member who spent his whole life backpacking but just started hunting. He is always the last one to pick up an animal sighting and seems to have a hard time finding the ones we walk him into through the binos. There seems to be something about training your eye to look for deer shaped things in the woods. If you're like.him you may be looking at deer without seeing them. Only thing I can think for this is to keep after it. Good.luck this fall!

[trophyhunt]

Hope everyone's opening weekend is going well.

I am 38 and only started hunting last year (with no success). I have read everything I can find about hunting black tail up here, and lurked on this forum all year, but I still have yet to even see a doe. I am super conscious about the wind. I try to use scent gone stuff on all my clothes/gear before I go out. I get out of the car and hunt in behind gates, still hunting the thick stuff, glassing the edges of clear cuts and reprod and nothing. I did glass up 7 elk this week all within 400 yards so I don't think I am spooking deer off on my way in. I was out all this week with my son who had a youth draw, and my only other chance will be next sunday-wed. Does calling with Doe bleats work this early? is there something else I could be doing to try and see some deer? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Sounds like you are miles ahead of most hunters, just keep at it.  The more time in the woods, the better.  With blacktail it's not so much how much ground you cover, its how you cover that ground, always look with your binos.  But it also can come easy, son in law took his first deer on opening day, driving up a road to a hiking in spot, the two trucks in front of us drove right on by a nice two point standing in the woods 60 yards off the road.  I always tell new hunters, just put yourself in a situation to be able to kill a deer. You are doing the right thing, just keep at it. 

[JeffRaines]

Biggest thing I learned was to SLOW DOWN. Seriously, especially rifle hunting. You have the advantage of being able to shoot 200+ yards - use it! Go find a cut with a ton of sign(as others have said) and post up with the wind in your face and WATCH. I find the last hour or so of shooting light is the most productive. This works a lot better behind a gate or someplace that doesn't get a ton of traffic - if its right off a main line or where people can drive your odds go down for sure.

Second piece of advice - when its raining and crappy out is the time to hunt. Be out all day in those conditions. Pack a lunch, a change of clothes, hand warmers, whatever you've got to do to make it comfortable. Weather like that makes the deer stupid... but on top of that, you have cover sound(rain/wind), wet ground is much quieter to walk on, and the rain and wind helps keep the scent down so you're essentially defeating two of their senses. On days like this, glass cuts or walk the edges of sparse-ish reprod expecting to see deer bedded about 20-40 yards from the edge. Take a few steps, then use your glass to look around looking for pieces of deer - you'll often find them bedded behind the little trees, stumps or behind the little hills in the reprod. They will almost let you step on them if they feel like you don't see them so keep your head on a swivel.

[fishnfur]

Tons of good comments.  If you're happy harvesting a doe - do as the others have said.  Finding a spot with a lot of fresh sign assures you're close.  This time of the season, the days are getting pretty short.   Doe will almost always feed just before sunrise and then bed for the rest of the morning.  Then around four - five hours later (often 11:00 am - noon), they typically get up and feed again, close to their primary bedding spot for another ten or so minutes +/- and bed again till late afternoon.  They will get up again and head towards their primary feeding location 30 - 60 minutes before last light.  It can run like clockwork, day after day sometimes.  Those are great times to be in place and be ready for action if hunting a clearcut.


Deer spend a lot of their feeding time on the edges of two or more forest types (Alder/conifer; Alder/clearcut; Fir clearcut; big timber conifer meeting reprod, etc.).  Concentrating your efforts along those edges should increase your opportunities to see deer. 

As the rut closes in, bucks will start harrassing the doe more frequently which gets them up and running (or at least moving about) when they typically would be bedded. In the last few days of the month, if you see a doe standing out in a clearing or forest opening, looking like she is waiting for something, doing nothing else, just standing there, she is likely advertising her scent to lure in a buck. Rather than kill her immediatley, this situation might produce a much larger buck (with more vension for the table).  That set up is worth watching from afar for 30 or more minutes.

Good luck. Move slow, glass a lot.

[Will]

Tons of good info on this thread, thank you all for sharing. I'm also learning a lot by reading these comments from more seasoned folks here

[hunter399]

The tracks and reading them is 🔑.
I think of them as in the trail camera in 1950 almost better than a trail cam now though.
Fresh is best.