Big Game Hunting > Deer Hunting

I’m on a blacktail mission

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Feathernfurr:
I’m a blacktail newbie, but I had great success my first year. We will see if it was luck or skill. I would brush up on Midwest whitetail tactics. I applied 26 years of whitetail hunting to blacktail and it worked out. Biggest thing to killing a deer with a bow, to me, is spending as much time in the woods as possible. If you have 8 days to hunt and want to have success, you better spend every hour of day light in those 8 days hunting, and it needs to be where the deer are.

blackveltbowhunter:
Rut is going to be winding down on most commercial timberland.

High country bucks at snowline will still have some sauce left in them thru the 5thish of December seems like. More scattered, but the bucks are often more mature and getting shots isn't quite as difficult. Does  seem more tolerant of  human intrusion and big timber is cleaner than commercial grow operations.

After the first few days of december it's a grind. I intentionally seek areas with low buck to doe ratio, [ vail used to be excellent for this, but I haven't hunted the farm for 10+ years ] as a cruiser may show on late cycle does. Anecdotally, the week of Christmas i have killed a few and witnessed enough activity to put some stock into it.

Birdguy:
Tree stand and artificial (thanks commission) doe in heat drag. Hopefully your scouting will identify a few areas where you feel confident bucks live. Being able to validate it after the rut you can set it up based on your intel. If you find that cruising buck he may well follow that trail into your lap.

Sundance:
I need to double check the new regs and the scent I have been using. For the last two years I’ve been buying a Tinks spray can that claims to be artificial, also been using a wind scent vapor stick. The Tinks works well, usually use 2-3 cans per season. The Wind Scent works, first stand had a good buck slip in behind me, but the thing crapped out after a week. They sent me a new one for free, but overall I wasn’t super impressed with the quality of it. Not sure if the wind scent cartridges will meet WDFW new standards. Worse case just the rattle antlers and the Phelps bleat/grunt tubes.

pd:
My partner and I have both done very well with bows over the years on blacktail bucks.  It can be done.  For me the key is not so much the hunting tactics (which are of course critical), but the location.  My advice to the OP is simple: Develop knowledge of your area.  Find good concentrations of does with fawns, and learn that area well.  Late November to early December will definitely be more difficult, as any remaining rutting activity will be low, but there will still be a chance.

As always, go find the does.  Then find the buck.

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