When I first started hunting blacktail I spent a LOT of time in the off season in the woods, just patterning deer and learning their habits. I would head out nearly every weekend. I did this for two years before I even started seriously hunting them, when I was in High School. I feel it was time well spent, when you only have a short season to hunt them you can't really learn them. I feel that's key more than location, there are good blacktails in every Western GMU.