western washington blacktail hunting

[Kent Hunter]

Get yourself a good GPS unit and head over to the peninsula. Get off the roads and head into the woods. The two biggest blacktails I have ever seen were when I was hunting the Dickey unit for elk. One of the bucks was a true monster!! The other one wasn't much smaller. The other plus to hunting the peninsula is that if bear season is still open at the same time you have a real good chance at a bear. There are a ton of bears over there. I'll second what the other posters have said also. Don't soot a small buck!!

[PolarBear]

Which side of Vail do you live.  As someone who is basically butted up against it, I can tell you that there are some monsters in the fringes of that unit away from the roads and fairly easy to access spots.

[SkookumHntr]

-Your best bet is to draw the rut tag for the Chuck. They rarely show themselves till early November

[kglacken]

PolarBear- I live on the yelm/rainier side of vail.

[PolarBear]

Me too.  There are a lot of little tracts of land out side of the main Vail treefarm where you can do nice, short hunts and still get into some big bucks if you just have the patience and stealth.  Unfortunately, Weyco has decided that all of their timberlands on the Rainier/Yelm side of the Deschutes are going to be harvested for all saleable timber and then sold for development so a bunch of those little honey holes are going to be gone soon.      They are currenly doing that to a tract across the road from me that use to hold some real nice deer and elk.

[kglacken]

Ya i am planning on scouting the thompson creek and johnson creek roads during the summer and hopefully i will be able to draw the rut hunt permit for the skook. that would be nice

[deerslyr]

I would avoid thompson and johnson creek an take polarbears advice, there are tons of little tracts of land that always get over looked because people are concentrated on the traditional said areas. These areas get hammered thoughout the season and no one expects to find deer on a a couple hundred acre trac of land so there is relatively few people, and yes there are monster bucks in areas like this.

[elkspert]

First thing is to find an area that has good genetics. Spend July and August in the woods trying to find a couple of the big boys. Once that velvet comes off they will be hard to find again until the rut. It took me 5 years of hunting the same area until I killed one. Scored 132 and change.

[JRob]

Hunt modern rifle,  Hunt close to home in an area you have already determined has deer. Hopefuly you have already seen a big buck track or nice rub in the area.  Sounds simple but it seems alot of people waste time in areas void of animals.  Hold out for the last week in October preferably from mid week on.  It is usually pissing rain and NOBODY's out of there truck. Take the week off and hunt the week days which makes for even less people and more deer.  Start early and walk jack firs, old clear cuts Maybe big timber. Between 800am and 1100am seems good.    Most importantly believe without a doubt that you will see a nice buck and hold this attitude for days if need be, this will keep you looking. Again it sounds simple but many times I have had people walk by me very close when I was in orange and not see me.  It looked like they were just going though the motions and didn't believe they would see anything.     Anyway I live in the same basic area you do and these things work for me............Some times!     Just one persons opinion.

[Alan K]

If you know the Capitol Peak unit fairly well, just dive into any of the steep and deep holes without roads in the bottom.  That's where the big boys are in that unit.  A buddy of mine knocked down a great buck down in a bottom in late Oct. this year, had black horns that seemingly never saw the light!  Bottom line with Capitol Peak is you have to get away from the roads.  There's just so much pressure in there everyday it seems that the deer are nearly nocturnal.  Get into the big timber in the hell holes!

[Bluemoon]

I only Hunt GMU 505. I hunt MF and only late buck, to many birds to shoot in October.  When I first moved down here I was the best forked horn and spike shooter there was.  Coming from Eastern WA,  I was a bird hunter but seeing I had moved into Blacktail country I thought I might learn how to hunt them..I met up with an old timer who taught me how to slow down and hunt and not to look out more then 100 yards at max.  The biggest bucks I have seen have all been within 50 yards just watching me walk by.  The hardest part was learning to look past them and not locking eyes with them.  When that happens you are toast they are gone.  It now takes me over an hour to go less then a half mile I am amazed at the amount of animals I now see.  The last four years have produced 1 four point,two three points with eye guards and this years 6 x 3 (picture is on page 1 of this topic..
One of the most important things to remember has already been stated here.  To shoot a big buck don't shoot a small one.  Slow down and enjoy your hunt just being able to be outdoors
is a successful outing..

[Harold]

I only Hunt GMU 505. I hunt MF and only late buck, to many birds to shoot in October.  When I first moved down here I was the best forked horn and spike shooter there was.  Coming from Eastern WA,  I was a bird hunter but seeing I had moved into Blacktail country I thought I might learn how to hunt them..I met up with an old timer who taught me how to slow down and hunt and not to look out more then 100 yards at max.  The biggest bucks I have seen have all been within 50 yards just watching me walk by.  The hardest part was learning to look past them and not locking eyes with them.  When that happens you are toast they are gone.  It now takes me over an hour to go less then a half mile I am amazed at the amount of animals I now see.  The last four years have produced 1 four point,two three points with eye guards and this years 6 x 3 (picture is on page 1 of this topic..
One of the most important things to remember has already been stated here.  To shoot a big buck don't shoot a small one.  Slow down and enjoy your hunt just being able to be outdoors
is a successful outing..

That is some good advice bluemoon. i didnt start the thread by you have helped me out alot and what you said has made sense... Thank you.