Post by: Rob Allen on October 23, 2017, 01:09:12 PM
Post by: Kvw4x4 on October 23, 2017, 01:21:00 PM
Post by: Blacktail Sniper on October 23, 2017, 01:25:50 PM
Haha. Its called hunting, not seeing and killing. Keep at it. Not sure where you are located. Might need to be colder. Deer will spend more time eating when the weather is colder. So they will be moving more around sunrise and sunset.
:yeah:
I will add...That is why it is called Blacktail Deer hunting! They have not gotten the nickname "Gray Ghost" for nothing.
Rest assured, you are not in the minority of blacktail hunter's, you are part of the majority, and that majority contains some great company!!!
Don't get discouraged, closer to Halloween it gets, the better the hunting will get.
Post by: hawks33 on October 23, 2017, 01:38:15 PM
Post by: Molon5labe on October 23, 2017, 01:39:34 PM
Post by: baker5150 on October 23, 2017, 02:00:37 PM
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 23, 2017, 02:19:41 PM
You sit on a spot and you see nothing cause they only come out at night.. you walk through the woods you don't see anything because they either spook before you get there or they hide and run away after you go by... seems like an impossible task.
I see a nice picture of a bass for your avatar. Did that one just jump in the boat on the first cast or did it take you a while to learn to feel the tiny tug on a rubber worm? You can fish for bass for years before you start pulling in 8 lbers consistently and to do that, you have to know different weather conditions, water temperature, structure, time of day, whether to tick them off or make them hungry, and your honey holes. Same thing with blacktails. It's going to take lots of homework and trial and error to consistently take these deer. Search the blacktail threads on the forum. Spend lots of time in your boots. Put up some trail cams. And get some good raingear if you don't have it. I think they know people don't like the rain. It's like a trigger. Good luck.
Post by: Special T on October 23, 2017, 02:41:27 PM
Buy a copy and read several times. I think with blackmail it's more important to learn an area really well.
One of his main strategies is still hunt the morning. Sloooow walking small side deer trails and glassing every 2 steps. Find a good spot to sit till dark.
Wind and pressure determine BT movements unless it's really dry... normally only applies to early archery in some places...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Post by: MrSmallington on October 23, 2017, 02:53:23 PM
Post by: blindluck on October 23, 2017, 03:03:52 PM
Post by: JDHasty on October 23, 2017, 03:04:52 PM
Post by: Special T on October 23, 2017, 03:08:32 PM
Step look around. Step step look around, glass... repeat, and move like a sniper I. The movies...
Hardest part for me is determining when I'm traveling vs hunting. When I'm walking the road or main trail I'm trucking... when I'm off road, I'm stealth mode.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Post by: JDHasty on October 23, 2017, 03:11:02 PM
:yeah:Haha. Its called hunting, not seeing and killing. Keep at it. Not sure where you are located. Might need to be colder. Deer will spend more time eating when the weather is colder. So they will be moving more around sunrise and sunset.
:yeah:
I will add...That is why it is called Blacktail Deer hunting! They have not gotten the nickname "Gray Ghost" for nothing.
Rest assured, you are not in the minority of blacktail hunter's, you are part of the majority, and that majority contains some great company!!!
Don't get discouraged, closer to Halloween it gets, the better the hunting will get.
Just wish the moon phases looked better. But I am going back out Sunday afternoon and taking the 30th & 31st off anyway.
Post by: Rob Allen on October 23, 2017, 04:04:28 PM
I went a bit further East into Klickitat county and even out towards Bickelton hitting small pieces of state land not seeing anything at all out there a few bed down spots in the sage is all..
This morning i was in West Klickitat 3 miles in from a locked SDS gate. Lots of evidence of deer in there but no sightings think i will try there again tomorrow.
Tonight i am back near the breaks gonna go sneak around till dark. There is another truck here , hopefully he walked the other direction.
Next week i guess i head west for the last 3 days.
Post by: PlateauNDN on October 23, 2017, 04:15:50 PM
Post by: slowhand on October 23, 2017, 06:00:04 PM
My dad and I would hunt the same trail separated by a 1/4 mile or so. Often times the one of us that was at the rear would see more animals than the one that was up front.
I try My best to be as quiet as possible and stop to listen for long periods of time if I do make a noise. I feel that the deer do something similar. They also have a cadence of step, stop, listen, look, and repeat. I have snuck up on many that have no clue that I am there. If it's not a legal target I will just freeze My position and watch to see what happens and how they behave. I have learned quit a bit from doing this. The deer appear to have different levels of alertness but are always on guard. After all It's their life if they are not. Don't get Me wrong dumb ones are out there. Heck I have had a young doe think I was it's best friend and follow Me around. I suspect that doe didn't make it more that that season being so curious. :twocents:
Post by: Sandberm on October 23, 2017, 06:09:36 PM
I will appreciate the kill even more :)
Post by: Old Man Yager on October 23, 2017, 06:53:29 PM
Yesterday i spent all day in the Klickitat breaks hiking as slowly and quietly as i can with a pack and a rifle. Saw 2 deer one bedded down 100 yards from where i stopped to watch for a couple hours. The other one was sprinting through a small clearing. He apparently saw me let me pass by then apparently bolted after i passed.Sounds like you are going slow enough to start spotting them. If I'm looking at a clearcut, I'll look for area that you can't see into, or can't be seen from a road. A lot of people think they won't stay in a clearcut, but they will drop into a spot that can't be seen. I might have to hike in through timber to find those spots, but I know there might be one hanging in there somewhere.
I went a bit further East into Klickitat county and even out towards Bickelton hitting small pieces of state land not seeing anything at all out there a few bed down spots in the sage is all..
This morning i was in West Klickitat 3 miles in from a locked SDS gate. Lots of evidence of deer in there but no sightings think i will try there again tomorrow.
Tonight i am back near the breaks gonna go sneak around till dark. There is another truck here , hopefully he walked the other direction.
Next week i guess i head west for the last 3 days.
Post by: Blacktail Sniper on October 23, 2017, 07:05:36 PM
:yeah:Haha. Its called hunting, not seeing and killing. Keep at it. Not sure where you are located. Might need to be colder. Deer will spend more time eating when the weather is colder. So they will be moving more around sunrise and sunset.
:yeah:
I will add...That is why it is called Blacktail Deer hunting! They have not gotten the nickname "Gray Ghost" for nothing.
Rest assured, you are not in the minority of blacktail hunter's, you are part of the majority, and that majority contains some great company!!!
Don't get discouraged, closer to Halloween it gets, the better the hunting will get.
Just wish the moon phases looked better. But I am going back out Sunday afternoon and taking the 30th & 31st off anyway.
That moon phase chart is cool! Not too encouraging...but cool none-the-less!!
Post by: DoubleJ on October 23, 2017, 07:53:10 PM
You sit on a spot and you see nothing cause they only come out at night.. you walk through the woods you don't see anything because they either spook before you get there or they hide and run away after you go by... seems like an impossible task.
Just my :twocents:
I felt the same when when I started. The best tactic I ever came up with was to figure out where they were going in the evening and in the morning. Then beat them there and wait. But I archery hunt in September when they are still in very defined summer patterns. Not sure how that relates to this time of year but I know I have put my sons on deer during rifle doing the same thing. Does want to eat, bucks want does. Find the does and where they're going and you'll find the bucks
Post by: Rob Allen on October 23, 2017, 08:30:06 PM
Back at it in the morning.
This is only my 3rd year oh hunting so i shouldn't complain. I am just a results oriented person it's hard not to view an unused tag as a failure.
Actually doing this by myself i kinda hope i don't get an elk. Lol
Post by: JDHasty on October 23, 2017, 08:40:28 PM
:yeah:Haha. Its called hunting, not seeing and killing. Keep at it. Not sure where you are located. Might need to be colder. Deer will spend more time eating when the weather is colder. So they will be moving more around sunrise and sunset.
:yeah:
I will add...That is why it is called Blacktail Deer hunting! They have not gotten the nickname "Gray Ghost" for nothing.
Rest assured, you are not in the minority of blacktail hunter's, you are part of the majority, and that majority contains some great company!!!
Don't get discouraged, closer to Halloween it gets, the better the hunting will get.
Just wish the moon phases looked better. But I am going back out Sunday afternoon and taking the 30th & 31st off anyway.
That moon phase chart is cool! Not too encouraging...but cool none-the-less!!
Don't let it discourage you. It is just one more thing, not the be all and end all that a lot of guys make them out to be, but they can help you out when trying to get the odds in your favor and are trying to decide which block of time would be best and have to make a choice between opportunities.
Post by: fishnfur on October 23, 2017, 08:47:07 PM
I killed my bt buck at 4pm yesterday...
What? Your camera's broken?? :chuckle:
Post by: fishnfur on October 23, 2017, 09:00:29 PM
:yeah:Haha. Its called hunting, not seeing and killing. Keep at it. Not sure where you are located. Might need to be colder. Deer will spend more time eating when the weather is colder. So they will be moving more around sunrise and sunset.
:yeah:
I will add...That is why it is called Blacktail Deer hunting! They have not gotten the nickname "Gray Ghost" for nothing.
Rest assured, you are not in the minority of blacktail hunter's, you are part of the majority, and that majority contains some great company!!!
Don't get discouraged, closer to Halloween it gets, the better the hunting will get.
Just wish the moon phases looked better. But I am going back out Sunday afternoon and taking the 30th & 31st off anyway.
That moon phase chart is cool! Not too encouraging...but cool none-the-less!!
Actually, the moon phase is really good for Friday and Saturday. Deer telemetric studies show that deer move most at first and last light, but with regards to the moon, they move most during the last quarter phase. Here's the other important "must know" fact regarding buck movement and moon phase (from https://www.qdma.com/10-things-know-mature-buck-movements/) :
Regardless of moon phase, bucks move most at dawn and dusk. Similarly, in four separate GPS research projects from around the country each found that moon phase had little or no influence on deer movement. Three of these studies dealt directly with bucks and looked at the impact on daily, diurnal, and nocturnal activity; still, deer were crepuscular in every case regardless of moon phase. One project, contrary to popular belief, even found that deer were more active and moved earlier during the day following a full moon. Bottom line: No peer-reviewed scientific data to-date has revealed a correlation between moon phase and breeding dates and/or deer movements. However, numerous studies have shown a correlation between photoperiod (the length of daylight) and breeding dates. You do the math.
Post by: blackveltbowhunter on October 23, 2017, 09:52:53 PM
Stay ready!! A buck can come out of nowhere, and in places you may not expect. Always have your rifle ready.
Besides good rain gear( which you may not need the rest of this season) get a quality headlamp and become accustomed to traveling in the dark. I like at least a hundred lumens, as the majority can be set lower, with a red light option. Weather proof is a must and spare batteries. I also hunt typically hunt blacktails in areas that weight is not a concern and often have a more powerful flashlight as well. Big light is nice if a buck falls in ferns and its pouring out.
Bucks typically won't go far if bumped if they are in their core or breeding area. Unless very pressured. But they will become more nocturnal. Thus you will have to move in on his core area. I lightly bumped my buck Saturday on my way in for a morning hunt, in the dark. I killed him less than a hundred yards away with 5 minutes left of legal light at dusk. He had just gotten up from his bed. It pays to move in the dark. Dont be walking to the truck the last half hour. Stay in your spot or still hunt if in a good area. Good optics can help extend this graylight. The graylight at dusk is the pretty much the only time I have ever had bucks 3.5 years or older actually hold in the open outside of the rut. It can make it possible to get a shot off. As I have had them hold for few minutes rather than slipping out immediatley. My theory is they A) have a harder time identifying due to the light, and B) Believe they have cover.
I am not a BT guru. But I have often felt that hunting for bucks 3.5+ is more of a chess game than anything else. With 5.5 yo bucks being the masters. You need to learn the opponent to beat him, and move to cut him off. That or good old fashioned dumb luck :chuckle:
Post by: Blacktail Sniper on October 23, 2017, 09:59:32 PM
:yeah:Haha. Its called hunting, not seeing and killing. Keep at it. Not sure where you are located. Might need to be colder. Deer will spend more time eating when the weather is colder. So they will be moving more around sunrise and sunset.
:yeah:
I will add...That is why it is called Blacktail Deer hunting! They have not gotten the nickname "Gray Ghost" for nothing.
Rest assured, you are not in the minority of blacktail hunter's, you are part of the majority, and that majority contains some great company!!!
Don't get discouraged, closer to Halloween it gets, the better the hunting will get.
Just wish the moon phases looked better. But I am going back out Sunday afternoon and taking the 30th & 31st off anyway.
That moon phase chart is cool! Not too encouraging...but cool none-the-less!!
Don't let it discourage you. It is just one more thing, not the be all and end all that a lot of guys make them out to be, but they can help you out when trying to get the odds in your favor and are trying to decide which block of time would be best and have to make a choice between opportunities.
Oh, absolutely! Bottom line is be out there looking and there is always a chance.
Post by: JDHasty on October 23, 2017, 10:16:54 PM
Keep at it!! Lotsa great info, read boyds book if you can. Haugens book isnt bad either.
Stay ready!! A buck can come out of nowhere, and in places you may not expect. Always have your rifle ready.
Besides good rain gear( which you may not need the rest of this season) get a quality headlamp and become accustomed to traveling in the dark. I like at least a hundred lumens, as the majority can be set lower, with a red light option. Weather proof is a must and spare batteries. I also hunt typically hunt blacktails in areas that weight is not a concern and often have a more powerful flashlight as well. Big light is nice if a buck falls in ferns and its pouring out.
Bucks typically won't go far if bumped if they are in their core or breeding area. Unless very pressured. But they will become more nocturnal. Thus you will have to move in on his core area. I lightly bumped my buck Saturday on my way in for a morning hunt, in the dark. I killed him less than a hundred yards away with 5 minutes left of legal light at dusk. He had just gotten up from his bed. It pays to move in the dark. Dont be walking to the truck the last half hour. Stay in your spot or still hunt if in a good area. Good optics can help extend this graylight. The graylight at dusk is the pretty much the only time I have ever had bucks 3.5 years or older actually hold in the open outside of the rut. It can make it possible to get a shot off. As I have had them hold for few minutes rather than slipping out immediatley. My theory is they A) have a harder time identifying due to the light, and B) Believe they have cover.
I am not a BT guru. But I have often felt that hunting for bucks 3.5+ is more of a chess game than anything else. With 5.5 yo bucks being the masters. You need to learn the opponent to beat him, and move to cut him off. That or good old fashioned dumb luck :chuckle:
You really have to be observant. When I first started hunting blackmails, one late season around Thanksgiving I was in my little chair bind and just before the end of shooting hours I noticed a bump on a tree trunk 85 yards away that I was certain was not there before. I thought: that is either a squirrel or a deer's face. I put my binocular on it and it was a nice fork horn buck that had I not identified before he finally stepped out I would not have gotten. I shot right at the last legal minute in a driving rain storm.
What kills me is how I can not even have fallen asleep in my stand and just shift my eyes and there is a buck right out in the open that wasn't there before.
One thing to be careful of is when you first see movement in your peripheral vision, move your eyes, then ever so slowly turn your head just enough to see clearly enough to identify what it is, don't turn your head suddenly.
Post by: fishnfur on October 24, 2017, 12:18:49 AM
https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Black-Tailed-Deer-Oregon-Perspective/dp/1878175181
Post by: Jpmiller on October 24, 2017, 06:29:02 AM
I also try to constantly think about how many animals are seeing me that I am not seeing. Then I try to slow it down even more and look even closer. I more often than not can find something on the way to my "spot".
Post by: Molon5labe on October 24, 2017, 10:36:25 AM
I killed my bt buck at 4pm yesterday...
What? Your camera's broken?? :chuckle:
I've got a pic, but it's nothing fancy. It's the first legal deer this season and im not a gambling man. It's just a spike. But my point is they can and will be out even when you think they won't. I was looking for a good spot to sit until dark but I happened to spot him. I had scanned the cut several times over before he appeared seemingly out of nowhere. After I was able to sneak closer to confirm antlers I couldn't find him but he was bedded down right where I had spotted him. SLOW down and glass!
Post by: AKBowman on October 24, 2017, 01:40:30 PM
You just never know:
On Saturday I got to the gate 90 minutes before first light. I biked/hiked (pushed bike uphill) into my spot to get to where I wanted to be first light. Got completely hammered by rain and wind. Hunted steady until 1pm.
On my ride out I ran into a guy packing out a VERY nice, mature 3x4 with thick bases and great eye guards. Come to find out he showed up about 7:30am and shot the buck right off the main Rd after it stepped out in front of him. Said it even turned broadside for him.
To his credit it sounded like he had been hunting hard and just got lucky. You never know.
Post by: Wetwoodshunter on October 24, 2017, 02:24:35 PM
You just have to believe and stick it out! Rifle only gets better the later this first season gets and once you spend the time you will appreciate it a lot more. Blacktail hunting is hard to be successful on a buck, let alone a mature one. Keep at it and trust that if you know there are deer there a buck will make a mistake, but it may be day 10 or day 1 you never know.
Post by: Deerelk37 on October 24, 2017, 02:46:16 PM
Post by: Deerelk37 on October 24, 2017, 02:47:29 PM
Post by: Rob Allen on October 24, 2017, 04:10:27 PM
About noon I i was about an hour away from my truck and i was seeing lots of evidence of elk so i followed Randy Newburg's advise and looked for the nastiest stuff i could find, turns out it was a slope of 20 y/o reprod it was thick couldn't see 10 feet and you had to pretty much crawl through it. I was done really hunting so i thought what the heck. 10 feet in a very fresh pile i slowed down and 2 steps later i head something bounding away, it was no more than 20 feet away but i never say it. I follow it sitting down every 8- 10 feet to try to get a view. I go about 50 feet and the woods erupts and i see a tan and brown shape crashing down the hill 30 feet away didn't see if it was a cow or a bull but it was alone, doesn't that usually mean bull???
anyway if i had an experience like that every time out i'd never need to kill anything.
the question should never be " why do you hunt" it should be Why wouldn't you?
Post by: fishnfur on October 26, 2017, 08:58:56 PM
Post by: AROTTY on October 27, 2017, 10:30:49 AM
The deer are under a lot of hunting pressure and all the cougars aren't helping either. They haven't been moving much during the day. If you are near the canyons, glass from non obvious angles. The deer tend to hide out of an easy sightline. If you are further west on the timber property, get there super early, walk down a closed road to a spot and sit and watch. There will be some pre dawn activity.