Here’s my 2024 buck, my second one now far enough west to be considered a true blacktail, though all the ones I have taken were far from the cascades! Killed the last weekend of October in some big timber, with thick enough underbrush I couldn’t see him bedded at 32 yards from me with my naked eye. Spotted him with my binos still hunting and glassing every few steps. I’d stopped after a 10 yard push through some brush and sat down on a stump and began glassing beginning from behind me(uphill) panning down below me to the river bottom I was hunting towards. I instantly spotted those bright orange antlers and face looking my way as I got to my downhill side, dropped the binos and grabbed my rifle, and told my wife “there’s a buck plug your ears”. Even after spotting him I couldn’t see him with my naked eye as he was bedded behind some ferns. As I got my rifle up and my crosshairs on his head hoping for a shot, he stood up and gave me a perfect frontal shot. 1 round into him and he dropped right back into his bed without a flinch, perfect heart shot. I got down to him and we said our prayers to God and the buck and talked a lot about the circle of life and how intense the taking of life is, how heavy an experience it is.
To top off the whole experience my wife asked if she could join me on this day for the first time in our 6 years together! She was a trooper all morning and heck of a helper packing him out. The adrenaline rush of blacktail will never wear off for me
