My 2011 Washington Blacktail

[Robbo]

Here's the full skinny on the nice blacktail that I bagged yesterday afternoon

http://blog.theoutdoorline.com/post/201 ... ktail.aspx

[Smalma]

Robbo -

I agree a nice blacktail!!

Enjoyed your write up. Found your obseration about where to find a buck here in western Washington brush right on target. While I no longer hunt big game when Idid chase blacktails I too found that locating the right clear cut key to regular success. In fact the last 5 years I hunted deer I kill a buck each year and they all came out of the same clear cut within 150 yards of each other. In that case the clear cut was on a steep hill side that faced southeast. There was a significant draw in the middle of the clear cut and the drill was to circle around to the top of the ridge and work across to either hog-back on either side of the draw about mid-morning. The blacktail bucks loved to sun themselves at the base of the stumps watch the world below them. It was a simple matter of slowly easing down the "hogback" directly above the stump line. On nice days by mid-morning there would be an uphill draft and if I was quiet I could walk right up on the bucks bedded at the base of the stumps. It was the norm to get within 10 to 50 of the buck before it would sense me and they would almost always jump to their feet and look up to see what was distrubing their peace. A clean single shot kill was a slam dunk - don't recall ever shooting a deer out of that clear cut at more than 20 or 25 yards.

Curt

[Robbo]

Do you have any photos of any of your blacktails Smalm-ster. Would love to see some of them from years back. Funny how the blacktails use the draws and ridges much like a whitetail or mule deer. There's just a thick layer of brush covering all of it over here on the wet side that makes things that much more difficult. It's challenging hunting and that's what makes it so darned gratifying to get one.