2020 Blacktail Success Thread

[roosiebull]

Kodiak, had to get the freezer filled missed moose hunting this year

very cool! i heard those kodiak deer are the best eating deer there are.... sitka blacktail in general are the prettiest deer in the world for sure! they are cool critters, and i'm hunting them in the next few years (probably on POW trying for one of those orange antlered bucks, but kodiak is looking better all the time.... decisions)

 

[TripleJ]

yeah buddy!!! he has a more impressive collection of blacktail racks than most, and is just getting started! you are raising them right! love to see your late season reports... cool stuff!

Thanks Mike! Over the last few years, all 3 of my sons have drawn this late season tag, and it has given me some incredible shared moments and memories with each of them. What a blessing it is to get to experience it through their eyes.

 

[JasonWi]

very cool! i heard those kodiak deer are the best eating deer there are.... sitka blacktail in general are the prettiest deer in the world for sure! they are cool critters, and i'm hunting them in the next few years (probably on POW trying for one of those orange antlered bucks, but kodiak is looking better all the time.... decisions)

I've been wanting to do this trip for years and think it's finally going to happen within the next few seasons. I the later in the season the lower they come down..but to me that doesn't seem like the experience I'm after. I'd rather glass and hunt them in the alpine than shoot them off the beaches

 

[roosiebull]

I've been wanting to do this trip for years and think it's finally going to happen within the next few seasons. I the later in the season the lower they come down..but to me that doesn't seem like the experience I'm after. I'd rather glass and hunt them in the alpine than shoot them off the beaches

i just want to hunt them pre rut/rut so they are in their winter coats... the alpine terrain looks incredible, but i don't know about a sitka blacktail in velvet, they get so dang pretty in oct/Nov

 

[22lr]

Shot a small basket rack and a doe off Kodiak. Nothing big but a decent haul of meat! Saw hundreds of deer, few big bucks but there was a legit B&C class buck taken by another group at our lodge, so they are still out there.

 

[JasonWi]

i just want to hunt them pre rut/rut so they are in their winter coats... the alpine terrain looks incredible, but i don't know about a sitka blacktail in velvet, they get so dang pretty in oct/Nov

That's a good point, darker late season coats are so beautiful. Add in some sea duck hunting on the same trip and that would be quite the experience.

 

[MeatBuck]

Shot a small basket rack and a doe off Kodiak. Nothing big but a decent haul of meat! Saw hundreds of deer, few big bucks but there was a legit B&C class buck taken by another group at our lodge, so they are still out there.

View attachment 237765

What are those, 8” main beams? Haha strange to see what appears to be a mature deer with a jackalope rack.

 

[22lr]

Shot a small basket rack and a doe off Kodiak. Nothing big but a decent haul of meat! Saw hundreds of deer, few big bucks but there was a legit B&C class buck taken by another group at our lodge, so they are still out there.

What are those, 8” main beams? Haha strange to see what appears to be a mature deer with a jackalope rack.

Ya, was a decent size deer, and super fatty! But ya, super small rack. But o well, he tasted good!

 

[MeatBuck]

Ya, was a decent size deer, and super fatty! But ya, super small rack. But o well, he tasted good!

I’ve got a spike fork or three in the collection. When meat is the priority, horn size goes out the window. Especially on the last day of the season.
Too bad that deer fat isn’t edible, Ive killed a couple that were as fat as bear going to den. Have fed it to my dogs in the past but the majority of it stays with the guts and carcass.

 

[Wilderness Disciple]

I got this guy the Monday last week of Oregon general. Fun Season.

2020 Deer Hunt

thechristianhunter.blogspot.com

 

[Pass-n-Thru]

Time running out get it done blacktail buck. Not the biggest, but I love shooting these in the high country!

 

[Jason277]

Time running out get it done blacktail buck. Not the biggest, but I love shooting these in the high country!

Awesome buck !! What elevation?

 

[forkyshooter]

i shot my first deer this year a blacktail 2x2

 

[Pass-n-Thru]

Awesome buck !! What elevation?

about 4200' snow had most area locked down.

 

[roosiebull]

i shot my first deer this year a blacktail 2x2

nice work!! first of many!

 

[roosiebull]

it's a shame blacktail season is winding down (maybe some time left in SE AK?) October is a long time away... if elk didn't have so much meat, blacktail hunting may be my favorite hunting. i miss it already. i think i like the contrast of coming off of archery elk season into rifle blacktail season. they are fun to archery hunt too, but i sure enjoy glassing up deer and the season getting better the whole time... late archery is the opposite on the coast... may or may not be good for a few days, then it's slow, then you hope to be in the right place at some point for the second cycle, which can be epic.

 

[mongoslayer]

Best meat on the planet

 

[Blacktail22]

Wow great bucks guys

 

[larchmtnman]

Hunted the Black Hills public land in western WA, killed this nice 2 point October 26th. Shot him at 267 yards with a 30-06 and 150gr Hornady Interlock factory loads, he was trailing a doe and fawn on a clearcut ridge on the other side of heavily timbered draw at 5:05 in the evening, come to find out there was no roads or trails into the cut from the one I took the shot from, my buddy gave me a rashon of poop when I called him for help as he knew where I had killed him. My younger brother came up that night also and we all tried to find an easy way into that cut but there was none. I had already hiked the 300yds into the bottom of the steep cut I was in but with light fading and the evening turning cool I made it back up to the road and met up with my buddy and brother. It's been a tough year for me with my health, had to have my gallbladder out in late August, went staight from the the ER to the OR, and am not as strong now at 52 as I once was. My brother met me at 7:00am the next morning and he cut a trail up the timbered draw through the salal, old growth vine maple and devils club with a machete until we found a place to cross the creek and then back down the draw to the clearcut, I moved up to the top of the ridge and found the trail the deer had used, the tracks were obvious from the night before. It was no trouble finding the buck as I had marked his location, it had been a cool night and I gutted him before my brother took any pictures, the meat was fine. He had dropped behind a short stump and I watched him kick his last. I wobbled just right on the sticks and hit him in the base of the neck he went down in his tracks, my policy now is to aim for the high shoulder shot as I don't want deer running very far or at all when hunting big clearcuts. You can kinda see how steep that part of the cut is behind me in the photo, well it got twice as steep as I drug the deer down 100 or so yards to the creek, again following my brother. He found a place to cross the creek and we drug him the 400 or so yards up a steep ridge to the road in the cut I shot from. I feel blessed to have gotten out hunting this year with everything thats going on in the world and to have made a clean kill on a decent Blacktail buck. Will travel every year to the wet side from Spokane to my old stomping grounds to hunt Blacktail. Seems most Whitetail over here are killed on someones private property, these deer over here seem kinda like pets. Was watching a 4x5 and two big 3x3s all with eye guards most of the summer behind our place, these deer just don't turn me on like public land Blacktails. Mule deer being a subspecies of Blacktail hold mild interest for me, maybe next season.

 

[Sasser107]

Sharing my 2020 Coastal California Blackies