Oregon Coast Range Blacktail Tips and Tricks?

[Valumpessa]

Clearcuts in the summer are great times to spot blacktail bucks in an area. They're in velvet and fur is more red/brown than grey and easier to spot. I like hiking up to a high point where you can see multiple cuts and glass the timber edges in the evening.
For cams, best action has been trails in the fringe areas or just inside the timber, parallel to a clearing.

 

[duckhuntr]

Last years rubs.
Not just one rub, but several in one spot, is your buck in that area ( assuming he lived thru winter)

I'm mostly asking in general because I'm new to the coast, but I do know where a few bucks live in mostly wooded areas so wasnt sure where to put Cams. There is a dozen trails through the woods so hard to focus on where to put cameras out. I considered laying a few salt blocks, but wasnt sure those helped much either. . . I do know a few rub lines though so I'll have to try that. Do you think even in June/July you think they will walk the old rub lines or should I focus on those spots more towards September when they start looking to shed velvet?

 

[Koda_]

I'm mostly asking in general because I'm new to the coast, but I do know where a few bucks live in mostly wooded areas so wasnt sure where to put Cams. There is a dozen trails through the woods so hard to focus on where to put cameras out. I considered laying a few salt blocks, but wasnt sure those helped much either. . . I do know a few rub lines though so I'll have to try that. Do you think even in June/July you think they will walk the old rub lines or should I focus on those spots more towards September when they start looking to shed velvet?

Focus on the spot year round, blacktails in the coast range live their life in a small spot.
Itshard to pattern then on one trail, they use them like a labrynth... or even go around them .


Focus on one trail at a time, put 3 cams up in a triangle pattern, 1 on the trail, two on each side. wait at least 30 days between checking, move the cam that has the least pics to the opposite side of the triangle.
Or move the whole set to another trail if hardly any pics total.

 

[duckhuntr]

Focus on the spot year round, blacktails in the coast range live their life in a small spot.
Itshard to pattern then on one trail, they use them like a labrynth... or even go around them .


Focus on one trail at a time, put 3 cams up in a triangle pattern, 1 on the trail, two on each side. wait at least 30 days between checking, move the cam that has the least pics to the opposite side of the triangle.
Or move the whole set to another trail if hardly any pics total.

Good Info. A labyrinth is spot on. Dozens of trails in the same direction, and none of which are more used and obvious than the others. I'll try the camera rotation though. . . Or maybe I just need to put out 20 cameras

 

[<cascadehunter>]

The book is good, though it has started to show its age in some areas. Still, loads of great tips in there.

Have you read Boyd Iverson’s book yet? I’m wrapping up Scott Haugen’s and I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed. There are some really good nuggets of info in it, but I found it quite “unscientific” for a book titled “Science of the Hunt”.
My contribution to the thread:
Bicycle
10x on a tripod
Scout scout scout

 

[FairWeatherFisher]

Have you read Boyd Iverson’s book yet? I’m wrapping up Scott Haugen’s and I’ll admit, I’m a little disappointed. There are some really good nuggets of info in it, but I found it quite “unscientific” for a book titled “Science of the Hunt”.
My contribution to the thread:
Bicycle
10x on a tripod
Scout scout scout

I have read it, and frankly I found it less helpful still. It’s over 30 years old, and western Oregon has changed a lot in that time. Also, it is really focused on hunting private land, which isn’t the reality for most of us.

I absolutely agree about Haugen’s book not being “scientific” at all, but that’s not surprising given how little REAL scientific study there is on blacktail deer. What killed me were all the typos. Dude was a HS teacher, he ought to know it’s “I should have” not “I should of”. That drove me nuts.

 

[Koda_]

I absolutely agree about Haugen’s book not being “scientific” at all, but that’s not surprising given how little REAL scientific study there is on blacktail deer.

Theres very little research on Blacktail deer. Haugens book only vaugly references an ODFW research study but alot of the anecdotal tips and information in Haugens book do correlate with that study. I still find Haugens book very useful the only problem is he tells it like a story so getting the tips and tricks requires reading thru it to find the knowledge gems.

Oregon coastal blacktail hunters will have even less information...

The actual ODFW study is available once one knows its name. Its not a huge study but still worth reading for anyone hunting blacktails on the Oregon Coast range, the three chapters that are useful are Habitat, Range, and Nutrition.

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/docs/Oregon_Black-Tailed_Deer_Management_Plan.pdf

 

[Koda_]

Another good book to read if you can find it (out of print): Hunting Black-Tailed Deer by Louis Terkla. It a much shorter read and gets to the point quicker and he does cite references in the back including some research studies. If you want a more "cliff notes" version of hunting Oregon Blacktails this is the book to get but good luck finding it for cheap.

 

[fisherman983]

Theres very little research on Blacktail deer. Haugens book only vaugly references an ODFW research study but alot of the anecdotal tips and information in Haugens book do correlate with that study. I still find Haugens book very useful the only problem is he tells it like a story so getting the tips and tricks requires reading thru it to find the knowledge gems.

Oregon coastal blacktail hunters will have even less information...

The actual ODFW study is available once one knows its name. Its not a huge study but still worth reading for anyone hunting blacktails on the Oregon Coast range, the three chapters that are useful are Habitat, Range, and Nutrition.

https://www.dfw.state.or.us/wildlife/docs/Oregon_Black-Tailed_Deer_Management_Plan.pdf

I've found most of the information about blacktails and deer numbers coming from odfw is worthless at best. I've talked to a few of the biologists while checking in bears, ams deer to get the teeth pulled for age cards and what they said was baffling. They have absolutely no idea how many deer there really aren't and they pretty much all suck at their jobs.

I hunted some specific areas for awhile, and even counted every deer a saw one year and kept checking my tally to what I saw in following years. The total deer numbers dropped significantly every year,, as did number of bucks and size of bucks. Their adaptation to adding spikes to the legal buck killing is even worse.



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[Koda_]

I've found most of the information about blacktails and deer numbers coming from odfw is worthless at best.

Theres very little research available on blacktail deer and most of it is old, what little is gained is only confirmed by experienced hunters like Haugen. In the coast range (especially the north coast range) you could sum everything up by they live in a small area and dont migrate. If your finding rubs, focus on that area and maybe you will run into him.

 

[Plague]

That’s what I’ve noticed, too. I was hoping there was a secret way to tell or something.

Lately I’ve been thinking the best course of action is to just suck it up and pay for a Weyerhaeuser permit, if I can even get one.
Seems like the only way to be sure there’s less people likely to bust your spot.

I gave up hunting Weyerhaeuser land. I’m up near st Helen’s. Way too many hunters with poor etiquette.

 

[Dirtscoots]

I gave up hunting Weyerhaeuser land. I’m up near st Helen’s. Way too many hunters with poor etiquette.

Same here in Oregon. The Weyerhaeuser permit areas are worse then state land. Every one thinks they own the dam place and people are driving everywhere. Judging by the amount of people I see in archery, deer, elk rifle and bear seasons it’s really hard to believe they only sell the amount of permits they claim.

 

[Pdzoller]

Same here in Oregon. The Weyerhaeuser permit areas are worse then state land. Every one thinks they own the dam place and people are driving everywhere. Judging by the amount of people I see in archery, deer, elk rifle and bear seasons it’s really hard to believe they only sell the amount of permits they claim.

What are you talking about?!?! The ONLY WAY to be successful hunting in western Oregon is to hunt private timber lands.

The general rifle season in Oregon is a mess. Every clear cut is a family reunion and everyone has keys to the locked gates. Probably half of the “Hunters” driving around are drunk by 10am. I quit hunting in the unit I live in due to getting glassed through rifle scopes on a regular basis.

Don’t even get me started on the amount of poaching throughout the year and let alone the spike or better BS.

 

[Dirtscoots]

I couldn’t agree more. It is so difficult to get kids interested in hunting living here. And as stated it’s very disheartening ride no your bike miles in behind a gate and there is a dozen people driving around

 

[DawnPatrol]

The general rifle season in Oregon is a mess. Every clear cut is a family reunion and everyone has keys to the locked gates. Probably half of the “Hunters” driving around are drunk by 10am. I quit hunting in the unit I live in due to getting glassed through rifle scopes on a regular basis.

Ha. So true. In fact, this is why I didn’t grow up hunting—even though we lived on the coast and my dad was a bow hunter.

I found and red Terkla’s book. I thought parts of it were helpful, but considering how little I know about hunting blacktails, that’s not saying too much.

 

[FairWeatherFisher]

What are you talking about?!?! The ONLY WAY to be successful hunting in western Oregon is to hunt private timber lands.

The general rifle season in Oregon is a mess. Every clear cut is a family reunion and everyone has keys to the locked gates. Probably half of the “Hunters” driving around are drunk by 10am. I quit hunting in the unit I live in due to getting glassed through rifle scopes on a regular basis.

Don’t even get me started on the amount of poaching throughout the year and let alone the spike or better BS.

This is why I wear blaze orange vest & hat every time. No damn way someone can claim they thought I was some game animal. Not that that’s a guarantee they won’t still scope me, but it lessens the possibility.

But yeah, it’s chaos out there most days. More so than the other hunters though, it’s the recreational shooters that piss me off. More than once I’ve seen folks mag dumping ARs without adequate backstops out in some pretty busy hunting areas. Usually it’s some kids who look barely old enough to buy the thing, and clearly not mature enough to understand the responsibilities it comes with.

 

[Dirtscoots]

I go back and forth on the orange theory and safety. Most people dumb enough to point a rifle at something they don’t know what it is can’t spot camo is one of my theories lol. The target shooting seems to be very bad anywhere out of Portland area.