Oregon Coast Range Blacktail Tips and Tricks?

[Ehunter]

I liked the Boyd Iverson book better for a buck that's a killer deal. BT bucks are pretty much nocturnal and unlike whitetails they are harder to pattern. But once they weather gets nasty and they start to look for does that's when things heat up.

 

[FairWeatherFisher]

I liked the Boyd Iverson book better for a buck that's a killer deal. BT bucks are pretty much nocturnal and unlike whitetails they are harder to pattern. But once they weather gets nasty and they start to look for does that's when things heat up.

Really looking forward to this year’s season, since we’ll be getting into the rut a bit that last week. Has me feeling optimistic.

 

[Dirtscoots]

Honestly I have 6 cameras out in an area I’ve seen a really nice buck for past three years trying to find a pattern. Have yet to see him on camera. Weather last couple years has really sucked. Hopefully we will get some good crap weather this year. Buck season is the only time an Oregonian will pray for rain lol

 

[FairWeatherFisher]

Honestly I have 6 cameras out in an area I’ve seen a really nice buck for past three years trying to find a pattern. Have yet to see him on camera. Weather last couple years has really sucked. Hopefully we will get some good crap weather this year. Buck season is the only time an Oregonian will pray for rain lol

Yeah, we’ll see if the fall is going to be as wet as the spring has been. Hoping the snow will at least keep the fire season short.

 

[fisherman983]

Just read that one last month. Good book! Scott sent me two with my order, so I gave the other one to a kid who joined the OHA recently as well.

I’ve got Boyd Iverson’s book up next. I found it at a St. Vinny’s for $1, which is amazing because folks are wanting $65 for them online!

I guess what I struggle with most is how to know when to hold tight in a spot, or move on. I’ve got no problem finding trails and scat, etc. but I’m hardly ever seeing deer. A lot of what Scott talks about in his book goes something like “locate does. Once you’ve done that, now you start doing x,y,z to find the bucks”. I’m stuck in that first step of finding the does AFTER the season is underway.

Last year I had cameras up in one spot and patterned some does and young bucks pretty good over the summer. Once the season started, I never caught them on that camera again. No idea where they went.

That’s why I’m trying to get deeper and more off the beaten path this year, in hopes of find somewhere that the deer likely won’t be spooked from.

Find the does during the spring/summer. Then hunt those areas. The bucks will "winter" close to there the does are but typically they move a little. When the velvet comes off they go nocturnal. And towards the peak of the rut they cover ground chasing does.

This is all relative to where your hunting and they seem to stay in about a 1-2 mile home range area

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[welkin]

Honestly not that hard to shoot one of these deer. Maybe if you're trying to kill a big one but if you want meat it's pretty easy. Check out the harvest statistics in the SW units. It's basically around 50% across the board. Just find a closed logging road, walk in a couple miles, and stare at a clearcut. They are hard to see but there's no shortage of deer.

 

[fisherman983]

Honestly not that hard to shoot one of these deer. Maybe if you're trying to kill a big one but if you want meat it's pretty easy. Check out the harvest statistics in the SW units. It's basically around 50% across the board. Just find a closed logging road, walk in a couple miles, and stare at a clearcut. They are hard to see but there's no shortage of deer.

It's a lot tougher than you think

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[welkin]

No? I've done it

It's a lot tougher than you think

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[fisherman983]

No? I've done it

So have I. I do it every year, it's just not easy. I've been doing it my whole life and I can still admit it's not easy. For me it is, for you? Maybe. For a new guy no, no it's not, not even in the slightest.

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[LoggerDan]

Maple flats and benches with maple,

 

[welkin]

So have I. I do it every year, it's just not easy. I've been doing it my whole life and I can still admit it's not easy. For me it is, for you? Maybe. For a new guy no, no it's not, not even in the slightest.

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I don't mean to belittle this type of hunting, it is definitely challenging in many ways. But if you look at the harvest statistics, they do tell you that many folks succeed. Blacktails for the most part are plentiful

 

[Dirtscoots]

You may be able to find a forked horn extremely easy. Good for those that want to kill a forky. Or spike now. I would not say black tail are plentiful in Oregon at all.

 

[dlawrencer]

It's taken me years in my area of the NW OR Coast Range to become consistently successful. Most hunters keep to the roads or the clear cuts. Best thing you can do is get in the woods. Take an opportunity to go in after a snow. It will tell you a much different story about an area than any amount of trail cams will. There are more bucks on those mountains than most people realize.

 

[dlawrencer]

I don't mean to belittle this type of hunting, it is definitely challenging in many ways. But if you look at the harvest statistics, they do tell you that many folks succeed. Blacktails for the most part are plentifuli

Honestly not that hard to shoot one of these deer. Maybe if you're trying to kill a big one but if you want meat it's pretty easy. Check out the harvest statistics in the SW units. It's basically around 50% across the board. Just find a closed logging road, walk in a couple miles, and stare at a clearcut. They are hard to see but there's no shortage of deer.

You are talking night and day difference in hunting conditions/environment. NW Coast Blacktail are incredibly hard to punch on. Especially public lands.

 

[Ehunter]

I disagree with the statement they are plentiful. Blacktails have taken a real hit with a disease we call licking disease its caused by mites that cause the deer to get itchy and they lick their hair off and die of pneumonia. I have been hunting them for over 50 years. There are pockets of them but between this disease and weed spraying it's really dropped their numbers. Years ago if we did not see 10 to 15 deer a day it was a bad day.

 

[FairWeatherFisher]

I just saw my first deer with Deer Hairloss Syndrome this summer. Skinny thing with nearly bald flanks, he was scratching like crazy. Made me sad to watch.

 

[Ehunter]

I just saw my first deer with Deer Hairloss Syndrome this summer. Skinny thing with nearly bald flanks, he was scratching like crazy. Made me sad to watch.

Yep they look like deer with a Mohawk hair cut it is sad.

 

[Ehunter]

The problem with blacktail counts is OFWD do counts around fields. So there are more deer there. I realize it's hard to count in reprod and over grown cuts. I really wish they would change to do unit by unit counts like mule deer. The spike hunt is interesting in your removing the young from the herd. The big bucks are pretty much nocturnal until late October when they start roaming for does. My experience is in the coast range not Southern Oregon. I think there are more deer down there.

 

[FairWeatherFisher]

We did a lot of work on timberland from around eugene over to florence. Different country for sure. Saw some nice animals. But I would have to change how I hunt them for sure.

What method would you use? I ask because that’s the region I hunt, eastern sides of the Siuslaw & Indigo units, and what I’m doing isn’t working. I’ve mostly been glassing clear cuts, with an occasional romp through the timber up some deer trails.

 

[BBkiller89]

If you’re glassing clear cuts at first light and last light and not seeing animals you might be missing them. I watch guys glass for 10 minutes then move on and I can usually always find a buck bedded tight to some brush after they leave. They are there but hard to spot lots of times keep after it you will figure it out!