Tips for blacktail hunts?

[Sbarker332]

Blacktail can be hunted many ways, you get to decide which works for you. My previous strategy was locating does I saw consistently. They were essentially in a 50 yard zone every day. Id wait til the last week of Oct and walk to each spot and glass them up. Eventually they would have a buck on them. On a good day, a hot doe can have 5+ bucks circling and watching the behavior taught me a lot. I call this my previous strategy because more people are walking than ever and most of the deer get bounced.

I now still hunt timber edges and benches. It can be agonizing to go as slow as required to see a Blacktail buck before it sees you. If you go faster than step, glass, step, glass, you will either see them running or they will slither away without you ever knowing they were ever there.

Be prepared to get addicted. Once you see a white faced buck all you'll want to do is find another one.

In the early part of the season will the bucks be near the does or are they off in bachelor groups?

 

[shootnrun]

In the early part of the season will the bucks be near the does or are they off in bachelor groups?

Depends on the time frame. Once they wrap up their summer pattern BT bucks are mostly nockturnal in my experience. Folks catch them in the open from time to time, but don't plan on seeing a mature buck outside of dense timber til they get rutty.

 

[slyck68]

In the early part of the season will the bucks be near the does or are they off in bachelor groups?

In my experience in CA, the bucks will be in bachelor groups well into our rifle season which starts in August. For some reason I tend to see one of two group types: 1) multiple young bucks hanging together, or 2) a single big, mature buck hanging out with a group of youngsters. Rarely do I see multiple monsters in a bachelor group, but it does happen. Most of the bucks I see with does in the early season are youngsters.

Again, there are exceptions to every rule and I find blacktails to be the most unpredictable of the deer species.