Blacktail questions

on the "west side" of oregon it's all blacktails. one of the best OTC hunts a guy can do is the late season archery hunt. the blacktails are like whitetails in their rutting activity. tactics like rattleing, grunting, scent trails all work for blacktail and normally (although i've seen it work) dont work for mulies.

i know guys who have killed 160" bucks and usually kill 140+ on a year to year basis.

their fun to hunt, they just live in thick forests , where it's usually pretty wet.

i DEFFINATLY preferr to hunt mulies, but i know guys who would never hunt a muley again if they had to choose

California grows some huge blacktails that can be hunted much like mulies. Trinity, Siskiyou, and Tehama counties in northern California have huge bucks in the high country. I killed alot of them, but never anything much over 100".----SS

Take a quick look in the bc book at the size of the blackies that come from eastern mendocino county. Some of these deer would make any muley hunter run for a rifle rest. I know of more than a couple bucks that were taken in the last four years that besides having huge antlers were all rolly polly fat. I have a newspaper clipping of one . I will try to upload it but am computartded so i might need help from a younger person lol .

Two words: Yolla Bolla.....Seen some huge blacktails up there. Watched a friends daughter kill a 140+ inch monster for her second buck. Saw some great bucks pre-season scouting in the 140-150 inch wow range.---SS

"killerbee" wrote:on the "west side" of oregon it's all blacktails. one of the best OTC hunts a guy can do is the late season archery hunt. the blacktails are like whitetails in their rutting activity. tactics like rattleing, grunting, scent trails all work for blacktail and normally (although i've seen it work) dont work for mulies.

i know guys who have killed 160" bucks and usually kill 140+ on a year to year basis.

their fun to hunt, they just live in thick forests , where it's usually pretty wet.

i DEFFINATLY preferr to hunt mulies, but i know guys who would never hunt a muley again if they had to choose

Western Washington is much the same Hound_Hunter. Every year we see a handful of bucks harvested that breaks the 140" mark. These are true Columbia Blacktails and any Blacktail that breaks that mark from W WA and Coastal OR is a true beast. There are others that reach 160"+ but most of those larger bucks are Mulie/Blacktail hybrids....or what we refer to as benchlegs. I've also hunted Northern CA for Blacktail on a couple occassions and to me they seem more Mulie than Blacktail. They are indeed blacktail but seem built more along the lines of Mulie in body type. Plus, the Blacktail in OR and WA tend to have more compact antlers, more mass, and in my opinion are more impressive than the thinner, lighter racks in N CA. Just my opinion though. For those that want to argue that I am speaking on general terms...and my own opinions.

I've read some very interesting articles that are easily googled on Blacktail and their history. At one time Blacktail ranges all the way into the Wyoming region. It also seems that Mulies evolved from Blacktail, at least in one article I read. Whether or not that's true....I'm not near smart enough to argue either way. I'm just relaying what I've read.

In my honest opinion, coastal Columbia Blacktail and Sitka Blacktail are the two most beautiful deer you will ever find. The colors of their cape, the dark chocolate colored antlers, and the mass all the way to the tips make them absolutely stunning.

+1 on that AGCHAWK!

They are the best looking deer in my opinion also. I also think they are the hardest of the deer species to kill. They are extremely nocturnal when they go hard horned and the big ones are very hard to pattern.
I have hunted them here in Oregon on the coast range all my life and my family has only taken 2 over the 130" mark. The largest body was 175lbs dressed.

Southern Oregon and Northern California are where most of the big ones are for sure.

This is a pic of one I had a shot at last year on the late archery hunt. Should go over 140.

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Wow, awesome replies from everyone. The way you all talk about them I really want to go hunt them now. OTC late archery sounds like it would work out perfect in 2-3 years! I'm glad you mentioned that Killer. I'm sure it's low success and a tough hunt, but it'd be worth it to chase something new, I'll have to start doing some research.

Hawk, I never would have guessed they once were so far East. And Mulies evolving from Blacktail!? Very interesting. Thanks for the new research material.

I've been looking up pics of them and stuff, they definitely have some gorgeous coats, and really I like the look of their antlers more than most muleys (of course not comparing trophy muley bucks, but just an average public land buck comparison). They are averagely bigger than I thought. Thanks for all the info and relpies everyone.

I grew up in southeast alaska and the sitka blacktails we have there are not that big in anyway. Last season my dad took a 3x3 and we only got about 70lbs of meat off of him which is actually a little better than average for there. The average meat that i have seen from them is about 65lbs.

I'm glad you said something Erickson. I guess those are the ones I've heard more about, still probably a blast to hunt. Aren't you able to take like 4 a season or something like that in Alaska?

depending on the year but the last two years my dad has recieved 6 tags for deer. he is a resident though and im only able to get one tag as a non resident sadly i moved to az for schooling. Yeah they are a blast to hunt.