Semi-Urban Blacktails

[MikeT49]

I bought this house in 1988. Very rare to see any deer on my ground. Fast forward to 2015. Started seeing does quite often in my yard. Slowly the numbers have grown. I believe it's time to knock off a bucket list item. Namely, shooting a buck on my ground. The closest town is 12 miles. It's in a 2.5 acre minimum zone. My property is 100 yds wide and 230 yds long. Directly behind the night pic the ground drops for ~100 yds into a ravine with a small salmon stream at the bottom. ~70' elevation change. Behind the camera is ~20 yds of brush then ~30 yds to my house. My neighbors are cool to the idea. I live in a no firearm discharge area (new county crap - Aaaargh!) I will be using my crossbow. I've killed dozens of Whitetails but never a Blacktail. I've never hunted them. Needless to say, I am somewhat ignorant when it comes to Blacktails. I have some questions. I would like to run a sharp stick through that 3 pt. First of all can I kill that deer or will He not show up in daylight? Or do they get stupid like whitetails and run all day & night during the rut? I tried to find something to attract the does. Does during the rut = bucks. Nothing works except for apples. Problem is my neighbors dog loves apples. I have a bazillion pics of that bonehead. He's gained about ten pounds. AAaaaarghhh!!!! That leaves me with natural movement, decoys, calling & scents. My local bud says they will respond to the horns. Do Blacktails vocalize, i.e. grunt bleat etc? If you guys think it's worth the effort, (bucks active during shooting hours) I am going to give it a go. Ground blind has been set up for two months. Plan A is to set up my Miss November doe decoy like she's getting a bite to eat and the buck decoy behind her about five yds in a tending position. Blacktail estrus scent on the does tail, Blacktail urine on the bucks tail. Tickle the horns. Will Plan A work? If not, I'm all ears for plan B. Thanks, Mike

More info: I'm located on the left side of Washington between the Olympics and Cascades.

 

[swd]

The Blacktail rut is in full swing in my area of the Sierra Foothills. I almost hit a nice one earlier tonight coming home. They are as stupid as a turkey in rut. I pulled up in my truck yesterday and talked to one about 10’ away next to my garden for about 3 minutes until he realized he couldn’t mount me and wandered off. Put the sneak on it and hunt it like anything else. You won’t have any problem getting close enough to stick one. Great eating! Personally I like the smaller bucks, cut it with a fork. Good luck!

 

[Bc'z]

Yes, blacktail will respond to rattles and grunts.
Be prepared for anything.

 

[Bill K]

They hang around my place day and night. black tail, black tail/mulie cross and full mulie. Fun to watch year round up here on the mountain and my old cabin. Also bear, fox, raccoon and other critters, day and night.

 

[JSH]

Sounds like my place, only whitetails.
Been here since 71’. If a deer was seen until the early 80’s around here it was talked about at the local cafe for months. Mid 80’s they were common along with the turkeys. Seems the quail are all gone. 77-87, two mile fence row there were no less than four coveys in it, 15-30 birds in each. Rain and floods of 93 seemed to have wiped them out, along with the sprinkle of pheasants we had.

Before the city limit encroached on me and was absorbed into that cess pool, I could shoot off the back deck. Had a 200 yard range with a burm. Talk about handy!

Not proud of this but about 91’ had pneumonia and was about through the worst of it, smack dab in the middle of deer season. Whacked one out the kitchen window in my PJ’s drinking coffee with an IHMSA gun. Wife was PO’d.
Did that before J Foxworthy coined the phrase,” ya might be a redneck”.

 

[Bill K]

Now just what is wrong with doing that ? In the area you were at that time, with out the limits of being in city limits and your property, great you could do that. Wife may have thought of them,, more as pets, than food for the freezer.. More than one deer has been shot from a house hold property, and no one complains around here.

 

[MikeT49]

Thanks for the MRI. Late Rifle season starts tomorrow, runs 4 days. Looks like from your info, I have a chance now with the rut going. Main thing is I can't shoot one sitting on my butt in the house. I will only be using one decoy as I left Miss November in Wisconsin. While digging through my stuff, I found a couple of Primos bleat cans, I figure if they grunt......then estrus bleats should also work. From my research the jury is out on scrapes. A few people do say yes. So I have a mock scrape going. My neck is swelling up and I have this urge to rub my head on trees. This should be a hoot.

 

[okie]

Rutting bucks can be very dangerous, i think you need to kill them before they get you or your family. I have seen them challenge dogs, cows and horses. I have even seen one square off with a tractor sitting in my field. No time to be soft-hearted, you must protect yourself! You probably want to kill some does also, they have male babies....

 

[Bill K]

Here is another visiter, one night. Love it up here on my mountain and cabin.

 

[MikeT49]

I'm sitting in a ground blind behind my house. Heated blacktail doe estrus scent going. Miss November is waiting. Got the horns and a grunt tube. Ozone generator is running. Not exactly out in the big woods, but feels like hunting to me. It's 2020, beats the hell out of TV, domestic chores and clutter management.

 

[Bill K]

I'm sitting in a ground blind behind my house. Heated blacktail doe estrus scent going. Miss November is waiting. Got the horns and a grunt tube. Ozone generator is running. Not exactly out in the big woods, but feels like hunting to me. It's 2020, beats the hell out of TV, domestic chores and clutter management.

It sure beats sitting in the house and a nice buck may just walk out and then be headed to the freezer for a winter meat supply, fresh and organic at it's best. Enjoy yourself and send photo's of the place and critter taken.

 

[Bill K]

Times like this, up here, make it all worth while. In the breeze way between cabin and wood shed. Surely some of you have photos also. How about posting some ?

 

[MikeT49]

Looking out my blind window: Maybe this evening?



Wish I was there. Rusk County Forest in Wisconsin. Pic from my camera last year, date is actually 11/7/19. My bud has pics of him from 2 weeks ago.

 

[MikeT49]

While making a loop dragging scent rags, I found this:



It's been rained on, no scent that I could smell. There is the tip of a cedar branch about 5 feet above it. Scrape? Or?

 

[JohnKielly]

Here in Brisbane Australia, we have red deer in the suburbs to the degree that roads here and there have signs warning of them, just as you'd expect in certain rural areas. the problem occurred when red deer venison become the flavour of the month, then dived, so the buggers were released, and as is said , found favour with each other.

 

[rjtfroggy]

While making a loop dragging scent rags, I found this:

View attachment 1215016View attachment 1215017

It's been rained on, no scent that I could smell. There is the tip of a cedar branch about 5 feet above it. Scrape? Or?

Want some fun? Pee in it it may just bring it back to life, usually pisses the maker off big time and he will stick around to see who is trespassing.

 

[MikeT49]

Rutting bucks can be very dangerous, i think you need to kill them before they get you or your family. I have seen them challenge dogs, cows and horses. I have even seen one square off with a tractor sitting in my field. No time to be soft-hearted, you must protect yourself! You probably want to kill some does also, they have male babies....

I have actually had a buck I shot attack me. I'm sitting on a funnel between two lightly frozen swamps because deer don't like thin ice. A spike with the longest spikes I've ever seen comes trotting by. I shoot him with my 32 WS model 94. Drops like a sack of hammers. I watch him down the sights for a bit, no movement. I decock the 94 and lean it against the tree where I had been sitting and start walking toward the spike reaching for my knife. I get about ten yards from him I see his eyed are closed, oh, oh. Just start back for my gun and his eyes pop open. He gets up and starts coming at me, horns down. I dodge him behind a small popple. I thought he got up to run and just happened to come my way. Not so, he turns around and comes back after me, I dodge behind the tree again. I manage to grab my gun and as he's turning around put one in his neck. He was a 2 1/2 year old, 11" & 9 1/2" spikes, field dressed 158#. That was 50 years ago. Sure taught a young nub a good lesson.