How To Hunt and Kill A Blacktail Buck In Oregon's Toughest Habitats

Last fall marked one of the best Columbia blacktail deer seasons of my life. I hunted for 21 days and saw 21 bucks. Three of the bucks I passed were in the 140” class, a good 25-inches smaller than the buck I was after. It was my third season chasing it. It was that buck or nothing.

I’d seen the colossal buck four times in three years. Once during the late November rut, twice during summer scouting missions, and last year in late October, but heavy fog rolled in and I didn’t get a shot. I didn’t fire a shot all season. I learned a lot. That’s blacktail hunting.

I rank consistently shooting a record-class Columbia blacktail to be the most challenging hunt in North America. Sheep and goats are often a matter of being in shape. Elk are plentiful, big, and easier to find. But think of taking a wily whitetail deer and dropping it in the middle of the most rugged, dense habitat in the country. That’s what hunting Columbia blacktail deer is like.

Columbia blacktails occupy a wide range of habitats, which makes them hard to figure out and even harder to hunt. Here’s at look at how to go about hunting these challenging deer in three of their most-hunted habitats in my home state of Oregon.

Coast Range Blacktails

The Coast Range is one of the most underrated, toughest habitats to hunt in the country. In places it’s like the Rocky Mountains with an equatorial jungle blanketing it. Visibility is often measured in feet, not yards. Many big bucks die of old age here, never being seen by humans.

Run trail cameras all summer to locate bucks in velvet in the Coast Range. Find well-used elk trails and old logging roads, as bucks stick to them during the crucial weeks of antler development. They avoid the thick brush in order to protect their headgear.

Every July and August I catch a surprising number of big bucks on trail cameras in the Coast Range. Rarely do I see them when scouting, even when in velvet. During rifle season these bucks are highly nocturnal but do occasionally show up on trail camera. Bucks are there, it’s just tough finding them in the thick cover and rugged land during hunting season.

In much of the Coast Range, the blacktail rut commences in mid-October. I’ve seen them rutting hard–pushing does, fighting, even breeding–on October 15. I’ve seen some monsters killed by other hunters between October 15-17, and they conveyed how rut-crazed the bucks were. The size of the bucks’ necks, proved it.

“The last 10 days of the season are best,” shares noted guide Jody Smith (jodysmithguideservice.com), who’s been guiding blacktail hunters for 38 years in the Coast Range. “Get a couple cold nights and these bucks get active. You’ll go from wondering if there’s even a big buck out there to seeing multiple good bucks in a day. It happens fast. Hunt from daylight to dark when the conditions are right.”

Valley Floor Bucks

One season I sat 71 hours for a big blacktail on a river bottom in the Willamette Valley. Mornings and later afternoons were when I hunted. That doesn’t count the three hours of round-trip driving each time. I was tired and wanted a break, so I told a buddy where to sit the next morning. He hunted for four hours and the buck walked right out where I thought it would. It carried 142-inches of antler.

I think valley floor blacktails could be the toughest of all to hunt. They are born, raised, live and die in a very small area. They know when the kids hop on the school bus, when you let the dog out, when you’re hunting or just on a leisurely stroll. They’ll hold tighter than a covey of quail, and always seem to be where you’re not. They’re smart and not afraid of humans.

Starting in July, run trail cameras on any trails you can find. The maze of blackberries and thick cover these bucks navigate throughout the valley floor never ceases to amaze me. Some trails are tunnels that can only be navigated on hands and knees. Valley floor blacktails often form bachelor groups that are much bigger than any I’ve seen in the mountains. But once the velvet comes off, the bucks spread out. Expand your trail camera reach to find them.

Devote serious time to scouting for does, for these are the ones big bucks will be competing for in the rut. You can’t have too many does to keep checking on to see if a buck has joined them during hunting season. A blacktail doe comes into heat for about 24 hours. Does are usually bred in the first estrus cycle, but some do get missed. Those that missed being bred will come back into heat 28 days later. This explains the late October and late November rutting peaks for these deer.

Valley floor bucks are hard to pattern, but they do live in a small area. Setting up multiple tree stands will help gain an elevated vantage point to better see them in thick cover. Tree stands are still a very underutilized tool among blacktail hunters. Which tree stand you hunt from depends on wind, doe numbers and buck movement.

If buck ratios are high, rattling can be very productive starting October 21 or 22. Go with subtle sequences for the first week. Around October 27, get more aggressive, rattling louder and longer. October 27 to November 4 is when I’ve seen the most and biggest bucks over the years on the valley floor, both on trail camera and in person. Many of these bucks are shot in the final minutes of daylight, so be prepared to do some packing in the dark.

Cascade Blacktails

If I had one day to try and tag a mature Columbia blacktail deer in the western slopes of the Cascade Range during general rifle season, it would be Halloween. Over the decades I’ve seen more big bucks moving on this one day, than any other. Hunt daylight to dark on October 31, and keep at it until the final day of the season.

Cascade bucks in the 2,500-foot elevation range are largely homebody bucks. They live there all year. But, after breeding does in their core area, some big bucks will drop low in elevation to find more receptive does. If doe numbers are low, I feel these bucks will often drop 1,000-feet or more to breed a doe, then return to their core area for winter. This drop in elevation to breed may only last a day or two, so be in the field in order to catch them in this narrow window of time.

The Cascade Range is big, and covering ground on foot, time consuming and far from easy. If you’re on to a big buck that was located when scouting in the summer, still hunt that area, always keeping the wind in your favor. At the same time, glassing all day may be the best approach.

When on to a big buck in a habitat that’s hard to see once you’ve dove into the thick cover, try to locate it with a spotting scope from several hundred yards away. Once you know where the buck is, plan a stalk. Oftentimes it’s easier to spot a wary blacktail from 800 yards away than it is from 50 yards.

This marks my 48th year of hunting blacktails. I’ve been fortunate to make a living hunting big game around the world. If I had one animal to hunt, one day left to pursue any animal, it would be the Columbia blacktail deer. No other animal I’ve hunted is so consistently challenging, so humbling. Even after all these years, I still have much to learn. That’s part of the addiction of chasing these forest ghosts.

Note: For signed copies of Scott Haugen’s best-selling book, Trophy Blacktails: The Science Of The Hunt, visit scotthaugen.com

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