Advice on hunting blacktails?

[VictoryHunter]

I'm living in Monterey, CA for the year and am in need of some advice on hunting blacktail deer hear. It's my goal to take a nice buck while I am here and on video if at all possible. Is spot and stalk the best method of hunting them? Are their any public land opportunities nearby? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[VictoryHunter]

I have done some research and Laguna mountain looks to be promising for blacktails and pigs. Problem is that it isn't that it isn't as close as I'd like but I realize this isn't tennessee and I may have to drive an hour or more to get into some good areas I can backpack into.

[wasapt]

How bad do ya want one? Arrow 5 outfitters will be your best shot at getting one on the ground

[bartcanoe]

It has been over 20 years since I lived in Monterey, so my experience may no longer be relevant.

However, I took a blacktail with my recurve from the ground in the Ventana Wilderness area south of Carmel.  The buck (in velvet) I killed wasn't a huge trophy, but the temperature and terrain made the hunting tough, and taking any deer was very satisfying.

[OregonBlacktail]

I haven't hunt Blacktail in Northern Cali so I can't help you with location specific info. My experience from up here in Oregon is that spot and stalk works well. Just make sure you start hunting in the dark and stay until dark as they are very nocturnal if pressured. Hope this helps
Mike

[58WINTERS]

Two excellent books are available on Blacktails.
Blacktail Trophey Tactics/ Boyd Iverson and Trophy Blacktails: The Science of the Hunt/ Scott Haugen. Haugen's book is very detailed and you will find he address's these deer by where they live and gives tactics for each and he does cover Northern CA. Haugen hunts with both gun and bow and is very spefific on the how to and the why of the hunt. If you can only get one I would go with tthe Haugen book.

[coaster500]

I lived in Lake County for twenty six years and pretty much filled the freezer every year (not always with a bow). In my area the bucks are very territorial, so much so that within a 5/6 mile radius you could distinguish genetic traits from different groups over many seasons of hunting those areas. In one of the groups the bucks had larger longer bodies and most were forked horn with an occasional three point. Another group was built like linebackers and three and four points were common and with maturity there tines would actually palmate. This observation came after twenty plus years of observation in my area.

Scouting was the key.  The California season is hot and the bucks I hunted stayed in small areas. Scouting long before the season is the best tactic. When hunting in the heat you will see deer movement late morning to mid day as the bedded animals get up and move to shade or water. Most hunters quit far too early, thinking morning and evening are the only hunt times. I've seen this move many time and made stalks on those bedded bucks.

So get out there, scout and come season pack a good lunch, endure the heat and good luck ….

[FarmerMarley]

I'm also hoping to go after CA blacktail for the first time this year. Got semi-rural, farm lot options in Sonoma County and more wilderness type options I;m looking into in Mendocino.

Good info Coaster!
Anyone else with experience in this department?

[Sixby]

Number 1, Hunt where the deer are.
Number 2, hUnt where good bucks have been killed in the recent years
Number 3. Hunt very slowly. and very hard and long.

Number 5. learn to take longer shots . Practice , practice, practice. Blacktails are extremely hard to take if you insist on 20 yard shots or less. It is done but anyone that regularly hunts blacktails learns to shoot at longer range than what is considered norm.;

Number 6 hunt the wind.

Over the years I have taken probably 30 to 40 blacktails with a bow. Lost count. of those five or six really good bucks. three 135 plus and one 149 plus measured by a p and y scorer. With that much hunting I do not really feel like I am a good blacktail hunter but have learned a lot and just when I think I got it down I don't. I have actually seen a blacktail buck get down on his knees and crawl away from another hunter. The hunter never knew the buck was in the area; These are super smart deer.
I personally think that to get a book or better blacktail is one awsome accomplishment. Perhaps a coues is greater but that would be it.

God bless you all, Steve

[VictoryHunter]

Wasapt, I want one real bad but I simply cannot afford those kinds of prices. I'm also pretty dedicated to doing things myself if you know what I mean. Bartcanoe I also had the ventana wilderness in mind because it's such a huge area, I think I'll add that to my list. Sixby sounds like you've got it made up there in Oregon. That is my goal to shoot a P&Y Blacktail which I believe is ninety five inches or better. Thanks for all the advice guys!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Here you go brutha... I've been hunting these same 3 bucks for 3 years now right across the street.The big boy is very close to 300 pounds now, and the horns would make a great barn ornament.... I'm not much into scoring racks... i take the ones with the biggest butt myself...

Click on the photo below to see this film clip...

   

[VictoryHunter]

Kirkll that is some cool footage thanks for sharing. The biggest of the three is a big ole buck!

[Sharpend60]

I sure do miss Oregon!
3 years ago, I stalked a big ole buck for nearly an hour through thick timber, just to miss when I had a clear 30 yrd shot... He was a whopper by black tail standards.

I havnt had much luck patterning them, sorta a luck of the draw.

[Retnuh Wob]

California Summers are dry and both the archery and rifle seasons are right in the middle of it. Look for water. They will bed down on the side of a hill just under a ridge where they can watch any approach during the day and then move to water in the late evening or early morning. Spot and stalk during the day can be tough because of the dry conditions. It's like walking on potato chips so you have to move very slow.

Backpack hunting is a good way to get away from the high pressure areas and Blacktail run small so not too much meat to pack out if you bone it out.

A lot of the good hunting areas are at lower altitude on private land, but expect to pay a premium for it unless you or your relatives own it.

Ventana Wilderness and surrounding Los Padres National Forest have a lot of Blacktail, but a lot of that country is straight up and down. It's hard work but the county is beautiful.

If you can get to good hunting with only an hours drive consider it a blessing. Three or four hours is what most of us need to deal with.

If you manage to kill a Blacktail buck with a bow you have earned a real trophy.


Good hunting!

[Sixby]

KIrk those bucks have so much horn left to put on its hard to tell what they will score. The wide buck looks like he is 22 to 23 inches right now . At least two inches past the ears on each side. Just a real dandy buck by any standards; However he has not got his height growth at the time of the pic; I would just love to see that buck with hard horns.

Here in Oregon we do have several major problems going on. Cougers have literally decimated our blacktails. I don't even hunt them anymore. I quit about 6 years ago. I now key on elk completely when I even get to hunt.

The heyday of blacktail hunting in So Oregon passed when they outlawed hound hunting for bear and cougers.

Now the huge bucks we still have left live downtown. LIterally.; In peoples back yards and the cats even get them there. It makes it impossible to have really good hunting for them now; Where I could count 50 to 100 bucks in an evening I now am lucky to see 1/ Its deteriorated that much. My daughter lives on a little place that is on the outskirts of town and next to Blm. The bucks live on their place and places like that; When they get off they get killed. She has several a year that disappear forever. Those deer only leave the property in the dark so poaching is what is happening there; Or cats.

this is another problem. turkeys have exploded here and keep the cats from dying off naturally. I walked a ridge a couple of years ago and found one turkey kill after another taken by big cats.


God bless you all, Steve

God bless you all, Steve

[Old Chief]

Victory Hunter,

The first thing you need to know is that any deer killed south of Hwy 152 and east of I-5 will be classed a mule deer and not blacktail, unless they changed the rules in the last 15 years.  I do believe that the deer in your area are blacktail, but the line was drawn at Hwy 152 and that is just the way it is.

Bow hunter gave you some good advise.  The Ventana Wilderness is vast and there is a late either sex hunt in Monterey County (A-24).  The weather will be better then too.  The A zone archery season usually opens mid July and goes to the first part of Aug.  It can be very hot and dry then, but I have killed more deer at that time if there are some rain storms.  I normally do not like to hunt in the rain, but for some reason the deer in this area move then.

Take a ride down the coast, cross over the Nacimiento-Fergosson Road.  It will be at Kirk Creek and Mill Creek.  At the very least, drive to the top of the mountain, 7.5 miles.  This will give you a good view of the country and what you will be getting into.  You might see some pigs here.  The biggest hog I have ever seen was in the bottom of Mill Creek about 30 years ago.

You can go over to Hunter Liggett, turn north, go to Arroyo Seco, and up the Carmel Valley.  I would ckeck the road conditions and see if they are still open.  A little long, but all great country.

Hope this helps

[VictoryHunter]

Old Chief, thanks for the advice. The blacktail/mule deer boundaries do still stand I believe.

[arrow flynn]

Blacktail are getting scarce. I dont think I will get a tag. But probably get a bear tag. Very low success rate for deer for the same reason s sixby mentioned here in humbolt co.we have half the deer we had in the early 90s and that is a dfg statistic.what a bummer.

[VictoryHunter]

That is a bummer. I've been seeing some nice ones around Monterey there just isn't anywhere to hunt that I know of. Last fall my wife sent my photos of a great three point(six point at home)but he lives on non huntable land.