Black Tail Newbie Advice for BC West Coast

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Mitchell01

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Sunshine Coast
I'm just getting into Hunting here on the BC West Coast and I'm finding these Ghost of the Pacific extremely hard to find.
Does anybody have any advice for this area specifically, as my questions to the locals about location and habits come down to Dumb Luck and driving the back roads aimlessly.
So far the only satisfactory advice I've uncovered is hard bog/swamp areas and creating your own feed zone. But I've watched Doe's walk right past store apples and feed. Apparently they won't touch our chemical-ed store food (makes you wonder).
Around here I see most of my bucks and does walking around town using the crosswalks, apparently there smarter than I give them credit for.
Should I just go to the range then the grocery store and save myself some gas money?
Any advise would be appreciated so I can hopefully figure these guys out.
 
don't give up
the bucks shed their antlers in Jan-Feb
so go places, hike around trying to find the sheds
once you have found a few, you know they're around
if you find scat or tracks, invest in a trail-camera or three and see what you get
 
Be prepared to put some miles on to find the sign. Game cams are great if they are in an area you can get to often to check. I know a few buddies who use feeders once they find a hot spot. Still hunting is a great option, I like to take 10 steps then glass continue to do that until mentally you can't take it anymore. Definitely a tough critter to cut your teeth on.
 
legi0n said:
don't give up
the bucks shed their antlers in Jan-Feb
so go places, hike around trying to find the sheds
once you have found a few, you know they're around
if you find scat or tracks, invest in a trail-camera or three and see what you get
Click to expand...


I have a family member with many trail cams and have a few deer on cam but all at night (no hunt time).
Have found lots of scat and tracks too but all from the night before as well.
I guess I gotta find where their hiding during the day.
Don't worry I wont give up, maybe I need to strap on some antlers and fur to blend in more. (lol, good way to get shot f:P: )
 
KNG said:
Be prepared to put some miles on to find the sign. Game cams are great if they are in an area you can get to often to check. I know a few buddies who use feeders once they find a hot spot. Still hunting is a great option, I like to take 10 steps then glass continue to do that until mentally you can't take it anymore. Definitely a tough critter to cut your teeth on.
Click to expand...

I agree, you know what feed they are using?
 
Mitchell01 said:
I'm just getting into Hunting here on the BC West Coast and I'm finding these Ghost of the Pacific extremely hard to find.
Does anybody have any advice for this area specifically, as my questions to the locals about location and habits come down to Dumb Luck and driving the back roads aimlessly.
So far the only satisfactory advice I've uncovered is hard bog/swamp areas and creating your own feed zone. But I've watched Doe's walk right past store apples and feed. Apparently they won't touch our chemical-ed store food (makes you wonder).
Around here I see most of my bucks and does walking around town using the crosswalks, apparently there smarter than I give them credit for.
Should I just go to the range then the grocery store and save myself some gas money?
Any advise would be appreciated so I can hopefully figure these guys out.
Click to expand...

I have been hunting blacktails for over 20 years , they are without a doubt my favorite deer to hunt.
I have learned to ambush hunt them where they live and feel secure. This did take some years and my fair share of "earning" the knowledge of men who knew these deer better than I might ever hope too.

So you see them in town..... town deer probably don't stray too far from town as they have learned they are safe there from predators. Does who drop their fawns around people tend to raise deer that tend to hang around people. Not trying to be funny but it;s true. We have town deer too and they all come from somewhere. Question is .... is the area they are coming and going from a huntable area?

My success year after year with blacktail was only discovered once I really put my boots to the ground and my eyes on some high quality topographic maps and extrapolating what i saw on google earth with the topographic map. Then I went hiking with my gps in hand and lo and behold.... I found deer sign and lots of it.
Blacktails are creatures of habit and generally have well established trails within and going to and from the areas they summer in. Find those trails , you will find the black tails. Once you find the trails then back to the maps an google earth to find choke points where a hunter could sit and blend in with a ground blind or tree stand..... and wait.

The sunshine coast can be an exceedingly difficult area to hunt with it's overly lush sea level vegetation and history of logging. But... the game remains the same. Find their travel corridors and you will see success.
IWUSDlu.jpg
 
45ACPKING said:
I have been hunting blacktails for over 20 years , they are without a doubt my favorite deer to hunt.
I have learned to ambush hunt them where they live and feel secure. This did take some years and my fair share of "earning" the knowledge of men who knew these deer better than I might ever hope too.

So you see them in town..... town deer probably don't stray too far from town as they have learned they are safe there from predators. Does who drop their fawns around people tend to raise deer that tend to hang around people. Not trying to be funny but it;s true. We have town deer too and they all come from somewhere. Question is .... is the area they are coming and going from a huntable area?

My success year after year with blacktail was only discovered once I really put my boots to the ground and my eyes on some high quality topographic maps and extrapolating what i saw on google earth with the topographic map. Then I went hiking with my gps in hand and lo and behold.... I found deer sign and lots of it.
Blacktails are creatures of habit and generally have well established trails within and going to and from the areas they summer in. Find those trails , you will find the black tails. Once you find the trails then back to the maps an google earth to find choke points where a hunter could sit and blend in with a ground blind or tree stand..... and wait.

The sunshine coast can be an exceedingly difficult area to hunt with it's overly lush sea level vegetation and history of logging. But... the game remains the same. Find their travel corridors and you will see success.
Click to expand...

Great info! thank you for sharing. I will defiantly put this to use thank you.

That's a dandy deer BTW !
 
The one place I have seen a blacktail with more points on it's antlers than I even thought was possible , was about 15 years ago in Roberts Creek, a couple blocks up off the beach in someone's yard. This was after spending a week hunting the local hillsides and coming up empty.
There he was ..... the most magnificent black tail I have ever seen in real life or in pictures and he was in someone's yard, at night LOL
 
45ACPKING said:
The one place I have seen a blacktail with more points on it's antlers than I even thought was possible , was about 15 years ago in Roberts Creek, a couple blocks up off the beach in someone's yard. This was after spending a week hunting the local hillsides and coming up empty.
There he was ..... the most magnificent black tail I have ever seen in real life or in pictures and he was in someone's yard, at night LOL
Click to expand...

I've heard stories like that many a time, maybe not the crazy amount of points part, but they defiantly need to be smart and stay in safe areas to get that big.
I know that area a bit, you must have been hunting the slashes up there.
Sometimes having that majestic picture in your head does more than you filling your freezer, gets you out there again and again searching.
Thank you for sharing.
 
calls work on blacktails too, depending on the season.
I have a buck grunt that originally came with a tube but i ditched the tube. I will cup it in my hands to control how loud it is because it never needs to be loud. The other call I have was made by the late Laurence Knowles who we lost last march to the sea, a former member here who is from the Eagle Clan, Haida Gwaii. It is a fawn bleat call that he made me a few years ago. Knowing when to use them can be tricky I guess and I don't use them often but I have put deer that I knew were close by but out of my sight lines at ease with the buck grunt many times. I've also sat out a whole morning, leaning on noon , in the treestand with not a deer all morning and give the fawn bleat a couple loudish bleats and mere minutes later a deer magically appears. I've had a bear show up to that one too so I guess the fawn bleat can also be used for predators. Calling makes up a very small part of my tactics but Black tail are vocal deer, they "talk" to each other in their groups. I've witnessed it too many times from my treestand and I am a believer in the calls use when appropriate.
 
I have a call but never used it cause I didn't really know when to. Don't like calling attention to myself while I'm walking around, but I can definitely see the usefulness if your sitting around trying to get them close or if you know when's ones close and you want to make it think you're another deer. More great information, thank you.
 
Mitchell01 said:
I'm just getting into Hunting here on the BC West Coast and I'm finding these Ghost of the Pacific extremely hard to find.
Does anybody have any advice for this area specifically, as my questions to the locals about location and habits come down to Dumb Luck and driving the back roads aimlessly.
So far the only satisfactory advice I've uncovered is hard bog/swamp areas and creating your own feed zone. But I've watched Doe's walk right past store apples and feed. Apparently they won't touch our chemical-ed store food (makes you wonder).
Around here I see most of my bucks and does walking around town using the crosswalks, apparently there smarter than I give them credit for.
Should I just go to the range then the grocery store and save myself some gas money?
Any advise would be appreciated so I can hopefully figure these guys out.
Click to expand...

Relax, it is only January and Deer season starts around September 10th.
You will have plenty of time to learn a few of their haunts...the Black Tail deer that is and not by hanging out at the Orca Inn ;)
Rob
 
Listen to 45ACPKING.

I've been hunting those ghosts for 54 years, even occasionally successful since 1970 but it wasn't until I met him and we talked hunting that my success improved significantly.

But I'm a slow learner too, :redface: so thatmight account for some my lean years.
 
If you would like some pretty useful literature about hunting blacktails. Karle h. Granlund of Granlund firearms on the island published a book called blacktail secrets that really helped me understand how to hunt deer on the coast.
 
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