Special Day

[quilbilly]

Saturday is a special day. The weather man is predicting 3-5 inches of rain and 45-55 mph winds here that day. What is special about it? It is the opening day of muzzleloading deer season season. Woooo Hooo! I love it here. I will be walking an area that has produced B&C black tails and all the mature does are over 200#. I will have the best monsoon camo there is, a green poncho over cami's. To the deer I am a Sitka spruce tree that moves. They just stand there and stomp.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

good luck be safe lets see some picks

[longranger]

I think the Blacktail Deer is the best eating deer in the U.S. A mature Blacktail is perhaps the hardest deer to hunt as well. Good luck and bust a cap on a good one.

[Gibbs44]

Good luck this weekend. Muzzleloader season opener is this Saturday here in NC also. Though it's supposed to be a sunny day with a morning low in the mid 50's and a high in the mid to high 70's. It's going to be a good day to get some dirt on the boots.

[horsesoldier]

I am going out on saturday as well, I have a 2nd deer tag for the colfax area.I am gonna use my 58 caliber with roundballs to take my doe. No sleep until saturday night!

[NVScouter]

Good luck!

[quilbilly]

Just got back from an opening morning hunt. Took a while but I found the black tails hole up in THICK "christmas trees" (10-12 foot high douglas firs replanted close to be thinned later) with only 25 feet of visibility. I could hear a bunch of 8-10 only 50 feet away and could even smell (!!) them but never saw them. Only way to get one is when they browse alders along the road. No problem. I shall return.

[300savage]

well i bet your heart was thumpin ! thats what its all about isnt it ?

[quilbilly]

They are back!
Last January in this same area I found the remains of what I thought was a poached calf elk but decided to take advantage with a firing position for coyotes working the carcass. While watching, a dozen or more illegal immigrants came out of the woods with bundles of stolen salal to be sold to the floral market. It turns out that elk calf was only one of many deer and elk shot illegally to feed a camp hidden deep in the woods. This is the second hunting area (previously I lost my favorite elk hunting area on the coast) I have lost to illegal immigrants killing everything that moves to feed their camp. I got mad and told the border patrol where the camp was. The border patrol said they couldn't do anything unless the state prosecuted but raided the camp anyway along with a game warden. Both the border patrol and the warden confirmed to me that their raid gathered 15 illegals near multiple butchered carcasses. The border patrolmen were demoralized because the warden told them that our state does not prosecute illegal immigrants for poaching (among many other things) but the patrolmendid the "catch-and-release" anyway in Seattle. A week later I went to the border patrol office in Port Angeles to thank their officers for doing more for wildlife conservation in our area than the state has done in years just to make the officers feel better. Shortly after that, I was copied an email from one of the heads of enforcement branch of our wildlife dept saying the whole thing never happened. This is political correctness in Washington State.
I saw the salal gatherers again this morning using what looks like the same van and pickup. I won't be going back there but I was lucky enough to find another possible spot a mile or so away without the salal bushes.
I am pissed.

[Grendel99]

Man that is sickening, I hope you can get the BP or someone back in there to do something. Good luck in your new spot.

[truckjohn]

and the worst part is...
YOU illegally shoot a deer and you go to jail....
They do it and NOTHING happens!

That's the absolute worst!

[429421Cowboy]

Man that is the pits! Takes the heart right out of a guy when you have less freedom than the bad guys do. Either way, be careful out there!
Good luck, I would love the opportunity someday to hunt blacktails like you do.

[quilbilly]

I took my new hunting partner and his wife out with me and they left in disgust as well. He said his wife likes to take her time with a shot which is why she brought her cross-sticks. I told her that is not how it works with black tails, especially the big ones in the christmas tree thickets. You have to be greased lightning to get the shot usually since it is up close and personal. The big ones will give you a shade over 2 seconds for the shot and you will be eyeball to eyeball then he will evaporate. Exciting? You betcha. Toughest trophy on the continent? maybe. They also don't follow paths like whitetails.

[quilbilly]

and the worst part is...
YOU illegally shoot a deer and you go to jail....
They do it and NOTHING happens!

That's the absolute worst!
Pretty much it.