West Coast Blacktails

[eaglemountainman]

I'm looking to switch up a bit this year from my usual Wyoming muley trip. A buddy suggested an Oregon blacktail hunt and that has really piqued my interest the last few days. Neither one of us knows the first thing about it. Does anyone here have any experience and knowledge they'd be willing to share? We're thinking about an outfitted rifle hunt around the end of Oct. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[dmandoes]

Look into Eden Ridge outfitters.

[wolc123]

Smart move.  You couldn’t pay me to hunt mule deer again, because those I ate tasted bad compared to whitetails, and it is ALL about the meat for me.  I have never tried blacktail, but I have heard that they are at least as good or better than whitetail. 
 

I have not hunted there, but work has taken me to Northern Oregon, and Southern Washington blacktail country a few times.  It is a scenic area and the closest I have seen to NY’s Adirondacks, in the lower 48.  Way better than the high desert Colorado Rockies.  
 

The Timberline lodge up on Mt Hood was cool, but that’s a ski joint, and I don’t know if you can hunt from there.  

[eaglemountainman]

4 hours ago, wolc123 said:

Smart move.  You couldn’t pay me to hunt mule deer again, because those I ate tasted bad compared to whitetails, and it is ALL about the meat for me.  I have never tried blacktail, but I have heard that they are at least as good or better than whitetail. 
 

I have not hunted there, but work has taken me to Northern Oregon, and Southern Washington blacktail country a few times.  It is a scenic area and the closest I have seen to NY’s Adirondacks, in the lower 48.  Way better than the high desert Colorado Rockies.  
 

The Timberline lodge up on Mt Hood was cool, but that’s a ski joint, and I don’t know if you can hunt from there.  

I love glassing and stalking mule deer, more than just about anything. A few severe back to back to back late winter/early spring storms have really put the smack on deer numbers where I hunt. Add to that, outbreaks of EHD, and numbers are way down from 4 years ago. As far as flavor, mule deer might not eat as good as moose, caribou or pronghorn, but I find them every bit as good as whitetails. The one I shot in '20 tasted like good beef.

I'm looking forward this blackmail hunt. I'll feel better when I nail down an outfitter.

Edited February 10, 2022 by eaglemountainman

[eaglemountainman]

4 hours ago, dmandoes said:

Look into Eden Ridge outfitters.

Thanks. I'll give them a look.

Have you hunted with them?

[dmandoes]

No.  About 10 years ago they tried to sell me a tag and hunt for mule deer.  This past fall i was hunting Oregon and met the son and one of the guides. They're very passionate about blacktails.  If u go, buy some cheap bear and cougar tags.  Just make sure u can use them during the season your're there.  For $66 u can get 2 bear and 2 cougar tags.   

[eaglemountainman]

dmandoes, thanks. I'll check about those tags, whoever I book with.

[dmandoes]

Anything?

[phantom]

On 2/10/2022 at 7:47 AM, wolc123 said:

Smart move.  You couldn’t pay me to hunt mule deer again, because those I ate tasted bad compared to whitetails, and it is ALL about the meat for me.  I have never tried blacktail, but I have heard that they are at least as good or better than whitetail. 
 

I have not hunted there, but work has taken me to Northern Oregon, and Southern Washington blacktail country a few times.  It is a scenic area and the closest I have seen to NY’s Adirondacks, in the lower 48.  Way better than the high desert Colorado Rockies.  
 

The Timberline lodge up on Mt Hood was cool, but that’s a ski joint, and I don’t know if you can hunt from there.  

Wolf do you   Soak your deer meat in milk or something else to  get the tuffness and  gaming taste out of your deer by any chance just wondering since you mention taste so much . 

Forgive me if its off topic guys .

Edited November 5, 2022 by phantom

[eaglemountainman]

15 hours ago, dmandoes said:

Anything?

@dmandoes

Nope. Saw lots of deer and quite a few bucks, but they were all dinks. Nothing I would care to put a tag on.

It wasn't my kind of hunt, anyway.  They rode around, glassing huge clear cuts for 13 hours a day, with $6000 thermal imaging devices, without ever getting out of the truck. If a buck was spotted, the outfitter wanted me to use his 22lb bench gun to shoot 600-1000 yds. It might be legal, but completely against any ethics I have as a hunter. 

My fault....I should have pressed him a bit more on his hunting style while booking the hunt. When he said spot and stalk, I assumed he meant walking to gain high ground, then glassing with traditional optics and then stalking to within 300 yds, for what I feel is an ethical shot at a game animal.

I did get a bit serious about a very large chocolate phase bear with a blond muzzle, that I watched for a half an hour, sleeping under a young Madrone tree. He was easily well over 400 lbs., and, at 255 yds, well within my comfort zone and the 7-08 Montana. In the end, I just wasn't feeling it.

No matter. In 10-12 days, I'll head up to my camp in Delaware county for the whole rifle season with the fellas, and the old 300 Savage 99F . Good times....

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by eaglemountainman

[eaglemountainman]

On 2/10/2022 at 7:47 AM, wolc123 said:

Smart move.  You couldn’t pay me to hunt mule deer again, because those I ate tasted bad compared to whitetails, and it is ALL about the meat for me.  I have never tried blacktail, but I have heard that they are at least as good or better than whitetail. 
 

I have not hunted there, but work has taken me to Northern Oregon, and Southern Washington blacktail country a few times.  It is a scenic area and the closest I have seen to NY’s Adirondacks, in the lower 48.  Way better than the high desert Colorado Rockies.  
 

The Timberline lodge up on Mt Hood was cool, but that’s a ski joint, and I don’t know if you can hunt from there.  

I'm surprised. Any of the muleys that I've shot, were just fine on the table.

I would think that blacktails would taste quite similar to muleys, since they are a subspecies, after all.

Edited November 5, 2022 by eaglemountainman

[turkeyfeathers]

16 hours ago, phantom said:

Wolf do you   Soak your deer meat in milk or something else to  get the tuffness and  gaming taste out of your deer by any chance just wondering since you mention taste so much . 

Forgive me if its off topic guys .

keep in mind Wolc enjoys eating deer nutz and says smallmouth bass are better eating than walleye

[phantom]

35 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

keep in mind Wolc enjoys eating deer nutz and says smallmouth bass are better eating than walleye

 Yeah I guess I probably should just  start a new topic about diferent ways to  Tenderize and get rid of the  Gamey taste of deer meat .  you would think a guy like him he would know a bunch of different tricks to get the best flavor out of his deer. 

Edited November 5, 2022 by phantom

[wolc123]

2 hours ago, phantom said:

 Yeah I guess I probably should just  start a new topic about diferent ways to  Tenderize and get rid of the  Gamey taste of deer meat .  you would think a guy like him he would know a bunch of different tricks to get the best flavor out of his deer. 

There is very little that you can do to improve the taste of an animal, that’s preferred browse was sage brush, the last few weeks before it was killed.   I bet mule deer would be pretty tastey, if you high-fenced them into a corn field or an oak woods for a while before knocking them off.   Even the east-coast pilgrims knew enough to fence their hogs in the oaks for a while, prior to butchering. 

Just for kicks, I did a quick Google search on the whitetail / mule deer taste comparison and I did find a few instances of folks saying that they were equal, but many more saying whitetail is better.  
 

My own opinion, is that it is mostly what they eat, that makes the taste difference.  None of the locals, in the CO high-desert town where I hunted, likes the flavor of mule deer, no matter what age or sex the deer were, or what side of the rut they were killed on.  

On my trip out there, with (3) buddies more than 20 years ago, we brought back three mule deer bucks.  Our local host killed the biggest of those (a wide, tall-racked 5x6 or so that had to be over 4.5 years old and probably field-dressed close to 300 lbs).  He couldn’t load that meat into our coolers fast enough, when we drove home. He didn’t even want to keep the back-straps for his dogs.
 

 He loves coming out to NY, for our tasty white tails, and he always brings back all of that he can.  He usually takes a cow elk out there every year, for his own consumption, but he likes our corn-fed whitetail better than that.  
 

My local buddies and I all put the flavor of elk from our there, and whitetail from here, about equal, so we never minded trading him, when he comes out here.  I never killed an elk myself (it was too warm for them to come down out of the dark timber on the year I went out west) but I have eaten plenty of that “traded for” stuff.

 

 

 

[dmandoes]

7 hours ago, eaglemountainman said:

@dmandoes

Nope. Saw lots of deer and quite a few bucks, but they were all dinks. Nothing I would care to put a tag on.

It wasn't my kind of hunt, anyway.  They rode around, glassing huge clear cuts for 13 hours a day, with $6000 thermal imaging devices, without ever getting out of the truck. If a buck was spotted, the outfitter wanted me to use his 22lb bench gun to shoot 600-1000 yds. It might be legal, but completely against any ethics I have as a hunter. 

My fault....I should have pressed him a bit more on his hunting style while booking the hunt. When he said spot and stalk, I assumed he meant walking to gain high ground, then glassing with traditional optics and then stalking to within 300 yds, for what I feel is an ethical shot at a game animal.

I did get a bit serious about a very large chocolate phase bear with a blond muzzle, that I watched for a half an hour, sleeping under a young Madrone tree. He was easily well over 400 lbs., and, at 255 yds, well within my comfort zone and the 7-08 Montana. In the end, I just wasn't feeling it.

No matter. In 10-12 days, I'll head up to my camp in Delaware county for the whole rifle season with the fellas, and the old 300 Savage 99F . Good times....

 

Private ? public land? What unit?  I would not be happy hunting that way either.

[phantom]

4 hours ago, wolc123 said:

There is very little that you can do to improve the taste of an animal, that’s preferred browse was sage brush, the last few weeks before it was killed.   I bet mule deer would be pretty tastey, if you high-fenced them into a corn field or an oak woods for a while before knocking them off.   Even the east-coast pilgrims knew enough to fence their hogs in the oaks for a while, prior to butchering. 

Just for kicks, I did a quick Google search on the whitetail / mule deer taste comparison and I did find a few instances of folks saying that they were equal, but many more saying whitetail is better.  
 

My own opinion, is that it is mostly what they eat, that makes the taste difference.  None of the locals, in the CO high-desert town where I hunted, likes the flavor of mule deer, no matter what age or sex the deer were, or what side of the rut they were killed on.  

On my trip out there, with (3) buddies more than 20 years ago, we brought back three mule deer bucks.  Our local host killed the biggest of those (a wide, tall-racked 5x6 or so that had to be over 4.5 years old and probably field-dressed close to 300 lbs).  He couldn’t load that meat into our coolers fast enough, when we drove home. He didn’t even want to keep the back-straps for his dogs.
 

 He loves coming out to NY, for our tasty white tails, and he always brings back all of that he can.  He usually takes a cow elk out there every year, for his own consumption, but he likes our corn-fed whitetail better than that.  
 

My local buddies and I all put the flavor of elk from our there, and whitetail from here, about equal, so we never minded trading him, when he comes out here.  I never killed an elk myself (it was too warm for them to come down out of the dark timber on the year I went out west) but I have eaten plenty of that “traded for” stuff.

 

 

 

I heard   Buffalo meat is really good they say the best tasting of all  North  American big game animals. Not sure if that is  true but i know they sell  it at the local super market so someone likes it .

Edited November 6, 2022 by phantom

[eaglemountainman]

15 hours ago, dmandoes said:

Private ? public land? What unit?  I would not be happy hunting that way either.

It was all timber company land, between Roseburg and Glide, Oregon. It was a general western blacktail OTC tag.