NW Washington Archery Success

Flecko

Member
Apr 26, 2013
44
16
8
Coastal San Diego
Hey all!

I am just reporting a successful archery hunt in Whatcom County, Washington this year. I decided to give it a shot because I was there for the past month and a half anyway.

Having hunted primarily in CA, I knew nothing about blacktail. I hunted in the lower foothills of Mt. Baker. I spent three weeks scouting about 3 times a week by morning or evening forest walk/bike ride on logging roads. Initially I thought a tree stand was a good idea, but I never got comfortable just sitting around waiting. I liked the slug method best (lots of slugs up there BTW), and moved very slowly through the forest. I listened more than I looked. The forest is very dense, and it is almost impossible to spot a buck bedded down. You can hear them move, and if you are busted, they don’t even go far. I found they do not move much, and frequent the same paths. Pretty much the opposite style of hunting than SoCal (with optics, etc.).

There are PLENTY of deer too. One time on the drive to my spot (about 25 mins), I counted 17 deer (including a 3x3 and two 2x2s). All were in someone’s front yard tho. GMU 409 is an any deer hunt too.

On season opener, I hunted all morning on a 2 year old clearcut without seeing anything at all. I went home and realized the full moon could have screwed up my plan. I went out again a couple hours before sunset to a narrow clearing with a lot of paths through it. I located two bucks nibbling away. I even watched them spar a bit. I moved with my inner slug, steadied aim, and got a clean kill at 20 yards. It was a 2x3 with a split eye guard. He even saw me and didn’t seem to care, just turned and kept eating.

He is now sausage, steak, and roasts. My uncle said he got lots of blacktail deer from that area and they are some of the best eating. So far it is the best of the three bucks I have taken (others were from D8 and D16). I will definitely go back, but probably look for a quality buck up high in the Cascades. A few days later the smoke rolled in and deer were behaving much differently (lethargic-ish).

Thanks for reading. Now if I can only spot a buck in SD this year...

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