Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Which is harder to hunt, whitetails or blacktails

I've never hunted a whitetail, but have spent many years chasing blacktails in CA. I usually hunt the pre-rut A Zone, where temperatures routinely go to 115 degrees and above. Seeing deer can sometimes be easy, but seeing a shootable buck (fork horn or better) can be next to impossible. It is not uncommon for newcomers to hunting the sweltering canyons and brush to wait 5-10 years before they connect on a buck. Combine that with the fact that our hunt is over in mid-September (usually before the rut starts, makes it had to connect.

I know that local conditions vary greatly but how about it? I can't say as I've never hunted the whitetail. Those of you who have hunted both species, which gets your vote?

Terrain: A blacktail is tougher to hunt?
1st day hunt: A blacktail is tougher to hunt?

3 days into the season : A whitetail is tougher to find? I know whitetails get wise FAST when pressured!

right now Florida Whitetail deer have gone nocternal. I managed to walk up three does yesterday in the Osceola Nat. For. but could not find a buck.
Big Gum Swamp was nasty as well. Not a fun day.

I've hunted blacktail once on Kodiak. I can say with no doubts (my style of hunting) that blactails are harder. That was in early September. I'm told it gets easier when they come down from the hills in November, but it was tough. As for the whitetails around here, drive to the lease in my warm truck, park 200 yards from my stand, walk in and sit until dark in a shooting house, ladder stand, or fixed stand. Generally see 5-8 deer. Usually at least one will be a buck, not necessarily a big buck, they come out in January

Blacktail ... period.

Steve

Anything is easy from a treestand overlooking a feeder. Since we can't do that here in Oregon, I'd have to go with blacktail

WRONG... hunt them both on your hind legs (still hunting) and you'll find them equally hard. "Hunt" a whitetail from a treestand and you'll find the blacktail harder.

Another pearl of wisdom from the court jester.

Most certainly blacktail.

I think it depends on several factors:
rut
private land vs public
baiting
terrain & cover
deer population

If both species were hunted on equal terms, it would be a toss-up. Keep in mind, both species have smart and dumb bucks and it would come down to individual bucks, not the species.

MtnHtr

Brad,
You hit it pretty close. Whitetails are tough to hunt and hunting a mature Whitetail now (after they have been shot at for a week and a half in WV and Ohio) is extra tough especially with a shotgun or muzzleloader (Ohio. Sitting in a tree stand this week has been futile. Gotta get out and try and find them bedded or catch them just after first light.
Blacktails on Kodiak are fun to hunt but good glass and open terrain make it quit a bit easier to find a decent buck or at least that has been my experience.
Blacktails in south Oregon were pretty tough due to the rain, fog and brushy forest areas. Very close and I hunted with a muzzleloader.

Dave

Yep............

I've hunted whitetail in Wisconsin, Minnesota and No Carolina...

in those northern states, I hunted on public land way up north, or on paper company property in No Wisconsin...

up there the weather was normally colder than hell...there were also wolves around that made the deer jumpy.. they heard a twig snap and they took off at a dead run....they had plenty of places to run too..

now that I live here in Oregon, the deer populations are thicker than hell back in MN and WI...

When I first moved here to Oregon, blacktails were all over the place... now 13 yrs later the herds have been decimated so badly by cougars... in 1995 blacktail hunting here in my town was like shooting fish in a barrel...

when you can find them in the back country, they are spooked real easily, because of cougars...

however I have learned a few places to hunt on public land locally where many of the deer passing thru are feeding in suburban back yards.. and are here where the cougars don't bother them....

I think the biggest difference in the two, is that a black tail is much more patient than a white tail is... a black tail can stay put and barely not move at all for a long time...when they are around humans..

over all I think that is the major difference between the two...

that being said, I don't think one is any more challenging than the other... but with a blacktail you better have more patience available as compared to a whitetail...especially northern Woods whitetails vs backwoods blacktail...

Any who wants to come to northern New England and try to kill a mature whitetail buck, be my guest.If you hunt 5 years in a row,you MIGHT see one;you will not kill more than two if you are extremely lucky. Possibly, you will kill none,and may not even SEE one.

Likely no different than most would say about their own local, mature deer. Taking a truly mature buck of any persuasion takes some doin' and a healthy dose of knowledge of the animal and area in every circumstance.

I could easily respond that an "outsider" could come to the PNW and try to take a mature blacktail in the same 5 year period and that would be unfair to the hunter. There are many seasoned PNW hunters that may only take 1, 2 or 3 really mature blacktails in their lifetime. Doesn't make them any less a hunter nor less knowledgeable...........it does, however, go to show more the secretive nature of the blacktail and the environs it inhabits.

Suffice it to say that any good buck of any persuasion is generally a greater challenge than one not so mature.

nail on the head and sunk.

The only way mature bucks get to be mature bucks is by superior survival skills (unless on a preserve where idiots bucks about-but let's not get political). An inexperienced or lucky hunter may score one or even two (very lucky) in a lifetime. The guy/gal who brings home more than a few record-class bucks of any species in his/her career is a dedicated hunter with a bit of luck (or a big tipper )

Wade: In the best deer country going, even big tips don't help.The tips only come after the donkey is down

A big, free-ranging, whitetail, mule deer, or blacktail(I have never hunted them)seem to me to be the toughest game animals to consistently take on any regular basis. I killed my largest antlered mule deer in 1979(!)and have not killed his equal since. I have only seen a small handful,alive, that were his equal.

The myth about Blacktails being harder to kill largely arises from the fact they are mostly hunted on the ground, on one's feet. Whitetails are generally not so much "hunted" as they are "shot" out of treestands. Apples to apples, still hunting both on the ground and all bets are off. As Bob pointed out, go up to the Maine woods and try to track down a mature whitetail... there's very few harder hunts anywhere.

Frankly, I have never shot a whitetail from a stand, elevated or otherwise. All of my whitetail have been "on the ground," sneaking, stalking and lurking. And, yeah, crawling, too.

I should rephrase my response to the original question: I find blacktails to be harder.

But then, all of my blacktails I've hunted have been in Clackamas River area of Oregon's Santiam Unit. This area is near the Portland urban sprawl, so it is hunted to death. the country is about as rough as it comes, the habitat is tough and the poachers abound (the "night crew" always comes in with their spotlights while we are finishing the day.)

Today, I would not even think of hunting the Clackamas. The weed growers, the meth lab operators and the basic low-lifes make it a very dangerous enterprise even to enter the area. I will deed the country to them and live with the several pleasant memories of bucks I've taken there.

Steve

Majority of whitetails I've killed have been as Steve describes also. I believe I've only killed two from a treestand.

Steve: My Dad and I used to fish and go target shooting up there; after the Larch Mountain killings in 1996 we quit going there, that whole area is a favorite of the Portland criminal element so abandoned cars, drug labs, just about everything unsavory can be found out there now.

It's a real shame as that is beautiful, tough, country that ought to be a place where hunters willing to put in the boot work can have a good time.