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.

Or better yet, Go one on one with a mature whitetail buck that survived the first week of Pa. rifle season.

The problem with the comparison is that blacktails are confined to pretty much one particular kind of habitat - the Pacific coast rainforest - whereas whitetails are found in habitats ranging from North woods, southern pines, Florida jungle, and western plains' riverbottoms to Arizona desert.

Nevertheless, my bet is that if you found similar habitats (thick woods) and hunted each of them with similar methods for a good length of time, blacktails would give you the hardest time. The suckers are very difficult to pattern and they go nocturnal at the drop of a hat. Early season high altitude hunts and catching bucks that've gone stupid with the rut are the two best bets.

A mature whitetail buck say 4.5 yrs and older can be one of the most difficult animals to bag. Many professional hunters say a trophy class whitetail is the toughest trophy to bag.Some of these smart whitetails go about completely nocturnal and are near impossible to get. Guess it all depends on comparing species to species or mature animal vs. mature animal

I do know that in WA state, and perhaps other states that hold whitetails, mulies and blacktails, our F&G annual reports have consistently stated that they can easily determine the populations of both whitetails and mulies, but have no such luck determining our blacktail populations outside of an educated guess given both the super secretive nature of the deer itself and due to it's obvious formidable, ultra thick, almost impenetrable living quarters.......of which they determine to be well over 90% of the blacktails habitat. Given their reports, I know how our F&G would vote on this subject.

The task of taking a trophy blacktail (by a professional and certified scorer's standards, anyway) is in itself a truly, daunting task, at best. I've found it oftentimes even more of a challenge just to get them out of some of these spots/holes/hairballs of vegetation and rain forest, thorns, shallow runnin' creeks strewn throughout and deadfalls expansive enough to cover the devastation incurred by the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Actually, EXACTLY all of the above every day of your hunt if you so happen to hunt in that part of the state. But most of these conditions occur throughout most all blacktail ranges.

Anyone that's hunted and harvested ANY deer in such environs and terrain can attest to the difficulty in both hunting deer in such areas as well as in the retrieving of said game . It just so happens that the blacktail variety see's fit to inhabit such areas............just our luck I guess.........grin.

Because of these aforementioned conditions, taking ANY blacktail and getting them to the meat pole makes each one of them a trophy in my book. My comments don't mean to disparage the efforts necessary to hunt, harvest and retrieve whitetails or mulies, as I'm sure that similar, but different obstacles are experienced in hunting them as well and a great deal of effort put forth. But since my territory is blacktail country, I've a much better handle on what hunting them entails.

Since I've hunted whitetails the least, I obviously can't offer an opinion based on enough experience. I have hunted mulies quite a bit and took last years 175 mulie in "the Bob" only after passin' on no less than 6 other very respectable bucks (both whitetail and mulies) and dozens of lesser ones. I also video'd 12 mulie bucks in eastern WA several years ago before taking a very nice buck 3 days into that 2 week hunt.

I's venture a guess that if someone were to comment that they saw a dozen or so blacktail bucks in that short amount of time during hunting season, they are then likely the luckiest hunter I've ever known, high on meth or seeing them through a cyclone fence.........grin.

Best part......we all have the opportunity to hunt so many different places for any deer we so choose....at least for now.

Good luck in doing so.....

How many whitetail guides are there? 10,000?

How many blacktail guides are there? 10?

If people can't make a living doing it, it must be pretty hard.

Good point.....one I've never thought of. In truth, I don't know of ANY blacktail guides, then again, I've no use for one, so perhaps I've just not paid attention.

I do know, however, that those fellas lookin' for "Bigfot" are havin' a hellava time in locating one. Whether one believes in such things or not (not), every time they come up empty, their excuse is due to the exact same descriptions I used above to describe where we hunt to blacktails. In that instance, I feel their pain...................

That is a very true statement. I've hunted both and find them to be very difficult to hunt, especially the trophy bucks. Lately have been chasing Whitetails. I've killed 2 Blacktails that are classified as Mulies because they are outside the border of the B&C boundry. Some call them hybrids, they looked like pure Blacktails to me though. Small ears and Blacktail tails. 1 scores 148 gross, the other is 131 gross. It took me 20 years to get those 2 bucks. I hope it doesn't take another 20 to get a real nice Whitetail!

I'd rate them even, both are extremely difficult animals to hunt.

Grew up hunting whitetails in spokane. For the last 13 yrs I've been hunting blacktail. Blacktails will absolutely make you rethink your ability to be a hunter. I head east for easy kills as often as I can.

Have never hunted blacktails, though I routinely hunt areas that some might consider blacktail habitat. When hunting whitetails in mature forests or mixed woods/fields, it's generally not an ungodly task of finding one. However, when hunting thick stuff, such as clearcuts, briar patches, mountain laurel, etc., it becomes quite the task to kill one. Likely your only shot is going to be when you first jump the deer, and be sure to you can hit them on the run.

Having never hunted blacktails I can't form an opinion so I won't but I do think its funny that guys think there local deer are the hardest in the world to kill.

No experience with blacktails. But they would be more like hard hunting for mulies shich is completely different game from setting in a stand for whitetails.

But until they try to actually do it, a lot of guys think setting in a stand hunting for whitetails is easy. It not easy but rather a different game of patience. Patience to sit quietly with freezing feet watching small bucks pass by waiting for a big one. Many people can only tolerate this for a few days without pulling the trigger on a smaller buck.