blacktail in rain with a shotgun slug

[Okanagan]

Got my personal best blacktail last evening at 5:00 PM.  I haven't hunted blacktails a lot, much more mule deer and whitetails but Grandson Cody put me onto his spot for this, my first Fall living back in WA State.  His antlers are not all that big but is the age class of buck we want.  Big body, quite fat.  Shotgun only area.




Pouring rain, in rain coat and pants I bulled through 150 yards of wet brush and thick second growth timber to cut across from one old road to another rather than walk a mile around.  As I emerged onto the grassy road, the buck was in the edge of the road 25 yards upwind of me.  He was probably rut goofy just enough to want to see what was making noise coming through the brush and he may have been advertising his scent to me.

He started trotting and disappeared so I bleated at him, thinking that he was a mature 3x3 with pretty fair antlers for a blacktail.  He came back onto the road trotting away. I whipped up a rest on my wood walking stick for the Remington 870 Express shotgun and put the front bead on his rump.  He obligingly turned broadside for a split second to leave the road and with the bead high on his mid ribs I shot.  He was 37 yards away by then.  Using a rifled choke tube and Remington 3 inch magnum 7/8 oz. high velocity slug.

Thought maybe that I did not pull the bead down enough and may have missed high but he was lying dead in a grassy bay 15 feet off of the road, hit at mid spine.    Cell phones work there and with a call two grandsons brought the family game cart out and hauled him the mile and a half on old roads to a locked gate and their pick-up.

Grandson Cody and I saw this buck with another in August, about 400 yards from there.  He killed the other buck in September with his bow. 

[nastygunz]

Whoa!  I guess you got that shotgun dialed in 

[remrogers]

Nice buck. Blacktails generally don't get large antlers. Congratulations!

[Hawks Feather]

Congratulations on the buck.  Looks like a nice one and I am glad your shotgun problems didn't affect you on your hunt.

[pitw]

I like the part where you yell fetch.  Good job Oke.

[Okanagan]

I like the part where you yell fetch.  Good job Oke.

I kinda like that part also!    It could grow on a man to go out and shoot something, then just phone somebody to come and get it.  Those boys pulled the loaded cart faster than I could walk so had to have some rest stops.  Plus they carried my shotgun and were closer to carrying me than I told them!  Steak and eggs for breakfast and a recovery day for me with the buck in a cold garage.

That open bead shotgun sight is FAST and needed to be on this shot.  Am very pleased with how the rifled choke tube is so accurate in this gun.  Sure miss BC where I would have two more deer tags to get more practice filling with a shotgun.  One and done in WA and low success rate.

My younger son headed out last night for high country deer.  He slept in his rig at the trail head and hiked probably five miles to way above timberline before daylight.  Wonder if he has a buck down by now, up there in the snow...   

[nastygunz]

 Those antler bases look custom-made for some knife handles or something .

[HuntnCarve]

Way to go Clyde!  He's a beauty and will provide some fine eating.  Welcome to the world of "shotgun" hunting deer.  You're doing well my friend.

HC Dave

[nastygunz]

How much damage did the slug do?  They usually make for a good blood trail,  or an instant KO.

[JohnP]

Nothing wrong with killing any legal deer, especially with a shotgun.  Congratulations on your first and hope there will be plenty more.

[Okanagan]

How much damage did the slug do?  They usually make for a good blood trail,  or an instant KO.

Quite a bit of damage and he lay within 15 feet of where he was hit, about the end of his forward momentum.  The slug passed through but I did not notice the tidy exit hole till skinning.  Quite a bit of bloodshot meat though not as bad as a high velocity rifle would make at close range.  It took out the whole diameter of the outer strap for about 2-3 inches of its length on the entry side, crushed through the backbone and bloodshot about 5-6 inches of outer strap on the exit side.  No effect on the tenderloins (inner strap).

Here is another pic, taken by one of the grandkids when they arrived and it had quit raining.

Thanks to all for indulging my small adventures!

[nastygunz]

Is the tail actually black?  We don't have those exotic species here in New England 

[Okanagan]

Is the tail actually black?  We don't have those exotic species here in New England 

Yep.  Black tail.

They are the sneakiest and hardest to hunt/taq (for me anyway) of the three kinds of deer that I have hunted: mule deer, whitetail and blacktail.  No white patch on their rump gives them away like it does mule deer, and many have zero white showing when their tail is down.   Their default response to a hunter is to stand absolutely still or sneak away, no white flag or commotion to attract attention.

Hunting them in coastal brush or rain forest is like spotting Br'er Rabbit his briar patch.  Yet we have one here by the edge of town that beds on our lawn.  That's his picture above.  They are callable, but so are whitetails and mule deer. 

Edited to add re slug damage:  on meat cutting examination, the slug merely clipped the top edge of the spine rather than hitting it center and severing it, which explains why the inside tenderloins were undamaged.  18.5 mm/.73 inch diameter projectile makes a big bullet hole!

[nastygunz]

Cool!

[Okanagan]

Here's anothern which is more typical than the one pictured above.  All black tail.   Photo swiped from the Washington State game dept.

[nastygunz]

Beautiful pic

[Okanagan]

FWIW the Washington State Game dept. sent me the age of the buck that started this thread:  4 years old. His pic is in the first post on this thread.   That means 4 1/2 years old at the time of the Fall hunting season when I tagged him.  Not much antlers for a 4 year old buck! I thought he was likely that old based on his body size.  We send a tooth to the game dept. and they age it.