Blacktail patterns, strategy and chat

Deer season doesn't open here until Oct. But fall bear opened last weekend, the berry season is now in full swing....

Ive been busy prepping... finished up load dev for my 6.5 Grendel. Mounted new base and rings on my 280ai and zeroed both at 100 with my Hammer handloads. Today was out to shoot for drops at long range and document turret clicks. I set target stands at 200 and 300, and my 10 inch gong at 488yds. (280ai) I hit the 200 first shot. The 300 was 4.75" high, my app was a little off but I was on paper and adjusted my dial and hit it. I moved out to the gong but my ballistic app wasn't accurate so after a few rounds I stopped. I confirmed my turret clicks at 2 and 300. When I retrieved my gong I found 3 rounds in the log to the right of the gong. I was close, but I cant remember my clicks but I think it was the windage that was off as I adjusted for a 5mph crosswind from the right.
I made hits out to 300 with the Grendel. I dont have external turrets on the grendels scope so it was a 200yd zero for a 300yd MPBR... except at 300 I was still a little lower than I wanted to I learned if I centered the target exactly in between the duplex reticle I nailed the 300yd target. My handload should reach 400yds above 1800fps but not practical with my basic scope. Next year, 300yds aint bad for deer this year.
fun day.


Setting up targets in clearcuts sucks. Bear sign was everywhere though, and so were the black rasperries they feast on which were a treat. I foraged berries on the same plants the bears did. If we hadnt made noise all day I woulda set up with the 280ai and waited till sundown...

good day in the woods.
 
Koda said:
Deer season doesn't open here until Oct. But fall bear opened last weekend, the berry season is now in full swing....

Ive been busy prepping... finished up load dev for my 6.5 Grendel. Mounted new base and rings on my 280ai and zeroed both at 100 with my Hammer handloads. Today was out to shoot for drops at long range and document turret clicks. I set target stands at 200 and 300, and my 10 inch gong at 488yds. (280ai) I hit the 200 first shot. The 300 was 4.75" high, my app was a little off but I was on paper and adjusted my dial and hit it. I moved out to the gong but my ballistic app wasn't accurate so after a few rounds I stopped. I confirmed my turret clicks at 2 and 300. When I retrieved my gong I found 3 rounds in the log to the right of the gong. I was close, but I cant remember my clicks but I think it was the windage that was off as I adjusted for a 5mph crosswind from the right.
I made hits out to 300 with the Grendel. I dont have external turrets on the grendels scope so it was a 200yd zero for a 300yd MPBR... except at 300 I was still a little lower than I wanted to I learned if I centered the target exactly in between the duplex reticle I nailed the 300yd target. My handload should reach 400yds above 1800fps but not practical with my basic scope. Next year, 300yds aint bad for deer this year.
fun day.


Setting up targets in clearcuts sucks. Bear sign was everywhere though, and so were the black rasperries they feast on which were a treat. I foraged berries on the same plants the bears did. If we hadnt made noise all day I woulda set up with the 280ai and waited till sundown...

good day in the woods.
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Get back out and try to save a few fawns.👍🏻

Hoping to kill a bear myself.
 
MeatBuck said:
Get back out and try to save a few fawns.👍🏻

Hoping to kill a bear myself.
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I got one about 25yrs ago, blind luck ( wasnt hunting it but had a tag...).
Ive never specifically hunted them, dont know anything about their patters....

But its pretty clear theres a bear in the area behind where I target shoot. Im tempted to spend an afternoon glassing the edges of the clearcut where the berries are ripening.
 
Koda said:
I got one about 25yrs ago, blind luck ( wasnt hunting it but had a tag...).
Ive never specifically hunted them, dont know anything about their patters....

But its pretty clear theres a bear in the area behind where I target shoot. Im tempted to spend an afternoon glassing the edges of the clearcut where the berries are ripening.
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2020 was last time I got one. The fires ruined our bear spot. Went from 30 sightings in a season to zero. No food, no bears.

I think a few evening sits over those berries would get you a bear. If there’s fresh piles of berry scat, there’s a bear there somewheres.
 
MeatBuck said:
I think a few evening sits over those berries would get you a bear. If there’s fresh piles of berry scat, there’s a bear there somewheres.
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The road had several fresh piles of scat, all berries. You can see where they plucked the ripe black raspberries from the bushes, leaving the unripe ones (red).
I just dont know the best time of day to glass for them foraging?
 
Koda said:
The road had several fresh piles of scat, all berries. You can see where they plucked the ripe black raspberries from the bushes, leaving the unripe ones (red).
I just dont know the best time of day to glass for them foraging?
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Time afield kills more game than anything.

I’m a dawn to dusk guy when I’m serious about filling a tag.

Some say bears are lazy and mornings aren’t good but I’ve seen em at all times of the day. If it’s hot, they may seek shade but if the berries are shaded they’ll probably munch on em all day.

Can also walk logging roads that are lined with berries. That’s another option if you’ve got a spot like that.
 
If I can get a day to myself the next couple weekends ill give it a try. Ill share what I find but not to drift this subject any farther we'll have to start a black bear strategies thread. Fun stuff.
 
Koda said:
If I can get a day to myself the next couple weekends ill give it a try. Ill share what I find but not to drift this subject any farther we'll have to start a black bear strategies thread. Fun stuff.
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Predator management is just another part of the blacktail equation.
 
MeatBuck said:
Predator management is just another part of the blacktail equation.
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True. Although I have more of an interest in learning how to cougar hunt than i do bears. Oregons cougar population is way out of control right now.
 
Koda said:
Cougar and bears.

The spot with the cougar I had to recently abandon as they started logging it this year. The cougar was huge. There was also a nice 4pt buck back there.
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I had a forkie all lined up for my son last year. Some 24 hour road construction with flashing lights and a spotlight on all night took care of that buck for us. 😑
Bright side, should be bigger this season.

Too bad about your cougar spot.

If I had the opportunity to kill a cat I would. Got California problems though. 🙄
 
MeatBuck said:
Too bad about your cougar spot.

If I had the opportunity to kill a cat I would. Got California problems though. 🙄
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yeah, Im dissappointed in the logging operation but thats out of my control. It was one of my better spots, a big 4pt was in there and two nice forkies that should be 3 pointers by this year. It also had a resident doe that I watched via trailcams raise deer every year. One year she had twins, I knew the cougar was back there by scat but that year one of the fawns disappeared from the cam pics the same month I started capturing pics of the cat. Ive never hunted cougar, but did that year. (Ive never got one). Ive been distracted now with learning to handload Hammers but plan to hunt cougars now.
Oregons got its own problems, they are virtually unmanaged thanks to anti hunters passing a ban on dogs the cougar population has more than tripled since then. Lots of problems with them in rural towns now, even east Portland area is in the news this week with 2 sightings.


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Koda said:
yeah, Im dissappointed in the logging operation but thats out of my control. It was one of my better spots, a big 4pt was in there and two nice forkies that should be 3 pointers by this year. It also had a resident doe that I watched via trailcams raise deer every year. One year she had twins, I knew the cougar was back there by scat but that year one of the fawns disappeared from the cam pics the same month I started capturing pics of the cat. Ive never hunted cougar, but did that year. (Ive never got one). Ive been distracted now with learning to handload Hammers but plan to hunt cougars now.
Oregons got its own problems, they are virtually unmanaged thanks to anti hunters passing a ban on dogs the cougar population has more than tripled since then. Lots of problems with them in rural towns now, even east Portland area is in the news this week with 2 sightings.


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That’s California too. No dogs for bear, no hunting period for bobcat or lions. Like they don’t give a sh!t about the deer population.

Man that’s a big nasty lookin Tom there.
 
MeatBuck said:
That’s California too. No dogs for bear, no hunting period for bobcat or lions. Like they don’t give a sh!t about the deer population.

Man that’s a big nasty lookin Tom there.
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We can hunt lions (sans dogs) but to make things even worse they put a ridiculously low quota on lion kills. Its almost as if its intentional to ruin deer population to choke out hunting culture. Our fish and game is ran by appointees from our anti gun governor.

That cat is huge and i was hoping to get him but i called and no luck. Was my first time cougar hunting and still dont know what im doing.
When i hunted deer there i always had a weird feeling knowing he was nearby...
 
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Koda said:
Cougar and bears.

The spot with the cougar I had to recently abandon as they started logging it this year. The cougar was huge. There was also a nice 4pt buck back there.
Click to expand...
Ya those logging operations sure can screw with a guy’s plan’s for sure.. always draws in lazy hunters and messes things up. But I have found deer and elk like fresh cuts lots of food moss and such that makes for an easy feast!! Just saying killed spike elk in active logging operation. Give it a couple year’s and it could be prime area again.
 
We passed on a handful of small forkedhorns this weekend. One average size that we sat on for most of the day without seeing again.

Saw a real healthy lookin lion in the headlights while heading up there about 4:40a.

Elk were full blown rut. Bugling their heads off. Herding cows.

Opening weekend clown show everywhere we went. Couldn’t get away from the ppl. Although three times people or gunshots drew our attention long enough to see some deer/bucks in their direction. Unknowingly sat and glassed most of Saturday from a knob that two guys slept on the night before. No vehicles or any sign of people where we parked and hiked in from. Guess they wanted to wake up on the spot. Didn’t pan out for them, we circled in on them early morning and ruined their hunt. Oops. They left, we stayed and saw two legal bucks under 500yds from their camp knob.

Had video rolling on a velvet 1x2 but buddy decided to pass.

Think I’ll make my own thread to document my rifle season so as not to clutter this one too much.
 
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