Busted? Nope. This deer was coming to noise: a rattle bag during the rut. Photo by Gary Lewis.

"There's a buck."

We were in the truck, headed for another spot, when James spotted the deer. We didn't expect to see a blacktail out in the open on the second day of the season, but there he was. We set a trap for him at the edge of the trees.

Like most ambushes, this one didn't work. Deer almost always do the thing we don't expect them to do. The buck slipped away, but it gave me an idea.

In my pack, was a doe-in-heat urine lure. I emptied the contents on some shrubbery, and we backed out. We'd be back.

THE DEER'S WEAKNESSES
Blacktail deer are nothing if not suspicious, but they also possess innate curiosity that, coupled with a strong need to breed and feed, puts chinks in their armor. We can beat their defenses with tactics that exploit their weaknesses. First, we need to understand our own failings.

We try to pattern the deer, but Mr. Blacktail knows exactly what we are going to do every time we get out of the truck. As hunters, we fall into predictable patterns. The deer know it better than we do.

SOUND AS CAMO
After emptying the can of Muley Bomb Doe-In-Heat, we hunted a marsh bounded by a creek. We emerged into a high-use motorcycle area. Trails laced stands of vine maple, hemlock and fir that grew so thick visibility was less than 15 feet.

Deer would bed there, but they were just as likely to lie down in open habitat on the hill overlooking a well-used trail. They knew where the people were and what the people were doing. Humans weren't hard to miss on their Hondas and Yamahas in full riding gear.

My partner didn't think so, but I guessed there would be a deer bedded just off the shoulder of the hill, about a third of the way down. We started up the trail and, halfway up, heard the motorcycles.

The motorcycle leader took a left turn and headed straight for our hill. We stepped off the trail. When the leader rounded the turn, he was 10 feet away, looking right into our eyes. He rolled the power on and blasted by, shifting down, hitting the power band as he took on the hill.

A mixed-use forest has mixed blessings. This time, the boys on the bikes had played right into my hands. In two more minutes, we were also on top of the hill. The motors effectively masked our sound.

Three deer had been bedded less than 30 yards from the dirt bike trail, and they didn't expect to see us come crashing into their morning nap. I saw a doe, but only found tracks of the two others. Judging by the splayed out and blunted marks, I figured they were good-sized bucks.

We made a plan to check the Muley Bomb the next day.