When still-hunting, take three steps, stop, listen and glass the vicinity to spot signs of a deer bedded nearby or lurking in the shadows. Photo by Eric J. Hansen.

Still-hunting for blacktails is effective -- and is growing more popular each year. Unlike their mule deer cousins who prefer open terrain, blacktails live in some of the densest vegetation and old-growth timber found in the Western coastal states. Their ability to conceal their movements and whereabouts have forced many hunters to change tactics when searching for this difficult trophy.

Blacktail deer have humbled even the most veteran hunters and earned the reputation of being extremely intelligent, elusive, and very difficult to pattern. Some hunters, after years of frustration, use tree stands as their method of choice. Stands are effective, but not the only way to hunt blacktails successfully.

If you don’t want to sit in one tree for hours and would rather hunt from the ground, here are some proven still-hunting tactics that could increase your success.

As a still-hunter, you must be a silent stalker. You move through the woods undetected, find game and position yourself for that one clean shot before a buck’s radar-like senses zero in on your position. You have to progress at a snail’s pace while remaining on alert, using the terrain to conceal your movements and preparing yourself for that one opportunity at a trophy buck -- which can come and go in a matter of seconds.

Don’t get caught flat-footed!

How many times have you heard hunters say, “I was working through an area and jumped the biggest buck I’ve ever seen!”?

Most of the time, these hunters see only the buck’s hindquarters as it explodes from cover and heads for the next county. Obviously they did something wrong, though they may never know what -- or if they do, admit it.

Listed below are some tips that will prevent you from making those same mistakes next time deer season rolls around.

STILL-HUNTING BASICS
To outfox these masters of deception, known to hunters as the Pacific Ghosts, you need extreme patience. Slow down your hunting and maintain a high level of concentration.

You might easily spend hours working through a small bedding area or feeding plot while dissecting it with your eyes and ears in search of an antler tine, a twitching ear, a patch of hide or a leg. This is where woodsmanship and depending on your senses come into play. The slower you go, the better!

Blacktail deer are constantly on alert 24-7, living their lives in fear every day. Their front line of defense is their nose, eyes and ears, in that order. Once danger is detected, they turn to one of their last resorts -- their legs -- by fleeing the location and quickly seeking cover.

Blacktails living in areas with a good population of predators change their behavior to become more cautious during their daily routines. If you hunt wilderness areas as I do, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. These are some of the hardest blacktails to take on the ground while still-hunting.

Over the years, I’ve heard stories of wise old bucks holding tight and letting a hunter pass by them while they sneak out the back door, undetected.

Last season, while hunting a wilderness area in Northern California, my hunting partner Rob Rowland and I witnessed something that shows how smart these animals are. As we glassed a canyon from a ridge, we spotted a lone hunter working his way through a group of trees toward a rock outcropping that contained a huge boulder about 15 yards in diameter. He didn’t realize that watching him from the other side of this boulder was a trophy blacktail buck.