Each fall on opening day, a handful of hunters emerge from the forests with a large buck. But most hunters are lucky to see a doe. Photo by Eric J. Hansen.

Kirk Portocarrero, a veteran hunting guide, pretty well sums up the difficultly of hunting trophy blacktails.

“They call blacktails ‘the gray ghosts,’ because they turn nocturnal on you,” said Portocarrero, who helps clients bag several big bucks each fall. “They come out during the last few minutes of light, then go back into the trees and brush until the sun comes up.”

Yet Portocarrero and other top blacktail hunters have learned the secrets to hunting these elusive deer. Their success involved extensive pre-season scouting, using weather conditions to their favor, hiding in tree stands and perfecting glassing techniques.

To increase your chances of bagging a big buck this fall, here are 10 tips from some of the best blacktail hunters in the West.

1. SCOUT AHEAD
Each fall on opening day, a handful of hunters emerge from the forests with a large buck. But most hunters are lucky to see a doe.

For those successful few, the season began weeks or even months earlier, when they tediously scouted for deer and watched their patterns to know exactly where the biggest bucks would be on opening day.

“Your success rate is not going to be near as good if you don’t scout,” Portocarrero said. “Scouting is a huge, huge part of having better success. Without scouting, you’re going to need a lot of luck.”

To see where the biggest bucks will be, guides will often begin their scouting in June or July. They first look for tracks, droppings, game trails, watering holes and bedding areas. After they spot a buck or two, they’ll begin patterning these animals to see what their habits are.

Most blacktails have a small range. They often spend their entire lives within a few square miles. Chances are good you’ll find the same buck you’ve been watching all summer.

“Patterning them is the key,” said Portocarrero. “Blacktails will pretty much stay in the same pattern. You can watch a deer four or five days in a row, and count on him doing the same thing for probably five out of seven days.”

Portocarrero will watch when certain bucks emerge from the forest to feed, when and where they water, which game trails they use and where they bed down. He tries to avoid disturbing the deer and, over the course of the summer, finds several spots where bucks are to develop his opening-day strategy.

By August, hunters can also look for rubs on trees -- sure signs that a big buck is in the area, rubbing its antlers against the tree trunks to remove the velvet.

“I’ll look for footprints, then trees with rub marks,” said the guide.

2. SHED HUNTING
For longtime hunter Joey Godwin, the time to locate the biggest bucks begins shortly after winter waterfowl seasons end. Godwin spends several weekends in March and April exploring forests, looking for antler sheds.

He knows the deer that dropped their antlers have survived the hunting season and will be even bigger in the fall. Once he locates a few sheds in a specific area, he’ll begin looking for the animals themselves to pattern their habits.

Godwin’s garage is full of sheds. Some that he found a few years apart are nearly identical.

By looking for the sheds of bigger bucks, Godwin knows if an area is worth the investment of some extensive scouting.

3. HOT, DRY OPENERS
During archery season, blacktail hunters often have to deal with bone-dry conditions. Hot weather often continues until at least the rifle seasons open.

Hunting deer during dry weather is more challenging: It’s extremely difficult to remain quiet in the woods and avoid spooking deer.