By being above these you can move down either through them or force bucks out on the run where you can get off a decent shot.

Another important product of this approach to hunting here is to set up where you can glass deer in certain spots at each end of the day. Generally that means climbing into higher areas laced with greensward parks or meadows surrounded by taller cover of either brush or timber and in rifle range.

Conversely, the hunter who is sitting down and still looking for animals on the move has given himself an enormous edge. Deer pick up movement before anything else as their first line of defense, but by being parked behind his spotting scope or binoculars, the hunter takes that advantage away from the deer and he can also see them at much greater distances than when he is moving.

HIGH MOUNTAINS
The highest ranges in blacktail country, sometimes up to about 8,000 feet or higher, are another world entirely from all others. This is a land of icy streams with darting little silver-sided trout and winter snows that never melt. It’s also a land these days in which you can hear the September bugle of bull elk. It’s hunting at the top of the world!

Often this can be situated in wilderness areas where only foot travel or horse stock are allowed but hunters can certainly go into them on long day hunts as I have many times and left the majority of other hunters behind.

Weather and its sudden changes at these elevations affect deer like no other zone. Early storms sweeping in with their freezing rains and howling winds will force blacktails to move downhill en masse. A day or two of rain might not stir the deer, but those that last longer than that trigger a changing of the season, and hunters can capitalize on it in a big way.

When the first cold storm of the season arrives, riflemen will want to do three things.

First is to scour the country searching for well-used deer trails leading down off the tops. Second is to situate yourself on stand where you have a good shooting lane. And third is to be prepared to spend the day in that exact spot. Blacktails typically use these seasonal trails after the season has closed and snow drives them down, but an early storm will trigger the same reaction from them.

Sometimes you may be able to set up where you can see more than just one trail or even the confluence of two or more trials, which is even better. This is also the only time I’ve ever experienced this kind of migration hunting and it’s something special to witness in progress.

What’s interesting to note is that blacktails tend to use the same drainages -- and oftentimes the very same trails -- year after year in migrating down to winter range. Find a major migration route, mark it on your maps, and you’ll know where to be anytime that early storm hits during deer season.

If you go before weather has changed, look for high canyons with little basins or pockets under their surrounding peaks, and that have abundant supplies of the low cover blacktails love so much to eat. Like all mountain hunting, not every canyon or side hill will hold deer but if you move, use a good pair of binoculars and move again. Eventually you will find the areas in which they are holding and take advantage of it.

The time to catch bucks out here is at both ends of the day. That means being there before first good shooting light and once again from late afternoon until the end of legal shooting time. This may require a long hike in the dark, but that’s what flashlights were invented for. Besides, blacktails are most active during those periods of time, and the last thing you want to do is be moving while they’re moving.

For the hunter who have the time and money to spend, outfitters and guides are available to take you deep into the highlands in horse camps where hunting pressure is the lightest of all.