Redmt
Well-known member
Try pork fat if he'll get it for you. Excellent in meat sticks and 50-50 with beef fat for burger and sausage. That's 50-50 fat not 50-50 fat to meat!
Blacktail Deer hunters in Northern California
- Thread starter HunterC
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jryoung
Well-known member
My archery buck from a couple weeks ago left me with 45 lb of processed meat. He was likely a 2.5 year old.
While my "favorite wild game" tends to be the one I'm eating next. I have to put California coastal blacktail as some of the best meat out there. Especially if you can get one towards the tail end of general season with a good acorn crop and have them feeding on them.
Unfortunately, it seems a lot of the coastal oaks are resting this year, as the past 2 years have been bumper crops.
While my "favorite wild game" tends to be the one I'm eating next. I have to put California coastal blacktail as some of the best meat out there. Especially if you can get one towards the tail end of general season with a good acorn crop and have them feeding on them.
Unfortunately, it seems a lot of the coastal oaks are resting this year, as the past 2 years have been bumper crops.
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Bet he ends up on a nice plate. Acorn fed sounds good. mtmuley
Ive shot high country sierra benchlegs and low country inland benchlegs. Cant say I got a true blacktail yet. Ive also shot/eaten mule deer and whitetail from Montana and Sodak. Mule deer have been the gamiest by far. Whitetail were really tasty. Benchlegs from up high were like the whitetail. But the low country blacktails eating acorns... they win for me.
Last year I shot a buck that produced around 65 lbs of meat. The year prior I got a little bigger one and he gave 75 lbs. i have seen big benchlegs that rival the biggest mule deer in body size but Im yet to get one of them.
Going to focus on bear this year and bank on taking another private land buck.
Last year I shot a buck that produced around 65 lbs of meat. The year prior I got a little bigger one and he gave 75 lbs. i have seen big benchlegs that rival the biggest mule deer in body size but Im yet to get one of them.
Going to focus on bear this year and bank on taking another private land buck.
Redmt
Well-known member
Benchlegs? I don't recall ever hearing that term?
Really? Thats surprising. Pretty common to call em that inland where the blacktails and mule deer mix. Inland sierra blacktails are obviously not pure just based on their larger size.
Technically we have different subspecies if you want to get specific. I mainly hunt "california mule deer" which are half mule deer? But the inland "blacktails" are still bigger than their coastal counterparts. Then the real mule deer make an appearance in the sierra high country, migrating to and from NV. The high country sierra CA mule deer and blacktails migrate to the western slopes. Their overlap in the high country can hit the rut and thats where we get all the mixes. Pretty cool that we have this weird melting pot of deer.
Youve seen these maps and tail charts before?
Technically we have different subspecies if you want to get specific. I mainly hunt "california mule deer" which are half mule deer? But the inland "blacktails" are still bigger than their coastal counterparts. Then the real mule deer make an appearance in the sierra high country, migrating to and from NV. The high country sierra CA mule deer and blacktails migrate to the western slopes. Their overlap in the high country can hit the rut and thats where we get all the mixes. Pretty cool that we have this weird melting pot of deer.
Youve seen these maps and tail charts before?
Redmt
Well-known member
No I don't think I have. I'll guess that my deer hunting variety is pretty much limited to here at our place. According to the chart we have the Columbian Black Tailed
