Dangerous Dave's Pacific Fork Blacktail

[Dangerous Dave]

Just your typical Pacific forky, but I'm really happy with him. So dang heavy I had trouble tossing him into the truck. Why am I starting to look like Skeletor?
It was right about 6:30 and getting a little gloomy and I thought for sure nothing was gonna show up either up or down the ridge I was set up on. Had seen a couple of bucks here and there, but all were out of range and moving fast while chasing does without giving me a chance to pull any sneaks.
I glanced over my left shoulder and I spot this buck tiptoeing down the ridge only 100 yards away. Slowly grabbed the rifle as he slipped behind a knoll and got into a solid rest... hell, I NEVER get a shot this close!!
As he cheared the knoll nosing the ground with my crosshairs plastered on his right shoulder, he either caught my scent or that of a doe he may have been following -and instantly starts booking down the ridge broadside!!
I remember telling myself "If you don't swing with him and pull through his shoulder, you'll miss!!" Just as my crosshairs touched his shoulder the rifle went off. He might not look like much, but I'm really happy with this buck. He's even got an eyeguard -pretty rare on the coast. Dave

 

[Erik in AK]

Nice buck Dave. Congrats

 

[csutton7]

DD--good job--what zone were you hunting??....chris

 

[schelmster]

Congrats DDave, anytime your happy with your trophy it's a great hunt.

schelmster

 

[Nut]

Congrats Skeletor

 

[1_pointer]

Congrats! Those are DEFINITELY on my short list of hunts in the next few years... Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Thanks again everyone... Ive been eating on this guy for a full week now -and he sure tastes fine.
1 pointer, California blacktails are very unique and are pretty hard to get a handle on. Don't show themselves much and usually don't follow any defineable routine. I got lucky and just so happened to set up where he came cruzing through looking for does. Everyone ought to try hunting them sometime... it can be either very rewarding or it can be as painful as pounding a nail through one's head.

 

[Big Sky]

Well if nothing else you made me feel a lot better about killing a fork horn, last year, on my first blacktail hunt. I do have to say though, it was awful hard to do after having not shot a fork horn in over a decade. Those blacktails are cute little deer though.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Yep, just like smaller mule deer. I can't prove this (because I'm not a blacktail biologist), but I'm nearly sure that in certain areas on the California Coast there is a genetic strain of something called the Pacific Fork syndrome... many of the older, mature bucks never grow more than two points per side. On the ranch I hunt nearly all the bucks we shoot have always been forkedhorns (we do get a couple of 3's & 4's). Other blacktail hunters have said that the reason for this is because we shoot them before they are mature enough to grow more points. Nope, we let the little ones go. I check the rear molars of most of the local bucks anyone shoots, and I'm pretty convinced that most of the bucks around our parts are born fork-horns and die from old age that way. Further on up the coast are tons of 3 and 4 pointers. The wear pattern on my most recent buck's molars tell me that he was about 4 years old.
I've been hunting this ranch since 1967 and this is the first blacktail I've shot that had an eyeguard. Eyeguards are a big deal out here, but not elsewhere. Seems that more and more are being introduced into the genetics of the local deer somehow.
Big Sky, what I'm trying to say in my long-winded way is that where I hunt, if I don't shoot a mature forky -I go home empty for the year... and if I waited for a 3 or 4 pointer... well, I'd have a VERY, VERY long wait. As an aside, I let NINE legal bucks go by me this year before I settled on this guy. Drove me half insane. Dave

 

[noharleyyet]

Nice take Dave...man with a mug like that, you've surely spent some time on a bike.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

It takes ALOT of hard work to make myself look the way I do, Noharleyyet. And to think -5 years ago I was still chasing and pulling the ladies... kinda gave all of that up, and I think you can see the reason why. Woah!! As you can see, I lead with my chin... and there's alot of it to go around! LOL! Still got a full head of hair -as if that matters. Dave

 

[1_pointer]

Dave- Will do. If my plans for a caribou hunt next year don't pan out, I'm definitely thinking of heading that way for a try at a blacktail. That one you have would go great with the Sitka blacktail at the taxi right now!