Blacktail deer are some of the toughest deer to hunt in North America.

They inhabit thick forests in western California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia where visibility is often very short and hunting season nearly always coincides with bad weather. I got a firsthand lesson in just how difficult these elusive deer are to hunt when I spent the first week of the Washington late muzzleloader season hunting blacktail deer. With a little bit of help and some endurance, it all worked out and I managed to bag my first blacktail deer.