Backpacking for Cascade Black-Tails

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In the 2013 season I missed out on my beloved "high buck hunt" in September since I was hunting mountain goats in Alaska. While I feel this was a very good excuse, I couldn't wait to get back into Washington's Cascades. I was lucky enough to get six consecutive days off during the "main season" and I knew exactly where I wanted to go. In 2011 I started watching YouTube videos by Steve Isdahl (user name Proguide66) on black-tail deer hunting. The videos are intense and they rekindled a long extinguished flame. From the time I was about 15 up until my early 20's I was obsessed with black-tails and had little interest in harvesting anything else. I took four mature black-tail bucks during that period (three of them solo) before I moved on to high country mule deer. Adding fuel to the fire, during the 2012 main season I saw a very large 3x4 black-tail buck bedded in some cliffs just 120 yards away. The problem? I was hunting bear since I had filled my deer tag with a young muley on the high hunt a month before (had to make a quick decision and misjudged him). I resolved that I would attempt to harvest a mature black-tail in 2013. Read More...

This is a thread for discussion of the article, Backpacking for Cascade Black-Tails, By Lucas Beitner. Here you can ask questions or make comments about the article.

 

[NMcCullough]

Awesome! I moved to Wyoming a couple years ago from Washington and haven't gotten into backcountry hunting out here but my most missed hunting adventures from "home" were those experienced on the "high buck"

 

[ukenout]

Great story and photos. Can you tell me more about your gear like pack,, and tent?

 

[airborne trooper]

I just got done reading both stories, great write ups. Did you use your alpine 7wsm on the black tail hunt?

 

[landcbeitner]

I'm glad you've enjoyed the write up...

ukenout: The Backpack is the Arctery'x Altra 85. It is an extremely comfortable backpack when the weight is under 80-90 pounds. Above that the hip belt is not capable of keeping any significant amount of weight off of your shoulders and the straps (although extremely comfortable) are too thin for extreme amounts of weight and will dig into your shoulders. The pack is very light weight and perfect for all my scouting trips etc. Some of my buddies use the Mystery Ranch packs. These are better for packing large amounts of weight as the shoulder straps are a better design for that application. The down-side of the Mystery Ranch (in my opinion) is that they are too heavy (when empty) and quite expensive. One Pack I would like to get my hands on is the Kifaru... I was looking it over at SHOT show and it seems they may have a superior waste belt (it was claimed they could keep large amounts of weight off the shoulders) and they were lighter than the Mystery Ranch models I'm familiar with. If I do get all of these packs together at some point and pack a few animals out with a Kifaru (which I don't own yet). I'll be sure to do a write up on it.

The Tent is a Eureka! It's a 6lbs., two man, three season tent. I don't know which model it is but I'm sure it's not a current model. It works well but I did write a review on a sturdier, heavier, four season tent here The North Face Mountain 25 Tent Review
These types of heavy duty tents are typically not necessary. I went though a faze were I was content with only a bivy sack... I grew out of it

Airborne trooper: Yes I used the same 7wsm. It's an awesome rifle... "I'm packing confidence"

 

[ukenout]

Thanks for your pack details. I have an Osprey pack I used for multiway trail hikes however I am not sure how it would hold up to the riggers of a highcountry pack hunt. Been using a hammock for my hikes so I may stick with that as it's what I got and is light. Got a 7saum being built up right now. What's your meal plan like? I've been trying to figure out a good way to bring enough food for 5 days out, so I think I'm gonna learn tn dehydrated DIY meals.

 

[landcbeitner]

I mostly bring mountain house meals... I bring one per day. I might bring a couple breakfast meals, and I bring instant oatmeal and coffee. On trips that are less than a week I will also typically bring a little bread and some dry salami....I typically don't eat a lot of food when hunting in the mountains. My buddy and I will go in for as long as 14 days in the wilderness. For dinner we will typically split a mountain house meal. If you figured out how to do the dehydrated meals yourself you'd be way ahead of the game!

 

[ukenout]

thanks for the great info. I used to live in Duvall and moved away in 99. Buddy of mine and I used to hunt over in the little Nachez area. We did hunt over in the Olympics ( near Brinnon)once and I remember him taking a nice blacktail in during a weekend hunt that rained pretty heavy. Still couldn't believe that big buck was out and about during a heavy downpour but we were told don't stay home in the rain! Good advice.

 

[1blacktail]

If you are ever in this country again let me know I hunt the cascades religiously and have a number of bucks in the 150+ range that come out of that country would love to here your stories

 

[landcbeitner]

150" Blacktails!!! Great work! I'm sure we would all love to hear your stories.... With Pics!

 

[Litehiker]

Nice story of the hunt but no real discussion of your backpacking gear and no photos of it other than your pack.

What, exactly was your GEAR LIST ?? (with weights in lbs. & oz.)
What was your total packed weight ? (all gear, consumables and rifle/scope)

To handle mountain hunting backpacking you need very light gear like my Tarptent Moment DW tent, for ex.