ROAD HUNTER
Author Scott Haugen’s father, Jerry, has taken a number of record-class blacktails in his more than 60 years of hunting them. These days, he’s content tagging young, great-eating bucks like this one-by-three.
HEADGEAR, SCHMEADGEAR
As the saying goes, ‘you can’t eat horns,’ but you can fill a freezer with tender young bucks, does, cows. STORY AND PHOTOS BY SCOTT HAUGEN
hat’s going to be a greateating buck,” my dad muttered as he paused to catch his breath. He’d just made a perfect, oneshot kill on a Columbia blacktail, our favorite deer to hunt. “He’s not a big one, but we’ve got meat in the freezer,”
“
T
Dad smiled, before continuing up the steep hillside through waist-high ferns. My dad is 80 years old and for him, deer hunting is all about getting venison. If you’re looking to put meat in the freezer, setting your sights on a legal buck versus a trophy-class buck is the place to start, no matter what your age or level of hunting experience. I CONSIDER CONSISTENTLY taking a mature
Columbia blacktail buck to be the toughest deer hunt in North America. The advantages hunters have when seeking young bucks over old wise bucks are many, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a blacktail, whitetail or mule deer. Young bucks are not as educated as mature bucks. Young bucks hang out in open habitats more than old bucks do and they’re more frequently seen with does in late summer and early fall. Once americanshootingjournal.com 43
