The best time to find a blacktail buck is right before a heavy rain -- or especially right afterward. “Put more of your effort into the time just after the rain quits,” said Love.

Once the rain stops and the sun begins to come out, deer will emerge from the woods into openings to sun themselves, warm up and dry off.

After a heavy rain, hunters will often find bucks on the edges of forested areas or in meadows or clearcuts. They may be feeding, but most often they will lie down, alert but intent on drying off.

Other prime times to hunt are right before sunup and just before sunset.

7. MIDDAY WATERING HOLES
Before sunup during extremely hot weather, blacktail bucks will often retreat into the woods to bed down. Sometime during the day they will emerge from a bedding area and visit a nearby watering hole.

“A lot of times, I will see deer go get water in the middle of the day more often than they will in the morning or at night,” Portocarrero said. “They will feed more in the morning, then go get water in the heat of the day. I’ve had a lot of customers get deer between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon when everybody else thinks it’s over.”

When you’re hunting deer in hot weather, wait for them to move. Don’t try to push or drive them, said expert hunter and guide Randy Wells.

In high-pressure areas, deer will tend to stay put during the day and wait until the evening to get water.

Blacktails exposed to high pressure will often sit and wait until you get right next to them before they move, especially when it’s hot.

When watching over watering holes, it’s best to wait near remote, seldom-hunted areas. If the deer know you’re there, likely they won’t move -- even if you try to drive them out.

“Those deer are not going to get up,” Wells said. “They can see you, and are rolling the dice that you aren’t going to see them. They’re conserving as much energy as they can because they know they can’t go as far as fast when it’s really hot out.”

8. SPOT AND STALK
Perhaps the most effective technique for finding blacktails is spotting and stalking.

Successful hunters will sit in the same spot for hours, watching for movement. Ideally, they will find a deer moving from its bedding to feeding area, but sometimes they’ll come across a buck lying down for the day.

“You’ve got to have a lot of patience,” said Portocarrero. “You may be glassing the same area for hours.”

Buy the highest quality binoculars you can afford. The higher the quality of the glass, the easier the binoculars are on your eyes. To find deer, often you will have to scan the same area dozens of times, slowly, to find any signs of a deer.

“I always look for a horn or an ear twitching,” Portocarrero said.

“Even when the deer are staying completely still, their ears will flop, especially when it’s hot and there are flies or bugs out.”

When Wells glasses an area, he sets up near a game trail where he’s seen sign, such as tracks or droppings. He wants to locate a deer as it moves from a bedding area to where it’s going to feed. If he knows there are deer in the area, he’ll often spend half a day glassing a single hillside.