A.J. Waldrop knocked down this heavy-horned blacktail buck in a patch of woods near farms in Skagit Valley. Photo by James Cook.

Back in the 1980s, hunting blacktails in the Cascade Mountains was almost a slam-dunk. Western Washington's deer populations were at their peak, and access was no problem.

That was the era of big-time logging. Large timber parcels provided the maze of forest roads leading deep into pristine blacktail habitat.

Even if you were short on time, just driving a few miles up a dirt logging road, could gain you astounding views of expansive clear-cut mountainsides -- perfect for hunting blacktail deer.

You could park your truck near the top of a huge logging landing, set up an old lawn chair and glass blacktail country until you went cross-eyed.

But the 1990s brought change to the logging industry. Forest practices were adjusted. Miles of logging roads were decommissioned, and some of the best clear-cut areas were closed.

A lot of folks miss hunting those big, bald logging units.

But for this decade, the good news is the interesting way that blacktail deer are adapting to suburban habitats -- creating new opportunities for good hunts close to home.

We're hearing more and more stories about Puget Sound-area hunters bagging stocky blacktail trophies in surprisingly civilized areas.

Some of these are "farm bucks" that travel short distances from their bedding areas to browse. Eventually, a local with good muzzleloading skills discovers them.

Other bucks inhabit well-landscaped neighborhoods, but then get caught by archers who patiently camp out, waiting for deer to bed down in nearby woodlots.

Call them backyard bucks, suburban bucks or city bucks. As more of us adapt to a whole new type of hunting, fairy-tale accounts of heavy-horned animals dancing across someone's backyard will become a bit more believable.

Nowadays, the secret to taking a good local buck seems to be finding the largest parcels of huntable land along the fringes of civilization, where deer are browsing in manmade clearings and bedding down where the cover is still good enough for comfort.

According to Ruth Milner, biologist and blacktail deer specialist for Washington's Department of Fish and Wildlife, blacktails can adapt to civilization in much the way that whitetails do.

As humans continue to suburbanize our forested rural areas, they create openings and cultivate plant species that deer like to eat.

Those same areas also tend to restrict hunting, resulting in a group of deer that don't think of humans as predators.

"But they do see human gardens as places to find food," she said.