Kodiak Adventures with IDBugler and Moosie....

[Moosie]

Well, I was asked to put together some Pictures for this hunt and keep a well track ongoing event on what we did. So I decided to do just that. Now usually I post more witty words and jokes but this time I’ll post more pictures and actual events. A lot of funny things happened and we had a good time. There were definitely good things about the trip and there were bad things too. We’re going to have a Trip review in the future but for now I’ll post some Tidbits and A LOT of pictures.

The trip was a Fluke trip for me actually. I had no intensions of going but Idaho Bugler (Bryce) Emailed me one day and said we can go on this at a reduced rate due to 2 cancellations. Being the thrifty hunter that I am, I could not afford “NOT” to go, or that was the line I used on Mrs. Moosie. Of course it didn't work but she let me go because she's the best wife in the world. (And yes, I;'m gonig to show her this post and thats why I wrote that ... WINK).

1.5 months prior I was in King Salmon Alaska hunting Grizzly bear with my dad and had a little snafu with the rifle checking place so this time I wanted to lighten it up. I wore the “MOOSE HAT” and we sailed right through:

With McD’s in the airport, a Sausage sandwich and a coke and Choco shake had to be had.

Then it was predicting what the weather was going to be like. I thought cold:

‘Bugler thought warm and fishing:

We were super early at the airport and had a lot of time to kill. ‘Bugler not being familiar with my “moose hat” ease of going through security made sure we were 3 hours early. Geesh !! At any rate, the trash talking got started and we hit the video Arcade’s to settle the score :

I.B. had a Snowballs change in hell with the Pistols against me but he showed me up behind the wheel of the race car.

I made a last min calls (OK maybe 2 or 3 or so) and we waited some more. It was nice traveling with a Portable DVD player and "Grandmas boy is playing in the picture in case you were wondering). :

The snow was pounding and we were held in a flight hold for about 1 hour getting all bounced around and 35 mins into the Hold we bailed out of the Sky and Landed. I thought it was super bumpy. Well, I did until we took the float plane ride off of Kodiak, that was a new meaning of bumpy/scared !!!!

So we landed a little late but safe :

 

[Moosie]

Getting to the airport ‘Bugler was worried about his bow case. And sure as heck, it wasn’t there. This is him getting the news from the lady that it might not come in for a few days !!!

So TBinKodiak picked us up at the airport and we headed to Wal-Mart. Looking over all the stuff I.B. was going to have to buy. For space reasons he had packed a lot of his cloths in the Bow case. Good idea at the time but not when it’s lost :

Back at the hotel I.B. was making a list :

The next morning we came to realize ‘Buglers bow case was coming in at 11AM. SWEET !!! We went to Andrews’s air and they said they were behind due to weather the past few days so come back at 2PM. We called TBinKodiak back up and went to go look for duck. He was a very friendly guy, almost too friendly. IB is used to me kissing him but looks a little worried at our new friend :

We found a Cell phone in the snow and threw it in the truck and headed hunting. We would wait on shore for Ducks to fly by :

When they did we’d dispatch a couple shells and send the pooch after them. I didn’t feel like swimming so I was happy we had a dog !!!

On the way back to the airport we pulled the phone out and looked to see whose it was. Names like “SISTER”, MOM, HOME were all good choices I figured. So we used the Camcorder part of the phone to say “HI, We found your phone and are going to call you to return it”. Well after goofing around a bit I realized I didn’t know how to delete it. OOPS !!! Ohh well, something she’ll remember. Well that, and the Picture IB took of himself peeing .. HAHAH !!

Back at the airport we got the bow case and weighed all the equipment. We were ready to go.

Even taking the Pictures 'Bugler had no chance with the snowballs... I just watched "ELF" the movie and was da bomb'. Notice IB's fear :

 

[Moosie]

So we went back into Kodiak to hit McD’s Coke and a Choco shake again and see some sights until it was time to fly out. There was a Dock named after me :

Uhhhhh "WHAT" fees apply to all vessles ?!?!?!

Here is a picture of the south island of Kodiak. We went to Olga Bay. The 2nd picture has a Circle were the boat stayed most of the time and 2 X’s. X1 is the lower left one and X 2 is the Upper right one. (For future story info reference).

So we went to the Loading dock for the floatplanes :

The flight was cool, I’ve been several times in a float plane but it’s awesome every time. Bugler took about 100 pictures of everything and we were happy to be underway :

 

[Moosie]

Here is Kodiaks Airport. You can see how scary it is coming in with bad weather. I would hate to have a DOWN draft at the wrong time before landing :

More air pictures, notice the game trails :

Inside the boat we got our cabin Prepped… Hats… CHECK !!!

Here is a Picture of our Captian. Captian Rick.

 

[Moosie]

The next morning we were the first up and the first to leave the boat. We had Breakfast cooked for us. I don’t like Cinnamon (Among other things Oatmeal, Granola, and IB has a list a mile long probably). So the "Deck Hand" Colby went out of his way to make me French toast without cinnamon. That was awesome I thought !!! So we hopped in the boat and landed ashore. Yes, Incase you actually do look at the picture the first day I brought a Rifle, shotgun, Spotter and way more stuff then we needed. I wanted a Tarmigan (BIRD) but we nevr seen one the whole trip. Days after the shotgun was left behind. It sucked hiking through the alders with it on the back.

We saw a fox in the morning but only for a flash so it lived to see another day. Once we climbed up the hill we set up the Spotter and started picking out critters :

Then it was time for ‘Bugler to put on the mossback mod hat and start sneaking :

We could sneak up to does it seamed like but all the bucks were spooky. To get a better vantage’ we decided (By We I mean I.B., He wanted to climb to the top of every hill on Kodiak I think) to hike higher and see the view :

On the way up we tried getting on this guy but he just disappeared. It is so thick on the island in some spots it just takes a couple steps to loose them :

 

[Moosie]

From the top, we saw a Great buck to put a stalk on. My deal with ‘Bugler was he had 1st shot at any deer we saw. Since he was hunting with Bow it pretty much meant I could back him up when he didn’t get a shot. It seemed fair to me and him and so the week went.

After seeing this buck ‘Bugler made his move :

Unfortunately the Buck Zigged instead of Zagging and it was in front of me instead of him after about a 10 min stalk. I decided to pass on the rifle shot and we wet looking for another buck for IB.

We came across a small deer all by itself. It didn’t have much fear and I could see how Bears thrive off of the little deer. This one would have almost let us touch it if we wanted. The deer in the first picture is to the Left :

Later on that hike we saw a deer about ¾ of a mile off with blood on it. We weren’t 100% sure so we moved around the hill to get a better look. After a 15 min hike we looked back over and there was a sow with 2 cubs In the place of the deer. We thought that was odd but found out that night back on the boat that 2 of the guys (Rick & Rick) had stuck a deer and were tracking it. They then got charged by a sow and 2 cubs that wanted the deer more then they did. After several attempts around the bear the bears made sure they weren’t on the deer's trail and went after it. The deer we saw was the deer they stuck and the Bears were following it. What exactly happened after that is only a guess.

IB saw a Buck bed down in the morning and we tried to put a stalk on it in the evening. As it busted out running I laid it down with a shot from the 7mm.

The area is thick on Kodiak in some Spots…real thick. Can you see MOOSIE in the 2nd picture 10 feet away ?!?! :

On the shore IB spotted a fox and we got to shoot our first fox. A quick call with the radio back to the boat and we had our transporter pick us up. Bringing the deer back whole is an easy way to cut it up :

 

[Moosie]

The next day we hunted the same spot. We found that me taking a deer and the other guys wounding one brought in the bear. We have more video then pictures but we saw 6 different bears that day. 6 !! We kept a running tally of the color and looks of the bear and which sows had what cubs. One sow had 3 cubs !!! EEEKK !! 2 other sows had only 2 cubs. There were Blond ones, Black ones and Rolly polly ones. A lot of bear….. we saw a total of 23 DIFFERENT bear on our hunt and we were stuck on the boat 2 days of our hunt. We talked to a couple other groups that saw NO BEAR... I'm calling BS, or they didn't hunt Kodiak.. hehe.

Here are a few pictures of a bear we saw mid day :

Now IB got the idea of hiking to the top again. There was another mountain further up the ridge that was high, real high, so of course we left the deer sign to go exploring :

You know you’re a little high up when all you see are goats. The cool thing was these goats had no care in the world. They were awesome to look at and we got as close as we wanted :

 

[Moosie]

After the photo shoot we decided to take pictures of the Great white Hunters. Since non were around we took some of each other :

Making it back to the boat we decided to try to wet a line a little. Only fish around or that were biting was Cod, and Rock fish. Fun to see fish non the less :

Next morning we awoke to this :

At 17 Below 0, or 49 deg below freezing with wind chill we were on the boat stuck for the day. Fortunately there were 100 movies to choose from and the other 4 hunters were great company. We told a lot of stories and got to know each one better. One of the Ricks was a Traditional shooter. He has taken 27 or the 28 big game animals with his Recurve. He told us stories about Bison, Brown bears, Polar bears, Big horn sheep and such. I could listen to those for a long time. He has the Desert bighorn left and after a few $’s dropped and a Couple times Trying he still hasn’t gotten one yet. I’m sure he will in the next year or two. He’ll be the First to have taken all 28 with a traditional bow.

There were two guys from Tennessee Dave and Dave. The 2 guys from Colorado Rick and Rick. Our captain was Rick and the 1st mate was Colby. With only a couple names to remember I made it through the week great !!!!

We made it out the next day to see little Otters :

No deer were killed that day but we got in a little hiking and a little frost bite *smile*

The next day we were in “X” #2 on the map. Prior to that we had been hunting on “X” #1. Notice the hill to the back, that’s were we hiked up and Over on previous days. Just for Future hunters that are going to Kodiak…. Uhhhh… there are no deer that high, none !!!! But it’s a Kick “A” view and worth the hike … once.

Also notice the gravel bar that is sticking out in the water. We were on the other side of that around the inlet on this day. We opted to hike around the mountain in search of bucks.

 

[Moosie]

As always, It’s about having fun. We took some time off to mess around on the Hill top. Although it looks like I can do great handstands, the last picture here shows what happens when you get cocky :

The next part is pretty cool. We were stalking a deer and noticed a few more. All in all we had 5 bucks in front of us. There was a pretty nice 3 point with eye guards in the group. The others were OK but we were working them. I say working them but they wanted nothing to do with our Waving white handkerchief or Deer hat decoy. We started up the hill after them and they relocated a little. Coming over the crest the deer we though was the bigger one was heading out. I handed the gun to I.B. and he lined up and Dumped it at 193 yards. I say these distances because ‘Bugler packs around a Rangefinder and always lifts it up before shooting. As we started running towards it looking for the other Buck to our right was a fox moving in. ‘Bugler lined up on it and with 1 more single shot took out the fox at 208 yards.

The cool part of the whole event is it was on Video. I never turned the vid off and in “real time” the fox is spotted 8 seconds after the deer drops and is all caught on tape being shit too. We’ll have to upload vid later. It takes a little longer then pictures do to prep and upload.

 

[Moosie]

After ‘Bugler shot the Fox we went to the front side on the hill again and saw the 3 point. I lined up on it with the gun pod but with the wind it wasn’t steady enough. I laid down and put the crosshairs right on it. The wind was howling from the right and even though ‘Bugler told me to hold 8” over to the right to comensate for the wind, I just couldn’t. When I squeezed the trigger the Deer flopped right down. I actually missed my mark and the bullet drifter about 8” over to the left and hit it in the neck area(ish). Either way I'll take the Luck credit for my kick "A" shot *SMILE*.

We had 2 deer down and a fox. We had to hike them back to the beach and await the boat. Since they had to come back over to this side of the Inlet they asked how the waves were. Heck, what are we supposed to say ? They are fine, just come over so we don’t have to pack the deer over the 2 miles back to the boat.. hehehe.

The last part of the hike was a 100’ drop to the beach. We camcordered it all but had to launch the deer off the cliff down. Fortunately no antlers were broke.

We let him bring the deer back and we went hunting again. Here is “RICK & RICK” hiking on a hill with their bows. It was a cool picture so we thought we’d share :

We saw a bear run right to the Dave’s and saw them moving out to the boat. It was kind of cool to see from a distance but did not like the potential outcome. Fortunately all ended well and the Dave’s made it back to the boat.

Next day was our “last” day. I say "last" because we ended up getting one more day due to the Planes not flying all week due to bad weather. they were 4 days behind schedule trying to get hunters out of the field. Fortunately for us, that gave us one more day of hunting. One of the Dave’s came with us and as a trio we headed back into the hills. We had finally moved to a new area and once we hiked in a bit deer were all around. Dave was the first to borrow the rifle and down a Deer at 250 yards. While he was taking care of that deer ‘Bugler and me headed up the hill to put the sneak on this Wide 2 point we had spotter earlier. It was by far the widest buck we saw and was an older buck with a Cool Roman looking nose :

We saw this buck in bow range after using our last bought tag that we had. We could still buy 1 more tag each but didn’t have one bought yet, so this guy was left to walk another season :

Hiking back we had alders galore !!! IB, being the stud muffin he was packed out his whole deer. Dave and me split up his deer and I packed the Rifle and the Spotter. We had to cross ½ frozen rivers and hike up and through alder bush’s. It was hard going. I’m not sure how anyone moves through this country when leaves are on the trees.

 

[Moosie]

Bryce pulled the lead for a min and as I looked up I yelled “BEAR” !!! And took my rifle off of my shoulder. The bear stood fast and Dave, ‘Bugler and Myself yelled, hollered, grunted and waved arms just to see this bear looking at us and sniffing the air. He definitely wanted the deer on our back. We were sure not going to let him get it and started to push forward to move the stale mate stare down. As we moved forward ‘Bugler asked if I had 2 or 3 shells in the gun. I remembered that I unloaded it coming down the hill for safety and quickly loaded it up and slammed a Shell in the chamber. Had that bear charged…….

The first picture is were we first saw it. It looks far away but is about 45 yards at that point. We had to get closed to get around it. We were not about to go through the alders and it was in our trail for the boat :

When we got by it and made it back to the boat, another bear came out and walked the beach into the water splashing at us, mad that we left with the deer it could smell. Bears are no Joke on Kodiak and if you have any fear of them, which you should, stay the heck away or pack heavy !!!!!!

We were waiting for the plane to come get us and filled the time with what we could :

I begged the Captain to let us go chase ducks. I wanted a Harlequin bad and we were flat out of time. We left the boat with Colby and we headed to look for some ducks. On the way out, We saw this deer crossing the inlet. It’s mom was up on the shore already and it was heading to the nearest part which was covered in boulders. It got wedged in the rocks so we bailed out of the boat and reached In the water to rescue it. We lifted it out of the Water and I carried it far up the bank onto flat ground. It was so cold and tiered it couldn't get up any more. I wanted to take off my Jacket and give it to the little guy but I knew it would be OK. Or bear food. Thats how it happens in the circle of life I guess. We don’t have any pictures of me carrying it…. Mostly because ‘Buglers a BEOTCH….. but we do have some of it swimming. (Story behind the pictures is ‘Bugler was teaching me manners and when I told him to take pictures of me carrying the deer I didn’t say “please” I might have said something to the effect of “Take the dam picture” or something like that… Still no excuse for me not saying Please.. Or that BEOTCH for not taking more pictures....….POUTING.)

After setting up on an inlet and spanking a few ducks we boated to another area. We saw this nice 3 point with eye guards and called the boat to see what the schedule was on the plane. It wasn’t coming that day due to weather so we asked if we could buy another Deer tag. So we headed back to the boat, bought ‘Bugler a tag and drove back. Fortunately the deer wasn’t too far off and within about a 1-½ hour stalk and climb and pack out we had his deer back to the Skiff.

The first picture is ‘Bugler worrying about being in the alders with bear around again :

 

[Moosie]

Colby boated us back to the Ship. It is cold riding the Skiff’s and with the wind and water splashes it is more like FREEZING !!

Picture of ducks back at the ship. First picture is a bufflehead. Next is a Harlequin male and Female :

Here is ‘Bugler back with his awesome deer :

The next morning we were packed and waiting to leave. Here is the “GANG”.

First picture is RICK(27 of 28), I’m bent over … for some reason…Rick#2 is in the back with the hat, and the other 2 are Dave and Dave.

 

[Moosie]

The plane finally came in and we were on our way. NOTE to self, bring Dramamine next time. 5 more mins of the plane shaking and dropping and I would have made a Mess !!!!

We then had to figure out baggage. 5 deer/capes, 2 fox’s, 7 ducks and dirty cloths were hard to fit in the same space. We made a trip to Wal-Mart again, got 2 more coolers/box and we were set !!!

Leaving Kodiak :

 

[Moosie]

With 2 days delay we flew standby and we made it as far as Seattle. 2AM to 5AM isn’t a long sleep and the floor wasn’t that fun. We did wake up to people sitting all around us looking at us sleep. Weird, but what do ya do. We went to Wendy’s, got a Breakfast shake and headed home :

All the racks :

 

[Moosie]

VIDEO Link BELOW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v1wwqMPaw8

Alot of Good video was taken and 'Bugler and me compressed it for a 4 min Kodiak Aventure video for your pleasure.

 

[AZ402]

Nice story and pics, those look like some great Sitka bucks, congrats IB and Moosie!!

 

[Delw]

Damn thats an awsum story

I think that beat your best deer hunting story by a long shot, Maybe this one should be the best alaska story LOL

 

[LILIDAHO]

You going to get this thing publised? Great pics and story!! LIL

 

[AkBearHunter]

Killer pics, you guys done good!! Isn't Kodiak fun with all those bears around to keep things interesting and that alder tag is a real beotch!! Looking forward to the video.

 

[Moosie]

YAh, it's a Good story... but if a Guy can't tell a story in 122 pictures then he sucks

For more info on the hunt, We went with "Homer Ocean Charters". http://www.homerocean.com The trip was $2,300. that got you from Kodiak airport out hunting and back again. Food was also included in that price. the Airfare is about $800 to Kodiak from Boise. Licenses are $85 and deer tags are $150 a piece. You can buy up to 3 of them. You can buy 1 and then buy additional ones on board as you see fit. 'Bugler ended up buying 3 and I only bought 2. Me getting a 3rd deer would have been no problem. You need a AK duck stamp and a Federal Stamp if you plan in partaking in the Duck fest.

We used layering clothing gear but being on a boat and being able to dry stuff out is was crutial. Boots and clothing could be hug and dried. We didn't get snowed and rained on alot but with the Skiff rides we were always a little wet.

Hills are up and down with little plataue's on them that deer seem to hide at. The deer like the alders and like being out of the wind. You'll always know the direction of the wind. At least we did. When the days are Great you could shoot bucks right off the Skiff if you wanted. They would be on the shore. Windy days you needed to Beat them out of the Thick alder trees. Climbing one side and glassing the other was the best way. Shooting up to 400 Yards in this terrain is a bonus.

The first day we saw 15 bucks and then it was hit and miss after that. A group before us took 13 nice bucks off the area we were hunting. Who knows how many other deer were shot at by rifles. That part made it tough for the Bow hunters I think. The deer weren't calm by any means. Only some Does and the fawns. The deer didn't decoy like in the stories we heard either. On average we saw maybe 5 bucks a day. Mostly 2 points (some had eye guards but alot didn't. 2 points is 4 total points for the Back East Southern boyz.) .. about 10 fox's were seen in all with 6 of them being shot at. We ended up with only 2. (Other guys shot at the other 3 and the 1st one Bryce shot at was from the boat and we had to wait till morning to get it. Some"thing" had gotten to it first unfortunately).

It was 'Buglers and My first trip with a "transporter" so we didn't know what to expect. Talking to some of the other guys there were things that should have probably happened but didn't. Thats why I said there were good reports and bad reports. We're (or at least I am) probably to dumb to give a great report. I can only post my personal feelings.

All in all I had a good time. Anytime I'm out (As most of you know), We're having fun. If the boat sinks, there is a good side of getting to buy all new gear. If we get chased by a bear, we at least got excersize. If we don't shoot anything, at least we weren't at work

Always look at the good side and the trips will always be a blast !!!!

We took over 800 pictures all together and I just pulled out a few I thought would give a good day-day story and good representation of what happened. We're by no means experts on Kodiak but would and will share any questions you guys have. Although the deer are little in comparison to Muledeer..... I'd go back !!