Sitka Blacktail in Southeast Alaska with Dsnow

[SC Living Outdoors]

I'd had another Southeast Alaska Sitka Blacktail hunt planned for a while now with another friend/hunttalker. I really enjoy going up there in the early season and hunting the bucks in the high country and I was looking forward to this hunt to kick off the 2025 fall season. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the other hunttalker had to back out, and I invited dsnow to come along with me. He and I have become good buddies over the last year or so, and he allowed me to borrow some tire chains for my truck and store some meat in his freezer during one of my road trips last year. I thought he would really enjoy Alaska.

Our flights both left on August 4th mine going Charlotte-Seattle-Juneau-Ketchikan while dsnow would fly Denver-Seattle-Ketchikan. Fortunately, the flights otw went off without a hitch, and we did not lose any bags or weapons and arrived on time. Our flights landed only about 15 minutes apart, and we grabbed our gear and hopped on the ferry to head across. From there, we were picked up and headed over to the local store to buy our tags and a couple of canisters of fuel for our stove before we hopped on the Cessna to fly in. Usually, I have my tags ahead of time before arriving in Alaska, but this year with all the talk of the changes that could happen for non-residents with the deer I decided to just hold off and buy them in town once we arrived.

After we had all of our gear we set about repacking and organizing before we hopped in the plane to head to our lake. I've hunted Sitka Blacktail in the early season twice before, but this time I decided to try out a different lake that had been recommended to me two years earlier. Luckily, we had a weather window that allowed us to get into our lake and we headed in around 11:30 AM on August 5.

I'm going to upload this story in sections. Dsnow will also chime in and we will try to fill in with a lot of pictures without giving our location away.

 

[Dsnow9]

When I received the text I knew I couldn’t turn down the offer! He forgot to add that I got him a hat as a thank you! Not sure he will ever wear it but wanted to make sure I had a hat to wear! I can’t be seen hunting without a pink hat on.

The overnight in the Seattle airport was a little brutal but the men’s bathroom came fully stocked with free tampons so needless to say I was a bit confused and didn’t sleep much lol.

Like he said, everything made it there and we were on the float plane and landing at the lake before we knew it. A great operation and pilot!

 

[seeth07]

Good choice on the pilot, I love him and use him every time I'm up there

 

[CPAjeff]

Been waiting for this one, can’t wait to see/read more about it!

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

We flew in through patchy cloud cover and fog but Jim (our pilot) maneuvered around it like a pro, which he is. He told us he was hopeful he could get us in but there wasn't any guarantee until we could see the lake. However, as we got closer a hole in the fog appeared and there was our lake. Jim pulled cut the power back and we dropped right in. He eased over to the shore and we unloaded our gear quickly so he could slide back out through the same gap that he came in through.

As soon as Jim was gone we found a spot to shop our guns to verify the zero, strapped in he rifles to our packs and up the mountain we went. Honestly, the hiking in this area wasn't terrible. It was misting, up hill and everything was wet but that's what we signed up for. We weren't in a hurry and we only had to go a mile or so to get to the area I'd picked to camp below our primary hunting area. We started seeing deer sign immediately as we zigzagged through the ponds and dense cover. Eventually, we got close to my pin and began looking for a good camping spot. We found a small area that was hard ground and wouldn't flood while also being tucked in if the wind picked up. We set up camp, hung our food and began filtering water using dsnow's gravity filter system.

 

[elkhuntinfool78]

Always enjoy your stories, following along

 

[Dsnow9]

I’m pretty sure that stepping out of the plane was the last time I was dry front whole hunt. We had food for a week and were ready for the long haul.

 

[Salmonchaser]

This will be good.

 

[Dsnow9]

This was my first time to Alaska and the plant life and growth forms of some of the more mature bushes and plants were surprising and so interesting to me. I found myself just staring at the ground a lot. Maybe that was to watch my footing because everything was slick and having my feet go out from me early with a heavy pack but I probably have as many pics of the ground as anything else.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

Once camp was set up, we decided to immediately head out hunting. There was a knob just 50 yards up above camp that would allow us to glass. We didn't want to push too hard on the first afternoon so we made our move up to that knob and sat down beginning to glass. We had not been looking for more than 10 minutes when bucks started to pop out all over. I would say over the next 45 minutes to an hour. We saw a dozen deer with the majority of them being bucks. Two or three mature bucks but most of them we were seeing were two points with eye guards. Some of them were mature bucks, but we just weren't sure we wanted to pull the trigger on something like that four hours into the hunt.

We decided we would move around to our right trying to get some different angles on different faces, but not pushing up too high and taking our time to look at all the different nooks and crannies that we could find. We continue to see deer with the majority being bucks. After a few hours of easing around, we came over a small ridge at the base of a small pond and there was a buck and two does on the far side of the pond 100 yards away. Immediately, I could tell this was a big buck. His body was big. His antlers were outside his ears. It looked like he had a long main beams, but still just a 2X2 with eyeguards. I looked at Deacon and said "That's a big buck". However, it was still our first afternoon. We both elected to pass, though we talked about that buck a lot over the next few days. I think if we had seen him anytime but the first afternoon odds are pretty high that he would've gotten shot. We did not turn him up again. He was also the only buck during the whole trip that when he saw us he actually ran away. All the other deer on the whole trip would just walk or trot off, but this buck knew what the deal was.

While we were out hunting, we began to see specific ponds that had all these little amphibians in them. I thought they were salamanders while Deacon thought they were newts. They were all over the place and they're really cool looking. I ended up picking a few up during the trip to take pictures then releasing them back in the ponds gently. We saw hundreds and hundreds of them. Afterwards we found out they are rough skinned newts. They are covered with a neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin that can be harmful or even fatal if ingested. Luckily we did not eat them. Yolo.

We finally made our way back to camp to get some food and sleep in hopes of a fun day of hunting the next morning.


The big buck of the day.

 

[Dsnow9]

As a guy who often shoots the first semi mature animal I see, not pulling the trigger on the first day was a challenge in patience but I knew we had six days and SC was holding out for a big one and didn’t want to have to start dealing with meat before we even got a lay of the land. As he said, we talked about that first real mature buck a lot over the weak. I had him in my crosshairs and a round chambered, broadside and feeding, and somehow had the willpower not to pull the trigger. The terrain was so cool as well as the vegetation and the water hadn’t yet penetrated all of my gear. At this point in the trip I wanted to make it last!

 

[seeth07]

and the water hadn’t yet penetrated all of my gear. At this point in the trip I wanted to make it last!

I think every SE Alaska Newbie has this exact same thought on the first day

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

I think every SE Alaska Newbie has this exact same thought on the first day

I've been to SE Alaska 4 times now. This hunt was different. By far the wettest hunt I have ever had.

 

[seeth07]

I've been to SE Alaska 4 times now. This hunt was different. By far the wettest hunt I have ever had.

Wait, so you are telling me there is normal SE AK wet and then there is a point where it goes beyond that? I've too done SE AK now 4 times, twice in May, once in Sept and once in Oct. 6 days average probably per trip so 24 days now up there. I know there have only been 3 days total where it didn't rain during the day time and only twice were I would call it a "sunny day"

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

I'm sorry for not continuing the story sooner. The last couple days have been rough. I had to put my 15 year-old dog down day before yesterday. I've had her pretty much my entire adult life. I'm not an emotional guy even a little bit, but it wrecked me. She was a great friend and I'm going miss her a lot. She was a good girl.

On top of that I've been packing for my early season Colorado deer hunt I have coming up. This is the tag I have wanted for years and this is the year I wanted it so I'm being very specific on my packing list along with getting there 6 days early to scout. Anyway. That's what's up with the delay.

Back to the story.

The next day we got up around 6am and ate some breakfast. I don't really think it matters that much if you get up super early or not. We saw deer all throughout the day the whole trip. So once we had eaten and filled up our water we headed up the hill to do some hunting. I could tell that dsnow was ready to do some killing so I was hopeful we would find a good buck that day. We were camped in the last of the trees about 300 vertical feet from the tree line. So we just took our time meandering our way back-and-forth as we climbed. We didn't necessarily have a location that we wanted to get to in mind. We were just working our way up, moving back-and-forth, taking our time, exploring. We battled the fog for a while. At times we were not able to see but eventually it cleared enough where we could hunt. We didn't see any deer until about 12 o'clock. We were up above the trees at this point working their way along a small rock lip and peeking over when dsnow signaled for me to stop and pointed. Up ahead a group of bucks walked out below us. I threw up my binoculars and immediately saw one buck was really wide. I said "shoot the bottom one". About 5 seconds later, his gun barked, and the buck folded. We then proceeded to watch more bucks filter out and stand around and look at the down buck for the next 15 minutes. I think at one point there were 8 or 9 bucks below us. There was one other decent buck in the group, but we felt like we could do better. dsnow had 2 tags and there was also a funky racked buck that he really liked, but we decided to let him live that day.

dsnow's buck was awesome. 18 inches inside and mature. It was a great start to the trip. We broke him down and hung the meat in the closest tree. We then moved up and continued to hunt. A few more deer were seen that day, but nothing to get excited about. It was a great first full day of hunting. 2 tags remained.



dsnow's buck right before the moment of impact.

Continuing to hunt for the rest of the day.

 

[jvanhoy]

Awesome! This is exactly why I log into HT.

 

[WildWill]

I'm sorry for not continuing the story sooner. The last couple days have been rough. I had to put my 15 year-old dog down day before yesterday. I've had her pretty much my entire adult life. I'm not an emotional guy even a little bit, but it wrecked me. She was a great friend and I'm going miss her a lot. She was a good girl.

On top of that I've been packing for my early season Colorado deer hunt I have coming up. This is the tag I have wanted for years and this is the year I wanted it so I'm being very specific on my packing list along with getting there 6 days early to scout. Anyway. That's what's up with the delay.

Back to the story.

The next day we got up around 6am and ate some breakfast. I don't really think it matters that much if you get up super early or not. We saw deer all throughout the day the whole trip. So once we had eaten and filled up our water we headed up the hill to do some hunting. I could tell that dsnow was ready to do some killing so I was hopeful we would find a good buck that day. We were camped in the last of the trees about 300 vertical feet from the tree line. So we just took our time meandering our way back-and-forth as we climbed. We didn't necessarily have a location that we wanted to get to in mind. We were just working our way up, moving back-and-forth, taking our time, exploring. We battled the fog for a while. At times we were not able to see but eventually it cleared enough where we could hunt. We didn't see any deer until about 12 o'clock. We were up above the trees at this point working their way along a small rock lip and peeking over when dsnow signaled for me to stop and pointed. Up ahead a group of bucks walked out below us. I threw up my binoculars and immediately saw one buck was really wide. I said "shoot the bottom one". About 5 seconds later, his gun barked, and the buck folded. We then proceeded to watch more bucks filter out and stand around and look at the down buck for the next 15 minutes. I think at one point there were 8 or 9 bucks below us. There was one other decent buck in the group, but we felt like we could do better. dsnow had 2 tags and there was also a funky racked buck that he really liked, but we decided to let him live that day.

dsnow's buck was awesome. 18 inches inside and mature. It was a great start to the trip. We broke him down and hung the meat in the closest tree. We then moved up and continued to hunt. A few more deer were seen that day, but nothing to get excited about. It was a great first full day of hunting. 2 tags remained.

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dsnow's buck right before the moment of impact.
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Continuing to hunt for the rest of the day.
View attachment 383826

Sorry to hear about your dog man that's a hard thing! Very cool story and @Dsnow9 love that big 6 point great buck.

 

[Dsnow9]

We were coming over the rolls in the hillside after SC took his nap… ps I don’t take naps and am pretty adhd so the weather really worked to my favor. I like to cover ground and check different nooks and crannies, glassing all day makes me go a little more insane than I already am.

Back to the moment. SC was slightly below me and ahead of me. I called his name quietly 3-4 times quickly but he didn’t hear me when I saw the first deer below me. Due to the terrain I ducked my head and was able to keep out of site. He kept walking and I didn’t have much of an option so I let out a quick whistle. When I did the big buck picked its head up and took a step out.

Game time, I had a round loaded and was trying to get my rifle situated on my poles. I didn’t even pull up my range finder because I knew I was right around 100 yards. It ended up being 106.

As I’m fumbling with my poles to get a spot high enough to clear the rock between me and the buck I heard SC say something. I didn’t really care what he said, I figured it was either shoot that one or are you sure you want to shoot that one. I didn’t know if he saw the buck I saw but I wasn’t passing this one up.

I settled the crosshairs and let one fly. He dropped instantly. And then as SC said we watched for 15 minutes as every other deer around came to check on their buddy, lay their respects, and then funnel out.

There was a little buck that I affectionately named peckerhead because of his driver’s side. I loaded one in the chamber but pulled up my binos. Something about him just got me excited but I decided to pass and let him live. It was time to notch a tag and cut some meat. I found the second coolest tree around and hung up my meat.

The coolest tree is now the background of my phone with way to much background information to post on the internet. So I’ll leave you with the sticker.

 

[SFC B]

SC ....so sorry to hear about your pup. You may have read that I lost my girl almost a month ago......I am still rough and working somewhere where we have sweet dogs around all the time is pretty hard. The heart of it is how much we loved them and they loved us back. I was just looking at some "puppy" pics and it hit me just how lucky I was to have her for 16 years and it did help a little. We all (dog people) understand.

 

[jejack26]

Enjoyed the story. So sorry about dog. It's the worst