Bottom of the 9th Kodiak Surprise

[DRUSS]

Post is great! I prefer to see the critter pics over people pics. And still, it's a great buck!
Thanks for sharing

 

[Antares]

Huge peeve, would rather just a pic of the animal.

Huge peeve of mine…people mucking up a good thread with a bunch of bellyaching.

 

[KHNC]

Really sorry my post didn't live up to your standards, guys. As a result, I'll be issuing a full refund. Please check for it in 3-5 business days.

Oh Shit! Let me be on the lookout for more of your posts, videos, podcasts and flat bills. Bet they will be EPIC!

 

[hammy907]

Sitting here on my O'Hare layover counting some serious blessings after one of the wildest months of my life. Not only did I get to spend the first half of August kicking around the Kenai peninsula backpacking, fly fishing and hiking, but I also got the call that I was selected for my dream job in Anchorage right before flying down to Kodiak for this year's Blacktail hunt. Safe to say it'd be pretty hard for things to get a whole lot better from there at that point.

We flew into an area near Larsen Bay for a drop camp hunt with three guys. Weather forecast had good weather for the first day, then a little bit of rain and wind, and then a nice high pressure system that was supposed to bring some nice hunting conditions. We got our first guy's buck, a nice 3x3, down on the first afternoon after a textbook stalk nice and close to camp, and then settled in to see how the weather was going to look. As it turned out, the answer was poorly, and for a lot longer than it called for. For four days, we did our best to glass through about every combination imaginable of winds strong enough to break the poles of our gear shelter, rain and virtually zero visibility. For our efforts, we saw basically a few does.

At this point, we had just one more morning to hunt before getting picked up and I was coming to grips with the probability of eating tag soup on this one. Right before going to bed, I ordered an Inreach report that finally called for the forecasted high pressure system to arrive by the next morning. My buddy who still had his tag and I agreed to get up nice and early to give it one last good shot.

The cold got me up before my alarm- it was one of those mornings where you really have to retreat into your mummy bag to stay warm. Check there. Wind had also died down a lot. Double check. We got up, did a quick oatmeal breakfast, and headed to our glassing knob. As the sun started coming up, we started seeing activity- like, a lot of it. Deer that we had glassed over probably hundreds of times were finally getting out of their beds after the weather system we'd been fighting broke. My buddy glassed up a solid buck about a mile and a half away, and I told him we'd make a play if we didn't see something convincing in the next few minutes.

Then, after putting the spotting scope on dozens of animals throughout the previous week, I saw one that I didn't even need it for. He was about 600 yards away, but I could see even at that distance through binos that he was at very least a solid animal. Plus, there was another buck feeding on the same hill- so, theoretically, we could save *both* of us from the tag soup life at the last possible moment of the hunt. There was a good drainage that looked like it would give us coverage for our stalk, so we decided to commit. About 25 minutes later, we were sitting on top of a salmonberry choked knob, at the last little patch of alders between us and the bucks, about 220 yards away from the hillside where they were feeding. I crept up to the only tiny rock that provided a semi- clear shot across and cleared a small shooting lane.

As I was getting my rifle set up, I set my SFP optic on max mag for accurate subtensions. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of finding my buck from the end he was facing and glassed directly over his rack. I'm a relative Blacktail novice, but at that point I knew there was a good chance this thing was an animal of a lifetime. My heart rate soared. I got into my shooting position, did my breathe up, and squeezed through the shot. My buck was gone by the time I could get back on the area with the glass, so I told my buddy to hop on the bag. He did the same, and I watched the pretty wild spectacle of a vapor trail from the Hammer Hunter bullet he was shooting nailing his buck right behind the shoulder. Bang flop city. We decided to head over quickly to get things going before the grizz population did.

What happened next was the opposite of ground shrinkage. My buddy and I basically stared at each other, in awe of the fact that we had not only both avoided getting skunked at the last possible second of the trip with a crazy double but also that the one we found first was a pretty wild specimen. Also, kind of incredibly, my buddy @HunterMcWaters got the entire thing on HD video, and will be making a film about the hunt. Check him out on IG (@thehuntersquest) for more from a super talented and dedicated backcountry videographer.

Anyway, this is my guy. Everyone in the ADQ airport said I need to get him scored, so that will be at the top of the list when I get home. Stoked to have gotten to end a trip in such an incredible place with a crazy story like that and for backcountry time spent with great friends. Thanks for reading!

View attachment 322591

That is a stud!!!

 

[Zackman]

Cranker buck!

 

[22lr]

Dang nice buck! Kodiak is a fun hunt!

 

[cod007]

That is an absolutely fantastic Alaskan Blacktail! Congrats!!

 

[JoeB]

great hunt!!

 

[bbassi]

Man that's a stud!

 

[Larry Bartlett]

you convinced me to head to kodiak early this year. I'm leaving tuesday to hunt the last couple of days of sept and first 3-4 of oct. Might be a huge epic fail but freakit....gots to!

 

[OXN939]

you convinced me to head to kodiak early this year. I'm leaving tuesday to hunt the last couple of days of sept and first 3-4 of oct. Might be a huge epic fail but freakit....gots to!

Nice man! Remember learning a ton from your posts when I was just starting to hunt AK. We actually used your "large stones meat cache" trick on this one, and it was super effective. Owe you a beer or two if we're ever there the same time. Good luck!

 

[Grease]

Sitting here on my O'Hare layover counting some serious blessings after one of the wildest months of my life. Not only did I get to spend the first half of August kicking around the Kenai peninsula backpacking, fly fishing and hiking, but I also got the call that I was selected for my dream job in Anchorage right before flying down to Kodiak for this year's Blacktail hunt. Safe to say it'd be pretty hard for things to get a whole lot better from there at that point.

We flew into an area near Larsen Bay for a drop camp hunt with three guys. Weather forecast had good weather for the first day, then a little bit of rain and wind, and then a nice high pressure system that was supposed to bring some nice hunting conditions. We got our first guy's buck, a nice 3x3, down on the first afternoon after a textbook stalk nice and close to camp, and then settled in to see how the weather was going to look. As it turned out, the answer was poorly, and for a lot longer than it called for. For four days, we did our best to glass through about every combination imaginable of winds strong enough to break the poles of our gear shelter, rain and virtually zero visibility. For our efforts, we saw basically a few does.

At this point, we had just one more morning to hunt before getting picked up and I was coming to grips with the probability of eating tag soup on this one. Right before going to bed, I ordered an Inreach report that finally called for the forecasted high pressure system to arrive by the next morning. My buddy who still had his tag and I agreed to get up nice and early to give it one last good shot.

The cold got me up before my alarm- it was one of those mornings where you really have to retreat into your mummy bag to stay warm. Check there. Wind had also died down a lot. Double check. We got up, did a quick oatmeal breakfast, and headed to our glassing knob. As the sun started coming up, we started seeing activity- like, a lot of it. Deer that we had glassed over probably hundreds of times were finally getting out of their beds after the weather system we'd been fighting broke. My buddy glassed up a solid buck about a mile and a half away, and I told him we'd make a play if we didn't see something convincing in the next few minutes.

Then, after putting the spotting scope on dozens of animals throughout the previous week, I saw one that I didn't even need it for. He was about 600 yards away, but I could see even at that distance through binos that he was at very least a solid animal. Plus, there was another buck feeding on the same hill- so, theoretically, we could save *both* of us from the tag soup life at the last possible moment of the hunt. There was a good drainage that looked like it would give us coverage for our stalk, so we decided to commit. About 25 minutes later, we were sitting on top of a salmonberry choked knob, at the last little patch of alders between us and the bucks, about 220 yards away from the hillside where they were feeding. I crept up to the only tiny rock that provided a semi- clear shot across and cleared a small shooting lane.

As I was getting my rifle set up, I set my SFP optic on max mag for accurate subtensions. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of finding my buck from the end he was facing and glassed directly over his rack. I'm a relative Blacktail novice, but at that point I knew there was a good chance this thing was an animal of a lifetime. My heart rate soared. I got into my shooting position, did my breathe up, and squeezed through the shot. My buck was gone by the time I could get back on the area with the glass, so I told my buddy to hop on the bag. He did the same, and I watched the pretty wild spectacle of a vapor trail from the Hammer Hunter bullet he was shooting nailing his buck right behind the shoulder. Bang flop city. We decided to head over quickly to get things going before the grizz population did.

What happened next was the opposite of ground shrinkage. My buddy and I basically stared at each other, in awe of the fact that we had not only both avoided getting skunked at the last possible second of the trip with a crazy double but also that the one we found first was a pretty wild specimen. Also, kind of incredibly, my buddy @HunterMcWaters got the entire thing on HD video, and will be making a film about the hunt. Check him out on IG (@thehuntersquest) for more from a super talented and dedicated backcountry videographer.

Anyway, this is my guy. Everyone in the ADQ airport said I need to get him scored, so that will be at the top of the list when I get home. Stoked to have gotten to end a trip in such an incredible place with a crazy story like that and for backcountry time spent with great friends. Thanks for reading!

View attachment 322591

Congrats!! He's a real stud

 

[bushman]

Great buck man! heading to kodiak south end in Nov ,tent camping,hope we see a buck or 2 like that.

 

[OXN939]

Definitely get him scored.

So this was a super interesting process to learn about. I had no idea about drying periods, deductions or all time records before this. Also the scorer was super knowledgeable and a ton of fun to chat with.

Anyway, net score was 119.5 inches, with over a foot of deductions for stuff like the kicker off his right main beam... but he was still 7 inches over the B&C minimum of 100". Wasn't planning on another shoulder mount this season, but sometimes the universe speaks!

 

[Cahunter805]

So this was a super interesting process to learn about. I had no idea about drying periods, deductions or all time records before this. Also the scorer was super knowledgeable and a ton of fun to chat with.

Anyway, net score was 119.5 inches, with over a foot of deductions for stuff like the kicker off his right main beam... but he was still 7 inches over the B&C minimum of 100". Wasn't planning on another shoulder mount this season, but sometimes the universe speaks!

Awesome! Congrats on the success again. Had a feeling that was a Book buck!