Hunting Alaska's Kodiak Blacktail Deer

W e-my client and I - were sitting on the slope of a glassing knob, camouflaged by brown coastal grasses, looking for a respectable Alaskan brown bear

- Tyler Kuhn

And that's when it happened. I noticed something out of place, about 600 yards out. A flash of movement so sudden I almost wondered if I actually saw something.

Refocusing on the spot with my 10 x 42 binoculars, I studied the foliage. What caused that flash?

Suddenly, a large, mature blacktail buck materialized. He wore a solid 4 x 4 rack with tall tines and very nice mass. I told my hunter I'd found a shooter buck, and since he had a blacktail deer tag in addition to the bear permit, he was all ears.

We formulated a game plan for the stalk, grabbed our rucksacks and began the trek down the rolling hills, pushing towards an ambush spot that would give my hunter the proper angle on the buck.

The terrain proved favorable, with ample cover in hidden drainages. The wind was perfect. And the deer, making a scrape under a large spruce, would never sense our approach.

Our plan was to get to within 300 yards of the buck, pop up on a high spot, glass up this blacktail again, then figure out a final stalk. But when we crested the slope, we didn't see anything.

Glassing, glassing, more glassing... we almost lost hope. But then my hunter saw the mule deer-like "face" and the whitetail like antlers of the buck, moving around in an alder thicket just 50 yards from the spruce scrape.

When the buck walked into a very small opening, there were enough of the deer's vitals visible for a shot. My client steadied himself on his pack, took aim with his .375 H&H, and with a single shot, sent the deer rolling down the hill into the brush.

We waited a bit to make sure the deer was down, then climbed through the entangled devil's club thorns and stubby alders to get where the buck had been standing.

There, I noticed a large slide in the grass. Following it downhill about 40 yards, there laid a beautiful 104-inch Boone & Crockett level Sitka blacktail deer.