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Sitka Blacktail - POW Island, AK
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<blockquote data-quote="Country Bumpkin" data-source="post: 1477407" data-attributes="member: 92230"><p>8/28 spent the night in Betty in a gravel pit / shooting area. woke up to rain and decided to take a rain day, drove into Klawock to let DJ know about the rattling noise coming out of Betty's front left end. DJ had us drive to the local repair shop, Kim's Truck and Car Repair. DJ picked us up and took us to his house to grab a temporary rental and we went into Craig to get showers and coffee. Whew, we STUNK. Just as we returned to auto shop Kim pulled in from his test drive and gave us the keys to Betty. DJ runs awesome outfit, Hollis Adventure Rentals, and he's a great guy (as was Kim, who showed us on a map where we could do some clear cut road hunting while it rained). We saw some does and eventually drove back up to the base of Manty mtn to give it a final 3-days of hell try. </p><p></p><p>On our way to Manty we ran into Josh, our airman buddy, so we spent a few minutes looking over maps and came to the conclusion that we should just hunt Manty for our final push. </p><p></p><p>Hunt day 8/29</p><p>Woke up at 6:30, hiking up Manty by 7:15. We decided the night before that we would pioneer a new route up manty, basically taking a logging rd further out than before and trying to climb up a "finger" that would hopefully get us to alpine at a lower elevation, avoiding as much helicopter slash and cliff-outs as possible. We were only half successful, and successful only in the sense that we didn't get completely cliffed out and have to come back down. Our logging rd died about 3/4 mile short of what the map showed (it was water-barred and immediately choked out with slash and impenetrable brush) so we went vertical from there. The logging slash and new-growth was worse than anything we had encountered to date. We did some climbing that I'm not overly proud of, being that we are both Fathers and Husbands and have a lot to get back home to. Technically, we were in top form as we scaled some ledges, shoots and vegetation that I hope to never repeat. I'm not one to shy away from high-adrenaline/high-consequence activities, but given the remoteness of this island, the specific area we were in and the fact that there is no formal search and rescue on POW.... it was pretty stupid. Anyways, we finally reached the alpine after 3 hours of scrambling and climbing. We traveled along the alpine/muskeg area as we glassed the high points with the intention of really just pushing all the way through to the base of the final ascent up to Manty's peak. We saw two does shortly after reaching the top. About 1/2 way to where we camped the night before we shot Toms buck we spotted a forky, a spike and a doe. The terrain up on top is incredibly broken with features and sub-alpine vegetation. Tom had a hunch that there might be more bucks/deer either with them or in the vicinity. I didn't like that we couldn't see a relatively wide expanse below us so we repositioned down about 30 yds to a rock outcropping and sat down. After less than a minute Tom spotted two bucks sneaking out of the expanse below us and very quickly stated that one of them was a "good buck". This means Shooter in Toms lingo. We were both a flurry of flying scope covers and rifles setting up on packs. Tom told me that the one in the back was mine. I still hadn't laid eyes on them as I had been focusing on a different area. Once I was set on my pack and spotted the bucks I wanted to be sure I was shooting the right buck so I asked Tom "is he still the one in back" to which Tom impatiently replied "yes, shoot him!" My thought process was that there had been several seconds from when Tom said it the first time to when I finally had a scope on them and needed to be certain that I was about to drop an animal in such a sh!tty pack out location. I really didn't need an answer though as I zoomed in and immediately saw 3 points on the near side, a no-brainer to take home. They were getting pretty close to the drop off and I was losing shot opportunities with each step. I let him have it after a slight hesitation that didn't actually turn into a stop and hit him a little far back. He dropped out of sight and the report of the shot confirmed a hard hit. Tom debated briefly on shooting the smaller forky that was with him but we decided that it wasn't worth the pack out (remember, we had seen 5 bears in one day on this particular 1/2 mile stretch). We agreed that Tom would sit up top and make sure my buck didn't get up while I picked my way down to him through the 200 yds of brush, rocky points and muskeg. Upon walking up on my buck it was apparent that he hadn't moved from where he dropped and I let out a (very stress-relieving) war hoop to let Tom know, without a question, that we'd gotten it done. As I was getting to my buck Tom was tempted even further with a late forky trying to sneak out. We took some celebratory photos and were boned out and packed up in an hour. At one point Tom was working on the last bit of boning and I decided to boil some muskeg puddle water so that we could rehydrate before our descent when Tom proclaimed that I was on "bear-watch", something we had grown accustomed to doing. A few minutes later, as Tom had his head down with bloody hands and deer parts scattered all around I exclaimed "Bear". Tom later explained that he didn't appreciate me saying something like that and not simultaneously running for a rifle or the bear spray, I guess he was a little jumpy by my simple and not-very-informative announcement of a bear in the area. Looking back on it, I probably could have said something like "bear, but don't worry he's not very close" or "bear up on the point 150 yds out"...... but I opted to simply blurt out "bear" and provide no further explanation or action. We both yelled at him and he reacted by trying to find a path off the rocky point so he could come help us debone the deer. Tom gave him a warning shot and, thankfully, he took off like a scalded cat. We made quick work of finishing up, loading packs and getting to the main ridge and route out. It took us 3-1/2 hours to get back to Betty and we drove into Craig to get more Papa's Pizza (and the best cheesy bread either of us have ever had, as I will point out again). DJ allowed us to put another buck in his freezer. We grabbed a bottle of crown, some sprite and headed towards Hollis to celebrate at Harris River Campground.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Country Bumpkin, post: 1477407, member: 92230"] 8/28 spent the night in Betty in a gravel pit / shooting area. woke up to rain and decided to take a rain day, drove into Klawock to let DJ know about the rattling noise coming out of Betty’s front left end. DJ had us drive to the local repair shop, Kim’s Truck and Car Repair. DJ picked us up and took us to his house to grab a temporary rental and we went into Craig to get showers and coffee. Whew, we STUNK. Just as we returned to auto shop Kim pulled in from his test drive and gave us the keys to Betty. DJ runs awesome outfit, Hollis Adventure Rentals, and he’s a great guy (as was Kim, who showed us on a map where we could do some clear cut road hunting while it rained). We saw some does and eventually drove back up to the base of Manty mtn to give it a final 3-days of hell try. On our way to Manty we ran into Josh, our airman buddy, so we spent a few minutes looking over maps and came to the conclusion that we should just hunt Manty for our final push. Hunt day 8/29 Woke up at 6:30, hiking up Manty by 7:15. We decided the night before that we would pioneer a new route up manty, basically taking a logging rd further out than before and trying to climb up a “finger” that would hopefully get us to alpine at a lower elevation, avoiding as much helicopter slash and cliff-outs as possible. We were only half successful, and successful only in the sense that we didn’t get completely cliffed out and have to come back down. Our logging rd died about 3/4 mile short of what the map showed (it was water-barred and immediately choked out with slash and impenetrable brush) so we went vertical from there. The logging slash and new-growth was worse than anything we had encountered to date. We did some climbing that I’m not overly proud of, being that we are both Fathers and Husbands and have a lot to get back home to. Technically, we were in top form as we scaled some ledges, shoots and vegetation that I hope to never repeat. I’m not one to shy away from high-adrenaline/high-consequence activities, but given the remoteness of this island, the specific area we were in and the fact that there is no formal search and rescue on POW.... it was pretty stupid. Anyways, we finally reached the alpine after 3 hours of scrambling and climbing. We traveled along the alpine/muskeg area as we glassed the high points with the intention of really just pushing all the way through to the base of the final ascent up to Manty’s peak. We saw two does shortly after reaching the top. About 1/2 way to where we camped the night before we shot Toms buck we spotted a forky, a spike and a doe. The terrain up on top is incredibly broken with features and sub-alpine vegetation. Tom had a hunch that there might be more bucks/deer either with them or in the vicinity. I didn’t like that we couldn’t see a relatively wide expanse below us so we repositioned down about 30 yds to a rock outcropping and sat down. After less than a minute Tom spotted two bucks sneaking out of the expanse below us and very quickly stated that one of them was a “good buck”. This means Shooter in Toms lingo. We were both a flurry of flying scope covers and rifles setting up on packs. Tom told me that the one in the back was mine. I still hadn’t laid eyes on them as I had been focusing on a different area. Once I was set on my pack and spotted the bucks I wanted to be sure I was shooting the right buck so I asked Tom “is he still the one in back” to which Tom impatiently replied “yes, shoot him!” My thought process was that there had been several seconds from when Tom said it the first time to when I finally had a scope on them and needed to be certain that I was about to drop an animal in such a sh!tty pack out location. I really didn’t need an answer though as I zoomed in and immediately saw 3 points on the near side, a no-brainer to take home. They were getting pretty close to the drop off and I was losing shot opportunities with each step. I let him have it after a slight hesitation that didn’t actually turn into a stop and hit him a little far back. He dropped out of sight and the report of the shot confirmed a hard hit. Tom debated briefly on shooting the smaller forky that was with him but we decided that it wasn’t worth the pack out (remember, we had seen 5 bears in one day on this particular 1/2 mile stretch). We agreed that Tom would sit up top and make sure my buck didn’t get up while I picked my way down to him through the 200 yds of brush, rocky points and muskeg. Upon walking up on my buck it was apparent that he hadn’t moved from where he dropped and I let out a (very stress-relieving) war hoop to let Tom know, without a question, that we’d gotten it done. As I was getting to my buck Tom was tempted even further with a late forky trying to sneak out. We took some celebratory photos and were boned out and packed up in an hour. At one point Tom was working on the last bit of boning and I decided to boil some muskeg puddle water so that we could rehydrate before our descent when Tom proclaimed that I was on “bear-watch”, something we had grown accustomed to doing. A few minutes later, as Tom had his head down with bloody hands and deer parts scattered all around I exclaimed “Bear”. Tom later explained that he didn’t appreciate me saying something like that and not simultaneously running for a rifle or the bear spray, I guess he was a little jumpy by my simple and not-very-informative announcement of a bear in the area. Looking back on it, I probably could have said something like “bear, but don’t worry he’s not very close” or “bear up on the point 150 yds out”...... but I opted to simply blurt out “bear” and provide no further explanation or action. We both yelled at him and he reacted by trying to find a path off the rocky point so he could come help us debone the deer. Tom gave him a warning shot and, thankfully, he took off like a scalded cat. We made quick work of finishing up, loading packs and getting to the main ridge and route out. It took us 3-1/2 hours to get back to Betty and we drove into Craig to get more Papa’s Pizza (and the best cheesy bread either of us have ever had, as I will point out again). DJ allowed us to put another buck in his freezer. We grabbed a bottle of crown, some sprite and headed towards Hollis to celebrate at Harris River Campground. [/QUOTE]
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