SE Alaska Sitka Blacktail down

[Markopolo]

hi guys...

not sure if anybody has ever seen a SE Alaska buck... they are not like lower 48 deer or even Columbia black tails. they are SE Alaska Sitka Blacktail deer. small bodied, very stocky and blocky, and very small antlered. there are very very few deer on mainland Alaska, and the blacktails we have are island deer, small and adapted. the deer I killed today is considered large for here. one look at the muzzle and eyes will show you that the deer was very mature. it is the largest deer i have taken this year and for several years.. they are ghosts at times due to the dense nature of the brush here. also notable is the darker brown color of thier antlers, although this old boy's antlers were a bit faded.

I killed him this morning with a shot through both lungs at about 95 yards with a 160g lee flat nosed boolit from my bolt action 308. he ran about 30 yards and fell over dead. thank you Lord that I diddnt have to go far to find him as I left my wonder tracking dog missy at home...

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MarkoPolo

[megasupermagnum]

Congrats. How do they taste?

[tankgunner59]

Nice deer. I have been through AK, but never lived there. Although I would move in a heartbeat if it were possible for me. I haven't taken a deer in years due to not having permission from any land owner to hunt their property. Hopefully one of these days it will happen. I have many friends and family who will give me one if they get more than they need. But that's no where near the same as bagging your own.

[Markopolo]

scrumptious MSM.. like no other deer

[Bazoo]

Congratulations, thanks for sharing.

[Markopolo]

oh crud.. My wife thinks I killed Rudolf..i reminded her that Rudolf was a Reindeer.. lol

[skeettx]

Well done
Thank you for sharing
Mike

[Dennis Eugene]

271105 my son on the right and his buddy a few years back with a couple Sitka blacktails

[Dennis Eugene]

271106 271107271108 a couple pics of me and a pic of the inside og my garage befor I cleaned it a few years back.

[richhodg66]

I was stationed in Alaska for about a year and a hald, wasn't a real good life situation at the time and didn't really get that much out of it which is a shame. Never did any hunting, but did enjoy what a gun friendly place it is and did a lot of time on the range and loading bench, gun shows, etc. Wish I had made more of the time then, highly unlikely I'll ever get back there.

Looks like a good deer to me. Honestly can't recall ever seeing a deer the whole time I was there, saw more moose than deer and wondered why there were so many "deer rifles" in the racks there.

[white eagle]

excellent a great deer for sure
congratulations

[Tripplebeards]

Nice looking deer!

[Markopolo]

those are a couple of HUGE blacktails

[rtyler8140]

Nice work on a mature deer! I recall watching an episode of MeatEater where Steve went on a solo blacktail hunt. They definitely seemed like an elusive creature!

[koger]

Thanks for sharing pics, a great looking deer to me!

[Texas by God]

Way to go! And he does have kind of a red nose.....

[Hossfly]

Great looking deer and thanks for sharing, inspires me to get out and hunt.

[hc18flyer]

]Congratulations, thanks for sharing.

Ditto, Tom

[SSGOldfart]

Congrats that should eat fine too.:bigsmyl2:

[quilbilly]

Our blacktails on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula are much the same in body size and antlers due to the similar climate. They taste wonderful! Congratulations on that fine buck.

[MT Gianni]

Thank you for those pictures. As short as the nose is my first thought is fawn, but the blockiness of the body and the rack speak very differently.

[725]

Well done. For a sitka, that is one beautiful rack. They are just a smaller breed. We have sitka here on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Small population not found elsewhere in Maryland. My first was a sitka.

[PositiveCaster]

I hunted blacktail on Kodiak Island for over twenty years, mostly with handguns and on occasion with boolits. They are truly outstanding table fare, and with a bag limit varying from 4 to 7 we ate lots of venison over the years. That is a fine specimen!






.

[6pt-sika]

Congratulations ! I’ve killed Whitetail’s Mulies and Sika but never a Blacktail be it Colombian or Sitka . Would love to hunt POW or Kodiak for them .

[taco650]

Congratulations! Any idea what it weighed?

[Markopolo]

no idea... dressed out around 100 lbs maybe...

[Jedman]

Way to go Marco !

Jedman

[Mavrick]

The one very outstanding feature I noticed about them when I lived there, was that I could eat them in a cold sandwich.
I've eaten enough Mulies to know that the taste of tallow stops me from eating them cold.
I lived in Juneau, and was in more than a few "drop hunts" on the south end of Admiralty. The liberal limits allowed me some of the best times of my life!
Have fun,
Gene

[Hogtamer]

I just saw this marco....what a beautiful animal! Congrats.

[rickiesrevenge]

Well done. For a sitka, that is one beautiful rack. They are just a smaller breed. We have sitka here on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Small population not found elsewhere in Maryland. My first was a sitka.

I thought those were sika deer?

[missionary5155]

Howdy Marko and Congratulations !!
Rudolf !!! You should have painted a red nose on him !!

[Markopolo]

I thought those were sika deer?

Nope... Sitka blacktail