Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Kodiak Deer hurting?

No

I doubt that would happen, probably cite ya for wanton waste first!

F&G is not going to cut you any slack.
I think the limit is 3 deer.

If you pass through city of kodiak with only 3 deer...... jus saying

3 for residents... one per year for nonresidents.

Absolutely not. In classic government form, they consider deer carcasses absconded by bears to be your fault. Indeed, eventually, they will be considering such events as illegal feeding of wildlife, subjecting the violator to fines.

If they wanted to stringently enforce "take" as written in the regs, you would never be allowed to leave the house with a gun to hunt.

Read it for laughs....????

I haven’t hunted Kodiak half the time some folks commenting probably have. Hell, I haven’t been on the planet half as long as some folks here have been hunting Kodiak!
Having said that, in my experience it has largely ebbed and flowed, and never seemed too big a worry to me. Some years have been sparse, many sort of in the middle, and some years I literally pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming, with how many deer can be seen in a single day of hunting.
One thing I have noticed more of, resident and non resident hunters, is the big boats that unleash small army’s of deer hunters on shore, where the hunters shoot any and I mean any buck, and keep going till tagged out. What they’re doing is 100% legal, and therefore not my business, but don’t really share the same values on what I’m looking for in a hunt apparently.
I’ll whine about it lol, but years the deer seem few and far between climbing up high usually helps.

If you want to shoot big bucks the only two options are climbing to the top or waiting until a major dump puts them on the beach, yarded. Of the big deer I have shot, only two were not up high, including the biggest I have shot.

sure looks like they should've employed the very effective SSS solution to azzhole bears, it only takes once and they learn the lesson of their lifetime and never do it again

I gotcha…I figured I knew what the answer was…..being an optimist can get in the way of reality anymore but I still try to think that people will do the right thing … to my discredit I sometimes extend my optimism to government which I know is fruitless and dumb. 😀🤬

I didn’t even consider that they might try to nail you for wanton waste or some other petty bullshit for doing the right and legal thing to do but unfortunately that’s where we’re at today.

Sorry for the minor thread detour and thanks for all the replies. 👍🏼

I don't see a problem defending what is yours. Shoot a bear defending your deer kill wouldn't bother me at all! Where the problem come's in is F&G figure everyone saying that is lying about it so you can't do it because some guy did lie about it. Government over reacting. Easier for government to tell you you can't do it! of course maybe you were between the bear and your dead deer. Then it becomes a matter of you defending yourself. Then you'll lose the right to defend yourself. It's a screwed up world!

Kodiak is a 100% drawing permit only hunt for brown bear. If you draw a fall permit, shoot a deer and hunt the gut pile. My experience is that there will be a bear on it before the next morning. But if you don't draw a bear permit, shooting a bear legally would only fall within DLP regs.

DLP (defense of life or property) shooting of bears on Kodiak is still legal, but legally harvested game meat doesn't fall within the "property" definition, and you can be confident that they'll investigate the scene. Yeah, it sucks, but the state and feds intensively manage those bears for obvious reasons. They really don't care if you and I hunt deer there and bring home any meat. They care about those bears.

And those bears aren't stupid. They learn quicker than a significant percentage of homo sapiens. They've come to completely understand the fall deer buffet rules: they can pretty much do whatever they want short of attacking the monkey. I won't bunt deer there anymore unless I'm staying in a cabin, and the cabins get shot out early each year. It just isn't worth it anymore to me.

Not true... road system has been registration and OTC forever.

I stand corrected. But I have no interest in paying the money necessary to access the Kodiak road area for a single deer when I can get a half steer (processed) for double the cost of airfare alone. A round trip ferry ticket with my camper and trailer twenty years ago was $1000.

I've hunted Kodiak deer with a party of guys. It was nice and affordable in a party. I've always thought that hunting the island from a yacht or commercial fishing boat would be great, but again, I can't justify the cost. I can hunt deer cheaper and with as good a success rate in the states, and I don't have to worry about being blown across the strait by a hurricane or have half a ton of bear bullying me for my deer carcass

I'm no expert on Kodiak deer but thought I would pass on an anecdotal conversation I had today at the gun counter with a nice young native man who lives on an eastern island off Kodiak. He was doing some last-minute shopping with his wife and young children and hoping the ferry would be on schedule.

He proudly showed me some pictures of some dandy bull elk and this year's deer harvest. I asked him how the deer were doing in his area, and he caught me off guard when he said "Good". I acted surprised and told him I had heard the deer were not doing well in some areas. He said it was true the deer harvest was poor in other areas and then told me what he believed and witnessed first-hand. He laid the blame on large charter boats running with upwards of 10 on-board. He said he watched them come back with 30 deer on-board and he also claimed the same boats were hammering the ducks. He personally had to go to one boat to complain about the birdshot scattering through the trees near his home and village. Again, its anecdotal, but he seemed very sincere and convincing to me.

How many boats run with large crews? How often? Do they all run to the same honey holes like the halibut charter boats do?

I'm not casting blame, just passing on young man's observation.

You mean like this?


Otherside of the boat looked the same.
Over 20 years ago in PWS, 6 guys, some dead now.

Deer kill off from snow is more devastating than hunters or bears, at least in PWS.

Traded some venison with the Alyeska RV for ice cream, cigars and paper towels.

No doubt. The best Alaskan deer hunt I did was the last half of December one year on Montague. I could have limited out without my rifle. They were stacked up on the beach at low tide, and a few feet into the wall of snow at high tide. Could have harvested them with the jawbone of an ass. We spent most of our time eating deer meat and lounging.

One more tidbit from the young man about bears robbing deer meat. He said most of bears he has seen or heard of taking hunter harvested deer are sows with cubs. He believes the sows are teaching this to their offspring. Is this not the same learned behavior as trash eating bear in urban areas?

I wonder if fish and wildlife has thought this through. In urban areas the homeowners are expected to keep trash indoors or secured or they could be fined. Urban trails and parks are built with $$$$$$ taxpayer money and then immediately closed following bear sightings. Is this the intended outcome for hunters as well? Why are bears held at a higher standard than humans? Kodiak is obviously about money, considering the enormous amount charged per guided hunts. Why are the Kenai Penn bears so coddled? I see several cow moose around my place each spring with twin calves dropped and within a week or two most cows have only one calf or zero calves left, and the cow is limping with visible scars. Yet, last year F&G sent out an emergency email following moose season canceling the Kenai brown bear registration due to harvest goals for 2022. What is the real goal?

Yep, The two hunts I made in PWS we went to Hinchinbrook late November. The deer were on the beach and were not going anywhere.
It was a neat hunt, but the picture was somewhat embarrassing as some were small and a few of the guys were shooting 300 win mags. If you dont hit them in the head it will waste a lot of meat, especially of they are small.

It doesn't take much of a cartridge to knock down those blacktails!

I started targeting bucks pretty quickly as they are typically bigger bodied.