I am jealous of all you state side deer hunters. Wife and me are in early 70's and just ain't up to packing a moose or caribou very far. Our little island deer eat as good or better then any Alaskan game and I have ate a few Alaskan critters in the last 55 years.
A buddy called me in November after a successful Prince William Sound deer hunt and told me to come pick up a whole deer, minus the innards. No kidding, he gave us a big fat doe that is so good. What a pal!
The few times I was fortunate enough to hunt our Sitka Black Tail Deer I scored some nice fat does in early November. All of my Alaska hunting has been done with my custom Mod. 70 "Stainless Classic" and my old pre-64 Mod. 70 "Featherweight" 30-06.
I used the 30-06 and 165 grain Nosler Partitions. Since almost every place our deer are hunted has brown bears that often associate shots with deer gut piles. So when I hunt our deer I always want "enough gun", just in case. I would have no problem lung shooting a deer with my .338 and Barnes 225 grain TTSX bullets.
A couple of years ago I picked up a Tikka T3X Superlite in 6.5 Creed with a SWFA 3-9x42 FFP scope. It shoots 127 grain Barnes LRX bullets into tiny groups and in a pinch I am sure it would work on a big coastal brownie. But, really don't want to do that. So if it was not for big bears the Tikka would be my choice.
