Little background on myself, more of a lurker on this forum. Was born and raised in Eagle River, AK and grew up hunting all sorts of big game from Kodiak Island all the way north to the Koyukuk region.
Last harvest was when I lived in Alaska in 2010, my first bull moose.
2011- No luck moose hunting
2012-2014 - Lived in Texas with very limited access to hunting
2015-2016 - No luck hunting the grey ghost on the Wetside or Muley's on the east side
2017- Success!
A more than generous forum member on here has been giving me tips and locations to check out in Whatcom and Skagit counties the past couple years. I have hunted lots of Sitka blacktail with great success but these Columbia blacktail have always eluded me, or were out in the worst weather possible. Last weekend I went out for opening weekend and had no luck. Yesterday everything turned around for me.
I went to check out another spot suggested by this forum member. Got to the gate at around 13:00 and headed up to the spot. Spent two hours walking slow for the mile and glassed along the way. I got to the spot and decided to check out the first area, went slow and glassed with no luck, of course it was cold and pissing rain out. I was this close to packing it in and heading back to the truck, against my better judgement I decided to check out the second area of this location.
I made my way farther along and was almost there when I looked up and saw what I thought to be a doe. I sat there for a minute and realized there was another deer in front of her behind some brush. A few looks through the binos and determined it was a spike! I contemplated shooting the spike as it's still early in the season, but you can't eat the antlers and I haven't had much luck in a few years. I had no shot what so ever so I crept up a little closer until I had a clear shot. I dropped my pack so the shoulder strap wouldn't interfere with my shot. The shot was now clear and both deer did not run, ( I must have ran into some stupid deer) the spike and doe slowly walked away not giving me a shot until the spike quartered away at 20 yards. I raised my 06 and sent a 180 gr nosler partition smack into it. I looked up and noticed he hunched in the middle, in my mind I'm thinking bingo, direct hit.
They both went over a small hill and I grabbed my pack and headed down. I get over the top and notice a deer standing there, it was a spike as well...the one I thought was a doe was a smaller spike. In my head I'm thinking, don't shoot again, my gut told me I made a great shot. I'm glad I kept my composure, because I walked about 10 feet farther and saw my spike laying there. I dragged him into the open and gutted him, direct heart shot and an extremely quick ethical kill. The next hour was spent dragging him back to the car.
He's not the biggest but he's my first Columbia blacktail and I got about 40lbs of meat off of it and that is great since my freezer was empty
I would have gotten the same amount of meat off of a nice 6 point Sitka blacktail, I'm anxious to see what bigger future Columbia blacktails hold for me
My biggest take away was not to wear my glasses in this weather, I must have been in a rush to leave after school but my glasses were fogged most of the day and absolutely affected my hunting ability. A lesson learned..
