Deer Hunting out of Juneau

[bgreen]

We finally got to Juneau to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and see if we could round up some venison after a long season of unsuccessful hunting on the Kenai.

We ran around to the back side of Douglas Island. The first few deer were hiding in the little groves under the forest canopy right at the beach. We shot 4 in a couple hours, gutted them out, and headed back. On the way we saw two somewhat larger deer right out on the beach so we stopped the boat, launched the raft, paddled to shore in plain sight of the deer, landed, and shot. It seems the deer have come down to the beach due to the high snow fall, and extreme cold weather. On the way out, we saw at least 10 more deer right on the high water line. Crazy.

The deer in the picture was the smallest of the bunch. And to its credit, Im 6'4" and 260 lbs. lol

 

[tyrex13]

Sweet dude, nice Bambi. Did you get any bucks?

 

[ak_powder_monkey]

take me around douglas! I need some venison

 

[AKJOB]

Today

Today

I hit Douglas today and saw three (the weather was too rough for my skiff, so I hunted on the road system). Most of the sign I saw was between the 300-900 foot level though. I didn't expect them to be that high when I went, but the fresh tracks were just concentrated a lot higher.

Powder Monkey, the Douglas road system deer in Juneau are no doubt the best-educated deer in the state. That doesn't mean that you can't find them though. I think it's Homerdave on here whose signature says "Habitat habitat Habitat, which part don't you get?" It's the same thing for blacktail hunting, all you need to do is find the right habitat and you'll find deer.

I didn't shoot one today, had a chance to take two does/young bucks, but I chose to pass them up. The third deer I saw was a nice buck, but didn't get him.

 

[bgreen]

That was the first deer I've ever shot, other than a small spike fork moose I took when I was about 13. I was dissapointed to see how small it was, but thouroughly satisfied with how it tasted the next day when my Mother cooked up some of the meat! My second deer was a much larger Doe, very fat. (Had over 2" of fat in places)

We had three hunters on this trip including me, in addition to my wife and mother. We took 5 deer, only one of which was a buck. We did see another buck on the way out, but the wind was really picking up and we wanted to get back to the dock pretty bad. (Pretty small boat)

It was pretty apparent how far the road hunting pressure had pushed the deer back. We saw at least one road hunter standing on the beach as we headed back to the dock, but there were no deer within walking distance from him. They were all farther back toward Middle Point.

 

[ak_powder_monkey]

I hit Douglas today and saw three (the weather was too rough for my skiff, so I hunted on the road system). Most of the sign I saw was between the 300-900 foot level though. I didn't expect them to be that high when I went, but the fresh tracks were just concentrated a lot higher.

Powder Monkey, the Douglas road system deer in Juneau are no doubt the best-educated deer in the state. That doesn't mean that you can't find them though. I think it's Homerdave on here whose signature says "Habitat habitat Habitat, which part don't you get?" It's the same thing for blacktail hunting, all you need to do is find the right habitat and you'll find deer.

I didn't shoot one today, had a chance to take two does/young bucks, but I chose to pass them up. The third deer I saw was a nice buck, but didn't get him.

So what sort of habitat should I be looking for? So far I've just followed around tracks hoping to come around the corner and run into one, pretty haphazardly. Anyhow I would really like to take my first big game animal sometime in the near future.

 

[bgreen]

From my very limited experiance, you should be looking in the low areas that will provide more food, and less snow cover. I'll attach some pictures of the areas in which we had success...

 

[bgreen]

There were many many random tracks and one good game trail through the little "grove" just inside the tree line. The terrain was very easy to walk through as there was little underbrush and limited dead fall. Somewhat of a "canopy" created from the trees. I shot the first deer in this type of area. Had I known it was there I would have stalked along this ridge just bakc from tree line, looking down into the little "grove". From this vantage point I could have viewed the grove and the beach quite well.

 

[bgreen]

This is looking down the ridge into the grove, you can see how close it is to the high water line on the beach.


​

 

[bgreen]

Just some random pictures of the hunt. It was quite cold!

 

[bgreen]

Anyone know the significance of these markers?

 

[bgreen]

Saw lots of small porcupines. (are all the animals on this island miniature? lol)

 

[bgreen]

Rafting to shore

 

[bgreen]

More pictures

 

[bgreen]

Me and my wife Molly.

 

[bgreen]

The kicker didnt fair so well. lol.

 

[bgreen]

The ride back.

 

[Sheep Hunter]

These are "Day Boards" used for navigation and maintained by the USCG

 

[ak_powder_monkey]

nice pictures!