Alaska Deer Hunting

Aurora Charters has for the past 20 years grown its business from bring people out of Seward to the mouth of Prince William Sound for great Alaskan halibut fishing. Now Aurora Charters has the opportunity to bring you to Kodiak Island for great Alaskan Sitka Black Tail Deer hunting. We understand that a great Alaskan hunting trip involves a large investment and requires a great deal of research, and hope our website will help out with this. Our goal is to provide a great hunt that will give you a lifetime of memories.

Location of your hunt: Kodiak Island

       Twenty thousand years ago most of the 5,000 square mile Kodiak Archipelago was covered by glaciers that scored and carved the landscape. Jagged peaks, fjord-like bays,and wide U-shaped valleys were left by the glacier retreat. Nature's handiwork created a place of spectacular scenic beauty and a wilderness ideally suited for abundant wild life and marine life

The land

Kodiak Island offers a wide range of terrain, from rolling grassy hills, to steep mountains with snow, to sandy beaches that stretch for miles. terrain can be different in each location we go. We try to go to where is is most suitable for your hunting group to hunt. A big appeal of Kodiak Island is the open country and its visibility. Hiking up the hillside while spending time glassing and then stalking is the preferred way for blacktail deer hunting

Sitka Blacktail Deer

     Early season hunting is concentrated in the alpine and sub alpine areas, the largest portion of harvest is taken in November during the rut. During late November and early December, heavy snow sometimes push deer down to lower levels where you can hunt them right off the beaches. Reddish-brown in the summer, their coats darken to a grey-brown in the winter. Sitka Black Tail Deer are also great swimmers and can be seen crossing deep channels between islands. Bucks around this time could weigh up to 120-200 pounds and does around 80-100 pounds

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Waterfowl

       We also offer the opportunity to go duck hunting while on your Kodiak hunting trip. Kodiak has many ducks that migrate through every year that make it a ideal place for waterfowl hunting. Here are some common species that we often take: Mallards, Golden Eye, Old Squaw, Harlequin, Eiders, and Scoters. Limit is 8 per day, 24 in possession for a Non-Resident.

Hunting Regulations 

       You are allowed to harvest up to 3 deer of either sex .

Hunting and Fishing Licenses

There are a couple of ways of getting these license for your hunt. You may purchase the license on-line o     n the ADFG web site before you arrive, or you buy them in anchorage the day before your hunt and any local hunting store. You also have to option to buy them right on-board the boat once you arrive.

       Non-resident hunting license- $85.00

Non-resident hunting and 7-day fishing combo license- $140.00 

        (will allow a NR to catch 12 Tanner and 12 Dungness Crab)

Deer Kill Tag-$150.00 (up to 3 available)

        State Waterfowl Stamp-$5.00

Fishing

Halibut fishing is another great part of our hunts. Halibut fishing is Kodiak is awesome, where we often can catch halibut over a 100lbs. As apart of your hunt, we will provide all the equipment for halibut fishing (rod, reel, bait, tackle, and processing). All of our captains are Alaskan Fishing Guides, and are great fisherman. the limit is 2 per-person, per day. So if your hunting party would like to fish instead of hunting our captains will surely put you on some fish!

Lodging and Meals

The M/V Emerald Fjord will be the back bone of the hunts, transporting you safely through-out the Kodiak Islands. She was built from the ground up to be a safe and comfortable floating hunting lodge. She is equipped with a head (bathroom), dining area, bunk area, kitchen area, and spacious covered back deck. She also has a generator on-board that provides power. Each hunter will have there own personal bunk with storage compartment.

Meals

Each morning and evening your captain and deckhand will prepare meals for your hunting group. All of our meals will be hearty home cooked meals. Lunch will be supplied after breakfast for our hunters to pack for day. In between meals snacks will be placed out. There will also be beverages for the week, such as, coffee, soda, tange, and bottled water.

About our hunts

In Alaskan hunting regulations there is a major difference between a big game "Transporter" and a big game "Guide". Aurora Charters is a big game transporter. We offer transportation and lodging services to hunters looking for a more do-it-yourself type of hunt. You as the hunter determine the overall pace of the hunt. You will also be hunting with a hunting partner and not a guide. This allows you to choose what bear to take and what pace of hunt you want as well.

When you arrive to the boat we will meet and greet and get you and your gear on-board. We make sure all license and paperwork are in order and give a short orientation about the boat and the safety devices it has on-board and then we will push off. Basically first and last day of the hunts are travel days. but as soon as we leave the harbor we are officially on our hunt, so you may start glassing the shore line for Deer. 

To get you to and from the M/V Emerald Fjord, we carry a custom built Niaid ridged hull inflatable skiff. this skiff is unsinkable, and will transport you to and from the shore safely. Our licensed Captains will be taking you in the skiff to assure your safety on the water.

Each Morning the crew will get up before daybreak to prepare breakfast, and to help get your lunch packed so you can be out before sunrise. before you leave the boat, the crew will provide you will a VHF radio for you to call the boat when ready for pick-up.

When you get a Deer down or ready to call it a day, give the crew a call and they will promptly come to shore and pick you up. That evening you and your hunting party can relax in a warm heated cabin, and tell your great hunting stories over a great home cooked meal provided by the crew. The last day of the hunt we will start heading back early morning, this day will be spent on preparing your game for shipping

Success

As far as the Deer hunting off Kodiak Island, the success of a great harvest is very good. we often see over a 100 Deer a week, and to most hunters it is just picking the right one. all-though we can't guarantee a successful hunt, the chance of harvesting a Alaskan Sitka Black Tail Deer are very good!

Game Care and Shipping Home

Once your Deer has been taken it must immediately be kill tagged and field dressed. there are really 2 ways of doing this, first many hunters prefer to drag the deer to the beach where it can be picked up by skiff, taken back to the boat and be skinned right on-board under the cover of our back deck. For hunters wishing to hike inland in search of there Deer we recommend that you bring a pack frame to pack the Deer out. Freezer space will be provided for the hunters wishing to have there bear hides frozen for the taxidermy. Most hunters pack there meat in wax boxes that are provided and fly them out as extra baggage. each box will hold roughly 50 lbs of meat per box. Each box will cost 15.00