Greeting guys and gals. Been on a long road to putting meat in freezer. Took a drive down to Homer to get on the ferry bound for Kodiak. Lived up here 30 years and never been past Girdwood. What a beautiful drive. It took me a few days to get to Homer where I bunked at Len's place for a few days. He introduced me to winter King fishing and had a blast. Let me back up.. Before I headed south, I made one more trip out photographing moose as we were still shy of snow.

Got a little bonus seeing this pretty little blonde griz sow taking advantage of the long fall feeding on some blueberries Ok back to Homer..and the Kings.. oh the Kings. I'm not much of a fisherman but it sure was fun trolling for salmon with a couple good guys. Learned a lot on fishing and putting them up. Thank you Len and John. I'll be back..

Finally loaded the Jeep on the ferry and on to Kodiak. Spent a lot of time down there but always flew out remote and camped. This time I planned on bowhunting the road system for deer, Mountain goat and Brown bear. The ladder of the three on registration permits. Deer season closed so I concentrated on goats and bears.



Had a few issues closing the distance to within bow range of the goats and overestimated my sneaky sneakiness. This playing with your food is for the not so hungry. Got thousands of dollars in long range rifles and i'm trying to use a bow. Doesn't make a lot of sense anymore. Figured them out for next time and had a blast running around in the hills of the island.


Weather was hit and miss. I got invited out on a wild cow roundup on a little island and gladly accepted the challenge. 70 Navy seals attempted to herd these cattle to corral on the North end of the island to no avail. We gave it a shot and failed miserably also. We went back to Kodiak island to regroup with our tails tucked.

Another fun looking trip JR, I'm jealous! Glad to always see your pictures. How long does it take for the ferry ride each direction?

The head guy of this adventure said if I wanted to go back and shoot one of those big old bulls that I could. Now this is exactly what I'm looking for...Meat. My buddy and I loaded back up in the boat and back over we went. Set up my new Arctic Oven Igloo and got comfortable. This was way harder than expected as I could have killed way more deer than cattle. I took me 5 days to track down a get a shot on this big old bull.


That was well worth all the trouble and work. What a bunch of meat. We called for a pick up and back to town. Got it all cut up, ground and stuffed at my buddies place. Just made up 128 pounds of sausage and will stuff it tomorrow. Took advantage of every nice day we had covering country and taking pics. The place is spectacular when the weather cooperates.






I spent a month down on Kodiak, made some new friends, seen some great wildlife and country and already planning next years trip. Now I hope to get a little cooler temps and snow so I can get out and plant some iron.



Good luck and be safe out there this season.

Awesome!!!! Thank you for sharing Howler!

What a trip. And Kodiak is a place I love to visit often.

Lovely shots ! Really like the two moose, so close up, with the mountains in the backdrop . Thank you for sharing, JR

[color:#3333FF][/color] Always impressive JR< Thanks

You take amazing pictures JR! Thanks for sharing your adventures with the rest of us. I had no idea there were free range cows on any of the islands down there, thats an interesting hunt.

Looks like a good trip how did you like the new tent

Breathtaking photos JR, all kinds of critters I have never seen in real life.
What is the rusty metal remnants of?

You know........there was a pretty extensive cattle operation on one of the near islands to Kodiak. In years gone by,,,but within recent memory..............when people were still free........... the ranchers there actually mounted machine guns on the top of the canopy of a Cub to protect their cattle from wolves and bears.

Maybe some of you Kodiakers have better information or ....at the very least, better memories

Thanks all. Pleasure is mine in sharing.

CastorGitter.... The ferry took 12 to 14 hours

Broncomformudv...The cattle were put on this island in 1944 and free ranged. They are owned by a Kodiak rancher. The native cooperation that now owns the island wants the cattle removed to make it some sort of bird sanctuary. I was working with some ranchers off Kodiak in effort to round up the cattle to remove them. That didn't go very well but sure was fun. There has been a couple attempts at this round up to no avail. I was able to go back on the island to try to kill the big herd bulls to make them a bit easier to move. This whole trip was to fill my freezer and gladly accepted the challenge. I could have shot way more deer than cattle as they were very elusive. Now my freezer is full.

AK Trapper... The Igloo tent was great. Taking back to Tent and Tarp for a couple little modifications I'd like. Perfect 2 man tent but 3 could be done.

Cathouse Jim....This little island was the home of WWII's Fort Tidball. It consisted of several observation and defense batteries. The big rusty piece of steel is one of the protective hoods that used to be over one of the two 6 inch guns at that battery. There is a lot of old buildings and relics around but the salt water and rainy weather of Kodiak takes it's toll very quick. I was really taken back by the history on the island. Spent a lot of time looking through the bunkers and taking pics.







The steel doors and hinges have mostly rusted to nothing. The concrete is beautiful without a crack one. Those were some tough hands that built those bunkers and did a great job. Most of the wooden structures have collapsed.

Got to see a bunch of Emperor Geese too. They sure are beautiful but never had the chance to get on them in better weather.

Stunning pics of the Emperor Geese.

One of my favorite journals.

Amazing shots, all those, JR....a time travel trip into history.

Thank you.

Ken, that was a rancher by the name of Joe Zentner that mounted the machine gun on his cub, and thinned the bears out around his place. I think that was in the late 50's, and early 60's.
There were no wolves there but all the ranchers were losing a lot of cattle to the bears. Zentner was a pretty tough old guy, he'd head out in the dark by himself with a 30-30 and a dim flashlight after any bear that came in to his corrals at night. If I remember right Alaska Sportsman magazine did a story story about him I think sometime in the early '60's.

JR sounds like an awesome trip, not many get invited to hunt them wild cattle. You can hunt deer anytime, but the chance to take one of the wild cows is a rare experience.

JR ,Beautiful pics there. i recognize some of your spots there. long island is really unspoiled with the WW2 bunkers. "Used" to go for rainbows in the lake there[ f & g will not stock it anymore with fingerlings] ,but a lot has changed here when lesnoi came in claiming a lot of property around town. as soon as they got claim in court they logged everything they could so a handful could get $$ . and trespassed the locals and they are so few of them and i hear don t even live here[AZ]. Blocked even access out at chiniak bunkers and beach. and a bunch of my old trapping spots. lots of friction been going on. got a chance a few year back and was able to buy 2 newhouse DLS #4 ,one with teeth that have Z stamped in them . Was told they were Zenters.Long Island was a super fund cleanup. Hope your meat doesn't glow. I am sure its fine with as much rain we get. Thanks for sharing those pics love those moose ones especially. Come on back and get some halibut next time.

Thanks Spek ! I knew someone had a better memory than I do !!

My wife's folks ran the mission in Kodiak for several years in the early 70's, and had a permit of some sort to kill a few cattle off the island every year.
They also hunted rabbits on Woody island.