nature’s pilots, symbolically showing the way as their kindhas done since mankind first ventured forth onto the sea inboats. Humans are relative newcomers on this timelessstage. Hunters belong in such settings.

It had been a couple of decades or so since I hunted inSoutheast Alaska. Always before, bears were the reasonfor going, but this time it was for the compact, secretivelittle Sitka black-tailed deer that occur in this part of theworld. And the expedition was a virtual concert, orches-

trated among SCI and several of the organization’s majorcorporate partners. Literally, it became a study in syner-gism for all involved.

Early this past year, the SCI Convention and the indus-try’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trades (SHOT) Showoverlapped for all but a little more than a day. This left meshooting across the floor of the SHOT Show in a blur,attempting to take care of four days of SCI business in eighthours of concentrated networking.

An early morning misty cloud not hundreds of feetoverhead still silently shrouded the estuarial flats justabove tideline. It was cold. It was wet. Nearly noth-

ing more than a ghostly illusion, the buck stood motionlessjust inside the rainforest’s shadowy, dark treeline curtain,aware of our presence nearly a couple hundred yards away,yet curious enough to continue watching. That is, until thesilence was shattered by the .308’s report. The buck fell inplace at the shot and then there was a return to an eerily

pervasive silence. The hunt was over. Life moved on.November in Southeast Alaska is a fascinating time. It’s

on the cusp between cold and colder. Yet it is so incrediblyand oxymoronically beautiful that it fills nature’s templewith a spiritual wholeness that is as filling as it is daunting.Alaska is a big place.

On the island-hopping trip aboard the Alaskan Grandeurfrom Juneau to Admiralty Island, humpback whales tail-flapped their greetings as dolphins buzzed the bow like

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Sitka Blacktail In The MorningA Thrill After A Decades-Long HiatusBY STEVE COMUSPAGE DESIGN BY MEG BENHASE

Guide/outfitter Jimmie Rosenbruch, right, and Ruger’s Ken Jorgensenshow a nice Sitka blacktail buck Jorgensen took on the hunt.

Author Steve Comus shows the Sitka blacktail buck he took duringthe hunt.

Early morning scene in Juneau harbor in November, taken from theAlaskan Grandeur as it headed to offshore islands for the hunt.

Muskeg parks such as this provideprime areas for calling Sitka black-tails to the hunter.

As I rounded the corner at theSwarovski booth, Jim Morey literallygrabbed my sleeve and pulled mefrom the aisle.

“Sitka blacktails, what do youthink?” he interjected.

“Always thought about hunting forthem, but never quite got around to itwhen I used to hunt in Alaska a lot,” Ireplied as my eyes searched past himto see where I needed to go next.

“Want to do it?” he continued.“Why not?” was my robotic reply.

Turned out that the folks fromSwarovski and Sturm, Ruger & Co.,both staunch supporters of SCI, hadhuddled and were putting together anexpedition for later in the year. Moredetails were discussed in the ensuinghour with Ken Jorgensen of Ruger,and the plan took shape.

Such a venue would provideample opportunity to check out thenew Swarovski Optik Rail systemriflescope, and Ruger was introduc-ing its new Super Redhawk Alaskan,

which is a very big bore, snub-nose,double-action revolver. Originally,plans called for the rifle to beRuger’s No. 1 stainless steel single-shot with laminated stock cham-bered for the .30-06 Springfieldcartridge. But by the time the triptook place, the rifle was Ruger’sModel 77 Sporter bolt-action modelin .308 Winchester. This is the Model77 with a 22-inch stainless steelbarreled action and laminated stock.

Deciding what gear is best for a Sitkablacktail hunt in November in SoutheastAlaska can be both easy and confounding.Several factors are “known.” For example,

the weather forecast can be made months,even years, in advance: it’s going to be coldand wet. The only question is exactly howcold because it’s going to be either verywet, or very, very wet.For this expedition, the drill would

include seeing just how Ruger’s new SuperBlackhawk Alaskan snub-nose double-action revolver “carried” in the real world.Brown bears occur where the blacktailslive, and that means there is always an offchance of a bear encounter of undesirablekind.Although there is only a remote

likelihood of such an occurrence wherethis hunt happened, it is never a bad idea

to be ready. Also, it is nice to know howsomething carries, should a future fishingtrip in Alaska happen to come along.The author’s Ruger Alaskan was

chambered for the .480 Ruger cartridge,and was carried in a synthetic shoulder rigfrom Uncle Mike’s. Belt holsters make lesssense in such settings, and the shoulderrig was worn on the outside where therevolver, in cross-draw mode, was alwayshandy if needed. It wasn’t.Before the hunt, I contacted Steve

Johnson at Hornady to talk about ammo forthe revolver. He suggested the factoryloading that features the 400-grain XTPbullet. A pre-hunt checkout revealed thatthere was no trouble hitting a grapefruit-size target at five yards every time, eithershooting the handgun in the single-actionor double-action mode.

Gear for the Sitka Blacktail Hunt

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Alisha Rosenbruch-Decker is among the tophunting guides in Alaska.

Four members of the Rosenbruch family aboard the Alaskan Grandeur. From right are MaryAnnand Jimmie with daughter and son-in-law Alisha Rosenbruch-Decker and Zach Decker.

continued on page 239

The author useda Ruger Model77 rifle in .308Winchester,Swarovski scope and binocular, andHornady ammo for the successful hunt.

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But back to the beginning.During those initial talks at the

SHOT Show, Morey mentioned thatthe hunt was to be with GlacierGuides, Inc.

“That’s Jimmie Rosenbruch’s opera-tion, isn’t it?” I quipped without miss-ing a beat.

“Yep” was Morey’s explanation.He didn’t need to say a lot more for

several reasons, among which was thefact that mere days before, at the SCIConvention in Reno, Rosenbruchreceived the prestigious InternationalHunting Award. Also in recent times,his daughter, Alisha “Mutts”Rosenbruch-Decker had been recog-nized as one of the country’s topguides. And if that wasn’t enough, Istill recalled vividly the day a couple ofyears before when my cell phone rangas I was talking about hunting withInar Hoff of Merkel on the grounds ofthe Grand American in Vandalia, Ohioin August. Morey was on the otherend of the call, wanting to knowwhether I could go with him on a bearhunt in Alaska – and Glacier Guideswere to be the outfitters. Schedule

conflicts precluded my presence onthat trip, but the call served a pleas-antly unrelated purpose nonetheless.

My hearing went south decadesago, so to complete the telephonicconversation, I walked around thebuilding at the Grand American to getto a quieter spot. As I re-holstered thecell phone, I literally bumped intoTony Gioffre, one of SCI’s leadingvolunteers in the Central Ohio area.Tony’s a great guy and one heck of atrapshooter. But I digress.

Deep down inside, there wasanother more personal reason why Ilooked forward to the trip withRosenbruch. Before joining the staff ofSCI, I was an on-again, off-againmember from around 1972 when theclub was formed. Rosenbruch hasbeen associated with SCI for at leastmost of that time (he signs-up clientswho are not members, and is a cham-pion of SCI’s Record Book of TrophyAnimals), so I had known of him fordecades. Old-line members under-stand the feeling: You become unfa-miliarly familiar with others in theorganization and eventually kind ofwant to get together. SCI always hasbeen that kind of club.

So, when I was unable to huntwith Glacier Guides that year, it was

more than merely the disappoint-ment of missing a hunt. It meantmissing an opportunity to share timein the wild with one of the organiza-tion’s highly respected supporters.That’s why the expedition took onnew meaning when Moreyexplained the details this past year.

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Alisha Rosenbruch-Decker, an SCI MasterMeasurer, measures the antlers of one ofthe deer taken on the hunt.

Sitka Blacktail in the Morningcontinued from page 100

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islands jut majestically from the coldPacific into the low-hanging clouds.

The first couple of days resulted inno animals down, but served well toacclimate the group to the area andconditions, and to sort out all of thenormal things like wardrobe malfunc-tions caused by the terrain and otherdemanding hunting conditions. Thedrill was repetitious: Hit the beach,trod upward, check out the deepforests and then sit and call on theedges of muskeg openings.

For example, day one with guideZach Decker (Alisha’s husband) andSwarovski’s Dean Capuano resulted inthe spotting of a black-tailed doe –twice. Day two with Alisha andCapuano was more interesting, butstill nothing down. On that day, Alishableated on the mouth call, and just asthough it was scripted that way, anaging but physically stout buck camecautiously yet steadily from the left –appearing first about 100 yards out.

With my back against a small tree,I sat like a statue as I watched thebuck approach, readying the rifle abit more each time he disappearedbriefly behind a bush in between. Itwas not unlike the classic wildturkey hunting scenario.

As he peered from around a bush atabout 50 yards, I was able to see hisantlers clearly. Overall, the main beamwas quite massive and extremelywide, but tipped on one side by noth-ing more than a crab claw, and only acouple inches or so of tine on each sideof the “Y” on the other side. He wouldnot fall to my bullet that day.

But he was still there, and wasbecoming more curious by the minute.Capuano didn’t have a clear shot, andI suspect Alisha was beginning towonder whether I’d napped off or justwent brain dead. We sat there, motion-less, as the buck continued to moveever so cautiously toward the origin ofthe original call.

Fast-forward 10 months to this pastNovember, and the hunting partyboarded the posh yacht AlaskanGrandeur in Juneau, headed for variousislands along the legendary inlandpassage from Seattle on the south toAnchorage and beyond to the northand west. The Alaskan Grandeur servesas a mobile base hunting camp,anchoring near prime hunting spots,which means that each day, it is a rela-tively short trip in skiffs to whereverlooks good. The skiffs are beached andthen the actual hunt begins afoot,negotiating everything from tidal flatsto steep, moss-carpeted and dank rain-forests to classic muskeg parks as the

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Outboard-powered skiffs took hunters fromthe Alaskan Grandeur to the various huntinglocations.

The Alaskan Grandeur is a superb yacht thatserves as the hunting base camp.

continued on page 242

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“I thought it might legitimize (thebusiness) if they saw I was a hunter,”he said, noting that he hunts off andon all year, every year, for himself.He’s thinking about doing a Siberiansheep hunt in the future.

Idle talk of hunts past and futurewas interrupted by the hunt at hand. Itwas time to head into the pre-dawndarkness so Zach and I could be on-foot and in a hunting area at first light.

Although each day saw the deerbecoming more active, we had noticedthat there were already fresh hoof-prints in the estuarial flats each morn-ing, meaning the deer were there andgone by the time we hit the beach.

After beaching the skiff, Zach and Imoved slowly through some bushythickets near the water’s edge, hopingto get a glimpse of a buck, if one wasstill around. We’d gone less than aquarter mile when, through his binoc-ular, Zach spotted the buck. He wasonly partially visible at the forest’sedge, directly across the estuarial flatsfrom where we stood.

I took a quick look through mySwarovski 10x32s, saw enough mass,width and tine length to know instantlythat the buck was a shooter andswitched automatically into kill mode.

The buck was looking directly at usfrom his partially protected positionnearly 200 yards away. The air wasstill. All was quiet. Zach stood motion-less in plain view, allowing the buck toconcentrate on him. Meanwhile, I spot-ted a small deadfall log not 20 feetaway and identified it as a great restfor a shot from the prone position.

As I took the few stealthy steps andthen slowly slipped into the proneposition, my right hand moved thepower setting on the 3-10x42Swarovski scope from the 3X settingused when walking to the 10X settingfor the shot. With my left handbetween the log and the forend of therifle, I settled into position, sliding themanual safety off as the reticle foundthe buck across the wide open area.

The scope had the TDS reticle, whichmakes shots at virtually any distanceeasier and more predictable. The riflewas sighted so it was dead-on at 100yards with the primary crosshair, on at200 yards with the next crosshairdown, etc. Due to grass, branches andextreme shadows, I could see well onlythe antlers, face and part of the chestarea of the buck.

I double-checked antler mass, widthand points as I moved the proper reti-cle cross to the half-foot-in-diameterpatch of hair I could see. It was clearthat my only shot was to put the 150-

SAFARI JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2006

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I figured that if nothing else, the oldbuck served well as the equivalent of alive decoy, in case there was some-thing bigger out there, just beyond abush or a tree. Minutes passed andcontinued passing until the buck wasquite close (I figured 18 feet, andAlisha put it at 17). I studied everydetail of the deer, happy to have theopportunity to check out everything,including eyelashes. We stared at eachother for the longest time. Neither ofus blinked. Finally, he lost interest,turned and slowly ambled away –going back into buck mode a littleover 100 yards out in front by thrash-ing a sapling with his antlers.

The real advantage of a mobile basecamp became apparent when, after acouple of days of not much action, wewere able to up-anchor and power to

more prime places. This translatedinto a half-day cruise to AdmiraltyIsland. In addition to serving as aconvenient mid-hunt break of rest andrelaxation, it was a great time to get toknow the family and its operationeven better.

On the trip were Rosenbruch, wifeand camp cook MaryAnn, Zach andAlisha. Last fall was the third seasonfor the Alaskan Grandeur, which is thethird custom-built yacht theRosenbruchs have used during their41 years of operating in Alaska.

“This is a pure form of hunting,”Rosenbruch explained as he gesturedwith his hand to a nearby island. Andhe knows something about hunting,having won nearly every majoraward the world has to offer. In addi-tion to being this year’s WeatherbyAward winner, Rosenbruch hasreceived the Professional Hunter, C.J.McElroy and International Hunterawards from SCI. And he is still anactive hunter globally.

“We’ve been this year (hunting) inEthiopia and New Zealand, and wereantelope hunting (in the U.S.) a coupleof weeks ago,” he explained.

Yet Rosenbruch explained thatinitially he did not set out withawards in mind.

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Here, a humpback whale waves greetingswith its tail.

As one might expect with a big borehandgun, recoil is robust, but not painful withthis combination. Returning on-target fromrecoil and capping off a subsequent shot isboth intuitive and quick. As a self-defense rigfor the outdoors, it works well. I have no ideaprecisely how the bullet might perform on anenraged bruin. I had an occasion a few yearsback to take a bison with the Hornadyloading for the .480 Ruger cartridge – thenwhile hunting with Jim Skildum of MagnumResearch and using a single-action revolverwith seven-inch barrel and open sights. At 25yards, the bullets took out both lungs andwere resting against the hide on the far sideof the bison. That’s credible performance fora handgun round.The rifle for the hunt ended up being the

Ruger Model 77 Sporter in .308 Winchester,primarily because it happened to be handywhen the trip came along. The longeranswer is that initially I had planned to usea Ruger No. 1B in stainless steel withlaminated stock, but found that the basesfor the Swarovski rail scope system at handat the time dictated a Model 77. Noproblem, however, because there isn’tenough difference in performance between.30-06 Springfield and .308 Winchester toaffect the outcome of the shot on game –assuming all else is addressed.While I was talking to Hornady’s Steve

Johnson about the ammo for the Ruger

Super Redhawk Alaskan, he asked aboutammo for the rifle. Initially, I hadn’t given itmuch thought, because through the years Ihave concocted a long list of greathandloads for that cartridge, and in previoussessions, that particular rifle showed that itcould shoot virtually any of them quite well.“Why?” I asked Johnson, “Do you folks

have something that might be interesting?”“Do you mind a little meat damage?” he

quipped quickly.“What I want is for the deer to drop in-

place,” I replied automatically. “It’s thickenough and wet enough where we’ll behunting to lose a wounded animal quiteeasily if it runs off – even if it falls deadlater.”Johnson detailed some of the in-field

results he and others there had been gettingwith the InterBond bullet, so by the time theconversation ended, it was decided that therifle ammo would be the #80939 .308Winchester factory loading that features the150-grain InterBond bullet at 2,820 feet persecond muzzle velocity.Sighting-in sessions revealed that the

Model 77 would shoot tight groups with theHornady loading – like 3/4-inch or less at100 yards, and the determinate being morethe shooter than the rig.And, as it turned out, the gear was perfect

for the trip. All went well, all worked well andsuccess happened.

Gearcontinued from page 100

grain Hornady InterBond bullet intothe area where the left shoulder andneck came together. Given the orienta-tion of the buck to me, that would putthe bullet path and wound channel ona slight bias through the body of theanimal, probably resulting in an exitwound just forward of the right ham.Also, it would logically take the top ofthe lungs and some other stuff with it.

Lighting was both dim and flat. Yetthe scope divulged total detail. I do notremember squeezing the trigger.Rather, I recall concentrating socompletely on the rock-solid sightpicture that I might have “burned” aspot on the buck if one’s eyesight werea laser. At the report of the shot, Iwatched the buck fall in place.Swarovski scopes are among the veryfew I’ve used in which I can routinelywatch the hit, even in recoil. I think ithas something to do with field of view,but whatever it is, it is great.

Quickly, I cycled another round intothe chamber. Once an animal has beenhit, there is no time for rookiemistakes. If that buck got up, I wasgoing to be ready to hit him again. Butthere was nothing.

All the time, Zach had been watch-ing the buck intently through hisbinocular. He said that the only thingI didn’t see from my vantage pointwas the buck’s legs thrashing in abrief spasm and then becoming stillafter he collapsed.

A postmortem check revealed thatthe bullet had entered exactly where Ihad been looking, and that it didprecisely what I imagined it would do– and more. In addition to enteringprecisely at the right place, it wentthrough the body on a bias and exitedjust fore of the offside ham. But in theprocess, it not only opened upperfectly, it sent bone fragments intothe body cavity in the process, whichmeans it was about like a grenadegoing off inside the animal. The buckliterally never knew what hit it.

Meanwhile, Ruger’s Ken Jorgensenscored a nice buck with a Ruger Model77 in .270 Winchester – all on camerafor Ruger’s television show on theOutdoor Life Network.

Sufficiently de-iced, the AlaskaAirlines 737 climbed through a layer ofsleet, then snow as it lifted off fromJuneau on its milk run to Seattle via Sitkaand then Ketchikan. November is thatway in Southeast Alaska. Successful?Yes, the hunt with the Rosenbruchfamily was that, and a lot more..For more information, visit the websitewww.glacierguidesinc.com, or call/fax(435) 628-0973.

Sitka Blacktail in the Morningcontinued from page 240