Queen charlottes in December?

[MattB]

Anyone ever chased the Sitka blacktails of the Charlottes? A few of us are trying to plan a trip for just after christmas to early January. I heard the bucks drop their antlers fairly early...any truth to this? I know there is a lot of deer on the island, when i was there a few years back they were everywhere! But im guessing they will be a little tougher to find now ;)

[Tank]

Ahhh the Queen Charlotte, 10 bag limit, between seasons deer hunt....
I've looked at that season in the regs many times as a way to deer hunt during the off season, but the logistics of time off, a long drive, ferry crossings, and no local experience always ends up raining over any attempt to organize a trip.:sad:

Good luck on your hunt and bring back lots of pics and detailed maps to help encourage the rest of us to finaly make the drive!:biggrin:

[Gus]

I was wondering about that myself. Fill the rest of us in on any info you find out.thx

[todbartell]

I was there 4 years ago from Dec 20-26th

record dump of snow, logging roads werent being plowed due to no active logging

saw 0 deer

'Thunderstix' might be able to help you out...

[PGKris]

Hey about the bag limits there. It's 10 deer right. OK that's fine but I've been told that anyone that needs to transport their deer home can only move 3 in accordance with the 3 deer province wide bag limit? So can you only take 3 home if you shoot them on the island? So for someone who doesn't live on the island(s) you can only shoot 3? I've been confused about this.

[DDD]

Was up there a couple years ago for five days at the end of Dec, beginning of Jan. Didn't see tons of deer (no bucks) but I filled all four of my tags easily. Hunted near Juskatla in 6-13, pretty thick bush, but the deer are in there. FYI, the bag limit and possesion limit have been increased to 15 and five. Good Luck.

[PGKris]

FYI, the bag limit and possesion limit have been increased to 15 and five. Good Luck.

So does that mean the average joe-mainland can move 5 deer??

[Gus]

I believe thats correct.

[Steeleco]

Pg 64 in the book states just that, season limit of 15 and possesion limit of 5, and that's either sex.

Bucks June 1 to Feb 28-06
Does Sept 1 to Feb 28-06

If it were not so hard to get too!!!

[Jager]

There is a special licence you can get for QCI that lets you exceed the 3 deer provincial bag limit. I think the tags you buy under this license are somewhat different than the rest of the province. Example: if you get a blacktail in region1, mulie region3 and mulie region5 thats your 3 deer....however if you use these "over the counter regular deer tags" in the Charlottes you'd be S.O.L if you want to get another deer on the mainland. Go get your QCI deer license so your other tags will still be good.

ooops, I just noticed when you were planning on going. I would think all mainland deer seasons would be over so you may as well get use out of your un-used tags.

There are lots of logging roads to drive if you don't run into snow like Firebird. I would go anywhere between Juskatla and QC City.

Good Luck and don't forget to waterproof everything!

[Kirby]

Just curious, what is the average weight of the deer live? Curious as to how much meat 5 deer is equal to?

Kirby

[todbartell]

The second time I went there in April was for bear, deer season was closed. There were deer everywhere.

Small buggers, I'd say the mature does we were seeing were 80-120 lbs live

I think the bigger bucks can go live around 175?? I saw some pics of some nice deer.

THe fawns and such are tiny, 50 lb'ers :smile:

[Thunderstix]

Make sure to leave sex attached! Even though anything goes, they still want it on....I found out the hard way:oops: ....just a friendly warning slip though.

[Thunderstix]

Oh yeah, I have friends that go regularly in Feb and they slaughter them...5 guys=25 deer.

[MattB]

WOW! thanks for the help guys!

Thunderstix-Do you have any idea of when the bucks start dropping their antlers? I would still like to get a 3-4 pointer and maybe get it mounted if it meets my 90" minimum :grin: LMAO. I am going to go for meat though too, im guessing theyre tasty little buggers!

[Buck_virgin]

The Queen Charlotes are the absolute best time a guy could have! The deer are tasty. I have been up there the third week in december and encountered the best steelhead fishing ever aswell as cutties and dollies. I went up again in the begening of february and saw a shwack o deer and 2 of us got only 2 each (lack of tags not deer) only one was a buck and had no antlers. We drove the roads a lot and never saw much (even walking). The trick is to go along the shore of inlets and shoot them off of the beach (not from the boat). It is the best way to do it I think. Use a small caliber though like a .243 or 22-250 or do headshots. If you don't there will be some meat damage. The price of the Charlottes deer has dropped....they are only $10 per tag. If you want anymore info pm me.