On my first Kodiak boat hunt in 2005, with my eldest daughter then almost 12 years old, I found this beautiful buck on the last hour of the hunt in the middle of a stormy, rainy day.

My daughter had already shot her buck, on day 2 of the 8 day hunt, and I had taken two smaller classic Kodiak fork-antlered Sitka’s, but I was enjoying this hunt right to the final minute, and sure enough five minutes after taking this buck the boat captain sounded the “olly olly oxen free” call of the boat horn, signaling the hunters to come out to the beaches for pick up by the skiff.