Sika Deer
For those wanting to hunt something different but the costs associated with an Rocky Mountain elk hunt or caribou hunt puts them out of reach, the annual sika elk hunt on Chincoteague NWR in Virginia fits the bill perfectly. In mid-summer the NWR opens the lottery for applications ($5) for both archery and firearms hunts on the refuge for that winter. The drawing is in in September for the archery hunt and October for the firearms hunts and winners are notified immediately.
We got lucky and were drawn for an early December hunt in Zone 10A which is almost on the Maryland border right along the beach and requires about a 45 minute ride from the check station on the refuge. You can have up to 5 hunters in your party with each hunter paying a $20 permit fee for the hunt. You must attend a briefing the day before your hunt which is held at the visitor center where the rules and regulations are reviewed and local conditions are also reviewed. What struck us immediately was that when the refuge manger got up and everyone expected him to say, "Don't do this and don't do that!", the first words out of his mouth were, "I am glad your here and I need you to hunt and kill Sika! If your truck gets stuck don't spend hours digging it out, you hunt and we'll come help you get unstuck!" This new manger turned out to be an avid hunter and outdoorsman.
After the briefing we were set loose to scout our areas and set up blinds, treestands or whatever else you needed. We brought a climber stand for my son and a ground blind for one of the older members of our party. Sika sign was everywhere in our area and we had high hope for the next two days of the hunt. What was going to be biggest change for us hunters used to Pennsylvanias mountains was that we were hunting along the beach, partially on the sand dunes. Two members of our party were from Virginia, but still it was something totally new for everyone.
The Hunt Begins.....
The first morning of the hunt started at 5 am with us waiting for the gates to open at the NWR. Next stop was the check-in/check-out station and then off to our area. 45 minutes later we arrived and dropped the first 2 members of our party off at their end of the area. Next to be dropped off was my sons buddy who was joining us. Last to reach their areas were myself and my father. I set him up in the ground blind and headed out over the dunes to a spot I had found the previous afternoon.
Sunrise came over the dunes and I sat and watched it rise out of the Atlantic Ocean while at the same time looking for sika. They are a miniature Asian elk and are barely 3 feet tall at the shoulder. Seeing them move through the beach grass is very hard, so we had ourselves staked out along heavily traveled trails.
Ten minutes after legal light I heard a shot in the area where my son's buddy was staked out and heard, "One doe down!" a few minutes later on our radios. When we got to him, he was all smiles and we asked him how it went down. He said that he had 3 wild Chincoteague ponies come through the scrub and he had turned around after they went through to look out towards the marsh. He heard a noise behind him and assumed it was another pony coming through but when he looked it was a sika coming through the brambles. One shot with 12 gauge buckshot dropped it in its tracks.
The rest of the first day consisted of listening to the sika bugle in the deep marsh where you cannot get to them and then having one appear behind one of our hunters while we were standing talking at the end of the day. A quick off-hand shot ended up in a miss for Junior.
Day two...
The second day started off the same as the first with a 5 am sign-in at the check station and a 45 minute ride to our area. As the sun rose on the second day the sika proved that they learn quick and they decided to pull a no-show. As the day progressed we decided to do a drive from one end of our area to the next. My son, his buddy and myself hiked down the sand path to begin the push and stopped to take a picture along the way.
The drive ended up producing no action so we all decided to huddle together near the vehicles to get out of the wind (20-30 mph) and thaw out!
We decided to try one more time at getting a sika in the late afternoon. First we did our hunt party official picture!
Day two ended with Junior getting startled by another sika appearing out of nowhere and somehow avoiding a full load of buckshot at 20 yards!
The Hunt Ends...
Overall our sika hunt at Chincoteague NWR proved to be loads of fun and a great time was had by everyone. It brought together 3 generations of hunters and 3 generations from my family alone.
If you ever have the chance to hunt sika in Virginia, do it! It is the best big game hunt you can do on a small budget that is out of the normal realm of local whitetail deer hunts.
The Budget...
Lottery application $5
Hunt permit $20
Virginia out of state license $80
Hotel Costs $45/night
Definitely a low cost but big fun trip!