anyone hunt in Hawaii

[greybeard]

I'm going to be in Hawaii in the spring and do another hunt, but got impatient the other day and we booked another trip for this fall.

I'm going to hunt for a Black Hawaiian ram again on this hunt, and not sure yet for the spring. I'll probably hunt for rams on both trips.

My wife wants to go to Kauai in the spring before we go back to the Big Island. She thinks that I ought to fly to Niihau from Kauai and do the ram/boar hunt, but I think I'll stick to the Big Island hunts. Niihau is intriguing, but I really like hunting with the outfitter that I've been going with on the Big Island, so I'll probably stick to that.

[greybeard]

I got my 2 Euro ram mounts from O'ahu today. I'm not sure how I'm going to display the ram mounts so I just laid them out for the picture. I got the rams while on hunts with Nahele Outfitters on the Big Island and will be with them again in a few weeks for another hunt.

I attached 2 photos. One is the 4 mounts. The 2nd picture is the largest from the last hunt. We spotted and ranged a group of bachelors at 900 yards. We had a great stalk through an open area, ducking, stooping crawling etc. to get to to about 100 yards.... fun for an old guy !! The 2nd ram was with a pretty good size herd that were in a wooded area. We crept around through and over branches and rocks and got within 100 yards of part of the herd. I thought that we'd surely get busted. We saw 2 rams, one had a pretty nice curl, but just couldn't get a shot that I liked . After such a fun stalk I wanted a ram as a memory so I took him. Later the bigger one ran and stopped and would have given me the shot that I wanted, but I have no regrets in taking the smaller one.

I wore my good luck hunting shirt and hat for the picture for my records,.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[greybeard]

I had planned on another ram hunt in the mountains of Hawaii, but circumstances interfered with that plan . I discussed the mater with the outfitter and he gave me some really good options to help me out. One of those options was  boar hunting. I had  planned on hunting them on Hawaii , but my obsession with horns got in my way. I had seen some on other hunts, but not big enough to tempt me from my quest for horns .( I shot a boar almost 45 years ago(1973), but not in the Islands so I guess it was my time to go for it, so I took that option.

The hunt took place in the late afternoon on a macadamia nut farm. It is my understanding that these nut are not picked and are harvested when they ripen and fall off the trees. I was told that a pig can eat a significant number of these nuts every night.

It was drizzling and very warm so I removed my camo shirt and hunted in a cut off shirt under my  light weight camo rain jacket. We set up in high brush near the "mac"trees and within 15 minutes we saw our first 2 pigs. They were not what I was hoping to harvest so we let them pass. For the next hour , or so we saw quite a few more, but mostly small boars,  sows and  very young ones. There was one boar that showed up that was o.k., but still not what I wanted so we let him pass too. After maybe an hour we spotted a larger boar in the high brush and hoped that he'd come into range. He disappeared in the brush at times, but then came into view and I decided that he was a good one. I placed the crosshairs in the vital zone and the .308 ,180 gr. bullet dropped him where he stood.

The guide contacted someone to take the meat and he removed the lower jaw for me which I took home to prepare for hanging when I'm finished with cleaning it up.

During my trip, while not hunting, I saw some real nice long beard Rio Grande Turkeys as well as some pretty good goats.One day I was out and came  in close proximity to a boar hunter whose dogs chased and caught one. The jungle was too thick for me to get through to see it, and I wouldn't have walked in on another hunter anyway. It really sounded wild.

I hope to hunt again this spring, but will decide on specie when time gets closer. I really did enjoy the boar hunt, so it's nice to have that in my thoughts when I plan another hunt.

 

[greybeard]

I  was in touch with the outfitter last night and began planning my spring hunt on the Big Island. It'll probably be for boar and black Hawaiian ram. I'll work out the details shortly.. I missed out on NY hunting this year because of frostbite so I'm anxious to get out to hunt again.

[greybeard]

I just returned to NY from Hawaii. I experienced my first earthquakes(2) while I was there...The volcano was really active too..

I saw quite a few turkeys(not in season) and boars and shot a boar.

It rained really hard during the boar hunt and at times visibility was tough.

I'll be going back soon, but I think my hunts will only be for boars so unless I learn anything new about hunting there I'll end this post

[BigGuyNY]

I am so glad that I found this thread.  I am going to Hawaii in July and have reached out to the two outfitters you provided for info.  I appreciate any input that you can provide being the vast experience you have hunting there.  

[greybeard]

I just back 2 weeks ago(September) and had another successful boar hunt with Nahele Outfitters. A hurricane was due to hit the Big Island on the day of the hunt, but it was downgraded to a tropical storm and then it missed us, but it whacked Maui and I think Oahu too... So I had good weather for my hunt. I'm considering "revisiting" goat hunting in the spring.

I'm not sure what hunting  info that you are looking for, but am happy to help if I can..

I think it'd be best to pm me for the info,  because I'm not on this site too much and if you pm me I'll get a message in my email and respond to you..

[greybeard]

BigGuyNY.. I hadn't planned on going back now, but I'll be on the Big Island soon ..I set up a hunt so if you want me to ask the Outfitter anything, let me know by pm...I'll be back there again in the spring so, if you want , you can let me know as your trip gets closer. 

[greybeard]

After boar hunting in November the outfitter said that since I had taken a few boars with them maybe I would   consider  a goat hunt  in  May . I had hunted goats at Parker Ranch, but not with Nahele so I said that I would. On the morning of the hunt, when we reached the property, I realized I was a little  familiar with  parts of the land that they hunt and , at times,  spotted some really nice goats there and had even taken photos of a herd there a few years ago.....Since my previous posts did not involve this outfitter for goats I thought that I'd add it.

The terrain is similar to where I had goat hunted before,  which is open land with hills , ruts, and rocks  so I always use a walking stick, and wear good  hiking boots(and wear sunscreen).. It was cool in the morning, but got hot pretty fast and we had very little wind. We took a stand on a hill and after a short while we spotted goats in large herds in the distance. Some heading in our general direction. We didn't actually count the # of goats, but there were easily over 100 of them . There were some really nice billies. Some had horns that swept backwards which they refer to as "Hawaiian Ibex", and some had wide horns ,( those goats  with WIDE horns are sometimes  referred to as "Helicopter billies".) They are the same species, but just have different horn shapes. I wanted a goat with a wider spread so when an opportunity came for an "Ibex" I passed it up. Most were passing us at distance that I was not comfortable with to shoot so we  discussed stalking and planned out a route to take. However , before we moved a herd came to within 200 yards and I picked out a billy, at 168 yds.  and took him with a .257 Roberts.  We butchered the meat, which gets donated , and I'm thinking of a horn mount rather than another Euro mount.

Hawaii Island(The Big Island ) has wild cattle and I'm thinking of hunting a Vancouver Bull in the fall, if not I would redo a goat hunt. 

I attached a photo of the goat, but for some reason it posted upside down, but it gives an idea of his looks.

[greybeard]

Better photo of goat from May 2019.

[greybeard]

I hope that you get to go..... There are a lot of turkeys in some areas where I have hunted and I've had that dream too. Unfortunately I am not usually in Hawaii during the turkey season.

[greybeard]

I hunted with Nahele for Vancouver bulls this morning. We saw bulls, cows, boar, turkeys and some mouflons with one having great horns.
We heard bulls and tried to stalk a few different bulls but couldn’t get close for a shot .

Around  11 am We stalked close enough to get a good shot into this  bull with the 300 Winchester Magnum

It was a fun hunt, and we covered a lot of ground

[greybeard]

As I wrote previously, the meat from the game that I shot with  Nahele Outfitters had been donated.  Tonight,  I was advised by them that 70 lbs. of meat from the bull that I shot was donated to feed the hungry.

It made my Thanksgiving weekend a happy one.