Big Island boar hunt

[doccherry]

Met Evan at 5:45 AM in darkness, wind, and bone-chilling rain. Yuck! Hardly the weather you'd associate with Hawaii. We hopped in my truck and drove to the Northeast slope of Mauna Kea to hunt pigs in the jungle. Parked, geared up, and headed downhill with cold rain falling. I checked my watch. 7:00 AM sharp. We hiked only a few hundred yards when Evan spotted a couple of pigs and took an offhand shot with his open-sighted Winchester 94 in 30/30. Clobbered a boar. I was still in a fog, recovering from a party the night before that lasted until midnight [the alarm went off at 3:45 AM], so I just stood there like a Bozo and watched the second pig scoot uphill and out of sight. We hiked down into a small ravine where the boar had run and checked it out. It was much larger than I had initially thought it was. Jet-black, fat, and covered with long bristles. Evan was stoked.

"My best ever," he proclaimed.

I looked at my watch. 7:10 AM. "Sorry it took so long," I replied.

We estimated its weight at about 180 pounds, but what was really impressive was the dental work. Nice set of chompers by anybody's standards.

Evan dressed the hog and we covered it with a blaze orange tarp, took a GPS reading, and continued on our way. Over the next few hours Evan jumped another big pig in thick banana poka vines and took an offhand shot but missed. Later, I saw a small pig but my scope was soaked and all I could see was fog. I took a shot but hit the pig too far back. Evan polished it off with a shot to the chest. Took the choice cuts and headed back to the first pig. Found it, stuck the meat in our backpacks, and headed for the truck. By now we were both completely soaked and hypothermic. The GPS was really handy and we got back to the truck in no time. Changed into some dry clothes and headed back to the meeting area. The wind was howling and we were both about frozen solid by the time we got his stuff loaded into his car.

Evan has some really nice photos, most notably the photos of his hog's jawbone. Hope he posts them. Quite a trophy.

Aloha for now. Gotta get warmed up and take a nap.

 

[HIhunter]

Nice work guys... Congrats on your best ever, Ev. You guys know a secret or something that I don't? I didn't see anything up there last weekend!
Aloha,

Greg

 

[Valley Hunter]

That is just AWESOME,,, and all the hunting you do is on public land???? Congrats............

 

[Huntr Pat]

Good tema work guys.
Nice set of dental ware it will make a nice mount. Congrats.
Mahalo

 

[doccherry]

All the sport hunting I do is on public property. Depredation hunts are on private property, but that's not really hunting---it's become a job and not a very pleasant one, at that.

Public property hunts here are like private, guided hunts in CA. On the northeast slopes of Mauna Kea, which has very, very few hunters, I'd say the odds of getting one pig on a one day hunt, if you really worked at it and still hunted slowly and quietly from dusk to dawn, are about 90%. The odds of getting your 2-pig limit during an all day hunt are probably about 50%. Evan and I could probably have shot another pig or two if we stayed out until dark, but we were soaked to the bone and hypothermic. I'm too old to spend another 6 hours chasing pigs in the cold rain up at 6300 feet, so we called it a day. Had we stayed until dark, I'm sure we would have put more pork in the cooler. At no time were we more than 1/2 a mile from the parked truck and we saw no other hunters, no signs of hunters, and heard no shots other than our own.

My biggest problem is that my old eyes have a terrible time with open sights [can't focus on the rear sight], so I use a scope. But it rains so much there that my scope gets foggy because the rain water covers the outside of the lenses. That results in not being able to shoot, or worse, as was the case today, a botched shot. I shouldn't have shot at all. Should have removed the scope and used open sights, but then I have the eye problem. From now on, if there is any chance of rain, I'll use my Winchester 94 in .356 Winchester. It has a Quick Detach scope, open sights, and a Lyman tang sight. The tang sight works well with my eyes.

HIhunter: Yeah, we do know a secret.

 

[gowanstarr]

Very nice! Especially like the picture of the chompers! Its always good to get some pork in the freezer, keep it up

 

[3andout]

Great job guys!

 

[bigworm]

Kind of makes it all worth while. Looks like Evan forgot about the cold long enough for the photo. Great job, are you going to have it mounted?

 

[bpnclark]

Nice hog

 

[EvBouret]

Bruce was a great guide and somehow led me from the truck directly to the closest trophy boar. Did they teach you how to do that when you got your PhD? Or is that a feature on your new GPS? Nah, thanks again for showing me your secret spot. The swelling in my hands went down by the time I went to bed, pretty odd. Have any of you had your hands balloon up from cold weather? In the picture my hands are still normal siZe.
I would post the pics but I left my cable back on Kauai.
Bruce, do you think that the second pig I shot at could have been the bigger one we bumped with the boar? Seems to me like it could have been the same hog bedded down hiding.

 

[jhuhtala]

Ev, I've had that happen before when making long hikes. Read this: Walking: Swollen hands and fingers

Mine was probably due to wearing a backpack and excessive hand movement along with a lot of walking. Yours was likely helped by the elevation.

PS: Heck of a hog! Congrats

 

[doccherry]

Evan:

Re: your swollen hands, read this thread. Sounds exactly like your symptoms. And yes, that could have been the other pig. I've got a feeling that if a guy got to the hunting area real early when it was barely light enough to see, there would be pigs moving all around those open areas. That was about the piggiest place I've ever been. I'll have to take you over to the dry side and show you my pig spot there. It's REALLY loaded with hogs, but they aren't as fat and sweet-smelling as those jungle pigs.

Aloha for now.


http://www.ultrunr.com/handswel.html

 

[EvBouret]

Sounds like the high altitude, combined with hiking, tight backpack straps, and maybe a lack of salt all led to my ballooned hands. Yeah, next time we'll try our hardest to stay dry, maybe on the other side of the mountain. Got all that meat diced up and ready for the grinder. Took me about an hour and a half of chopping and deboning and about a dozen sharpenings on the knife. My neck was stuck crooked for the rest of the night. Gonna head over to the supermarket in a minute and grab all the spices I need.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

congrats Doc and Ev, and thanks for sharing another great pig hunting adventure from Hawaii! nice hog for sure!.................tra

 

[Speckmisser]

Another awesome hunt! Congrats to the both of you!

Ev, maybe I asked this before, but are you back on the islands permanently now?

 

[DEERSLAM]

Great hog! Good job and congrats!

 

[EvBouret]

Yeah Speck, I moved back about a year and a half ago to be with my girlfriend here in the islands. We have recently moved to Hilo to attend UH. Hopefully get some more nice animals to show you guys while I'm here. Ill get the pics I have up on here this weekend and some pics of the ram I shot too.

 

[Nic Barca]

Alright Evan and Doc, I got my ticket booked! Coming in to Hilo friday night, February 15th at about 6:30PM and leaving back to Kauai on Monday the 18th. I'll have to be at the airport by around 5:50PM.

Not really sure yet on my itinerary. I think I'm gonna go have dinner with a lady friend either friday or saturday night ...or both. So what's the plan? Overnight cattle hunt sunday through monday? Pig hunt Laupahoehoe side on Saturday? I wonder how I should get the meat back? Any ideas?

I'll be taking the 20 gauge and perhaps a medium sized cooler. Anyone know how to go about taking meat on a plane?

 

[HIhunter]

Nic,

I brought a bunch back from Big Island last time I was there, and it was no problem at all. The flight is so short, just make sure it is in bags and frozen or cool before the flight and then put it in small-medium cooler WITHOUT ice. Duct tape it up, and you should be good to go. At least, I was. I didn't even have a cooler, just stuffed some bags of frozen pig in my carry on for the ~45 minute flight. Worked out fine.

BTW, it was your website that I ran across that got me interested in hunting out here. Thanks!

Greg

 

[doccherry]

Nic:

Email Evan. I think we've found a pig hunting place that's better than Luapahoehoe, if you can imagine that. No other hunters, lots of wide-open places, lots of pigs. I've got mainland guests that weekend, but you young bucks should have no problem taking pigs, sheep, and a bull or two. I'm really eager to hear about your adventures, and I'm sure all the Jesse's Forum members will be interested in what happens. Keep me posted.

Doc