Bulleye
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- Joined
- Nov 11, 2007
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Well I have been after a pig for quite some time and this time it finally happened. I flew to Hawaii to visit my family and spend New Years with them and have some fun it the sun. We arrived on the 30th and settled in for the New Years celebration. The company and food where great. We had a Thanksgiving style dinner since the family couldn't get together for Thanksgiving this year. We then spent the weekend out at the Volcano National Park and I was starting at the lush jungle looking for the right spot to hunt later on my visit. We traveled up Mauna Loa and had a great view of Mauna Kea covered in snow. We then went to the Kiluea Lodge and enjoyed a warm jacuzzi and some wild antelope with a juniper berry sauce and some ostrich schnitzel. The Antelope was soft and tender and the Ostrich was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the time with the family but I had an itch to get some bacon! A friend of mine invited me out to try for some hogs on an other friends ranch and we must have seen about a dozen but we couldn't get them into a proper shooting lane. We where armed with our trusty bows so the bushes made it difficult to get our prey. After the sun set we called it quits and head home. But we knew where the piggies would be waiting. I tried to get back to the ranch a few days later but it didn't work out so I decided on a day on Mauna Kea where there are pigs, sheep and goats. It was also bird season but unfortunately the season is closed to hunting on weekdays for birds. But it didn't really matter since I was looking for some swine. I left the house at about 3:30 am and arrived to the Kilohana Hunter Check station and signed in and then head out to the woods. I started out high glassing and found nothing so I went low and started hiking to see if I could spoke something up. All I saw was a flock of Francolin birds jumping out of the lava fields with spotty grass. I decided to drive to another spot and and see if I could find some game when a giant Ewe jumped infront of the car and ran across the road. I parked the car as fast as I could and started tracking it but lost it in the thick lower vegetation on the mountain. I managed to spoke some quail a little after that and then decided to go home. I had already spent 6 hours hiking and glassing and I had managed to get enough Hawaii sun for the day. Mountains one hunter zero. A few days past and I spent time at the beach body surfing and whipping lures for the mighty Papio (Hawaian for a Jack that weighs less then 10 pounds). I then called up another friend of mine to see if we could go out for another hunt on the farm. WE managed to accidentally sneak up on a huge sow and a piglet. We tried to draw but the piglet spooked and chased the sow off too.(Don't get critical about the sow and piglet. Hawaii has a major problem with swine devastating the land). We waited by a mound of Mac nuts for them to return but they never did. So the coffee farm and ranch had us beat two, zero. Well I had another day to hunt and I couldn't figure out where to go. My fathers friend had told him that she wanted to get some pigs eradicated from her property cause they where destroying her property. So I called her up and asked if it would be OK for me to come by. They said that it would be great as long as I didn't mind spending my last evening in Hawaii on their lawn. I said I have been trying to get a pig for a while and I wanted to bring home the bacon! Well I showed up at their home and they showed me around and told me where the pigs come from and then showed me all the rooting they had done. I spent a few hours on the porch perched on the second story since the wind was not in my favor and their porch offered me a great shooting vantage spot, albeit not a very sporty hunting stand but a comfortable one. I sat for a while till the wind changed then I went out into the yard and stood in front of a lemon tree when I started hearing mac nuts exploding. The pigs where eating them and rustling around in the leaves. I positioned myself in a spot where I knew they would cross and waited. Then it happened.... (To be continued)
... in the fading light I saw a large pig being followed by a much smaller one. I was at full draw when they crossed a banana grove and placed the pin on the first pig and fired. The arrow made a distinct smacking sound and then the pigs ran off. The little one started running at me then in circles and back the way it had come out. I stayed motionless and kept waiting. I knew that there were other pigs that would cross and I figured that they where not very spooked. That is the beautiful thing about archery no noise! Eventually I heard the pigs chowing on the macadamia nuts again till another decided to trot across my shooting lane in front of the banana grove. I took aim and fired a second arrow and I heard the pig squeal and start huffing at me as it ran off. I figured it was a solid hit. I waited another ten minutes to see if more pigs wanted to cross but the rest of them where shy. I went to check my arrows to see what kind of shots I had made. I found the first and it smelled of gut but it also had frothy blood and chunks on it. It was a hopeful. I searched for the second arrow but couldn't find it. So I knocked on the door and told the family that I had shot one pig and maybe a second. They where excited so say the least. Darkness had fallen so I grabbed my flashlight and started checking for blood. There was a good blood trail for about 15 yards or so then it looked like the hog had started to vomit. It looks like the hog had run up into an abandoned coffee farm and I could hear it wheezing and grunting at me every time the flashlights hit the edge of the wild coffee farm. I wasn't about to start charging in blindly after a wounded angry pig. I decided to come back the next day and see if we could find it and perhaps the other.
I called my parents up and told them the news and at dinner I convinced my father (who I don't believe has hunted since he had a BB gun in grammar school) to help me track it. He was excited about going out but worried because both my brother and I had to leave back to CA the next day. We got to the coffee jungle at around 6:30 in the morning and started looking but we found some old rusted cars one was a jeep the other I think was a VW bug that was grown over with vines and moss. My father and I decided to start back from where we had seen the last bit of sign. In the brighter hours I could see the hogs tracks and they went strait into the plantation above where we had originally entered. My father took the lead and I started hiking a few yards above him so we could cover more ground. After a short hike my father finds him. We congratulate each other my first pig and his first find tracking game. We took our pictures and I started playing doctor on my trophy. I dragged the hog out and started to skin it and quarter it and my father left to get a cooler and Foodsaver to get the meat back to CA. During that time it started to rain like I have never seen. It was an absolute torrential storm soaking me down to the bone. I don't remember ever being that wet from rain in my life. But I was warm from the exhausting task of butchering this monster and the tropical climate. Well after quartering I got to butchering and packing my bags to catch my 1:30 flight. I arrived at the airport at 1:15 and by the grace of God and help from both my parents made it on board with all of my baggage. Talk about a last minute hunt. It was crazy but a load of fun. I am now letting the meat age in the fridge and I will eventually freeze it for later. I can't wait to do it again. Know I need to get myself some Hawaiian Goat and Turkey!
