I dont know if much of you have been following my posts, but Nic Barca came over this last weekend to do some hunting. We hunted saturday and sunday, once for pigs and once for cows. I've been putting off writing this post because I've been so tired and busy proccessing all the beef.
The first day we planned to hunt pigs up near Laupahoehoe. We woke up at 4:30 and hustled to get our gear together, brewed some coffee, then started the drive to the hunting area. About an hour and a half later we arrived at the top of the unit and geared up. There didn't seem to be quite as many pigs in the a.m. as I had seen a few weeks before with doccherry. We went for a while playing the wind, hunting the pine forests and didn't see anything. However we did see a ton of sign.
We came across a small herd feeding in a brush tangle mess, we waited a while and I managed to get a shot at a very large pig (at least 180lbs) but appeared to miss. I was kinda forced to shoot through the edge of a bush and think that it must have deflected the bullet. We searched about a 100yard circle pretty thoroughly and after not seeing any blood, meat or signs of a hit continued on. Soon after we decided to split up. Not too long after I was jolted out of my still hunt mode by a loud BOOOOOOM echo'ing through the hills. I waited about 5 or 10 minutes and called Nic on the radio. He told me that he had hit a small pig through the lungs but would wait for me to track it. I chopped trail with my machete to get to him and made it there shortly after. There was bright red blood splattered all over the forest floor. It was obvously a good hit and the pig couldn't have made it far.
Considering the 60lb pig had just taken a 20ga slug to the lungs we were suprised that it made it about 60yards before piling up in a small drain. We posed it for picture and got it all butchered.
We then split up again for the remainder of the day, talking periodically on our radios to check if anyone had got anything. I saw maybe 12-15 small <30lb pigs throughout the day and came across the biggest pig I have ever seen. It was about 125 yards across a valley and on the move, too far for my 18" barrel 30-30 to shoot accurately. We called it a day shortly after this and got back to the car in the late afternoon. It was a fun hunt and semi succesful (for nic). Heres a pic of terrain that's kinda typical of the area.
We slept through our 4am alarm the second day and kinda got a late start, arriving at the trail head around 7am i think. We got into Morita Camp at 9am'ish. After stillhunting up the river banks a little ways, we decided we'd probably have better luck getting off the open grassy river banks and into the forest. Right at the bush's edge we stopped to have an eat and go to the bathroom. While I was midsquat I heard something 'MOOOO' a few hundred yards from me. I called Nic on the radio and he said he had seen a flash of brown as far as he could see through the hapu'u ferns and koa trees. I was still a little preoccupied so I finished up as fast as possible and got back to my pack. I caught up with Nic about 100 yards up the river and we started the stalk. We crossed a small stream and climbed up the bank.
Right then I saw brown about 30 yards from us. It was a cow's butt facing right at us. I didn't have any sort of shot so we crept another 10 yards closer. By now we were right next to the cow and any sort of wrong movement would spell it's demise. Right then the cow turned its head to the right and looked back, we were frozen like mummies and the cow didn't sense anything was wrong and continued eating. Then it turned its head far to the left to reach out at some leaves. Her whole head and next was exposed and I took the shot. The cow dropped without taking another step. She was still blinking so I put another round in her ear. After the shot we could hear more cows on the other side of a small rise. Nic and I split up about 50 yards from eachother and started pushing forwards. I heard a loud BOOOOOM and walked towards Nic, he had another cow down about 50 yards from mine.
We estimated my cow at about 800lbs and his maybe 100 lbs smaller than mine. We got the meat taken our and hung it out to cool. We ended up spending the majority of the day in a small sunny patch next to where we hung our meat. At about 3 we loaded the meat in our packs and started to the trailhead. We ditched our packs next to the trail and pushed down the stream for about an hour or so. Neither of us saw anything and got to the trail by 4. We managed to make it out just before dark. Here's a pic of what the area looks like once you get into the cow area.
All in all it was a pretty successful weekend. Nic got sent home with a half full cooler that Im sure was over the 50lb weight limit and I got about a month's worth of meat in my freezer. You guys know any good recipes for ground beef?
The first day we planned to hunt pigs up near Laupahoehoe. We woke up at 4:30 and hustled to get our gear together, brewed some coffee, then started the drive to the hunting area. About an hour and a half later we arrived at the top of the unit and geared up. There didn't seem to be quite as many pigs in the a.m. as I had seen a few weeks before with doccherry. We went for a while playing the wind, hunting the pine forests and didn't see anything. However we did see a ton of sign.
We came across a small herd feeding in a brush tangle mess, we waited a while and I managed to get a shot at a very large pig (at least 180lbs) but appeared to miss. I was kinda forced to shoot through the edge of a bush and think that it must have deflected the bullet. We searched about a 100yard circle pretty thoroughly and after not seeing any blood, meat or signs of a hit continued on. Soon after we decided to split up. Not too long after I was jolted out of my still hunt mode by a loud BOOOOOOM echo'ing through the hills. I waited about 5 or 10 minutes and called Nic on the radio. He told me that he had hit a small pig through the lungs but would wait for me to track it. I chopped trail with my machete to get to him and made it there shortly after. There was bright red blood splattered all over the forest floor. It was obvously a good hit and the pig couldn't have made it far.
Considering the 60lb pig had just taken a 20ga slug to the lungs we were suprised that it made it about 60yards before piling up in a small drain. We posed it for picture and got it all butchered.
We then split up again for the remainder of the day, talking periodically on our radios to check if anyone had got anything. I saw maybe 12-15 small <30lb pigs throughout the day and came across the biggest pig I have ever seen. It was about 125 yards across a valley and on the move, too far for my 18" barrel 30-30 to shoot accurately. We called it a day shortly after this and got back to the car in the late afternoon. It was a fun hunt and semi succesful (for nic). Heres a pic of terrain that's kinda typical of the area.
We slept through our 4am alarm the second day and kinda got a late start, arriving at the trail head around 7am i think. We got into Morita Camp at 9am'ish. After stillhunting up the river banks a little ways, we decided we'd probably have better luck getting off the open grassy river banks and into the forest. Right at the bush's edge we stopped to have an eat and go to the bathroom. While I was midsquat I heard something 'MOOOO' a few hundred yards from me. I called Nic on the radio and he said he had seen a flash of brown as far as he could see through the hapu'u ferns and koa trees. I was still a little preoccupied so I finished up as fast as possible and got back to my pack. I caught up with Nic about 100 yards up the river and we started the stalk. We crossed a small stream and climbed up the bank.
Right then I saw brown about 30 yards from us. It was a cow's butt facing right at us. I didn't have any sort of shot so we crept another 10 yards closer. By now we were right next to the cow and any sort of wrong movement would spell it's demise. Right then the cow turned its head to the right and looked back, we were frozen like mummies and the cow didn't sense anything was wrong and continued eating. Then it turned its head far to the left to reach out at some leaves. Her whole head and next was exposed and I took the shot. The cow dropped without taking another step. She was still blinking so I put another round in her ear. After the shot we could hear more cows on the other side of a small rise. Nic and I split up about 50 yards from eachother and started pushing forwards. I heard a loud BOOOOOM and walked towards Nic, he had another cow down about 50 yards from mine.
We estimated my cow at about 800lbs and his maybe 100 lbs smaller than mine. We got the meat taken our and hung it out to cool. We ended up spending the majority of the day in a small sunny patch next to where we hung our meat. At about 3 we loaded the meat in our packs and started to the trailhead. We ditched our packs next to the trail and pushed down the stream for about an hour or so. Neither of us saw anything and got to the trail by 4. We managed to make it out just before dark. Here's a pic of what the area looks like once you get into the cow area.
All in all it was a pretty successful weekend. Nic got sent home with a half full cooler that Im sure was over the 50lb weight limit and I got about a month's worth of meat in my freezer. You guys know any good recipes for ground beef?
I have a slightly different rendition of how things went down that day....
