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- Jan 20, 2014
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- South Africa, Namibia,....AK, WY, WA, ID, FL, SD, TX, HI
Last spring we started planning a family vacation to Kona, Hawaii. Snorkeling, Scuba diving lessons for my son, laying on the beach for my wife ect. And I decided that I want to do some hunting the while we are there. I didn't really have anything specific in mind and I didnt really know much about hunting in Hawaii. After some research I finally contacted Pat Fisher at Hawaii Safaris and booked a one day hunt for a Black Hawaiian Ram. Still not really sure about the hunting in Hawaii, I was asking around and @Velo Dog and a buddy had done this hunt several years ago and were both successfull. Then I noticed a couple months ago that @graybird had posted a hunt report on AH about a successful hunt he had done out of Kona as well. I PM'd him a couple times and started feeling a lot more confidant about the trip. Thank you @graybird!!
Fast forward to Thursday 11/12. I had just finished up a 4 day work Conference in Oahu (yes it was tuff duty, but someone has to do it
) I flew into Kona from Honolulu, and my wife and son flew in Kona from Anchorage via Portland Oregon, about 2 hrs after me. I had the car rented and was waiting for them at the airport. Against my wife's wishes they brought my cooler with them empty so that I can use it to take meat and horns back to Alaska assuming a successful hunt. My wife thinks it's really just to make her life more difficult... But we are off to the beach for a couple hrs of snorkeling before we check into our condo, do some shopping at the grocery store, have a some dinner and lay by the pool until dark. Yes, people go really slow when they drive by the pool because they are sure there is an albino whale washed up into a lawn chair but my wife keeps assuring them that all is ok, 
and it's really just another overweight Alaskan on vacation
.
I called my PH, Kevin, to check in and make sure everything was a go. He assured me that we are on for Saturday morning and we made arrangements for him to pick me up at 5:45am.
Friday 11/13 we are up early (ya know 9 am) and headed downtown to check -in at the dive shop for the scuba lessons next for my son next week. Then we head up to Sports Authority to pick up my hunting license. I was really dreading this since I Hawaii had just changed the rules regarding out of State Licenses. But it turned out to be very easy and very painless. No different than purchasing a license at home really. Except I had to show my Hunter Ed card, which I brought with me, and pay $105.00 and I had my license.
We spent the rest of the day driving up to the Volcano. It was raining like we were still in Alaska, but still had a good hike through the lava tube and got some good pics, so the wife was happy. Happy wife, Happy life...
This morning Sat 11/14 I meet my PH outside the gate to our Condo at 05:40 (5min early) and he has been there for at least another 5 maybe ten, and he is ready to go hunting. I like that. A quick stop on the way out of town for gas and a coffee and we are headed up the hill out of South Kona just as the sun is coming up. Kevin and I are BS'ing, getting to know each other, and he is explaining how he wants to hunt the property today. Which to me amounts to driving hard to a lava flow at the top of the property and then working our way back down the rest of the day, as the sheep generally come out of the flows to bed in the grass and trees during the heat of the day.
As we are cruising along in Kevin's pickup, not waisting any time, and the sun is just starting to come out, we come over a little rise in the road and there in the road is about 40 sheep, with one Ram that looks like he could be a shooter. The sheep take off into the brush and we stop and get out. Kevin gets a glimpse of the Ram as he is going through the trees and says "I think we better go take a look at him". All I see are sheep butt going 40 different directions. We get his gun out and loaded (I used his gun because I didn't want to hassle with the Hawaii gun import BS) and we take off after them. We went about 1/2 a mile maybe and had gotten a few more glimpse of some ewes and babies but I hadn't seen the Ram again. I guess Kevin new I was having my doubts be cause he looked at me and said" let's just keep going, they won't go very much further." We went about another 100 yards and there was the Ram with 3 ewe standing in a bunch in a small open grassy area. I put a round in the chamber and moved forward around Kevin and took a rest on a down tree. The ewes were looking at us and the ram was in the middle with his ass facing us, and looking back over his shoulder at us. Kevin took one more look and said "when he turns broadside you better shoot him." I don't think we are going to see any better today". " don't worry if there is one behind it" if you hit two we will eat the other one" Just as he said it, the Ram turned a little and I put the cross hairs on his neck just on front of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The 30-06 barked and I didn't see the ram get hit. And neither did Kevin. First thing Kevin said "did you hit him" well I wasn't sure, and we couldn't see him any more. Just sheep hind ends headed away. Well, we walked down there and sure enough, in a low spot right behind where the ram had been standing was a dead Black Hawaiian Ram shot through the front of the shoulder and the neck. Done Deal!! We took some pics and Kevin went to get the truck. We drug the ram down to the truck, and Kevin asked if we could keep hunting and really wanted to get up to lava flow before the sheep took off for the day. We loaded him up and took off. We drove to the top of the ranch and then worked our way back just like we had planned. We saw a couple small groups of sheep and a small ram, but nothing else that came close to the size of the one I shot. We stopped several times to glass for sheep and I took some pictures of the beautiful Hawaii scenery. Then stopped and butchered my Ram in the shade of an old wooden water tank that had a lean too style roof over it. Boned it out and put all the meat, skull and horns in my cooler on ice. Had a cold water and quick snack, and we headed home. We rolled into the Condo about 2pm just as the family was getting back from their first snorkeling trip of the day....What a good day. And I can't wait to have tenderloin on the barbie tonight
Fast forward to Thursday 11/12. I had just finished up a 4 day work Conference in Oahu (yes it was tuff duty, but someone has to do it
) I flew into Kona from Honolulu, and my wife and son flew in Kona from Anchorage via Portland Oregon, about 2 hrs after me. I had the car rented and was waiting for them at the airport. Against my wife's wishes they brought my cooler with them empty so that I can use it to take meat and horns back to Alaska assuming a successful hunt. My wife thinks it's really just to make her life more difficult... But we are off to the beach for a couple hrs of snorkeling before we check into our condo, do some shopping at the grocery store, have a some dinner and lay by the pool until dark. Yes, people go really slow when they drive by the pool because they are sure there is an albino whale washed up into a lawn chair but my wife keeps assuring them that all is ok, and it's really just another overweight Alaskan on vacation. I called my PH, Kevin, to check in and make sure everything was a go. He assured me that we are on for Saturday morning and we made arrangements for him to pick me up at 5:45am.
Friday 11/13 we are up early (ya know 9 am) and headed downtown to check -in at the dive shop for the scuba lessons next for my son next week. Then we head up to Sports Authority to pick up my hunting license. I was really dreading this since I Hawaii had just changed the rules regarding out of State Licenses. But it turned out to be very easy and very painless. No different than purchasing a license at home really. Except I had to show my Hunter Ed card, which I brought with me, and pay $105.00 and I had my license.
We spent the rest of the day driving up to the Volcano. It was raining like we were still in Alaska, but still had a good hike through the lava tube and got some good pics, so the wife was happy. Happy wife, Happy life...
This morning Sat 11/14 I meet my PH outside the gate to our Condo at 05:40 (5min early) and he has been there for at least another 5 maybe ten, and he is ready to go hunting. I like that. A quick stop on the way out of town for gas and a coffee and we are headed up the hill out of South Kona just as the sun is coming up. Kevin and I are BS'ing, getting to know each other, and he is explaining how he wants to hunt the property today. Which to me amounts to driving hard to a lava flow at the top of the property and then working our way back down the rest of the day, as the sheep generally come out of the flows to bed in the grass and trees during the heat of the day.
As we are cruising along in Kevin's pickup, not waisting any time, and the sun is just starting to come out, we come over a little rise in the road and there in the road is about 40 sheep, with one Ram that looks like he could be a shooter. The sheep take off into the brush and we stop and get out. Kevin gets a glimpse of the Ram as he is going through the trees and says "I think we better go take a look at him". All I see are sheep butt going 40 different directions. We get his gun out and loaded (I used his gun because I didn't want to hassle with the Hawaii gun import BS) and we take off after them. We went about 1/2 a mile maybe and had gotten a few more glimpse of some ewes and babies but I hadn't seen the Ram again. I guess Kevin new I was having my doubts be cause he looked at me and said" let's just keep going, they won't go very much further." We went about another 100 yards and there was the Ram with 3 ewe standing in a bunch in a small open grassy area. I put a round in the chamber and moved forward around Kevin and took a rest on a down tree. The ewes were looking at us and the ram was in the middle with his ass facing us, and looking back over his shoulder at us. Kevin took one more look and said "when he turns broadside you better shoot him." I don't think we are going to see any better today". " don't worry if there is one behind it" if you hit two we will eat the other one" Just as he said it, the Ram turned a little and I put the cross hairs on his neck just on front of the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The 30-06 barked and I didn't see the ram get hit. And neither did Kevin. First thing Kevin said "did you hit him" well I wasn't sure, and we couldn't see him any more. Just sheep hind ends headed away. Well, we walked down there and sure enough, in a low spot right behind where the ram had been standing was a dead Black Hawaiian Ram shot through the front of the shoulder and the neck. Done Deal!! We took some pics and Kevin went to get the truck. We drug the ram down to the truck, and Kevin asked if we could keep hunting and really wanted to get up to lava flow before the sheep took off for the day. We loaded him up and took off. We drove to the top of the ranch and then worked our way back just like we had planned. We saw a couple small groups of sheep and a small ram, but nothing else that came close to the size of the one I shot. We stopped several times to glass for sheep and I took some pictures of the beautiful Hawaii scenery. Then stopped and butchered my Ram in the shade of an old wooden water tank that had a lean too style roof over it. Boned it out and put all the meat, skull and horns in my cooler on ice. Had a cold water and quick snack, and we headed home. We rolled into the Condo about 2pm just as the family was getting back from their first snorkeling trip of the day....What a good day. And I can't wait to have tenderloin on the barbie tonight
