Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Bowhunting Hawaii for wild bulls and pigs (pics and video)

I begin writing this story on Feb. 21st in my hotel room in Kona which is on the the Big Island of Hawaii as I kill time before my flight back to the Island of Kauai. We spent five days on Kauai and I planned to spend two days hunting on the Big Island. The goal for this hunt was Vancouver bull (Wild, feral steers) and if the opportunity should present itself, Polynesian boar. This is a hunt I had long dreamed of doing and finally the time was right to make it happen.

I began gear planning for this hunt in November of 2017. I found a guide and then began building my dual wall, aluminum arrows with a finish weight of 700 Grains, tipped with a huge, 3 blade, Rothhaar Snuffer. I also hoped to evaluate a new drop away arrow rest I spent the last year designing and developing. The new rest was not yet in full production so I was using a 3D printed prototype I had made in my shop. I was also testing two, 3D printed camera mounts I designed and made that would attach to my bow in an attempt to self-film the adventure.

As a life long Wisconsin resident that spent 53 years at 1000 foot elevation and the week prior to the hunt, at sea level, I had my concerns about spot and stalk hunting at 8,500 feet in the saddle between the mountains of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and the rugged terrain there since the bulk of my bowhunting was on dairy farms, using ladder stands. As I type this, the bottle of Ibuprofen sitting near my laptop is not big enough. Its very clear I was not physically prepared for the elevation or the terrain.

The view before landing



On the morning of Feb. 20th, my guide, Kevin Nakamuru of Patrick Fisher, Hawaiian Safaris, picked me up at the hotel at 5:30 am. With him was Dave (or Kona Dave as I came to call him because later that morning we met up with Ranch hand Dave). The drive from sea level to the hunt destination was one and a half hours up the mountain. We discussed the plan as my ears were plugging and popping with the elevation rise. We discussed gear and the hunt plan and safety.





Kevin explained that this cattle ranch was a new lease to Hawaii Safaris. They only recently had the rights to guide hunts there. This is a working beef cattle ranch and gaining access does not come easy so a guide is required for several reasons. Kevin Explained that they had never guided a Vancouver bull hunt here and nobody had ever killed a wild bull with a bow on this cattle ranch. If I heard it once, I heard it 100 times. "These bulls are no joke. We have to be very careful." I learned that an Alaskan bowhunter was recently killed on the Island of Molokai while hunting Vancouver bulls so Kevin was obviously concerned for all of our safety.

The plan was to drive up the mountain to the roughly nine thousand acre ranch and meet ranch hand Dave who would show us the property and where the wild bulls had been spotted. This is a beef ranch that specializes in only certain breeds and they do not want the blood line of the wild Vancouver bulls mixing with their cattle but the wild bulls get in and need to be removed, not only to protect the blood line but to protect the cattle and ranch hands from the aggressive bulls. The neighboring property was undertaking a wild bull eradication and the bulls got wise and came onto this ranch, making their problem worse .

When we arrived, Keven pulled out a Broadhead target for me to make sure my bow survived the 4,500 mile trip and we introduced ourselves to Ranch hand Dave who is a huge man. Thick and strong. I took some shots and ranch hand Dave Saw what was going on and began laughing. Ranch hand Dave spoke Pidgin English which is many different languages, including Portuguese, Native Hawaiian, American English, and other languages of the people that worked the sugar Cane plantations long ago. Dave Spoke fast making it difficult to understand much of what he said. Despite that, I was able to make out his concern with my archery gear.

Its hard to write exactly what Dave was trying to convey as many expletives were used but between the laughs at our expense. I understood, "Brudha, you going up dare wit a bow? Are you *&#$%^ crazy? Dem Bulls Gonna &*#$% you up. Day gone kill you. You Neva gone get close enough wit a bow. If you do, day gone kill you." This did not boost my confidence in this enterprise. Dave showed us where a bull had rammed his side by side ATV. He also expressed concern for our safety because of the wild Polynesian boars in the thick understory. Because of this, Dave always traveled the Ranch with 4 dogs that looked like pit bulls. The breed was explained to me but I had not heard of it, nor can I recall the breed. There are many old dogs on the Island that travel in packs, killing animals and these dogs were a strain of that breed, small but muscular and fearless since they are willing to take on wild bull and boar.

All the dogs wore a thick leather collar that was about six inches long and protected their necks from their ears to their shoulders as that is the area most vulnerable to the sharp tusks of the Polynesian boars. These dogs were not Dave's pets, they were his protection on the mountain. They protected him from both bulls and boars. Knowing all this, the plan was for Keven to carry a 30-06 rifle and Kona Dave to carry a 12 Gauge during our time hunting. The Daves and the dogs piled in the side by side ATV and Kevin and I in his Truck. The ride up the mountain can best be described as a prolonged car accident that spanned nearly a half hour. The Volcanic rock and deep gouges from the heavy rains and recent flooding and the lack of a road made for an jolting ride. As we climbed even higher, the smell of the hot clutch of his manual transmission was proof of the difficult climb. At one point Dave spotted a huge, Red Vancouver bull that was more than 200 yards away. It looked like the Brahma bulls I had seen on TV rodeos minus the back hump. Ive not seen such a large bull on any Wisconsin dairy farm. He was massive and muscular.

As soon as the bull spotted us, he began to run. This made Dave drive faster to catch up with where he knew they would cross into the safety of the deep ravines. This made Kevin speed up our truck to keep up as Dave waved for us to hurry. This magnified the intensity of the rough ride. I was holding my uncased bow which repeatedly beat me about the head and legs as we bounced and bottomed out the truck. At one point I took a solid shot to the lower lip with the upper cam of my bow.

The rust colored bull ran as fast as a deer despite its huge frame. We never caught up to it before he crossed into cover. In fact we never got closer than 100 yards. Even a hunter with a rifle could have made no use of this encounter but I was able to see first hand, what we were up against and it was huge. I suddenly felt under bowed at 64 pounds draw weight.

From that crossing we could drive no further with the truck. The side by side could navigate the steep terrain but the truck had reached its limit. Ranch hand Dave explained that we were only a couple of ridges and ravines from the neighboring property that was culling the wild bulls. He cautioned us not to cross the tree line at the highest ridge and that every bull we encounter was a wild bull and no animals belonging to ranch were present in this area. At that point Dave and his dogs left us.







The view from this elevation was amazing. We were a few thousand feet below the snow covered summit and view below was equally fantastic because the weather was so good. The sky was blue with no clouds in sight and a slight breeze that we had to factor into our hunt as the bulls were like any other wild animal that used their nose for protection, although it was clear these bulls had no natural enemies. While they only eat vegetation they are still at the top of the food chain since nothing in it's right mind would dare mess with them and yet that's exactly what we had in mind.

Since Kevin, Dave and myself had never walked this land before, I was thankful that Kona Dave had the smarts to bring his GPS. He entered the location of the truck while I gathered all my gear for the day. Kevin Packed in Water and some food and we set off in search of bulls. For the most part, the rolling terrain was lush and green with sharp rises and deep ravines, some of which dropped straight down 20 or more feet with undercuts filled with large rocks, fallen trees, ferns and the bones of one very large bull that made as his final resting place. Perhaps he found a way down but no way back up or he fell in, either way, Dave carried the massive skull and two huge, curled horns out of the ravine. We hung them high in a tree although I don't think there was anything on the island that was interested in eating them like squirrels and porcupines eat deer antlers in Wisconsin. The bones had clearly been down there for a very long time.