Last light Axis

[JoeA]

I'm still a bit sore from a looong day of hunting on Lanai. I've been through some rough country, but the game mgr was right. Lanai looks small on the map, but it gets real big, real fast once you're out glassing & hiking.

The recent & abundant rains have been good for the vegetation, but make for difficult glassing. Since this was my first time there, I was looking primarily for "meat" when we heard a mature buck roar in a valley not too far off. While looking for him, we spotted a tree shaking from his thrashing. We never saw him and we only spotted 3-4 does 500-600 yds off on the side of a very steep gulch. Too far to shoot and too steep to safely retrieve any, if we'd moved in for a shot.

It wasn't until very late in the aftn once things cooled off that we spotted some more deer. As the sun sank, we moved up a lava rock & grass filled gully (no fun, and less so in the dark) back towards the truck. On the horizon a young buck & spike skylighted themselves on the horizon. One last chance, so we set up on them. They busted us at 60yds, and moved back up hill to about 180-200yds and started barking. I think it was that the wind was in our favor and we hadn't shot in the area. At the last 5 minutes of legal light the buck came out of the brush and turned broad side. He wasn't real big in the rack, but we de-boned him & got 70# of venison.

This was an enjoyable & educational experience; and I decided not my last. If that was anything like what you "pack in/pack out" elk hunters go through, my hat's off to you.

[txhunter58]

Congratulations and good eating! There isn't a better eating venison anywhere.