I thought I would drop a note to let ya' ll know what is going on here on the Big Island. Of course, the weather is great and the hunting was spectacular. I drove an hour and went from sea level to 5600 feet during that time. Needless to say it was straight up hill.
The ranch is about 220,000 acres and the head of the outfit has a Master' s degree in Wildlife Biology. So it was a first class experience. They only take about 60 gobblers a year of the property so the hunting is fairly easy. He figures they hunt each roost about twice each season.
The first morning we were set up where he had seen about 35 jakes a few hens and 3 longbeards go to bed the night before. They treated us to quite a gobbling experience and of course the jakes flew down and came straight to our decoys. We had 25 jakes around us for about 1 1/2 hrs all with in 50 yards. Three of them actually got witin about 3 yards of me. It was a beautiful show of strutting, fighting and gobbling. The longbeards headed in the other direction so we started driving around looking for some more birds. They had a great hatch last year and jakes are everywhere. It reminds me of Texas last season.
It wasn' t long before we spotted a group of about 7 birds. Upon inspection it was 6 jakes and what he said was one longbeard. We were hunting near lava flows and apparently the heat burns the end of their beards or something.
His beard appeared to be about 5 inches. The funny thing was the jakes were all strutting and if he got close to them they tried to fight him. They were in the edge of a wooded draw so he drove me around and put me out about 150 yards away from them in the draw. I let out about 3 clucks and a single bird gobbled. About 10 seconds later I saw a red head trotting in my direction. It was the 5 inch bearded bird. I wasn' t convinced he was a longbeard so I decided to let him get close hoping to see his spurs. He must have not got a good direction on me with the one call and the windy conditions he went past me at about 8 yards trotting and I was unable to see if he had spurs. I decided to trust the guy with the Master' s degree and waited until he got out to about 20 yards and turned around a big tree and shot him. He was a good 2 year old for that area which had been in a severe drought. (14.6 lbs, 5 1/4 inch beard, and 3/4 inch spurs)
Later that morning I was put at the bottom of another draw. He suggested I work my way up through the draw calling and he would be waiting to pick me up on the other side. He said if I didn' t get on a bird it would take about 45 minutes. The wooded area was about 200 yards wide and straight up hill. He put me out on the bottom which I thought was strange. I had been slipping around calling for about 30 minutes when I received a response to one of my yelps from some hens who were just outside the woods about 50 yards out in a field close to 200 yards from me. They started cutting at me. I cut back at them and about 75 yards just over a draw about 15 birds gobbled at me. I figured it was a wad of jakes but sat down to enjoy a show. I cut again and the went into a gobbling frenzy. The woods are open and I saw them headed toward me in a single file line. It was about 14 birds all gobblers. I still thought they were jakes. As the got close I could tell the first bird was larger than the others. I kept cutting at them and they kept gobbling. At 9 yards I shot the longbeard in the group which was the first bird. (17.6 lbs, 9 inch beard, 1 1/8 inch sharp spurs)
The next morning was short, but fun. Near the lava flows again we got a good show and quickly another bird appeared with about a 5 inch beard. He never strutted so we weren' t sure he was a longbeard, but he had a much longer beard than any other jake in that general area. With a wife that is good enough to let me hunt on such a trip I was hoping to make it back by lunch and we decided he was a longbeard and shot him. Turned out to be a jake. (14.4 lbs, 5 inch beard, 1/2 inch spurs) I was a little dissappointed, but not enough to ruin the whole experience. It was a great hunt and it is hard to describe how difficult the terrain is on a volcano.
Just getting the chance to see this hunting area has made the trip worth while. Television and movies spend to much time showing the palm trees and beaches of this place, but the real beauty to me is the inner island.
The hunting wasn' t tough, except for the terrain. All in all I would have to rate it pretty high on my hunting experiences.
Message from Hawaii Hunt experience
