Selected for wild Axis Hunt on the Hawaiian island of Lanai

[Ranger91298]

A few months ago I went through hunters safety again with my wife and oldest son. After we completed the course I put the three of us in for a wild Axis Deer hunt on the island of Lanai. After a really long and busy day at work I came home to a surprise. My wife had all three of our notifications layed out for me to see after I walked in the door. Talk about being excited! We are scheduled for a 2-day hunt on April 14th/15th. Now begins the busy process to get the flight/hotel/4x4 rentals taken care of before the other 125 hunters beat me to it. Lanai is only so big so I imagine the fixin's will get slimmed out pretty fast. My taxidermist has been nippin at the bit to fly him out to handle our three animals...hahaha... just messin with you Joe...

[JJB11B]

Congratulations!, I hope you keep us posted with pics and stories for this epic adventure of epic proportions

[Rhinoron247]

I did a private land hunt in 03', is an amazing place  with a huge population of critters.  You can hunt in everything from desert to jungle and even pine forest.  I took a nice axis and mouflon.  Pheasent and turkeys were like flys there.   We hand a local family rent us a house and pick up truck for around $200 a day and they even prepared us home made meals for a couple bucks each day.   

You'll have a blast, hold out for a big one.  Tip they hide in the thickest and thorniest places and to find them you'll be giving first blood.  LOL  they are the best eating deer ever.

Good luck

[RadSav]

My goodness are those things yummy!  Just about my favorite red meat. 

[Ranger91298]

I did a private land hunt in 03', is an amazing place  with a huge population of critters.  You can hunt in everything from desert to jungle and even pine forest.  I took a nice axis and mouflon.  Pheasent and turkeys were like flys there.   We hand a local family rent us a house and pick up truck for around $200 a day and they even prepared us home made meals for a couple bucks each day.   

You'll have a blast, hold out for a big one.  Tip they hide in the thickest and thorniest places and to find them you'll be giving first blood.  LOL  they are the best eating deer ever.

Good luck

Rhinoron...great looking Axis... I am excited and cannot wait to head over. I am heading over a few days early to do some scouting and I will have my wife/son fly over the day before. It's funny you mention about the thickest and nastiest stuff. I have been looking at Google Earth and I was looking at those pockets of draws they have. I figure if we don't see anything first thing in the morning I am going to put my wife/son up on a vantage point where they can see for a distance and then walk those draws to push animals out to them. I found a place for $75 a night to sleep and $90 a day for a 4x4 so not too bad. The flights over will be about $145 a piece. What can I expect.... how many animals did you see a day..roughly? What distances were they at before they got anxious? What times were they active? I have done quite a bit of homework already just the more the better right? LOL.

RadSav, I am looking forward to tasting them. How much meat can you expect to get off of one? How did you cook the meat?

Scott

[RadSav]

The ones from the islands I remember being very small.  Not much bigger than a Catalina goat.  The big ones in Texas produced about as much meat as a small blacktail.  That's about perfect for being able to bring most of it home without additional shipping costs.  Though I assume the locals will be more than happy to take any left overs you have.

We served Axis meat balls at my wedding that absolutely melted in the mouth.  Both with grape jelly gravy and potabello gravy.  Along with the fresh poached salmon it was the talk of the spread.  Steaks and roasts I cook exclusively on the Weber.  Grilled medium rare.  The meat is so good on the Axis I rarely use much rub or heavy seasoning.  Salt, pepper, maybe some Johnny's and olive oil that about it.  You're going to love it.

[Widgeondeke]

Congrats on gettin drawn. The overall cost doesn't seem to expensive. How much were the tags apiece? 
Good luck and hope to see some pics in April.
You mentioned a 2 day hunt. Is that the entire season? 

[jager]

Congrats!
Should be a blast!
Yes.... very, very tasty!

[jstone]

i have been wanting to do that for a long time. We have some good friends that grew up on the Island. Please let me know how it goes. They said they could have there family help me. 

[jstone]

Would it be possible with a bow?

[Ranger91298]

Well the time has come... my wife, son and I are heading to Lanai to do our public land hunt for the Axis Deer. I fly out in a few hours to do some scouting. Tomorrow I am doing a guided hunt on private land. My wife and son fly over on Friday to do our public land hunt on Saturday/Sunday... Hopefully we can get a few animals so that we can send some business to Joe "blkbearklr" at A Living Memory Taxidermy... will follow up on our weekend when we return...

[Pathfinder101]

cool beans Ranger.  Good luck, I can't wait to see what you guys come up with...

[p-ohana]

Good luck on your hunt, My dad went last year and saw only one doe but they drew the last weekend and the deer where skittish. @wid Hawaii has a very differnt hunting season they decide how many weekends will be open for hunting and then they will draw so many hunters per weekend. All the hunters not drawn are also given a weekend to hunt as a standby hunter. After check-in on friday they will allow the standby hunters with the lowest # check in to hunt untill they reach the max number of hunters allowed. In the past I've been drawn and went to lanai on standby and got to hunt. It all depends on what week you get put on standby, the later the season the more standby hunters get to hunt. Alot of the locals don't even bother going to hunt if they get drawn for the last half of the season.

[Gringo31]

Update?

 

[pendoreilleadventures]

Update Please