Hawaii Pheasant Hunting Video

Here are some hi-lights from my pheasant hunting trip in Hawaii (Dec. 2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyOF4yuOgF4

Hawaii Pheasant Hunt - Dec. 2010

Ever since I moved to Hawaii, I've been hoping for an opportunity to go hunting...especially bird hunting. This weekend, my opportunity finally came. I made a new friend at work named Mike who is also an avid bird hunter. He invited me to go along with him this past Saturday.


This is "Jake," an 8 year old German Shorthair Pointer, and Mike's hunting partner. He's got one heck of a nose. He probably doesn't move like he did when he was younger, but he hunted hard. He always stayed close and locked down like a statue on numerous points throughout the morning.

Here's the road leading into the hunting area.

The hunting area is high up on the ridges in the mountains. Alot of the ridges are flat topped like plateaus and covered with waist high grass.

There are ocean views all around.

The mountains are steep and one side of the meadows we hunted were cliffs that drop off the edge down to the shoreline below. It was quite a sight.

There are several different game birds to hunt: Ring neck pheasant, Erkel's Francolin, Gray Francolin and quail. We didn't get into any francolin, but boy did we find the pheasant. We probably saw at least 20. Didn't see any quail either.

I don't have a license yet so Mike did all the shooting. I carried a camera and shot video of the hunt.

Mike shot a hen early on. When we were looking for it, Jake locked up in a hard point. We stomped around for almost 4 minutes and never flushed anything. It was tempting to give up but Jake wouldn't break point. I've seen this scenario enough times to know that you've gotta trust your dog. His nose won't lie to him. I've seen dogs point a spot where a bird had previously been, but they usually won't stay committed to that spot for very long. They creep on the point after you've stomped around a bit and once they figure out nothing is there they'll go on. Not this time though. Jake locked up hard and I watched him creep and lock down, creep and lock down...he was zeroing in on a bird. I was pretty sure we had a bird that was refusing to fly. Finally Jake dove in and caught a live Rooster Pheasant!! It was an amazing thing to see. That bird was buried deep in the grass and couldn't fly if he'd wanted to. If it weren't for Jake we would've walked right by that bird. The rooster I'm holding above is the one Jake caught.

Here's the rooster Mike shot to make his limit of 3 birds. It was flying right over the edge of the cliff when Mike shot him. He landed right on a ledge. 5 feet more and he'd have flown right over the edge and we would've lost it.

Most of the birds are release birds and they have numbered bands on their legs.

I was glad to finally get to take the jeep up in the hills hunting.

Old Jake was tuckered out by the end of the morning. He hunted hard. What a day. We had a great time. It was one of the most unique hunts I've ever been on. It was sortof a dream come true to get to hunt in hawaii. The pictures and video I shot were as rewarding as having shot birds myself.