Was on vacation last month in Maui for about ten days. Looked up the hunting opportunities and decided to do a day hunt with

Maui Hunting Safari

I had a great day with them and highly recommend them if you find yourself in Maui and feel like doing some hunting!



Rodney Perreira of Maui Hunting Safari picked me up at the Kea Lani Hotel in Wailea, Maui 6:30am. Rodney guides for both willd pig and Hawaiian feral goats in the Kaupo Gap area on Haleakala. The feral goats are also known as 'Spanish Goats' and were introduced by Captain Cook. Now they are prolific and have become a problem in erosion of Haleakala and consequently a great big game animal. The drive to the ranch took about an hour an a half. I enjoyed talking hunting with Rodney, he had a whitetail trip to Texas planned for the following week. The road to Kaupo isn't all paved but is in pretty good shape and a beautiful drive around the southwest part of the island. I would love to take it on a dual purpose bike sometime. At our first stop we picked up Harry who lives on the one of the ranches we would be hunting. There are some cattle on this ranch so many of the roads have gates and we probably go through about five gates before we get to the first glassing spot. At this point we can see a group of goats on a distant ridge. According to Rodney the goats don't really come down the mountain until it warms up, from 10am to sometimes as late as 2pm.

Our first stalk is through some forested areas, through some narrow goat trails and eventually opening up to a creek bed area that is really a lava draw. The ground is mostly broken lava rock so you really have to watch your step. Coupled with some grassy overgrowth makes the going slow and challenging. Sometimes you feel like you're in Africa. (not yet speaking from experience As we approached the creek we can already spot a couple billy goats standing on the rocky face of the lava draw. They are pretty young with immature horns. There is another group lounging in the rocky stream bed. One black one looks great to me but Rodney says it's only about 18" spread and that we're looking for something 22 or better.

We watch these goats for a while and one slightly larger one emerges but still not a shooter. Rodney takes the truck around and Harry and I continue on a stalk. As we make our way across the stream bed and through some open areas we can hear a couple goats approaching from a forested area. We stood still and they came up to about 10 feet of us until they caught our scent and took off. We made back to the spot where Rodney brought the truck. At this point they decide we'll head to another ranch higher up. We head back out and then up past the ranch house and then higher up the mountain. This ranch has much more open grassy hills which and lava formations. Lots of cover and little valleys. As we start out on foot from the truck it's not long before we spot a nice goat just below a ridge. This one looks promising probaby 23" or so. I load a 100gr .243 powerpoint in the JC Higgins rifle I've borrowed for the hunt. This rifle looks like something out of the 50's and sports a fixed 4 power Leupold scope. Barrel is stamped 'Made in Sweden' and I trust Rodney that it's killed many many goats.

As we get closer I get a good look at the black and reddish brown goat and start to get excited, it's obviously much wider then the previous ones and Rodney agrees it's a shooter. As we start getting closer it goes over the ridge and is not below and out of sight. I'm thinking we probably need to flank around and try and get a shot from above but off to the side of the ridge. As we move closer to the ridge all of the sudden Rodney spots a better goat on a little grassy flat to our right. I realize that I need to get on this one right away. I open the harris bipod and try to get into position on a large lava boulder. I'm in an awkward position and when I finally have the goat in my crosshair I'm pulling forever on the trigger and boom the goat is running now. Harry says I shot over him. I can't believe I could miss him at this distance. Was about 90 yards. Now he's running with a group of goats and I'm trying to get on him again but he's behind some trees. I move to a taller boulder as they come out of the trees and are heading for a distant ridge. He's with about five other goats but I can still spot him clearly and they all stop before the reach the ridge. I get him in my scope and he barely fills the plex of the reticle. I really concentrate on squeezing this time and when the gun fires he drops. I can hardly believe it. I knew I was centered on him but this was a long shot for me and especially with that 4x scope. The time from Rodney spotting the goat to my second shot was probably not more than 20 seconds. I load another round and stay on him in case he gets up but he is still. I'm so happy to have dropped him after my first miss. I must have just jerked the trigger, it's a lot heavier than my rifles, that's all I can think of. Rodney fetches his backpack from the truck to get the camera and range finder. He ranges the first shot at 90 yards and the second at 198 yards.

As we make the walk over, ducking under some low branches of trees and finally getting closer you can see his horn over a ridge. He's a great billy with a beautiful black and reddish brown coat, a nice long beard, and a beautiful 25" wide set of twisting horns.

I took the two shots below from the spot where I took the shot. The second is with maximum zoom where you can see the goat where it dropped. (Thanks to Saeed for the great digital camera comparison I ended up buying my Canon S1IS which I'm really happy with)

View from shot:




Zoom to inset detail:

Sounds like you had a good hunt Sean. Certainly pretty scenery. Two years ago I coupled a make-nice-with-the-wife trip to Hawaii with a couple days of shooting on Niihau. (Went back to Niihau this year, left the wife at home).

The rifle you were shooting sounds like a Husqvarna that was sold under the J.C. Higgins name back in the early 60's.

That's interesting to know. I actually had a nice M38 Swedish mauser made by Husqvarna in '41 in 6.5x55 of course and that thing shot really well.

Sean, Beautiful goat and beautiful scenery eh! Ive hunted kaupo alot in the past very nice place to hunt got some very nice Boars and Billys there youre pics brought back some excellent memories for me. Congratulations and glad you enjoyed your stay here in Beautiful Hawaii.