Me and my friend Nic went out for a feral cattle hunt here on the big island yesterday. The day before that we went pig hunting, I took a shot at a 200+ pig and missed and my friend dropped a 60lb boar. These cows are trespass cattle from a nearby ranch (10 or so miles away). The state has created an eradication hunt for these animals. They're wreaking havoc on the native ecosystem and further spreading weeds into the beautiful virgin Hawaiian koa forests. They're wild in every sense of the word and have been so for hundreds of years. Some of the cows may have been recent runaways. But there are pure wild strains that have been back there since the 1800s. We started our cow hunt a little later than expected and got to the trail head about 7am. We made it in the first 2 miles a little before 9 and had a rest. We started pushing up the river and there was tons of fresh cow and pig sign. We decided to get off the open riverbanks and push into the bush a bit. We sat down to eat some breakfast and I went to take a poo. When I was midcrap I heard something 'moooo' a little ways up a small feeder stream from us. I finished up as quick as psosible and got back to my friend. He had heard it too and saw a flash of brown through the trees about 75m away. We crept as silent as we could and then I saw a butt on the top of a small ridge above the stream. It was maybe about 30m from us. I didn't have any sort of shot (not even the texas heart shot) available so we crept up to about 10 yards from the cow, it still hadn't smelled us as the wind was in our favor and we hadn't cracked any branches, plus we had the sound of the stream to drown out any small noises. At one point it turned to look at us and the turned back to feed as we hadn't moved a muscle and were concealed behind some tree ferns. I waited for my chance and the cow turned its head the other way to reach at something. POW, 150gr 30-30 lead to the neck and the 800lb cow dropped in its tracks. At that point we heard some other cows running from over on the other side of the ridge. So we ran over the draw and split up about 50m. My friend saw the cow and it looked straight at him from about 25m or so. BOOOM, 20ga slug to the forehead and the cow dropped in its tracks too. His cow was about 650-700lbs just a hair smaller than mine. The hunt had been over by 10:30am. We butchered out the cows (quite a chore on the ground) and set the meat up to cool. We hung out for about 4 hours mucking around and eating while we let the meet cool. At one point I think we heard a pig grunting below us but I'm not sure. We started for the car at about 4 after hunting another hour or so the other direction on the river. We made it to the car right at dark. I've been waddling around all morning, my legs are sooo tired.

Evan

Now that's good stuff!

That's what I call free range steak!

How is the meat?

I'd love to do that. While hunting buffalo in Northern Australia we heard often about 'redskins' ... the English shorthorns that have been running wild since the 1930's. My guide wanted to call them wild ox as it sounded more exotic to him than scrub bulls. Be that as it may ... we were told that they were much wilder than the buffalo were ...could be true ??? I never did see one.

Waidmannsheil

Seloushunter

Looks like a lot of good eating coming up!

The backstraps and tenderloins that we ate were really good. They area real tender and juicy. They have a definite 'cow' taste though. I think it almost tastes like a cross between mutton and venison. It is good though and is not an overpowering gamey taste.

The one rear leg we managed to take was real tough though, almost not edible. I ground that all in my meat grinder and plan on using the leg for meatloaf, hamburger etc...

These cows are on public land, open to anyone who's got a gun and a hunting license. Open on weekends, limit is 2 cows pppd. Really beautiful area to hunt, reminds me of new zealand a lot. It is the poor man's cape buffalo hunt. There are bulls up there pushing a ton.

Now that looks like fun! Minus the hauling out many hundreds of pounds that get heavier with every step somehow...

Thanks for sharing, and the hunt info!

KG

Funny story and good hunt. Sounds tasty.