Welcome to the companion article to Norseman Creative’s first-ever long-form video! The video is live on our YouTube channel. I’d love it if you both watched the video and read this article, as the article does expand on some thoughts and situations that aren’t present in the video. Check out the YouTube, then swing back to read some more and then go buy two books, one for you and one for your best friend who you know needs to read more but just can’t quite find the time.
After hearing and reading about my hunt on Molokai in December of 2024, one of my friends, Dale, convinced me to book another hunt with Brian of Kailea Outdoors. Dale was supposed to hunt with Bret and I during our first adventure, but got stuck on the mainland USA during a work trip. I contacted Brian, set a date, and started making arrangements for another conservation hunt on Hawai’i’s “Friendly Isle.”
I learned a ton from my first trip to Molokai, and adjusted accordingly. First and foremost, I brought my own rifle. Second, I brought a good pair of binoculars and a brand-new laser range finder. Third and most importantly, instead of sleeping on Brian’s couch, we booked rooms at Molokai Shores, a local hotel. That last change had less to do with the comfort of Brian’s couch and more to do with my wife, Jenny, and Dale’s wife, Shelia, accompanying us on this adventure. Jenny and Shelia explored Molokai while Dale and I chased Axis.
At some point I mentioned this hunting adventure to another friend, Max, who expressed interest. I invited him to join in, and he accompanied us on what would be his first-ever hunt. Max even went so far as to buy a brand-new rifle and scope for the adventure, which I can completely understand since I started looking into building another new rifle almost immediately after returning from the previous year’s Axis Deer conservation hunt.
We arrived on two separate puddle jumpers the night before our hunt started. Jenny and I along with Dale and his wife flew together, while Max caught a later plane. We checked into the hotel, picked up our rental car, explored Kaunakakai, and snagged dinner at a food truck while waiting for Max to arrive. I picked him up from the airport later that night and we got ready for the next morning’s hunt.
Brian picked us up from the hotel well before the Sun rose. We met his son, Brody, at the house while we packed our rifles and rucks into Brian’s UTV. With the gear stowed, it was time to head out to the same Property Bret and I hunted thoroughly last year. Since it was Max’s first time hunting, Brian decided he and Max would stick together. Dale and I had hunted many times before, so Brian sent me up the mountain with Brody and set Dale up in a spot to sit nearby.
Brian dropped me and Brody off first. In the dark, under the illumination from a single headlamp, Brody and I hiked up the mountain while Dale, Max, and Brian rode in the UTV further up the trail. Hunting on Molokai means you are either climbing up or climbing down. The whole island is one big mountain, the only brief respites from a long climb are usually torn apart by wallows the 70,000 strong Axis Deer herd leave behind.
Wallows are large areas where the red Hawaiian dirt is exposed through the vegetation, featuring hoofprints, scat, and shed antlers all around. These frequent scenes of destruction illustrate how hard the Axis Deer herd is on the confined landscape of Molokai.
Brody and I finished our climb, stopping under a scrubby tree on a ridge overlooking a draw Brody expected the deer to wander through. It wasn’t yet daylight, so we laid back and waited for the Sun to rise.
As the mountainside grew brighter with sunlight, I could see the hill where Bret and I sat the year before when Bret shot his velvet buck. Just a few ridges over, the hill was socked in with low-hanging clouds. Throughout the weekend, the clouds threatened rain, looming overhead and shading the hunting grounds.
On Molokai, the Axis Deer typically make an evening migration from the high country to the low lands near the shore line, then a morning migration back to the shaded high country when the Sun rises. The high country is much cooler, with plenty of shade and cover for the deer to relax in. The cloud cover, along with the wind blowing in an unusual direction, meant the Axis Deer were in no hurry to make their normal journey back uphill.
Sitting under the tree, I made good use of my new binoculars and range finder. Picking out different land marks around us, I measured the distances in order to make quick distance calls on deer as they moved up through the draw. The next ridge was less than 400 yards away, so I was confident I could hit any deer that crossed our path. With my rifle resting against the tree, I used my binoculars to glass for deer.
We saw nothing, and I could tell Brody was getting anxious. Hunting Axis on Molokai is vastly different than hunting Whitetail in Minnesota. Aside from the obvious environmental factors, the main difference boils down to herd concentration. In the Northwoods, you are thrilled to see one deer, and the excitement elevates with each deer that crosses your path. On Molokai, with a deer herd in the estimated 50,000 to 90,000 range, you usually see herds of a dozen or more before breakfast.
As a linguistic illustration of this difference let us examine the use of the phrase “a couple of deer.” If my dad tells me he saw a couple of deer in his tree stand in Northern Minnesota, he means he saw two or maybe three Whitetail. When Brody or Brian said they saw a couple of deer, they meant at least a dozen.
A deer herd that concentrated leads to some bizarre choices that would ruin your hunt anywhere else. If a hunter scares a herd of deer away in Minnesota, he might not see another one for the rest of the season. On Molokai, you simply shrug and keep moving because there’s another “couple” of deer just over the next ridge.
Brody’s anxiety led to us making our first set of bizarre moves. After only a short while sitting under the tree, Brody decided it was time to move. Further up the hill we climbed, bumping a small herd of Axis as we crested the next ridge. We reached our next spot and sat down to wait. As we sat there, we could hear a vocal Axis Doe chirping away, likely warning her kin of our presence.
Half an hour of sitting at our second spot yielded nothing, but we did hear a few distant gunshots. Growing impatient, Brody decided to move yet again. Further uphill we went.
Brody was sixteen and competing with his dad to get the first deer of the hunt. He kept us moving throughout the morning, bumping several herds of deer and growing increasingly frustrated. Eventually, we crested a ridge overlooking both Dale and Max, which prompted Brian to call Brody and direct him to go back to where we started and just sit and wait. Back to that first tree we went.
While Brody and I settled back under the tree to wait for Axis, Max shot his first deer. He brought the doe down with a single well-placed shot from his new rifle. I wish I had been there to see it, but Brian wanted to make sure the newest hunter had a guide with him at all times.
After almost an hour of sitting and waiting, a herd of Axis came running up the draw, but were too far and moving too fast to take an ethical shot. In what I considered another bizarre move, Brody decided we would chase them up the mountain. Who am I to argue with the wisdom of the locals? Up we climbed.
It was now mid-day, and the heat was brutal. We paused under the shade of a large Kiawe (key-ahv-ay) tree situated in a large wallow. The red dirt was dusty and dry, the ground covered in Axis scat, sheds, and hoofprints. I recognized the tree from the previous year.
The year before, Bret took a shot at an Axis doe laying in the Kiawe’s shade. It was a good shot at a long distance, but the doe was the same color as the thick tree roots that stuck up out of the ground more than a foot. His bullet struck the wood harmlessly and the Axis scampered off unscathed.
Unlike Brody and I, Dale had sat patiently in the spot Brian placed him all morning. He had seen a few far off Axis moving along a ridge, so Brian and Max picked him up in the UTV to close the distance. They drove a short distance, then parked the CanAm to sneak the rest of the way into shooting range. Brian picked a trio of bedded deer out for Dale, who steadied for a shot.
Dale fired twice, hitting one of the Axis. Then his rifle jammed. After fixing the malfunction, Dale managed to connect with a second deer with the third and final bullet in his magazine.
Now feeling the pressure, Brody decided to push even further up the mountain to get me a shot of my own. We moved quickly and not at all quietly uphill, bumping two different herds of deer on our way up. Getting frustrated, we stopped and waited on a ridge. Within minutes, a small herd of Axis made themselves visible on a ridge about 300 yards away.
I stabilized my trusty Ruger .30-06 on my ruck, picked out a doe, and settled the crosshairs on her and pulled the trigger. She dropped immediately, and the rest of the does scrambled away before I could pick out another.
“Great shot, Uncle!” Brody exclaimed from behind my binoculars. Colloquially, “uncle” is a term of endearment for an older, respected male. I am not actually Brody’s uncle, nor do I consider myself old enough, but I guess since I was more than twice his age, I have to let it slide.
Now with four does bagged, it was time to get some rest out of the sun. We butchered the deer and brought the meat back to Brian’s to freeze, then went back to the hotel. Dale and I saddled up the CanAm with Brian and Brody in the late afternoon to catch some more Axis as they left the upper forest.
As we picked our way up the mountain, a herd of Axis made themselves known. Steadying my rifle, I picked out another doe, and dropped her with a clean hit at 290 yards. Brian sent Dale, Brody, and me out to collect the meat and bring it back while he waited in the UTV. Hiking to the doe, Dale and I helped Brody butcher the deer and pack up the meat, then all hiked back to the CanAm together.
We planned to drive the UTV all the way up into the tree line to hunt among the pines, but the weather would not permit it. Thick clouds rolled in and hugged the mountain in a thick, cool fog. Remaining in the scrub brush of the lower section of the mountain, Dale and I shot three more Axis at twilight before packing it in for the night.
The following morning, Brian picked us up early and brought us to a different section of the property. This time, all three of us were given different spots to sit and wait, and I picked my way downhill. Brian assured me I would know the right spot when I saw it. In the dark, and unfamiliar with this part of the property, I ended up in what was probably the wrong place, but I sat down to wait next to a rock anyway.
There were a pair of Kiawe trees just about fifty yards away from me. Favored by the Axis as a source of shade, I knew there would be a herd under the trees when the Sun started to bake the landscape. Before long, an Axis doe started barking her way through the brush behind me, in the opposite direction of the Kiawe. I became fixated in her direction.
Suddenly remembering the trees, I sat up to turn around. Around thirty Axis deer bolted from their shade. I stayed low, using the rock for cover, and hoping that my floppy hat and camo shirt would confuse the deer.
All but one of the skittish animals ran over the ridge into the next draw, the lone remaining Doe standing and barking at me. My only shot was an unsafe, low percentage shot on her neck as she stood sky lined to me. She barked at me, and I barked back at her a few times until she’d had enough and sauntered on after her herd.
Since I blew my chance with that herd of Axis Deer, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to move. I walked back uphill, trying to keep the trees in sight while choosing another advantageous location.
Max, Dale, and I were unable to take ethical shots on any of the deer we saw throughout the morning. We returned to the hotel empty-handed for a couple hours rest, then headed up into the mountains for one last hunt.
Riding in the UTV out to our hunting spot, we saw hundreds of Axis deer running around in the property’s lowlands. Axis deer ran around us in wide circles. They cut in front of us running uphill, then circled back downhill, evading us in the safety of the dense woods near the highway.
Brian dropped me and Max on a ridge, and took Dale further up the trail with Brody. Max and I saw a couple herds of Axis deer. These, like so many others, were moving too fast and were too far away to get a shot.
After threatening rain all weekend, the clouds rolled in, and dumped their payload of precipitation in heavy sheets. Max and I packed up our stuff and high-tailed it back to the trail, making it there just in time to meet Brian, Dale, and Brody come skidding to a halt in the CanAm. We were soaked, and the ride back to Brian’s coated us in a thick film of gritty mud. The three of us were so dirty Brian made us ride in the bed of his Tacoma for the three-minute ride back to Molokai Shores.
We showered, washed our clothes, and took the wives out for Molokai’s fanciest pizza. The next day, we swung by Brian’s house and loaded up our soft-sided coolers with eight Axis does worth of venison. Then it was a quick Island-hop back to Oahu to start processing meat and planning the next trip.
Thank you for reading! Check out the shop to support our artistic endeavors and swing by the YouTube channel to give the companion video a watch!
One thought on “Return to the Friendly Isle//Axis Redux”