Since moving back to Hawai‘i I have been learning how to stalk the elusive spotted deer (or chital, or axis). I’ve been on three hunts in the period from April to July on the neighboring island of Lanai, one on public land (drawing hunt), and two on private land. On the last hunt I was finally successful and I shot a small chital buck. Needless to say this is free-range, wild animals. Also, its quite hot during the middle of the day...

Some observations on the hunting spotted deer in general. These are VERY wary and spooky deer, much more difficult to hunt than mouflon. Routinely the deer have spotted me at over 200m, and moved with great speed to get away from me. They are a challenging animal to stalk on the open hill. Moreover, the have excellent hearing and the first time I snuck up on one I blew it by chambering my bolt too fast, and the buck heard it (at about 200m again) and ran over the hill…

This small buck was spotted avoiding the heat of mid-day by resting under a Kiawe tree. It was a difficult shot at a partially obscured deer that was lying down. Needless to say, it was not a perfect first shot. The deer got up and ran off and I shot again to put him down, and well… I shot off an antler. I followed up in the bushes and managed to put a shot in his head and put him down for good. Not my best shooting, in fact down right terrible… I like to put animals down cleanly. I’m not proud of my shooting, but the hunt was successful! Now I have a store of wonderful spotted deer venison, an interesting European skull mount, and a beautiful spotted deer hide to go on the wall. I’ll see if I can do better next year!

Hunting on Lanai: