One Heck Of A Ride

43 More Antlered Game Guide/ranger Richard Masicampo takes a break after climbing Lanai’s steep volcanic slopes. had taken place. Guide Richard Masicampo said more than 2,000 deer were taken before I arrived that season. What Richard was telling me was not to count on taking a trophy buck. The hunting would be tough because so many deer had been removed and the remaining animals had become very shy. Still, for a couple of reasons, I had high hopes and as much interest and excitement for this hunt as any hunt I’d made. I was looking forward to the sun and relaxation on Maui as well as hunting on Lanai. I enjoyed eating and sleeping in the pines in the middle of the island in one of the world’s quaintest hotels. The teriyaki steak dinner I was served there was one of the best I’ve had anywhere in the world. Hunting axis deer on Lanai’s steep, volcanic slopes was similar to hunting Coues white-tailed deer in Arizona and Mexico. The weather was quite warm, the canyons were deep, and the catclaw brush was a “gotcha” for sure. This hunt had been on my mind many times. I had hunted a big bowl-shaped canyon high on the island two years earlier, but had been rained out by a tropical storm with winds that reached the velocity of my bullets. Now, I was set to return to try for a big buck. Four o’clock in the morning of the hunt, Richard met me. We ate and drove off on his four-wheeler in the opposite direction of the bowl I’d hunted on my last trip to Lanai. We would be hunting in the remotest area on the island, Richard said. With hunting pressure from either side it probably would be the only place we would find a buck. It was cloudy and not nearly as warm as I had expected. Intermittent wind whipped up by Hurricane Delta gusted around us. At first light, we were off on foot, wearing our packboards, but leaving our lunches at the four- wheeler. The canyon was singing with birdlife, including wild turkeys. It truly gave me a warm feeling for all natural creatures and of being alive. We hiked through the canyon bottom, in and out of the creek bed and through thick koa trees and heavy brush. Two hours later, we reached the head of the canyon and climbed up the mountainside for a better view. We could see deer on both sides of the canyon, but none had antlers large enough to be called a trophy. We glassed for about five hours before finding a buck bedded in the shade at the mouth of a cave. This deer had a 10- to 12-inch brow tine on one antler and no third point on the other, so we returned to the four-wheeler. I was trying to get Lanai’s sticky mud off my boots when Richard said, “There’s a thirty-incher. Let’s go!” Three bucks were standing together about 400 yards away, which was too far to try shooting under such windy conditions. The buck Richard had seen was behind a tree and all we could see at first were its feet and legs. If we stared, though, we could make out high, dark antlers. We started moving toward the buck, trying to get closer for a better shot. One buck with him may have had a 33-inch antler on one side, but half of its other antler was broken off. The second buck was the thirty-incher Richard had seen. It was difficult to get any closer because of the thick, low cover between the deer and us. Going straight through it would get us within close range, but the noise would spook the deer for certain and