Ep. 499: The Hardest Deer We've Ever Tried to Bowhunt w/ Collin Heaps

Beau Martonik sits down with Collin Heaps of MTN OPS to recap a bowhunt for axis deer in Hawaii. Collin has hunted this ground before; Beau hadn't, and figured his whitetail and mule deer experience would carry over. It did, but mostly didn't. 

They cover what makes axis deer so much harder to approach than anything either of them hunts back home, a doe Beau recovered after e-scouting a saddle and getting busted the first try, a missed shot on a mature buck that looked different on the drone footage than it did in the moment, and Collin's own gut punch: a doe he was sure he'd killed that actually walked off, and the call he had to make to his three-year-old son to admit it.

Also covers: camp life with no AC and a wild dog running through camp at night, gear that held up in red clay and thorn brush, and Collin's line that stuck with Beau the most: don't chase butterflies.

Topics:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:23 — Collin's Background and How the Trip Came Together

00:06:22 — Camp Life in Hawaii

00:10:25 — What Makes Axis Deer So Hard to Hunt

00:23:36 — Stalking Axis vs. Mule Deer

00:30:41 — The East vs. West Competition

00:33:14 — Beau's Doe Stalk and Recovery

00:47:52 — The Buck Stalk and Missed Shot