Or was lust the word I was looking for? Texas delivers again! I’ll follow up with some details but it’s time to head back down to the blind now. Here’s the results from this morning’s sit:
It was love that did him in....
- Thread starter Kellendv
- Start date
Congrats. Would like a report about the meat. I have heard they are very good table fare.
X2. I am in Texas a few times a year. I need to stop off and shoot a doe.
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Let me know when you want to go to Hawaii, I am down for sure. Goats, pigs, and axis deer all on public land.
Well I made the annual journey out to hill country, Texas again this year. I have an “Aunt and Uncle” (we’re not blood related but they are very close to our family) out here and as they get older and as my family has shrunk in recent years with grandparents dying off I’ve made a point to come out every year and visit with them. They lived in Alaska for all of their professional lives as biologists and they have hunted all of their meat... forever really. In Alaska that was in the form of caribou mostly, but also moose, blacktail deer, and black bear. When they retired they moved here. I think AJ wanted to continue to be able to hunt all of his meat, and Texas hill country is not a bad place to go if that’s your goal, living in AK for a few decades will make you want to fly south too.
They live on the YO Ranch. The YO has a lot of history in Texas as a cattle operation as well as a game ranch. It is much smaller now than it was in its heyday but is still quite large. There is still a commercial side to the ranch that does cattle as well as trophy hunting. My friends live on the private landowner side. It is 11,000 acres total separated into many different parcels. For example, my friends own 65 acres. The outer perimeter of the ranch is fenced but there is no fencing allowed on individual parcels. This is intentional to allow game to move about at will. You can hunt your own land but not elsewhere without permission. It is common for me to be hunting here and see what I am hunting on the neighbors property, I just have to wait and hope they walk over. So I am basically hunting a 65 acre island in the middle of the greater 11,000 acres. On the YO they have Whitetail deer, turkeys, Axis deer, Fallow deer, Blackbuck, Sika deer, Aoudad, and hogs. Occasionally another species will show up, for example last year there was a bull elk on the property a few days before I got here. That kind of thing happens in Hill country because while the majority of ranches here are high fence operations, the fences are not perfect and get washed out in storms, and some animals can still jump them. Also, most people are running corn feeders here. I’ll just say this about them: they aren’t any sort of guarantee. I’ve killed as many or more animals (including this Axis) sneaking around the property or sitting one of the tripod stands far from the feeder. When there is good Acorns and browse, the animals could care less about the feeder. They really only hit it in late winter when the acorns are gone and the oak brush is dead. I don’t wish to hunt over corn/bait of any kind but it is a fact of life here and I’m not going to let it stop me from spending quality time with family hunting. As a lot of you probably know I do prefer fair chase, spot and stalk hunting but that’s really not the focus of this trip. It’s about family.
One thing that is different and nice about the YO is that they have their own wildlife manager. So, while the state of Texas doesn’t manage or regulate hunting of exotic species, the YO does. Basically the wildlife manager does counts every year and then determines how many animals of each species can be taken. For every fifty acres you own, you get one “quota.” So my friends get one quota every year because they own 65 acres. It’s generally about 12-15 animals of varied species, worth no limit on hogs or auodad. This year there is no limit on Whitetails too (other than what you are limited by the state). So some years you might get a fallow tag, others not, some years a Sika tag, others not.
AJ doesn’t save me any tags. He has other guest hunters and let’s people shoot animals on a first come, first serve basis. So for me this year the only thing “on the menu” was Axis and hogs since all the other exotics tags had been used. I should mention that I generally just buy the 5 day non resident exotic license because it’s only 50 bucks. To shoot Whitetail and Turkey I would have to buy a 300 dollar general license (which is still a great deal, you can shoot 5 WT with it). But I’ve never not come home with something and I sometimes get two animals. I always do this hunt in January too so I’m kind of just topping off the freezer after my other hunts in CA and AZ.
This year was a little slow to start. I always see Axis when I’m here but they seem to only like the far end of his property and they never come to the feeder which is up by the house. First couple days, pretty much just hung out and spent a lot of time sitting in a box blind at the feeder with AJ just talking shop and watching animals. Occasionally we would sit the other box blind, which is about mid-way down the property or I would sit a tripod stand solo. Saw lots of WT and blackbuck, and just watching animals here is really awesome. You see so much game! Day three was really bad, it was blowing 15+ mph all day and nothing was moving. Saw one blackbuck in the morning and one after dark.
This morning the forecast was for cloudy and almost no wind... perfect. I decided to sit the tripod stand at the far end of the property, which is the most likely place to see an Axis. I jumped two blackbuck in the dark walking through the woods on the way to the stand, and I jumped another animal right as I got to the stand, never saw what it was. Climbed the ladder, got into the seat, and started working on my coffee as I waited for dawn. It was perfectly still and misting/foggy but with pretty good visibility. The light just gradually got better as I never actually saw the sun come up with all the cloud cover. At around 715 I saw my first animal, a perfect 8 point WT. Not huge antlers but perfect otherwise. He wasn’t on the menu though. Figured I better finish my coffee before something walked up on me unprepared. I did that and around 725 or so I spotted a big deer several hundred yards up the property near a grove of oaks on my side of a wooded area that separates the upper property/feeder area from the lower area where I was. I glassed it up and it was an Axis doe.... good start. Checked back a few minutes later and I see another Axis doe near the first one and a really nice Axis buck is trailing her, lip curling etc... (side note - Axis deer are asynchronous, meaning they don’t all breed at one time of year like their North American cousins. A doe’s estrus cycle is based off of when she is born and a buck grows his antlers based off of when he is born. I have seen Axis bucks here in January in velvet.) I’m pumped but also frustrated, I’m seeing my target animal but they’re way up the property. As I watch them the doe turns back towards the neighbors property and the buck dutifully follows. They disappear behind a juniper that blocks my view. I can only hope she will lead him in my direction. As I wait for things to develop I watch a large group of blackbuck does get pushed around by the big male that lives in this area. He is really impressive and according to AJ all the neighbors have agreed not to shoot him. He has a full 4 turns on his horns and he is jet black and a real trophy. I watch them mill around in a big open area and then move towards the neighbors property. Maybe ten minutes later, at about 0750, I see the big group of blackbuck pop back into view in the big open area and they are angling towards me, as I watch, I see the Axis doe come into view moving the same direction and I know who’s right behind her. My heart rate jacks and I try to calm myself. They are at 165 yards, which in San Diego would be nothing but I’m shooting borrowed equipment and given the relatively small chunk of land I am hunting it’s really important to get things on the ground with no fuss. Tracking onto a neighbors property would require permission and a lot of extra time and stress, so pretty much we shoot 100 yards and under here. There isn’t a lot of opportunity for longer shots anyway. The blackbuck move into the trees first. They are milling around maybe 50 yards from me and there are 10-12 of them. I have a round chambered and I am just scanning open areas waiting to see the bigger deer moving (blackbuck are pretty small). A few minutes later I see the Axis doe angling through a shooting lane about 75 yards out. I get in the scope and wait, and as he trails her he stops perfectly in that lane and I squeeze one off. I see the hit and his jump, he circles around the tree and I hit him again since he’s still up. He goes down but I see his head lift up and I shoot a third and final time. This is probably excessive, but again, I really don’t want to take any chances having an animal leave the property. The woods empty and I watch the deer for 15 minutes before I climb down out of the stand. I’m out of ammo so I quietly sneak around the deer glassing him periodically as I make my way back to the house, I don’t want to approach him with an empty gun even though I can clearly see he has expired. Right as I get out of the stand a little WT forky comes into view about 50 yards away. I just watch him as he walks by completely unaware of me or what has happened.
After I get back to the house and get ammo and AJ, we jump in his truck and drive the little two track down there. As expected he is expired and we do a short drag to the truck and then it’s off to the hanging tree. AJ has a come along set up with wire and a gambrel. There is a table and some cut cedar planks with slots for knives attached to the tree. A lot of animals have been cleaned under that tree...
Since he was such a stunner I decided I had to get him mounted. I’ve been after a nice Axis buck like that for several years. So after cleaning it was off to Taxidermy in Junction (don’t worry Ed, it’s too much of a pain to get him to you). We got back just in time to have some lunch and relax for a bit before it was time to head down for an evening sit. Saw a couple chocolate fallow bucks, bunch of blackbuck and some WT does tonight. One more sit tomorrow morning and then it’s time to head home.
Axis meat is excellent. It’s kind of like elk... not quite there but close. Last year I shot a little button buck Axis but I’ve been after a buck like this for the four years I’ve been hunting here. They are really beautiful animals, and big. Like a big mule deer.
Some more photos of the beast and the property:
They live on the YO Ranch. The YO has a lot of history in Texas as a cattle operation as well as a game ranch. It is much smaller now than it was in its heyday but is still quite large. There is still a commercial side to the ranch that does cattle as well as trophy hunting. My friends live on the private landowner side. It is 11,000 acres total separated into many different parcels. For example, my friends own 65 acres. The outer perimeter of the ranch is fenced but there is no fencing allowed on individual parcels. This is intentional to allow game to move about at will. You can hunt your own land but not elsewhere without permission. It is common for me to be hunting here and see what I am hunting on the neighbors property, I just have to wait and hope they walk over. So I am basically hunting a 65 acre island in the middle of the greater 11,000 acres. On the YO they have Whitetail deer, turkeys, Axis deer, Fallow deer, Blackbuck, Sika deer, Aoudad, and hogs. Occasionally another species will show up, for example last year there was a bull elk on the property a few days before I got here. That kind of thing happens in Hill country because while the majority of ranches here are high fence operations, the fences are not perfect and get washed out in storms, and some animals can still jump them. Also, most people are running corn feeders here. I’ll just say this about them: they aren’t any sort of guarantee. I’ve killed as many or more animals (including this Axis) sneaking around the property or sitting one of the tripod stands far from the feeder. When there is good Acorns and browse, the animals could care less about the feeder. They really only hit it in late winter when the acorns are gone and the oak brush is dead. I don’t wish to hunt over corn/bait of any kind but it is a fact of life here and I’m not going to let it stop me from spending quality time with family hunting. As a lot of you probably know I do prefer fair chase, spot and stalk hunting but that’s really not the focus of this trip. It’s about family.
One thing that is different and nice about the YO is that they have their own wildlife manager. So, while the state of Texas doesn’t manage or regulate hunting of exotic species, the YO does. Basically the wildlife manager does counts every year and then determines how many animals of each species can be taken. For every fifty acres you own, you get one “quota.” So my friends get one quota every year because they own 65 acres. It’s generally about 12-15 animals of varied species, worth no limit on hogs or auodad. This year there is no limit on Whitetails too (other than what you are limited by the state). So some years you might get a fallow tag, others not, some years a Sika tag, others not.
AJ doesn’t save me any tags. He has other guest hunters and let’s people shoot animals on a first come, first serve basis. So for me this year the only thing “on the menu” was Axis and hogs since all the other exotics tags had been used. I should mention that I generally just buy the 5 day non resident exotic license because it’s only 50 bucks. To shoot Whitetail and Turkey I would have to buy a 300 dollar general license (which is still a great deal, you can shoot 5 WT with it). But I’ve never not come home with something and I sometimes get two animals. I always do this hunt in January too so I’m kind of just topping off the freezer after my other hunts in CA and AZ.
This year was a little slow to start. I always see Axis when I’m here but they seem to only like the far end of his property and they never come to the feeder which is up by the house. First couple days, pretty much just hung out and spent a lot of time sitting in a box blind at the feeder with AJ just talking shop and watching animals. Occasionally we would sit the other box blind, which is about mid-way down the property or I would sit a tripod stand solo. Saw lots of WT and blackbuck, and just watching animals here is really awesome. You see so much game! Day three was really bad, it was blowing 15+ mph all day and nothing was moving. Saw one blackbuck in the morning and one after dark.
This morning the forecast was for cloudy and almost no wind... perfect. I decided to sit the tripod stand at the far end of the property, which is the most likely place to see an Axis. I jumped two blackbuck in the dark walking through the woods on the way to the stand, and I jumped another animal right as I got to the stand, never saw what it was. Climbed the ladder, got into the seat, and started working on my coffee as I waited for dawn. It was perfectly still and misting/foggy but with pretty good visibility. The light just gradually got better as I never actually saw the sun come up with all the cloud cover. At around 715 I saw my first animal, a perfect 8 point WT. Not huge antlers but perfect otherwise. He wasn’t on the menu though. Figured I better finish my coffee before something walked up on me unprepared. I did that and around 725 or so I spotted a big deer several hundred yards up the property near a grove of oaks on my side of a wooded area that separates the upper property/feeder area from the lower area where I was. I glassed it up and it was an Axis doe.... good start. Checked back a few minutes later and I see another Axis doe near the first one and a really nice Axis buck is trailing her, lip curling etc... (side note - Axis deer are asynchronous, meaning they don’t all breed at one time of year like their North American cousins. A doe’s estrus cycle is based off of when she is born and a buck grows his antlers based off of when he is born. I have seen Axis bucks here in January in velvet.) I’m pumped but also frustrated, I’m seeing my target animal but they’re way up the property. As I watch them the doe turns back towards the neighbors property and the buck dutifully follows. They disappear behind a juniper that blocks my view. I can only hope she will lead him in my direction. As I wait for things to develop I watch a large group of blackbuck does get pushed around by the big male that lives in this area. He is really impressive and according to AJ all the neighbors have agreed not to shoot him. He has a full 4 turns on his horns and he is jet black and a real trophy. I watch them mill around in a big open area and then move towards the neighbors property. Maybe ten minutes later, at about 0750, I see the big group of blackbuck pop back into view in the big open area and they are angling towards me, as I watch, I see the Axis doe come into view moving the same direction and I know who’s right behind her. My heart rate jacks and I try to calm myself. They are at 165 yards, which in San Diego would be nothing but I’m shooting borrowed equipment and given the relatively small chunk of land I am hunting it’s really important to get things on the ground with no fuss. Tracking onto a neighbors property would require permission and a lot of extra time and stress, so pretty much we shoot 100 yards and under here. There isn’t a lot of opportunity for longer shots anyway. The blackbuck move into the trees first. They are milling around maybe 50 yards from me and there are 10-12 of them. I have a round chambered and I am just scanning open areas waiting to see the bigger deer moving (blackbuck are pretty small). A few minutes later I see the Axis doe angling through a shooting lane about 75 yards out. I get in the scope and wait, and as he trails her he stops perfectly in that lane and I squeeze one off. I see the hit and his jump, he circles around the tree and I hit him again since he’s still up. He goes down but I see his head lift up and I shoot a third and final time. This is probably excessive, but again, I really don’t want to take any chances having an animal leave the property. The woods empty and I watch the deer for 15 minutes before I climb down out of the stand. I’m out of ammo so I quietly sneak around the deer glassing him periodically as I make my way back to the house, I don’t want to approach him with an empty gun even though I can clearly see he has expired. Right as I get out of the stand a little WT forky comes into view about 50 yards away. I just watch him as he walks by completely unaware of me or what has happened.
After I get back to the house and get ammo and AJ, we jump in his truck and drive the little two track down there. As expected he is expired and we do a short drag to the truck and then it’s off to the hanging tree. AJ has a come along set up with wire and a gambrel. There is a table and some cut cedar planks with slots for knives attached to the tree. A lot of animals have been cleaned under that tree...
Since he was such a stunner I decided I had to get him mounted. I’ve been after a nice Axis buck like that for several years. So after cleaning it was off to Taxidermy in Junction (don’t worry Ed, it’s too much of a pain to get him to you). We got back just in time to have some lunch and relax for a bit before it was time to head down for an evening sit. Saw a couple chocolate fallow bucks, bunch of blackbuck and some WT does tonight. One more sit tomorrow morning and then it’s time to head home.
Axis meat is excellent. It’s kind of like elk... not quite there but close. Last year I shot a little button buck Axis but I’ve been after a buck like this for the four years I’ve been hunting here. They are really beautiful animals, and big. Like a big mule deer.
Some more photos of the beast and the property:
Kellen,
Outstanding....We've never had axis deer at the super bowl party.....Hint. hint.....
They’ll probably make me work, but if they don’t I’ll bring some! Otherwise if I’m free I might be able to run one of my dogs in that junior pheasant hunt... if you’re participating in that I’ll bring you something.
Ed I almost called you today! lol I know you’re all booked for the year. It would be a royal pain getting this thing to you anyway but the local prices certainly made me appreciate you and your fine work!
Mission accomplished... processed him today and ended up with an even 100 pounds. Glad I didn’t shoot another animal!
