I have always been an avid outdoorsman. In December of 2012, I discovered that there was an Axis hunt in my future. The first weekend of April was the day, and even though these days seem to be flying by, I felt like a child anxiously waiting on Christmas to arrive and it could get here fast enough.
Leading up to the day and not knowing the landscape I called the guide, Jason Wallace with Alpha Outfitters to get some insight of how we would be hunting, what is my typical shot distance going to be, what sort of camouflage pattern to utilize and so on and so forth.
During my patient wait, I began really study Axis and learn what to look for and the behavioral habits are of these majestic species. After all the information the guide was able to supply me with, I decided for this trip, I would use my Browning A-bolt in 300 Win Mag, with a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14X50 and take my Swarovski EL Range Binoculars. Having no idea what time of day, I would see an animal, I wanted to have every distinct advantage possible if met with the adversity of low light.
All packed up and ready to go, we headed out. I couldn’t think of a nicer time of year to be traveling through Texas’ Hill Country. There’s just something about traveling here in Texas that calms someone down from the busy day to day rush that is commonly associated with work. Seeing the big blue skies, the rocky terrain, and the bluebonnets on the side of the roadside reminds how beautiful things are and not something just seen in photographs.
When we arrived the guide was not present and we waited on the front porch until he came back. He was there the entire time, but was guiding his father on his hunt from this morning. Once the guide arrived we were quickly greeted by Jason of Alpha Outfitters. He showed us around the “Lodge” and moved our stuff to our resting place for the evening.
After we got everything put away in our room, we loaded up to head over to what is known as the “Photography Blind”. By this time it is about 4:45-5:00 PM and we begin to see movement. Some really nice Ewes, Audad, Fallow, and native Whitetails began to move in and feed. Just being present in the wilderness watching them was exciting. After a while the sun began to set and light was fading fast and we were losing visibility. At that point we decided to call it a night and head in.
The following morning we up early and begin to hunt another blind and had the pleasure of seeing some great Turkey’s. But no Axis in sight. I wasn’t sure if weren’t finding them because they weren’t there or if they didn’t want to be found.
After coming down from the blind we engaged in to some spot and stalk. Riding around in the Ranger in a different side of the ranch, we began to see a lot of fresh sign. We found several, but Axis are not one to hang around after being located. They would see me and immediately turn tail and run, then because of the thickness of Cedar trees I was not able to get a good bead on one to make a clean shot. Unfortunately nothing materialized from that side of the ranch. Just seeing them, was enough to get my heart rate up and the huge lump in my throat began to develop, I thought, I was in the rut!
Jason explained, there a section of the ranch they call the run way, because that is where the owner will land when he flew in, it’s somewhat of a superhighway for crossing from one side to the other. Well Jason is driving and standing up and sitting down, and he does this back and forth for a bit. Then he cuts left and starts running in to the woods with his shooting sticks.
He signals over to Deuce and I to get over there, we rush over to him and put the rifle in the sticks and I do not see anything, scanning from left to right, I cannot locate what he is talking about. I look back at my friend, Christopher and he doesn’t see anything either. A minute goes by and Jason says “Get down! We need to move because he’s getting up”. I still do not see him, but we have the wind in our favor and it was howling across us, covering our movement and scent nicely so we are not winded and he had no idea we were even there. At this point I’m trying to be calm, we are on the ground crawling over the rocks, through cactus and under some dead mesquite limbs for about thirty yards. We then stood up, fashioned up the shooting sticks and put my rifle on. At this point I’m on 4.5X with the Leupold VX-3 to make the field of view as wide as possible and still cannot locate him.
Christopher said he sees him now and tells me “Dude, he’s big bro, definitely a shooter”, with his assurance I flip the safety. Jason is excited and telling me shoot him, shoot him!, crescendoing into shouting at me, SHOOT HIM!!! Finally, I found a white spot that was out of the ordinary. Following that spot into a clearer area I discovered him and he’s broadside, he moves forward and I see the shoulder. Knowing that is my sweet spot and trying to determine the range, I held under and slowly squeezed the trigger……..BOOM! I saw the impact hit him in the shoulder as it shrank up as he did a 180 degree turn to go through the brush. He didn’t run farther than ten yards when we discovered him.
Now actually being able to see him without anything hindering or impairing my vision, he was excellent. I had no idea he was in full velvet and beginning to tip out. I knew after seeing the body that he was big, however not seeing any Axis previously, I had no idea how to gauge the size of his antlers to tell if he was below average, average, or above average. After gauging the expression from my friend’s I know that he was definitely a big boy.
After taking some photos and loading him up, we head up to the barn to field dress and prepare him for the taxidermist. After that, the guide stated that if we want to hang out in the lodge we are more than welcome, but explained that he wanted to go hunt, since I just set a precedent for the largest Axis harvested on Rancho Trinidad, I volunteered to go with him. Who would turn down the opportunity to go out again, right?
We load up and head out. We also took some Swarovski EL Range finding binoculars. Finding an Axis almost immediately. Jason was looking through his scope to get a better look, looks back at me and with a unsure look on his face gives me a thumbs up or thumbs down. After evaluating him, I discover that he is wide and give him the thumbs up. Jason engages and pulls the trigger. Immediately the race is on, he runs one way and five others come out of bedding and run the opposite direction. I run up to Jason and he has a look on his face like he missed. We give him some time and begin to track him. Almost a mile later we locate him a draw about 100 yards from the closest road. We try to pick up another monster and begin to drag him out. Jason said I got him on length, but he had me on width. And he was right. We loaded him up for pictures and then took him to the barn to get cleaned up.
This was the most exciting hunts that I have ever had the opportunity to take. After evaluating how things transponded over the weekend, I reflected several things. There is something inside of us that is instinctive to do things. Hunting is a part of all of us. Having the proper gear, doing some research on the area and what I was hunting were the prefect ingredients along with a great guide supplied the best hunt one could ask for.
After the hunt we loaded my animal up and took my buck to a highly recommended Taxidermist in New Braunfels, Texas called the Double Nickel. Talking with the Taxidermist, he said the best way to mount Axis is in a wall pedestal mount. After looking through some pictures that is what I decided to go with and now the anxiety is back waiting on the mount to be finished. He also notes when unloading the animal, that this was the largest one that he has seen and explained he would do a complete Safari Club International score and keep me posted.
He ended up scoring 178” with the velvet but for the score to be official SCI takes away 3% allowing a net score of 168 1/8”. His bases where 9” in diameter, his main beams were 37”, His Coddle Tines were 10” and he had 14” Eye Guards. Because of his age and how good of shape he was in, he was named Tom Cruise.
Leading up to the day and not knowing the landscape I called the guide, Jason Wallace with Alpha Outfitters to get some insight of how we would be hunting, what is my typical shot distance going to be, what sort of camouflage pattern to utilize and so on and so forth.
During my patient wait, I began really study Axis and learn what to look for and the behavioral habits are of these majestic species. After all the information the guide was able to supply me with, I decided for this trip, I would use my Browning A-bolt in 300 Win Mag, with a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14X50 and take my Swarovski EL Range Binoculars. Having no idea what time of day, I would see an animal, I wanted to have every distinct advantage possible if met with the adversity of low light.
All packed up and ready to go, we headed out. I couldn’t think of a nicer time of year to be traveling through Texas’ Hill Country. There’s just something about traveling here in Texas that calms someone down from the busy day to day rush that is commonly associated with work. Seeing the big blue skies, the rocky terrain, and the bluebonnets on the side of the roadside reminds how beautiful things are and not something just seen in photographs.
When we arrived the guide was not present and we waited on the front porch until he came back. He was there the entire time, but was guiding his father on his hunt from this morning. Once the guide arrived we were quickly greeted by Jason of Alpha Outfitters. He showed us around the “Lodge” and moved our stuff to our resting place for the evening.
After we got everything put away in our room, we loaded up to head over to what is known as the “Photography Blind”. By this time it is about 4:45-5:00 PM and we begin to see movement. Some really nice Ewes, Audad, Fallow, and native Whitetails began to move in and feed. Just being present in the wilderness watching them was exciting. After a while the sun began to set and light was fading fast and we were losing visibility. At that point we decided to call it a night and head in.
The following morning we up early and begin to hunt another blind and had the pleasure of seeing some great Turkey’s. But no Axis in sight. I wasn’t sure if weren’t finding them because they weren’t there or if they didn’t want to be found.
After coming down from the blind we engaged in to some spot and stalk. Riding around in the Ranger in a different side of the ranch, we began to see a lot of fresh sign. We found several, but Axis are not one to hang around after being located. They would see me and immediately turn tail and run, then because of the thickness of Cedar trees I was not able to get a good bead on one to make a clean shot. Unfortunately nothing materialized from that side of the ranch. Just seeing them, was enough to get my heart rate up and the huge lump in my throat began to develop, I thought, I was in the rut!
Jason explained, there a section of the ranch they call the run way, because that is where the owner will land when he flew in, it’s somewhat of a superhighway for crossing from one side to the other. Well Jason is driving and standing up and sitting down, and he does this back and forth for a bit. Then he cuts left and starts running in to the woods with his shooting sticks.
He signals over to Deuce and I to get over there, we rush over to him and put the rifle in the sticks and I do not see anything, scanning from left to right, I cannot locate what he is talking about. I look back at my friend, Christopher and he doesn’t see anything either. A minute goes by and Jason says “Get down! We need to move because he’s getting up”. I still do not see him, but we have the wind in our favor and it was howling across us, covering our movement and scent nicely so we are not winded and he had no idea we were even there. At this point I’m trying to be calm, we are on the ground crawling over the rocks, through cactus and under some dead mesquite limbs for about thirty yards. We then stood up, fashioned up the shooting sticks and put my rifle on. At this point I’m on 4.5X with the Leupold VX-3 to make the field of view as wide as possible and still cannot locate him.
Christopher said he sees him now and tells me “Dude, he’s big bro, definitely a shooter”, with his assurance I flip the safety. Jason is excited and telling me shoot him, shoot him!, crescendoing into shouting at me, SHOOT HIM!!! Finally, I found a white spot that was out of the ordinary. Following that spot into a clearer area I discovered him and he’s broadside, he moves forward and I see the shoulder. Knowing that is my sweet spot and trying to determine the range, I held under and slowly squeezed the trigger……..BOOM! I saw the impact hit him in the shoulder as it shrank up as he did a 180 degree turn to go through the brush. He didn’t run farther than ten yards when we discovered him.
Now actually being able to see him without anything hindering or impairing my vision, he was excellent. I had no idea he was in full velvet and beginning to tip out. I knew after seeing the body that he was big, however not seeing any Axis previously, I had no idea how to gauge the size of his antlers to tell if he was below average, average, or above average. After gauging the expression from my friend’s I know that he was definitely a big boy.
After taking some photos and loading him up, we head up to the barn to field dress and prepare him for the taxidermist. After that, the guide stated that if we want to hang out in the lodge we are more than welcome, but explained that he wanted to go hunt, since I just set a precedent for the largest Axis harvested on Rancho Trinidad, I volunteered to go with him. Who would turn down the opportunity to go out again, right?
We load up and head out. We also took some Swarovski EL Range finding binoculars. Finding an Axis almost immediately. Jason was looking through his scope to get a better look, looks back at me and with a unsure look on his face gives me a thumbs up or thumbs down. After evaluating him, I discover that he is wide and give him the thumbs up. Jason engages and pulls the trigger. Immediately the race is on, he runs one way and five others come out of bedding and run the opposite direction. I run up to Jason and he has a look on his face like he missed. We give him some time and begin to track him. Almost a mile later we locate him a draw about 100 yards from the closest road. We try to pick up another monster and begin to drag him out. Jason said I got him on length, but he had me on width. And he was right. We loaded him up for pictures and then took him to the barn to get cleaned up.
This was the most exciting hunts that I have ever had the opportunity to take. After evaluating how things transponded over the weekend, I reflected several things. There is something inside of us that is instinctive to do things. Hunting is a part of all of us. Having the proper gear, doing some research on the area and what I was hunting were the prefect ingredients along with a great guide supplied the best hunt one could ask for.
After the hunt we loaded my animal up and took my buck to a highly recommended Taxidermist in New Braunfels, Texas called the Double Nickel. Talking with the Taxidermist, he said the best way to mount Axis is in a wall pedestal mount. After looking through some pictures that is what I decided to go with and now the anxiety is back waiting on the mount to be finished. He also notes when unloading the animal, that this was the largest one that he has seen and explained he would do a complete Safari Club International score and keep me posted.
He ended up scoring 178” with the velvet but for the score to be official SCI takes away 3% allowing a net score of 168 1/8”. His bases where 9” in diameter, his main beams were 37”, His Coddle Tines were 10” and he had 14” Eye Guards. Because of his age and how good of shape he was in, he was named Tom Cruise.
