Here's the new #4 SCI rifle Axis from the Hackberry! WOW! What a trophy! We've been seeing this deer for the past 12-14 months - and all of us trying to get him. Congrats to Leroy for finally bagging him!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
Alek Finally Gets His Axis Buck!!!
Alek finally got his Axis buck! Free range, spot and stalk, and no bait (not even corn thrown out on the ground!) - so it was worth it! This will make the fourth Axis that I successfully guided someone on without feeders or bait - so it can be done! Also, with regards to rifle hunting and the need for camo - I had a blue shirt on - the easiest color for deer to see.
We started Saturday with a two hour stalk on a herd of Axis bedded up in the bowl between the Wood Blind and Death Star. We came down from the Death Star feeder ridge and managed through some large cliffs and thick cover. We got to within 80 yards, but unfortunately spooked them as were sizing them up. We saw two really nice Bucks in the herd... darn!!
Saturday evening, all of us went into town to eat. We got back to the cabin at 8:26 PM and I told Alek we were heading South for a quick look. Once we arrived, we walked around glassing for any Axis. We spotted a herd on the Spring Blind ridge, but didn't see any large bucks. We started walking towards the gate to leave when we heard an Axis doe barking, but we knew we hadn't spooked anything.
We looked into a field and saw a single Axis Doe and then a single Axis buck. We slowly made our way to within about 200 yards. The Axis buck would never give Alek a clean shot - it kept facing away from him or lying down. Eventually he turned and Alek took a shot. The Axis took the shot low behind the shoulder and was dazed and stumbling. I told Alek to shoot again and he hit his right leg and brisket. He fell down on his front legs, but popped back up and ran off (not full speed) into the brush.
By the time we got to the brush line, it was completely dark. We looked around for a few minutes for blood, but couldn't find any. We decided not to pressure him and went back to get Darryl to help and some good flashlights.
We were back within 30 minutes and quickly found a heavy blood trail. We tracked him about 200 yards into the brush and found him alive, but lying down. He took a finishing shot. Had we waited an hour before we came back, he would have been expired for sure!
He weighed in at 200 lbs exactly (I actually weigh any animal over 100 lbs to avoid guessing - which most people do and typically overestimate by 30-50%). He had a huge neck! A rough measurement showed his left side to be 32-33" with a 14" brown tine, and his right side to be 30-31" with a 12-13" brown tine. The cottle tines were average length with the left being longer. His antlers were also extremely heavy - some parts you could barely get your hand around!!
And thanks to Darryl! He left a day before us and dropped the deer off at Rhodes since the cooler wasn't getting below 45-50 degrees!
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Adrian Ground Checks a Nice Axis Buck!
Attached is the pic of Adrian's Axis buck from last weekend. He's writing up a story and I will post it here. Needless to say, a nice animal!
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