Lisa and I had an incredible Thanksgiving with my brother, Jody, and his fiance, Sherri, this past weekend at his deer lease between Uvalde and Camp Wood. Not only the food and family, but Jody had made an incredibly generous offer of allowing me to take his trophy axis for the year after finding out I had never taken a good one and it was a big bucket list item of mine. After some discussions post dove season, we decided we would try to make it happen during Thanksgiving where I could get 4 days of trying to seal the deal. The only caveat was that it had to be done with a rifle and he wanted some of the meat. I was like sign me up even though I had only killed one doe in 16-17 years with a smokepole. So ...he texted me pictures all October and most of November and to say I was getting excited was an understatement. As Smart luck would have it, one of my targets, and the most consistent, shed his antlers the weekend before I was to get there and, of course, he was there every day giving me the middle finger antlerless
That was ok because there were two more in the area that were on the list too. Hopefully they would show. We arrived Wed afternoon late and my brother drove me to the river blind after dark where the axis usually are and told me, this is where its going to happen so get used to it. He gave me the keys to his Ranger crew and said this is yours for the next 4 days, you know the animals, the way and I know you know what to shoot.....I'm sleeping in. lol. So every morning and evening found me in the blind hoping to get a shot on an axis for the wall. I was always the only person hunting in the morning and my wife and Sherri sat in the evenings at other blinds just to look for other targets. I hunted 6 hunts with a lot of animals seen. Whitetail, pigs, turkey and 5-8 axis per morning hunt...Some good bucks but just not the right ones . He kept telling me to shoot a pig or a cull whitetail just to shoot something but I kept telling him I didn't want to take a chance boogering something up even though he suggested it wouldn't. I was focused.
Jody on Sat night, said the big herd had probably left the property like they do from time to time and I'd just have to come back if that was the case. On the last morning, after 6 hunts where it would have been easy to sleep in after no success, a late night after a Longhorn victory over the Ags, and a 6 hour drive home coming soon, I made the wake up at 4:45am to get in the stand one last time. I told myself I would wait until 8:30 and get down so we could pack and get on the road. Right at light, at 7 am, my other target stepped out at 140 yards. All I could see was long white antlers and I knew it was a shooter without binos. With binos, I confirmed it was the bigger axis with a chipped tip they called Chip. I place my crosshairs on him and was just about to pull the trigger when the feeder went off and spooked him. He hauled *** into the brush and I was sick after watching a couple of axis not come back after getting spooked earlier in the week and I knew my luck. It took him a bit but he had walked over to the left sendero and popped out at 100 yards. Took him about 4-5 minutes to do so. A little surprised he didn't go back to the other feeder, I had to switch my chair and gun to the left sendero to try to get a shot off. Of course he turned around and went back in the woods as soon as I was ready to shoot then too. Son of a *****. That's TWICE!! He was not a fan of the 8-10 whitetails there I guess. So this time I could see the tips of his antlers walking though the brush and was thinking he was going back to the other feeder. For some reason he took a sharp right headed to the midpoint of the front sendero and popped back out of the woods at 75 yards. I had already moved my gun so I was ready. He didn't stop when he got into the sendero so I stopped him with a meeh. In the bottom of the ninth he threw me that hanging curve cutting my original distance in half and I smacked it out of the park. The .270 barked, he jumped high into the air with a classic mule kick and tore across the sendero. I called my brother and he hauled tail to the blind. After a short track 50 yards into the mesquite and huisache, there lay my bucket-list trophy axis! I jumped into my brother's arms like a **** kid so thankful for the opportunity. (almost broke his back lol). We celebrated and a tear might have been shed by me. Not only for the generosity, but the celebration of two brothers who have recently lost a 3rd . Jeremy was definitely smiling down Sunday morning. 34 1/8" on left beam. Right beam is 33 -1/8 with the tip missing. Probably safe to say it was 34" as well.
Good food, good family good drink, good times and a memorable hunt. Bucket-list axis officially checked off for the wall.
On a side note, my wife spent more time in a deer blind with Sherri this holiday weekend than she has in many years. We might have her hooked again...
If you made it this far thanks for reading. I tend to get a little long winded on these types of posts.
Lisa and I had an incredible Thanksgiving with my brother, Jody, and his fiance, Sherri, this past weekend at his deer lease between Uvalde and Camp Wood. Not only the food and family, but Jody had made an incredibly generous offer of allowing me to take his trophy axis for the year after finding out I had never taken a good one and it was a big bucket list item of mine. After some discussions post dove season, we decided we would try to make it happen during Thanksgiving where I could get 4 days of trying to seal the deal. The only caveat was that it had to be done with a rifle and he wanted some of the meat. I was like sign me up even though I had only killed one doe in 16-17 years with a smokepole. So ...he texted me pictures all October and most of November and to say I was getting excited was an understatement. As Smart luck would have it, one of my targets, and the most consistent, shed his antlers the weekend before I was to get there and, of course, he was there every day giving me the middle finger antlerless
That was ok because there were two more in the area that were on the list too. Hopefully they would show. We arrived Wed afternoon late and my brother drove me to the river blind after dark where the axis usually are and told me, this is where its going to happen so get used to it. He gave me the keys to his Ranger crew and said this is yours for the next 4 days, you know the animals, the way and I know you know what to shoot.....I'm sleeping in. lol. So every morning and evening found me in the blind hoping to get a shot on an axis for the wall. I was always the only person hunting in the morning and my wife and Sherri sat in the evenings at other blinds just to look for other targets. I hunted 6 hunts with a lot of animals seen. Whitetail, pigs, turkey and 5-8 axis per morning hunt...Some good bucks but just not the right ones . He kept telling me to shoot a pig or a cull whitetail just to shoot something but I kept telling him I didn't want to take a chance boogering something up even though he suggested it wouldn't. I was focused.Jody on Sat night, said the big herd had probably left the property like they do from time to time and I'd just have to come back if that was the case. On the last morning, after 6 hunts where it would have been easy to sleep in after no success, a late night after a Longhorn victory over the Ags, and a 6 hour drive home coming soon, I made the wake up at 4:45am to get in the stand one last time. I told myself I would wait until 8:30 and get down so we could pack and get on the road. Right at light, at 7 am, my other target stepped out at 140 yards. All I could see was long white antlers and I knew it was a shooter without binos. With binos, I confirmed it was the bigger axis with a chipped tip they called Chip. I place my crosshairs on him and was just about to pull the trigger when the feeder went off and spooked him. He hauled *** into the brush and I was sick after watching a couple of axis not come back after getting spooked earlier in the week and I knew my luck. It took him a bit but he had walked over to the left sendero and popped out at 100 yards. Took him about 4-5 minutes to do so. A little surprised he didn't go back to the other feeder, I had to switch my chair and gun to the left sendero to try to get a shot off. Of course he turned around and went back in the woods as soon as I was ready to shoot then too. Son of a *****. That's TWICE!! He was not a fan of the 8-10 whitetails there I guess. So this time I could see the tips of his antlers walking though the brush and was thinking he was going back to the other feeder. For some reason he took a sharp right headed to the midpoint of the front sendero and popped back out of the woods at 75 yards. I had already moved my gun so I was ready. He didn't stop when he got into the sendero so I stopped him with a meeh. In the bottom of the ninth he threw me that hanging curve cutting my original distance in half and I smacked it out of the park.
The .270 barked, he jumped high into the air with a classic mule kick and tore across the sendero. I called my brother and he hauled tail to the blind. After a short track 50 yards into the mesquite and huisache, there lay my bucket-list trophy axis! I jumped into my brother's arms like a **** kid so thankful for the opportunity. (almost broke his back lol). We celebrated and a tear might have been shed by me. Not only for the generosity, but the celebration of two brothers who have recently lost a 3rd . Jeremy was definitely smiling down Sunday morning. 34 1/8" on left beam. Right beam is 33 -1/8 with the tip missing. Probably safe to say it was 34" as well.
Good food, good family good drink, good times and a memorable hunt. Bucket-list axis officially checked off for the wall.
On a side note, my wife spent more time in a deer blind with Sherri this holiday weekend than she has in many years. We might have her hooked again...
If you made it this far thanks for reading. I tend to get a little long winded on these types of posts.
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