Axis quest....the final chapter

[Brian H]

hhmmm, what could the 3rd thing be?

[AgHntr10]

Come on don't leave us hangin again tonight

[tuthdoc]

He didn't move until the arrow was through him. I found the arrow behind him about 10 yards. The Rage 3 blade zipped through him. I could see the big red gash in his side. figured it would be over quickly.

He ran about 75 yards and stopped. I grabbed the tripod and swung it to my other shooting hole, thinking I'd get him teetering and dropping on camera. He stood there for 3 or 4 minutes, then went into a wash and disappeared. I'm starting to wonder what happened.













Over 20 minutes later, I saw him leave the cedar to the left of the one with the "whipped" brown limbs. He had been standing there all along. He walked to the left and disappeared in the brush line. That's where the spring is. Now, I'm worried. I thought I made a slam dunk shot. Another almost? The third one?

I waited until 8:30 and eased out of my blind. I swung wide of the spring and circled around, hoping that an open area on the other side of the spring would let me glass and see if he was down. I made it around there, easing along, glassing the brush. I just happened to look to my left, closer to the "creek" and saw him in the bald open, down. At first, I figured he's gone as far as he could and died. Not to be. He raised his head, saw me, and headed slowly to the base of the cliff. He was 60 yards per my range finder. I tried to find a clear path for my arrow, because with a known distance, I could kill him from where I stood. A big pecan limb between me and him made that impossible. I froze and watched him. He was standing in a little cubby hole. I hoped he'd lay down and let me ease off. Come back later and collect him. We stood there until it got almost too dark to see and he looked up the cliff. I almost yelled at him to not do it, but he did. Up he went, about 20 ft and then turned right and disappeared. My can't blieve what I'd just seen. The whole time I'm staring at him I can see the big cut in his side.

I didn't beat myself up because I made the shot I wanted. Only thing that I could figure was that I needed to be farther forward a little and maybe higher, but I've dropped a lot of whitetails that didn't go 100 yards with that same shot.

I showed the video back at camp and Mark, Sean, and Mitch figured slam dunk. I wasn't sure.

I figured he go up, bed, and die. Next morning would mean lost meat and cape, but I could find him. If he died, I'd find him. I'd either cover that whole mountain over the next week and stumble across him or the buzzards would show me where he was. If he died, I'd find him.

If he was alive and lived over that shot, not likely, but animals can do some amazing things, then my best bet was to hunt my hilltop and the spring blind, hope he healed enough over the next few days to get hungry, and kill him when he came back in.

Next morning, I put Mark in the Spring Blind to try and kill LB, and I went to my hilltop blind. I sat until 8 and then started working the hill. I swung around to where he went up the hill and saw a little blood, but it stopped soon after he started up. The dirt and leaves under the trees made visually inspecting the slope easy, but tracking impossible.

I picked Mark up and headed to camp.

Midday, Mitch, Sean and I headed back out. We covered that area well. There was a trail about where I saw him disappear that paralleled the steep slope, and we thought he'd go that way. Sean covered that well. We had buzzards working over us, but they never settled in. Mitch jumped a buck out of his bed further south, but saw no blood in the bed. That gave me concern that he was alive and that would be the most difficult recovery scenerio.

That afternoon, when I put Mark back in the blind, there were buzzards working the area where the peak sloped down and started to level out. I figured they were on him, or closing in. I decided to go back to the hilltop and hunt, just in case he was alive and came back in there for feed. It was too late for meat or cape and I didn't want to disturb the buzzards.

No such luck.

[bowhuntermac]

And thennnnn....

[Mary]

Doc....on the edge of my seat, and you're killin' me!

[Brian H]

guess we'll find out in the morning

[tracker]

come on with it.

[Green Arrow]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
More please

[kfd82]

AHHHHHH!!
you have got to be the best and worst story teller of all time! Talk about a cliffhanger ending!
This is way better than the ending of the soprano's!

[tuthdoc]

Next morning was Mark's last morning. Mitch and Sean had killed great bucks at the water trough that Mitch had been hunting. Mark had the choice to go there or back to my Spring Blind. There were so many bucks at the trough, that he chose to go there. I decided to go to the Spring Blind and see if my buck came in. I could at least watch for buzzards.

Two big bucks came in, along with several youngsters. One is a buck I call Old Man. He comes in a lot. Not quite as good as LB, but still a nice axis. I'm sure Mark would have killed him. The second is a hoss. Great cottles, beams, and brows. Pretty good mass. I LIKED that buck. If he survives rifle season, hopefully he'll shed before then, I'll have him on my mind next year.















I hunted until 8 or so and then figured Mark would be finished. If not, then I could run the road feeder again and maybe call one in late. At the water trough, they can come to water at any time.

It's a pretty long ride to where Mark was hunting. When I got there, he said it had been slow. He wanted to hunt until 11 and then he had to head right back to Houston. I ran the road feeder and headed back to the spring area.

I stopped a good distance from the cliffs, stopped under a big live oak, grabbed my spotting scope, propped my legs up on the dash, leaned back and started scoping the hill. There were no buzzards when I left earlier, but I saw a big bunch of them working the same general area that they were working the evening before. I kept seeing them dip down over the ridge, and not come back up. I figured I had an hour plus to go check them out. I rode the Ranger to an area below the cliff where I saw them, marked a couple trees for reference and walked down the wash until I found an area where I could head up the hill.

I eased along and saw that I was closer to my hilltop blind than I had thought. Also, I could see some buzzards working closer north than I had worked. I eased into a relatively open area and saw 6 buzzards on the ground. My heart jumped. I glassed and couldn't see him. Were they on a fawn that had died? I eased closer and they flew off. I glassed and saw his beams. ELATION, mixed with regret. Wasted some fine meat, lost the five/deuce of the cape, but found the animal. I had taken my saw with me, just in case and proceeded to cut off the head. The entrance hole was about an inch further back than the dot I had wanted to hit, but close enough for my shooting. The exit was behind the opposite shoulder, close to the elbow. I don't know what kept him up as long as he stayed up.

Sean and I had to have walked within sight of him. He wasn't bedded. Looked like he died on the move. No thick brush for him to lay up in and die. Fairly open area. I had seen him with the buzzards at over 100 yards.

His beams taped out to just under 33 inches. With a cable, they'll probably make 33. He was 27 1/4 inches wide outside. 9 and 10 inch brows. 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 inch cottles. Mass was over 7 at the burr, 6 1/2 between the burr and the brow. Over 4 between the cottles and brows and the blades above the cottle were impressive. Great axis.

[Olympic Recurve]

sorry to hear you found him late, but better late than never....congrats on a great trophy! Thanks for taking us along!

[SCRIBNER]

Those suckers are tough !!!

Glad you got the horns.

I'm headed out wed. till sun. , hopefully somebody gets something.

[Burnadell]

Whew! Good story! Sorry about the meat and cape, but how could you have made a better shot? An inch off? Those axis are tough animals, obviously.

Congratulations on a nice hunt and trophy.

[tuthdoc]

When I picked up Mark at 11, he was thrilled for me finding my axis. He told me that I had until next Monday to kill another one. I told him I couldn't kill another one. He said he would not be able to come back. I could kill his. I told him I couldn't do that. He told me there was no way he could come back and that if I wanted to, I could kill his. All he wanted was a backstrap. Well, I couldn't just take his axis, so being the shrewd negotiator that I am, I went from shooting an axis for nothing more than a backstrap, to giving him three cameras and all the meat except for one backstrap, my keeping the cape and horns. He didn't like it, but he took the deal. He'd get something back for his money and I'd get a cape, and maybe a big set of horns, plus I could keep hunting for a week. So much for San Angelo. There's still axis to kill. I was almost finished, but now I'm back in the game.

So, this is not the end. This is not the beginning of the end. This is just the end of the beginning. The quest continues. Number 2 and a week to get him.

[Kevin]

This has been a great adventure. Glad you recovered him, but sucks you lost the meat. Not sure what you could have done differently?! Looked like a money shot to me. Congrats on a hell of an axis!