This bow opener was the craziest one I’ve ever had, and one that I’ll never forget!
This is my fourth season on a lease out in the Texas hill country, and ever since I joined I’ve been after a trophy axis buck! Every time I would go the ranch and check cameras I’d have tons of pictures of axis coming in, but when I’d make a sit I’d never see any of the bucks on the hoof. Fast forward to this weekend, and it all came together, but in the craziest way!
My girlfriend and I arrive at the lease late Friday morning and go about checking cameras and I set up a ground blind at a spot so that she could sit with me. I checked the camera, where I had set up the ground blind, with high hopes of seeing some good activity because the last time I was at the lease that spot had axis crawling all over it. To my disappointment there wasn’t a single axis on camera, but I know how axis are and know that they can be at any given spot at any given time, so I still planned to sit at that spot opening morning. Saturday morning rolls around and I get in the blind about 45 minutes before daylight. The feeder went off at 7:00am and as soon as it did I saw some movement...AND SPOTS! As the axis got closer I could tell it was a buck, but couldn’t tell how big he was due to the poor light. As the sun rose higher I saw that he had broken half his right side off along with his second tine on his left. My heart dropped to my feet. Finally I had a shooter axis buck in front of me, AT 16 YARDS, and he is all broken up...I mean shooter because one of our lease rules is that an axis buck has to be 30” at least on one side to shoot. So I spent the rest of the hunt watching as he and all the other deer ate their fill and moved along. Saturday evening, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening hunts provided the same results. No axis. I could have shot multiple fat does and cull bucks, but I wasn’t going to suffer out in the heat (tracking, loading, cleaning, etc.) for anything less than a toad axis buck or a big daddy whitetail buck! As my girlfriend and I wrapped up the Sunday evening hunt and began making our way back to camp she suddenly says, “Did you see that deer with that huge rack!?” I told her I didn’t because it was dark and I was paying attention to driving, but I asked where she had seen it and she said that it wasn’t far behind us. I was curious as to what she saw and she said it was just standing there, so I decided to turn the mule around and see if I could get a glimpse of the animal. We made our way probably 50 yards back up the road she points to the deer that she had seen! There in the high beams was this buck, standing under a group of oaks just munching on acorns. He looked at us for a solid minute and then went back to eating. I grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow and opened the mule door as slowly as I could. He looked up again and I knew he was going to make a run for it, but after another minute or so he just went back to eating. I slowly edged out of the mule and walked as quietly and slowly as I could on the outskirts of the lights. I was paying more attention to the buck and his movements that more than where I was walking and walked right into a patch of cactuses! CRUNCH! This made the buck weary and he turned and began walking away from me with only his backside to look at. I felt defeated once again, but the adrenaline of the stalk was already kicking in and I was going to stay after him until I either had him on the ground or until he disappeared into the darkness. I winced in pain as the needles stuck into my legs as I made my way through the cactus and bit my tongue to not shout multiple explicits. I got a good bit of ground covered after that. He had walked another 30 or so yards further and then turned and presented me with a quartering away shot. I pushed the button on my bow sight light...it didn’t come on!...so I drew back and used the light from the high beams of the mule to reflect off the fiber optic of my sight. ZIP! I let an arrow fly! I could see my red nockturnal fly just below him! He didn’t like this and and vanished into some brush...I couldn’t see him any longer. Disappointed and angry with myself I made my way back to the mule and my girlfriend said, “Shoot at him again! He is still there!” From where she was sitting in the mule she could barely see his outline. I took a chance and turned the mule to reposition the lights and there he was. I quickly nocked another arrow and slid out of the mule, making sure to make my way to the road this time to avoid cactuses and other obstacles. I could only see a a little bit of him through the cedars and I covered as much ground as I could to get within a better shooting range due to my pin light not working and barely being able to see my sights. I got within about 25 yards of him with my only shot opportunity being a “V” in a cedar bush and that’s only if he moved into that position. I couldn’t tell where he was looking or how he was facing. I could just tell that he was standing from the little bit I could see. For what seemed like an eternity all three of us sat there, waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden he began to move and I quickly drew back, hoping he’d move into position. By the Grace of God and sheer luck, he moved into the “V” and I let the Easton arrow tipped with the new Sevr 1.7” fly! SWHACK! I hit my mark dead on! He made it all of about 7 yards and piled up!
I also have to give a big shoutout to my girlfriend for having better eyes than me because I never saw him and would have just drove back to camp and went to bed if she wouldn’t have been with me. The only complaint that I have about all this is I wish my hindsight was 20/20 and had given my girlfriend my phone to catch it all on camera! Oh well, I hope I did a good enough job in explaining everything. It is definitely the craziest and most exciting hunt I’ve ever had!
Measurements:
31 7/8” - right
30” - left
- With an awesome kink in his left cottle and if you zoom up you can see a fourth little point on his left side!
Thanks for reading and sorry for the long read!
This is my fourth season on a lease out in the Texas hill country, and ever since I joined I’ve been after a trophy axis buck! Every time I would go the ranch and check cameras I’d have tons of pictures of axis coming in, but when I’d make a sit I’d never see any of the bucks on the hoof. Fast forward to this weekend, and it all came together, but in the craziest way!
My girlfriend and I arrive at the lease late Friday morning and go about checking cameras and I set up a ground blind at a spot so that she could sit with me. I checked the camera, where I had set up the ground blind, with high hopes of seeing some good activity because the last time I was at the lease that spot had axis crawling all over it. To my disappointment there wasn’t a single axis on camera, but I know how axis are and know that they can be at any given spot at any given time, so I still planned to sit at that spot opening morning. Saturday morning rolls around and I get in the blind about 45 minutes before daylight. The feeder went off at 7:00am and as soon as it did I saw some movement...AND SPOTS! As the axis got closer I could tell it was a buck, but couldn’t tell how big he was due to the poor light. As the sun rose higher I saw that he had broken half his right side off along with his second tine on his left. My heart dropped to my feet. Finally I had a shooter axis buck in front of me, AT 16 YARDS, and he is all broken up...I mean shooter because one of our lease rules is that an axis buck has to be 30” at least on one side to shoot. So I spent the rest of the hunt watching as he and all the other deer ate their fill and moved along. Saturday evening, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening hunts provided the same results. No axis. I could have shot multiple fat does and cull bucks, but I wasn’t going to suffer out in the heat (tracking, loading, cleaning, etc.) for anything less than a toad axis buck or a big daddy whitetail buck! As my girlfriend and I wrapped up the Sunday evening hunt and began making our way back to camp she suddenly says, “Did you see that deer with that huge rack!?” I told her I didn’t because it was dark and I was paying attention to driving, but I asked where she had seen it and she said that it wasn’t far behind us. I was curious as to what she saw and she said it was just standing there, so I decided to turn the mule around and see if I could get a glimpse of the animal. We made our way probably 50 yards back up the road she points to the deer that she had seen! There in the high beams was this buck, standing under a group of oaks just munching on acorns. He looked at us for a solid minute and then went back to eating. I grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow and opened the mule door as slowly as I could. He looked up again and I knew he was going to make a run for it, but after another minute or so he just went back to eating. I slowly edged out of the mule and walked as quietly and slowly as I could on the outskirts of the lights. I was paying more attention to the buck and his movements that more than where I was walking and walked right into a patch of cactuses! CRUNCH! This made the buck weary and he turned and began walking away from me with only his backside to look at. I felt defeated once again, but the adrenaline of the stalk was already kicking in and I was going to stay after him until I either had him on the ground or until he disappeared into the darkness. I winced in pain as the needles stuck into my legs as I made my way through the cactus and bit my tongue to not shout multiple explicits. I got a good bit of ground covered after that. He had walked another 30 or so yards further and then turned and presented me with a quartering away shot. I pushed the button on my bow sight light...it didn’t come on!...so I drew back and used the light from the high beams of the mule to reflect off the fiber optic of my sight. ZIP! I let an arrow fly! I could see my red nockturnal fly just below him! He didn’t like this and and vanished into some brush...I couldn’t see him any longer. Disappointed and angry with myself I made my way back to the mule and my girlfriend said, “Shoot at him again! He is still there!” From where she was sitting in the mule she could barely see his outline. I took a chance and turned the mule to reposition the lights and there he was. I quickly nocked another arrow and slid out of the mule, making sure to make my way to the road this time to avoid cactuses and other obstacles. I could only see a a little bit of him through the cedars and I covered as much ground as I could to get within a better shooting range due to my pin light not working and barely being able to see my sights. I got within about 25 yards of him with my only shot opportunity being a “V” in a cedar bush and that’s only if he moved into that position. I couldn’t tell where he was looking or how he was facing. I could just tell that he was standing from the little bit I could see. For what seemed like an eternity all three of us sat there, waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden he began to move and I quickly drew back, hoping he’d move into position. By the Grace of God and sheer luck, he moved into the “V” and I let the Easton arrow tipped with the new Sevr 1.7” fly! SWHACK! I hit my mark dead on! He made it all of about 7 yards and piled up!
I also have to give a big shoutout to my girlfriend for having better eyes than me because I never saw him and would have just drove back to camp and went to bed if she wouldn’t have been with me. The only complaint that I have about all this is I wish my hindsight was 20/20 and had given my girlfriend my phone to catch it all on camera! Oh well, I hope I did a good enough job in explaining everything. It is definitely the craziest and most exciting hunt I’ve ever had!
Measurements:
31 7/8” - right
30” - left
- With an awesome kink in his left cottle and if you zoom up you can see a fourth little point on his left side!
Thanks for reading and sorry for the long read!
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