For both experienced hunters and first-timers, the roar of a rutting axis buck inspires hints of primal intrigue seasoned with an instinct to chase. To a new axis hunter, the raspy roars can sound more like a herd of Bigfoot hiding in the oak mottes.
As the summer rut approaches, anticipation within the axis hunting community amps up. The hunting has been hampered the last few years due to drought and a hard freeze, but hopes are high this year.
Willie Waldrip and a friend found themselves hunting near Sonora in mid-May. The duo set out to chase big deer with their bows and found themselves in the mix all weekend.
“We were in deer from sunup to sundown every day,” Waldrip said. “That first morning we started out sitting over feed but could hear six different bucks roaring. We picked the closest one and started chasing.”
Over the course of the weekend, Waldrip dodged rainstorms and searched out bucks.
“Some bucks were still bachelored up and in groups, but most of the hard-horned bucks were super fired up,” he said. “On multiple occasions, bucks would catch us in the open, give us a quick look, and then go back to chasing the girls. One time we even came across five or six bucks fighting over one doe. It was wild.”
The duo never did find a buck within range that fit their bill, but the opportunities were plentiful and the rut action was frenzied.
On May 13, Tanner Neill, of Johnson City, was hunting a small piece of property near Stonewall when he was finally able to close the chapter on a deer he named the “Club Buck.” Relatively new to axis hunting, Neill spent months scouting and learning the patterns of the deer before setting up on the ground just off a trail with a bow in hand.
“It was a pretty unconventional setup, I was actually in my turkey chair in a small group of oak trees about 30 yards from the trail,” he said. “Then I heard a roar for the first time and it caught me off guard. I had never heard anything like that, but figured it had to have been an axis.”
The setup seemed to be working, as deer started making their way down his trail as the afternoon progressed.
“About 20 minutes after I heard that roar, two does and a small buck popped out of the brush and started making their way down the trail,” Neill said. “Before I knew it, there were 30 deer at 30 yards just walking right past me and Club Buck was in the back. He was bringing up the rear and looked like a moose swaying side to side as he moved his antlers through the oaks.”
After a well-placed shot, he backed out and returned an hour later with his wife for the recovery.
“The buck ran about 100 yards from the shot when we found him,” he said. “To do it on the ground with my bow, on a 25-acre, low-fence property made it all the sweeter.”
Neil Tyler and his girlfriend Jennie booked a trip with Texas Hunting Resources near Menard in search of his first axis buck. The trip began with decent activity, but a chain of violent thunderstorms in the area seemed to shut down the majority of the action.
During a brief window of blue sky, the hunting party caught a glimpse of a buck rutting a doe and made a move to get closer.
“We looped around and got on a hill opposite of them,” Tyler said. “There were actually a handful of deer and one really nice buck, but they were out of reach and heading into the thick brush to bed for the day.”
The group made a plan to return that evening, hoping to catch the deer emerging from the bedding area.
Around 6 p.m., Tyler headed back to the same hillside, watching and waiting.
“We caught a glimpse of a really big buck about 600 yards away on the opposite hill, and then after that, all evening long, deer funneled from the hilltops down into the flat below us,” he said. “Later I glassed up another really big buck that was pushing does and knew immediately I liked him.”
Over the course of the evening, 50- 60 deer made their way into view with a number of hard-horned bucks roaring and rutting does. One old buck, in particular, controlled the majority of the harem, but had substantial freeze damage on his antlers that kept him off limits.
“There was this really old, really big-bodied buck that was rutting does right in front of us, and then all of a sudden he put his ears back and we heard the loudest crash, but it was out of sight,” Tyler said. “Our guide told us to grab everything and we started running toward the sound. Come to find out the old buck was fighting another buck and it ended up being the big buck I had seen previously.”
The group watched the two bucks fight for a few more seconds until they separated and offered Tyler his shot. One well-placed round from his .300 Win. Mag and the hunt for Tyler’s first axis buck was over.
