FORISTER EXOTICS

Forister Exotics Axis Hunts

Jason called me back in April and wanted to put together a nice Axis Buck hunt for his wife for her birthday. I told him we could make it happen and should be able to get on a nice Axis Buck. Well the hunt date was upon us and Jason his wife Deanna and son Logan arrived Sunday afternoon to begin Deanna’s Axis Buck hunt. After they settled into the lodge we made a quick trip to the range just to make sure the gun was shooting straight after traveling and I told them be ready around 5 we would make a plan and go sit the first evening. About 5 we started into the pasture Jason had asked about sitting together and if I had a blind big enough that all 3 could just sit together for the first evening. I was a little leery about it but I told them yes we could put them in a blind and just try to be as still and quite as possible. 3 people in 1 popup blind you would be dealing with 3x the scent and 3x the urge to talk and everything so it isn’t the best hunting situation but I told them I had been seeing a lot of good bucks coming through this valley in the evening and I had been feeding there so it should be good. Before we left the lodge we had looked at a bunch of Axis horns and Axis mounts just to make sure they knew what to shoot and what not to. I told Jason if it didn’t look big enough or give you the wow effect when it steps out don’t shoot it we have a few days we want to get a good Axis Buck for her. So as we got to the blind I showed them where I had been seeing Axis Bucks and where they were traveling and yardages and things of that nature and I got them in the blind and headed to sit another location to scout for another spot if we needed to change it up in the morning. Well as it turns out we wouldn’t need to change things up but as I sat and saw probably 10 shooter Axis bucks at my location I started to get the feeling I had put them in the wrong blind. As the sun set behind me and light began to fade I decided to make my way back to pick them up. As I approached they where standing out of the blind so I knew something had gone down. Jason began to explain their evening sit. After having aoudad at 20 yards, and blackbuck and mouflon and a huge Axis Buck at about 500 yards this really big Axis Buck came out of nowhere. Jason went on to explain it took a long time for him to come out into an open spot to get get a shot. Giving Deanna plenty of time to get Axis Buck Fever. But once he finally stepped out she got the cross hairs settled on his shoulder and let the .270 do the job. The noticed the Axis Buck kicked hard and ran to the right and got a pretty good mark of where he was when they shot and followed my instructions not to go in after it and risk jumping him. So we started up the ridge with flashlights and started to look for blood. I warned them about snakes and it being prime time for them to be moving and no sooner had the words came out Deanna had a little scare but it ended up being a stick thank God!! So back to the trail we settled on a spot they had visually marked from the blind and we began to look for blood. After about 10 minutes or so I finally found a couple little specs and we started to track. I told them even shooting bigger caliber rifles a lot of times Axis just do not leave good blood trails most of the time and a lot of times you don’t get a pass through on the big bucks. we came to a spot and lost the trail. We circled and looked and looked and finally picked it back up. After about 50-60 yards the blood began to get much better I could see where the big Axis Buck had stopped for a few seconds and dumped a big puddle of blood so I knew he wouldn’t be to much further. We worked the trail around another clump of trees and I shined up ahead and could see white belly in the distance in a big cedar thicket. The excitement began we all raced up to the deer and Deanna was so excited to have her first Big Axis Buck down. We shared some high 5’s and got him set up for a picture. This Axis deer was a toad big body swollen neck and big horns. Congrats Deanna on a fantastic Axis buck and a great hunting trip. Can’t wait to have Jason and the family back at the ranch for another great hunt with Forister Exotics.