A few friends and I had been hunting a lease outside of Roosevelt, west of Junction for the past 4 years and gave it up this year when the owners wanted to go up on the lease price. No big deal, their property and apparently leases are going up all over. We found another between Llano and Castell for this season. On the Roosevelt lease we had axis and sika in addition to the whitetail. Is it just me or are axis numbers increasing significantly in the Hill Country. They seem to out forage the whitetail during the drought years. Travelling back and forth between home near Driftwood and the old lease they seemed to be everywhere, far more populous than 10 years ago.

At home, if I scatter a bag of corn in the front yard, in the winter I've had as many as 60 or 80 of them I my front yard. I don't hunt them here, just feed em. What I'm trying to figure out is whether they'll eventually be the dominant deer in the Hill Country. It seems like hunters ought to be taking more of them, they're better in the pot than whitetail, but I see em everywhere. Is anybody else noticing this or am I way off base? I swear that one afternoon driving 290 coming back from the lease we saw hundreds standing in the pastures, a few blackbucks and very few whitetail.

I'm no expert on them but I do believe they can eat things whitetails can not. Also whitetail are wimps when it comes to fighting off competitors from food sources. I still see way more whitetails in San Saba and surrounding areas than anything else. We have had axis several miles in each direction from where I hunt for the past several years and they have still not shown up here.

I'm pretty certain they can eat things that whitetail won't. A couple of years ago when the drought was really heavy and the summer was so hot, we fed several tons of alfalfa at the lease trying to keep the deer alive. I don't know how successful we were because the game cameras had axis eating all the alfalfa. The whitetail were hurt that year but axis were everywhere. We were asked to shoot more axis does which was fine by us.

Axis deer can graze, meaning they can eat pretty much anything green, like cattle. Whitetail browse, a little here a little there, acorns, corn, greenbriar, etc.

Eta: They are also herd animals like wildebeest or antelope

At my parents place in Hunt there's been an even mix of Whitetail and Axis since they bought it in the 80's.  They seem to peacefully coexist there along with quite a few other species of deer and antelope, none pushing the others out.  I think you're just noticing more Axis because they do stand out in the open in large herds unlike whitetail.

Two questions about the Axis -  Do they migrate around? I feed the deer behind my house in Llano. The only time I see axis is in January. Then it's like free food month at Golden Corral. Then, in February poof, they are gone. Second question, are axis better at crossing Hwy 71 than whitetails?. I pass roadkill whitetails but don't remember seeing a dead axis. I have seen an ostrich (not an emu) jogging down Hwy 29 towards Kingsland.

I've seen axis on the roads, but not often. I think the reason we see more roadkill whitetails is because of the rut, and whitetails are more loners/small group animals so they have to roam around looking for mates whereas the axis are herd animals. Just spitballing.

IIRC, I saw a hunting show a coupla years ago that stated that there were approx. 65k axis in Texas, and at least 10k were in the wild. As more of them escape and breed in the wild, I would not be surprised to see that number increase.

I hunt just south of Castell in Loyal Valley and we have some axis, but they are not seen very often. There are also some black buck on the rancher's property we lease from but it is another plot of land a ranch or two over from our lease. The axis bucks will absolutely kick a white tail bucks ass in a fight but we see them eating together on the game cameras, so they do get along at times.

Do axis pump out twins like the white tail can?

Axis love hot weather, they like temperatures over 90 degrees. They breed like crazy and graze like cattle. I don't think Whitetail even think of Axis as deer, interactions that I see between them suggest neither view each other as similar species. Like donkeys vs cows.

Great eating.

every Axis doe that I have cleaned that was preggers had twins in her. I have cleaned a lot of Axis

Axis also breed all year round

Is it correct that since the Axis are not native, they are considered an invasive species and thus are always open season?

Yep.  They also breed like rabbits when the conditions are right.

In my personal experience I've found axis to be a lot more cautious/jitterier than white tail. I've seen white tail become accustomed to being around humans and allowing you to get pretty close to them. Any Axis are gone like a bat out of hell at the first hint of danger. Second, I've found Axis to be more active during the dusk til dawn hours, so at night. I'm not saying we don't see them during the day but most often we see them at night. Just my experience.....

ETA: Not to mention they breed like rabbits year round. The ranch we hunted last year, the owner said his Axis drop twins more often than not. He mentioned if left unchecked, especially on a high fence ranch, they will over populate and end up doing damage to his white tail stock.

Live about 30 miles north of san antionio and we have a nice selection of axis out here. Yes the are a pest, yes you can hunt them year round. Way better to me than going to heb and buying $50 brisket for a family outing.
From what I have been told from original local ranchers is it all started from an actual game ranch here in boerne/kendailia area, that didnt have 10' game fencing. When the guy brought in these deer from africa to start his wild game ranch, the first year his group left. Were talking 3k acre game ranch, He simply just placed an order for 50 more at the game auction For his business Thinking they were exploring, Year 3 they returned 10 fold.

My sugestion is buy a nice cross bow, set up a blind, and stop paying for a deer lease.

Ok 13er, a little fact checking would go a long way to you sounding like you know what you are talking about.

Axis deer are thick like the poster above said just north of Boerne and even inside the city limits. If you take the Sisterdale Road for a few miles north of town, they are everywhere. I see them all the time on the Old Number 9 greenbelt too, as far in town as the post office.

it's the same problem as hogs; those that have them on their land want too much  $$$
to keep em' thinned out;

big difference is they don't tear shit up like hogs, but
still private property owners are the key to keeping them in check;

yes, I understand about not letting just any hunter on their place due to yahoo'z screwing it up,
but there's gotta be a better way,,,,

about 3 years ago there was a craigslist ad for a guy near junction that had axis doe hunts for $100,,,,but
obviously that sold out instantly,,,,oh well,,,,

Driving through Barksdale at night....they're everywhere on the side of the roads eating.

The area im in was only setteled in the 30s, we didnt become a city untill 2006... most of the original land owners are still alive and in the area. Why would they make up such a story? Are you from the comal/kendal area? Have you heard a different story?



Why so much hostility towards the date I chose to join this site? Does that effect my personal iq or my local knowledge?  Makes no since at all when any of you post garbage like that. Besides isnt that term used for the rifle discusion area? Or has it moved to the whole server so this guy can just be a dick.

For starters, Axis deer are not from Africa. Fact check before you post, 13er.

Africa, India, china. Who cares where its imported from

I saw wild Axis deer in PTA on the Big Island of Hawaii. They almost got shot running through a live fire training exercise