MikeHanback.com

Hunt the July Rut (Axis Deer in Florida)

CJ Davis hunted the tail-end of the rut last week and reported:

Mike: It's July and what's a hunter to do? How about going to Florida and hunting the late rut. Not for whitetails but for Axis deer. Yep, they are an exotic. I'm told they came from India and were stocked on this ranch years ago as a source of meat.

Jim Crumley of Trebark fame and a true expert game cook was on this hunt, and I was curious to see what he thought of the meat. Turns out Axis was awesome, 99.8% fat free from what I understand. It may be because they are grazers more than browsers, but that's a very uneducated guess. It almost has a naturally buttery flavor, if that makes sense.

We arrived a little late to catch the peak rut or to witness the roaring and fighting. I think June would be perfect timing. They were on a schedule exactly opposite whitetails. The bucks we killed had hard antlers; they would have dropped them in November. Apparently from what the locals say these bucks really go at it when rutting and fighting. A guy could probably rattle one in June, plus you could easily tie in a hog hunt. A fill-your-freezer expedition!!

While you can bowhunt (that's what I want to try next) we were gun hunting. We saw plenty of deer. They are a true herd animal and a big problem is picking a shot that won't accidentally kill another animal behind the one you're shooting at.

We had a great time, saw a ton of animals and both got a nice buck. Of course we brought coolers to get the meat back home. I'll be honest, I didn't know what to expect and wasn't sure I was going to like it. But turns out it was a blast. For anyone thinking about this hunt there are gear considerations. 

I used the new Nikon EDG 10X42. The antlers on these deer are simpler than a whitetail’s but it does take a good eye to choose an older buck from a younger one. When you are stalking, it is so thick in South Florida you have to literally pick through the trees with your glasses so as not to spook animals.

Use your Thermacell! The mosquitoes are horrible and will ruin your day if you don't have protection.

The bucks we shot weighed around 160 pounds live weight so any deer cartridge would work fine. I shot a .270 and Crumley used a .280. Both of us picked Winchester Ballistic Silver Tips. Shots were from 60 yards for me to 150 or so for Crumley, who is a diehard bowhunter. This was one of maybe 2 animals he has ever shot with a rifle.

I did not find the hunting as tough as a whitetail, but they are not stupid and you can spook them by moving too much or not playing the wind. The spots on Axis deer make you feel a little weird at first, almost like you're hunting a herd of fawns. But they do make a great aiming point :)

Would I trade it for a mid-November hunt in a whitetail hot spot? No, but what the heck else am I gonna do in July other than sit around and wait on fall? If you are interested here is the outfitter link. 

“Speechless” Kansas Monster Buck

Remember this monster, the Kansas #1 non-typical? A week before a rifle hunter shot the beast in 2006, bowhunter Tad Davis had 3 encounters with “Speechless.”

Mike: I have bowhunted since age 12, had 17 P&Y whitetails in bow range, but have never killed one. I am snake bit, but man have I seen some great deer.

A friend and I went to Kansas to bowhunt on a buddy’s farm. It was the first week of November and the rut would start any day. The first morning we didn’t have much action. I scouted another piece of ground and hung a stand. It was a great setup, or so I thought. That afternoon I saw 3 does and 2 yearlings. The next morning I saw a nice 10-point (135-140”, definite shooter) chasing a doe. Good, the rut was on!

About an hour later, I saw a spike 70 yards away. I started canning at him (bleating) just playing around when all of a sudden I caught movement--I turned and saw a huge-bodied deer with a ton of rack mass standing at 100 yards, looking at the spike. I canned one more time and he came running! He was on a trail that would bring him within 7 yards of my stand, but at about 50 yards he crossed a ditch. He came in to 42 yards and stood in the only spot within 360 degrees where I did not have a shot.

Steam blew from his nose; he began to stomp his foot, looking for the doe. I saw a drop tine on his right side that looked like a boat paddle! The mass was indescribable to see in the woods. He turned and walked away across the creek and was gone.

Monster Ohio Shotgun Buck (200 2/8")

Just in from www.boone-crockett.com: Jason Williams killed this giant on the 3rd day of the 2007 shotgun season in Vinton County, Ohio. Non-typical official B&C score, 200 2/8"!

My Lord what a wide, heavy buck, but not surprising location-wise. The rolling hills of southern Ohio are in my North American Top 5 for shooting a monster, more big deer will fall there this fall for sure.

 

Big South Dakota 10-Pointer (hey, that’s my buck!)

One day last November Branden West and I rode fence (new cowboy way, in a big 4-door diesel, red) on a flat South Dakota ranch where you could look north and see all the way into the other Dakota. The only way to hunt was in the truck. The wind howled at 50 mph, gusted 60 to 80. When the big gusts hit, it was hard to stand up, much less stalk. The “lockdown phase” of the rut was on, and any good buck in his right mind was bedded low as he could go with a doe. All we could do was cover ranch miles and try to find one.

A monster jumped from a dry, grassy bowl, the only cover for miles. “He might go 170!” Branden hollered. I fixed the window-mounted spotting scope on the giant; it wobbled in the wind. As I focused the big boy lurched up on his doe, thrust a few times and bred her. Now you don’t see that every day! Then the pair loped off over a hill.

BTW, a buck that runs straight away looks 10-20 inches bigger of rack than he is. But I figured the wide, heavy 5x5 was solid 160s, pushing 170.

Thinking back, I could have rolled out the truck, bolted home a cartridge, flipped down the bipod, gone prone and taken a wild, 300-yard poke. He was so goofy over the doe that he hadn’t even looked at the truck. But hell, that is not how you do it. A buck deserves to be hunted with honor and respect by a man who works hard and makes his own good luck--or fails miserably--with a stalk or a stand. No animal deserves to be dumped by some lazy ass who jumps out of a truck and takes a crazy potshot. Besides, in that wind I would surely have missed.

The buck was gone and I made the commitment—when the wind lay, I would try to find, stalk and shoot that buck and only that buck for the next 2 days. I would pass up anything else (unless one was bigger :)

When you do that a big deer will hand you your ass in a sling 9 times out of 10. You hunt hard but actually expect to fail. Long story short, I didn’t see him again. But you’re not supposed to shoot one every time out, right? Then it would be killing, not hunting.   

As I was fixing to leave SD, Branden asked, “Would you be p----- if I kill that deer?” I laughed and told him to go for it. See the picture—my buck scored 162.

2 More Giant Midwestern Bow Bucks

From Boone and Crockett: Ron Ludwig (left) shot this Iowa giant on a November rut hunt last fall… Jake Mort arrowed his monster in Nebraska...Both are incredible 190-class bucks. Given your druthers, which one would you shoot, Jake’s gnarly drop or Ron’s cleaner 12-point main-frame? No-brainer for me, but I’ll be interested to see which rack you prefer.

Texas Axis Deer

Mike: This is what I do down here in Texas during the lull following the whitetail and spring turkey seasons. I took this free-ranging axis buck off the recreational deer lease I hold this past Wednesday afternoon. He weighed in at 246#, had 35" main beams, and a 28 1/2" inside spread. Have you ever hunted this species? They are a fantastic animal, I spend hours observing and filming them on the lease. We probably have more free-ranging exotics on the lease than whitetails. Regards, Wren 

Wren, I've never hunted an axis deer, but that is one beautiful animal! Anybody else on the blog ever got one...Rodger, Big Daddy, anyone?

Another New York Giant Buck (172 3/8" drops and mass!)

Marc from NYbowhunter.com sent this a while back: Hi Mike, how's it going? I just came across this monster that was taken on November 17, 2007 in Broome County, NY by Rocco DiRosa. The 14-point buck gross-scored 172 3/8 and netted 167 5/8. You can find more pictures here.

Wow, the little drops are cool, lol, but look at the mass on that old animal. NY has more big deer than I thought, will have to get up there and hunt me one someday :)

They Got Him! (5.5 year-old giant)

Mike: As promised here is a picture of the deer that dropped those sheds (yesterday’s post). We watched this deer until 2004, when we finally harvested it in late December with a muzzleloader. He was 5 1/2.

We are true believers in harvesting mature whitetails, both does and bucks. They are truly very challenging to hunt, and the large antlers are the benefit and reward for letting some age get on those deer. Notice I said deer, not just bucks. Maturity must be found in the whole herd to reap the rewards.

We saw this deer often; you could almost say he was a showboater. He especially liked the riverbottoms. His range was large, approximately 3 square miles. He was very sociable and he liked the ladies. While he was seen often, he was hard to harvest due to the inconsistency in his patterns. 90% scouting and 10% hunting is how we got him. He got into a routine with his feeding patterns and got comfortable; we moved in and the rest is history. Thanks, Cliff and Mike

Great story from a couple of hard-core hunters. The takeaway lesson that I have blogged many times: Scout more (90%) and hunt less (10%) for more success. Monitor changing food sources as the fall progresses; check trail usage; watch where fresh buck sign pops up. Moreover, spend a lot of your time glassing and looking. Move in when the time is right and smoke him, like Cliff and Mike did. Excellent job men!

Would You Shoot this Buck?

Mike: Here are a set of sheds from another great 4x4 that peaked our interest in 2002. As nice as this deer was my brother Mike and I decided to pass on him due to his age—3 ½. We were wondering: What would you have done? What would the fellow bloggers have done? Thanks, Cliff, Mike and Chaeli (holding antlers)

Cliff, I admire your restraint man! If had seen those seen those lone tines and esp. the brows, I would have shot that buck, most definitely if we were filming a show for Versus. You know how they say the camera puts 10 pounds on a person? Well, it puts 10 or 20 more inches on a buck’s rack too, so I could not have resisted. That deer is big to begin; he’d have looked like a giant on TV.

I have a sneaking suspicion what our fellow bloggers would have done, but I’ll let them tell you :)

BTW, did Cliff and Mike ever see the big 4x4 again? Check back tomorrow.

3 Awesome South Dakota Bucks

New U.S. Fish & Wildlife statistics show a 50% increase in the number of girls age 6 to 15 who hunt, and that leads us nicely into this story:

Hey Mike: Sorry to hear you didn’t get your 170” buck out here in South Dakota last season. It was tough hunting. Some big deer went down, but a lot of guys didn’t pull the trigger either.

Wanted to give you an update on a special young lady, Courtney. You posted her with her first antelope on your old blog last fall. Well, she shot her first deer on opening weekend on land I own with her dad and a couple of other friends. We only own 80 acres, but we manage it the best we can.

In normal circumstances we would have let that deer walk, but we made an exception in Courtney’s case. She was very proud and excited as you can see.

She was around when I shot my deer on opening morning. He was mature with a huge body, scored 143. His neck was over 33” around and he weighed over 200 lbs field-dressed. I have also included a picture of Courtney’s dad, Tom, with his deer, a nice 5x4 that scored around 154. 

Even though none of these deer will make the record book, we are very proud of what we have. We have 65 acres of CRP, we planted a lot of trees and the DNR allowed us a 1-acre food plot. We have been working with our neighbors to manage the deer in the area. We have problems with poachers, and we all work together to keep an eye on each other's land. BTW, we lost our first ever drop-tine last year to poachers, as well as a young 4x4 with a ton of potential. I found him dead in the grass, eaten by coyotes. What a shame. Someone should have had the honor to harvest those animals. Thanks, Chris in SD

Chris, I admire what you guys are doing. Your management is spot on. You and your friends have shot your share of deer, so you are letting the immature ones walk. BTW, those are great bucks you and Tom shot--more proof you can grow big deer on less than 100 acres.

But the best part, you are letting kids like Courtney shoot the buck they want. Kids need to kill deer, and not just does, to learn what it's all about. They need to see, smell and feel the hot blood of a fresh buck on their hands on a frosty morning. They need to shiver and laugh and tear up with all the raw emotions.

I cringe when some guy tells me they made their son or daughter pass a buck because it was too young or small. “Man you’re crazy, let the kid shoot whatever buck he wants,” I tell him. Sometimes they get offended and huff off, but who cares?

You're right, the smile on Courtney’s face pretty much says it all. Thanks for the great guest post.