Zee a question on Axis buck hunting

Jeff in TX

My buddy from VA wants to come out and do an Axis buck hunt next year.  We've never hunted anywhere that has them.  Minus seeing them in my knucklehead neighbors 168 acre high fence compound as we call it.   Depending on where we go, are these canned hunts for the most part?  Or, are they just as tough to hunt as whitetails.  They say they're right tasty and I'd love to have a nice mount.  However, I don't want to drive into a high fenced game preserve, drive around for a couple of hours looking at a ton of Axis deer trying to decide which one to shoot.  

Yep, we need to do our homework on where to go.  A couple of places we've reached out to already said they offer two or three day hunts but 85% of folks have a nice buck down on the first morning.  This screams canned hunt to me.  

Any ideas, thoughts, insight or places to hunt.  Are there places you know that are low fenced that offer quality hunts.

Thanks for your time on this.

Jeff

Zee

I really don’t have any insight I to other hunting operations. 

Free range will typically be hard when it comes to Axis or at least, hard for a trophy. 

A trophy hunt will likely be some form of high fence place and the difficulty will depend on the size of the place and/or how they operate. 

You get what you pay for. The higher the price.......the greater the success rate, the more likelihood of a ‘canned’ operation. 

Axis meat is AWESOME!  And their hides and horns exquisite. 

Sorry I can’t help with a location. My buddy has Axis but I don’t know if he is selling any hunts for them this year. 

Focusing on lowering the whitetail numbers this season. 

Jeff in TX

Zee said:

I really don’t have any insight I to other hunting operations. 

Free range will typically be hard when it comes to Axis or at least, hard for a trophy. 

A trophy hunt will likely be some form of high fence place and the difficulty will depend on the size of the place and/or how they operate. 

You get what you pay for. The higher the price.......the greater the success rate, the more likelihood of a ‘canned’ operation. 

Axis meat is AWESOME!  And their hides and horns exquisite. 

Sorry I can’t help with a location. My buddy has Axis but I don’t know if he is selling any hunts for them this year. 

Focusing on lowering the whitetail numbers this season. 

Many thanks!  It helps and pretty much the conclusions we're coming up with.  Next fall my buddy wants to do a combo Black Buck Antelope and Axis deer.  These exotics hunts get expensive quickly.  Wish I was made of money!

Thanks again!

Zee

My mom works for a ranch that has Axis and Blackbuck. I can check their prices for reference. Pass it on to you if you want. 

Jeff in TX

Zee said:

My mom works for a ranch that has Axis and Blackbuck. I can check their prices for reference. Pass it on to you if you want. 

Please do, thank you!

Zee

Message sent. 

Ernie Bishop

"A trophy hunt will likely be some form of high fence place and the difficulty will depend on the size of the place and/or how they operate."

This is my thoughts as well.

South Africa was by definition a High Fence Hunt (huge area), but they were as wild as I have hunted on public land.

Hopefully, I will be hunting a high fence are sometime after the first of the year (9000 acres/14 square miles) with a friend.  I do not expect them to be as wild as they were in SA though either.  When hunting out of stand and use of corn feeders whether high fence or or not seems to be easier that spot and stalk or still hunting in general.

Go and enjoy yourself.

Sometimes public land hunting can be easy as well, if you just get away from the road hunters.

Jeff in TX

Ernie Bishop said:

"A trophy hunt will likely be some form of high fence place and the difficulty will depend on the size of the place and/or how they operate."

This is my thoughts as well.

South Africa was by definition a High Fence Hunt (huge area), but they were as wild as I have hunted on public land.

Hopefully, I will be hunting a high fence are sometime after the first of the year (9000 acres/14 square miles) with a friend.  I do not expect them to be as wild as they were in SA though either.  When hunting out of stand and use of corn feeders whether high fence or or not seems to be easier that spot and stalk or still hunting in general.

Go and enjoy yourself.

Sometimes public land hunting can be easy as well, if you just get away from the road hunters.

Thanks Ernie for the insight!