My buddy Bill Olson, publisher of Texas Outdoors Journal, had been trying to line up an axis deer hunt for us in June. Schedules got hectic between the two of us but suddenly at the last minute Bill’s, mine and Scott’s (the guide) schedules all got lined up for a mid-May hunt.

But even then, another kink got thrown into the plans. We were going to be hunting on a 10,000-acre ranch 10 miles off the border, but four days before I flew out the rancher called to tell us that we might want to postpone our hunt.

The story went something like this. A boxcar got stopped. 150 illegals jumped out and scattered. At least the ones that didn’t have to be hauled to the hospital or got arrested. About 90 were running through his ranch. There were helicopters and drones flying around and illegals running wild and I assume the associated armed smugglers running around as well. Last count I believe they had found four dead. No matter what you are hearing being reported — the border is total chaos.

Luckily Scott has access to guide/hunt on 180,000 acres so we moved our hunt up farther north.

This is the second time that I’ve hunted with Scott and I was looking forward to the hunt. He runs a first-class operation. For this hunt we stayed at the Clear Water Ranch which is historical in and of itself. The lodge we stayed in is right at the headwaters of the Clear Water River. There is a rock cliff with numerous springs running out. They’ve dammed it up by the lodge and have a small pond.

Across the river from us is an old cabin that a captain of the calvary lived in back in the day. One day while out on patrol a band of Indians on the warpath raided his ranch and kidnapped his daughter. She was eventually rescued.

The country is now overrun with mesquite trees/brush as is a lot of southwest Texas. It is hard to believe but they say that part of the country used to be all rolling prairies covered with buffalo but after bringing up cattle from Mexico, mesquite beans were brought in along with the cattle.

I forget what they call them but I found two deep holes ground out in the rocks that the Indians used to grind their corn in. That was a cool find.

Well, enough history, let’s get into hunting. I only took one piece of luggage — my gun case and a carry-on because I planned on bringing back a lot of meat. Due to this decision, I struggled as to whether I should take some high-topped snake boots. Finally, I decided to wear some really high-topped heavy leather Red Wing hunting boots. And I’m glad that we did. Johnny saw a BIG rattlesnake in the front yard of our lodge. I pinned his head down with my Mossberg rifle and then stepped on him and cut his head off with my Elk Ridge folder. Wow! He had 10 rattles and a button. That’s the most that I’ve seen.

Texas is known as the Whitetail Capital of the world, and for good reason. But now they have a lot of invasive species which you can hunt year-round, such as hogs, axis deer, aoudad sheep, black bucks, Oryx and who knows what else! A lot of people have mixed feelings on them but one thing is undisputable — Texas now offers a lot of unique hunting opportunities.

Many people who live in Oregon and Idaho do so for the elk hunting. The problem is, unless you’re bowhunting we have an extremely limited amount of time to hunt them. Which is what makes axis deer hunting so cool. I had to keep rubbing my eyes to make sure that I wasn’t elk hunting here in Oregon.

The bucks when rutting make a sound that is called a roar. To you it will sound like a bull barking when he is about to scatter. You’ll see bucks scraping the brush and trees. And they don’t just passively make a scrape. They tear it up. In fact, they’re aggressive when rutting. A lot have broken tines from fighting with other bucks.

The second day Scott asked me if I wanted to do a spotting/stalking hunt. Yea! They do it just like we do when elk hunting. I had to keep rubbing my eyes and remind myself that I was not in Colorado elk hunting, I’m in Texas on an axis deer hunt.

We took off walking at daylight. If you hear a buck roar you head towards it and try to sneak in close enough for a shot without spooking him. Of course most of the time he’ll have some does with him so now you have 8-16 eyeballs you’re trying to evade. The does will mew somewhat like a cow.

As usual, I forget the whole sequence of events but we were hearing bucks roar. We were slowly walking down an old stone fence line when Scott hissed, ‘there’s an axis, get ready.’ I saw his rack sticking above the brush. Scott started calling and luckily he slightly turned back. Scott told me to get ready. Scott started calling with his mouth. The buck stopped and turned back slightly but wasn’t coming in. Scott kept calling and soon he angled towards us and came to the edge of the mesquite brush.

I could see enough of him through the brush to feel comfortable taking a shot. I was shooting a Mossberg Patriot LR .300 Win. Mag and using Hornady Precision Hunter 200-grain ELD-X ammo so I knew it’d plow through the sparse brush fine. I had a 4×12 Sightron scope which provided a clear view and while watching him come in I used some German Precision Optics 10×42 binoculars. For hunting I use 10×42 binoculars or I just miss too much game. To clean our animals I used Elk Ridge knives.

Wow! What a great hunt. If you’re an elk hunter you ought to give AMR a call. Where else can you elk hunt May to July?