Post by: Ranger91298 on January 20, 2012, 12:04:28 AM
Post by: JJB11B on January 20, 2012, 12:10:43 AM
Post by: Rhinoron247 on January 20, 2012, 03:02:40 AM
You'll have a blast, hold out for a big one. Tip they hide in the thickest and thorniest places and to find them you'll be giving first blood. LOL they are the best eating deer ever.
Good luck
Post by: RadSav on January 20, 2012, 03:08:36 AM
Post by: Ranger91298 on January 20, 2012, 09:19:42 AM
I did a private land hunt in 03', is an amazing place with a huge population of critters. You can hunt in everything from desert to jungle and even pine forest. I took a nice axis and mouflon. Pheasent and turkeys were like flys there. We hand a local family rent us a house and pick up truck for around $200 a day and they even prepared us home made meals for a couple bucks each day.Rhinoron...great looking Axis... I am excited and cannot wait to head over. I am heading over a few days early to do some scouting and I will have my wife/son fly over the day before. It's funny you mention about the thickest and nastiest stuff. I have been looking at Google Earth and I was looking at those pockets of draws they have. I figure if we don't see anything first thing in the morning I am going to put my wife/son up on a vantage point where they can see for a distance and then walk those draws to push animals out to them. I found a place for $75 a night to sleep and $90 a day for a 4x4 so not too bad. The flights over will be about $145 a piece. What can I expect.... how many animals did you see a day..roughly? What distances were they at before they got anxious? What times were they active? I have done quite a bit of homework already just the more the better right? LOL.
You'll have a blast, hold out for a big one. Tip they hide in the thickest and thorniest places and to find them you'll be giving first blood. LOL they are the best eating deer ever.
Good luck
RadSav, I am looking forward to tasting them. How much meat can you expect to get off of one? How did you cook the meat?
Scott
Post by: RadSav on January 20, 2012, 10:54:39 AM
We served Axis meat balls at my wedding that absolutely melted in the mouth. Both with grape jelly gravy and potabello gravy. Along with the fresh poached salmon it was the talk of the spread. Steaks and roasts I cook exclusively on the Weber. Grilled medium rare. The meat is so good on the Axis I rarely use much rub or heavy seasoning. Salt, pepper, maybe some Johnny's and olive oil that about it. You're going to love it.
Post by: Widgeondeke on January 20, 2012, 11:06:58 AM
Good luck and hope to see some pics in April.
You mentioned a 2 day hunt. Is that the entire season?
Post by: jager on January 20, 2012, 12:45:22 PM
Should be a blast!
Yes.... very, very tasty!
Post by: jstone on January 21, 2012, 05:31:13 PM
Post by: jstone on January 21, 2012, 05:33:45 PM
Post by: Ranger91298 on April 11, 2012, 01:23:24 PM
Post by: Pathfinder101 on April 11, 2012, 01:48:01 PM
Post by: p-ohana on April 11, 2012, 02:12:10 PM
Post by: Gringo31 on April 16, 2012, 08:04:42 AM
:drool:
Post by: pendoreilleadventures on April 16, 2012, 02:09:25 PM
Post by: Ranger91298 on April 19, 2012, 12:18:02 AM
As we all get I was very excited that night with the anticipation for the next morning. We met up at 430 am to head out to the hunting area. Just as it was starting to get light out we headed through the gate and started walking up the road. He told me that once one Axis Deer is alerted it will let out a series of “barks” which will in turn alert all the other deer in the area thus making the hunt that much harder. Sure enough first thing we got busted by our first “bark”. All the deer stopped immediately and started looking around so we just backed against the tall grass and waited for things to settle down. From our location we were able to see deer everywhere but nothing worthy of shooting. We walked a quarter mile further down the road and there was a huge buck up on the hill walking through the tall grass. I could get a glimpse of him every few seconds but no real shot presented itself. After a short walk further we could see another mature buck standing under a tree feeding a couple hundred yards away. He gradually started walking in a direction to get a shot off. The first shot missed as well as the second. I had only 4 shells in my rifle to begin with so I was now down to 2. We rushed up the mountain to see if we could catch up with the herd again but we saw a herd across the canyon from us. The deer were at 170 yards and I had a choice of two bucks. The one buck was wide with solid #2’s and the other was missing one #2 but was really tall. I opted to shoot the tall buck. I took the shot across the canyon and was sure I heard the bullet hit it’s target but the buck was not laying there. The herd only moved about fifty yards and the wide buck with solid #2’s walked out. Alec said I was free to shoot it but it would cost me extra of course. I had already got the OK from Household 6 to shoot 2 bucks if I wanted to. I was now down to 1 bullet in my rifle but decided against shooting the animals as I still did not know if the other buck was hit and if so whether he was wounded/dead. We had to walk approximately a mile around the canyon. Once we got up to the area the buck was standing in and there was no blood. After about 20 minutes of looking Alec found him up against a tree about 70 yards from where he was standing with the bullet hole directly through the shoulder where I was told to shoot. Alec was excited about the length of the main beams that ended up measuring out at 34” which are hard to come by. After taking some photos Alec went back to the truck about 2 miles away and took a few of the back roads to come pick the buck up. He quickly de-boned the buck and we were off.
I had told Alec that I wanted to shoot a second buck that was wide with the solid #2’s. After looking over a few buck’s we found a group of about 40 Axis Deer out feeding and hour before sun-down. That is when we saw the buck that I was looking for. He walked out at 270 yards. We watched him feed through a bunch of tall grass until he finally presented a shot. I was resting the rifle on my backpack and took the shot with that beautiful sound of “smack” at the end of it. The deer all took off with my buck walking into a patch of brush and not coming out. We waited 30 minutes as Alec suggested since he said it looked as though my shot was a little far back. As we started to approach he was ensuring that I was staying alert in the even the buck was still alive. Sure enough we got about 70 yards away and the buck took off. I took a shot at him running which grazed his neck. I took a third shot as he was running away over a hundred yards away which sent him to the ground. As we approached he was still moving so I shot him in the neck.
So after an exciting Thursday I woke up early Friday morning to go scout out an area in the public hunting land for our Saturday/Sunday hunt. I saw numerous Axis Deer and huge bands of Mouflon Sheep. I took a picture of one really mature buck that was pushing 32”; which is exceptional for the public land hunts. I also took a picture of a few other Axis Bucks that were out that morning. The public has not been able to hunt the mature Mouflon Rams for the last three years due to the low numbers. Only Ewe’s and what they call “Moo-Moo’s” have been able to be hunted. “Moo-moo’s” are those rams that have a defect with the growth of their horns. The Rams antlers grow so close to their skull that they actually grow back into their face and often times killing them. The word on the street is that they are opening up the Ram’s this year but you have to first harvest a Ewe to get your tag for the Ram. Let me tell you on Friday I saw at a minimum of 40 fully grown mature Rams; if not more. I will post pictures of those shortly. So after an exciting day of scouting and looking for locations to start the hunt I headed off to the airport to pick up my wife and son. After I picked them up I took them to get their tags and then out to the hunting area to get them familiar with the area. As we showed up to the spot I had picked up for the following morning I was greeted with two other rigs parked there scouting the same area out. I quickly showed them the area and then told them we were going to get up early to beat them to the spot.
We woke up at 3:00 a.m. the following morning and were out the door at 3:50 a.m. Can you believe we were not the first there as those guys that were scouting the night before beat us there. I drove down the road a few corners and parked to wait for sunrise. Just before shooting light we stepped off from the truck. We walked for a few miles and NOTHING… there were shots coming from the group that was in the spot we originally wanted. I think there were like eight shots but they were clearly all misses. As we were about to head into a draw I looked further down the draw and there was three Axis deer standing there watching us. I called my son up to try and get a shot. As soon as he took a step they took off around the ridge and out of sight. We quickly ran to the top of the ridge to look down the draw on the other side and we saw nothing. I knew by this point that those deer had stopped at the bottom of the ridge. I sent my wife and son down to a rock outcropping and to keep an eye out as I had a feeling the buck was down there. I headed back to the same spot we saw them to try and push them back their direction. I didn’t see anything and met back up with them. My wife said she had seen the buck moving down below and he disappeared behind a rock but did not see him appear after that. The wind was blowing uphill towards us so I knew we would be able to sneak up on them. Next thing I know my wife was like “Scott” so I turned to see three deer booking it out of the country. The big buck made the fatal mistake of stopping so I put a shot through both shoulders and down he went. I wanted my son to shoot him but he had no chance and I was not going to let him get away. He was running in the direction of another hunter and would have surely been shot by him. It turns out that my son and I walked right past him and my wife saw him stand up 20 yards away. When she called for me is when they took off. We took some pictures and then I made him into a backpack and headed up the hill. We went out later that night and saw a couple of does but did not have a shot at them.
The following morning we got up early again to head to the same location. We walked like five miles but didn’t see anything but we did manage to find two mature Mouflon Sheep skulls intact. I picked them up and we carried them back to the truck. By this time it was late morning on Sunday and I had walked the heck out of my wife and son. By this point I could clearly see that my son was losing some morale because he had been busting his arss for two days and had no opportunity to shoot at an animal. I asked my wife what she thought about doing the $500 meat hunt for my son on the private property. She had no issues with it so we paid for it but never told him about it. After a few failed stalks we were able to get him close enough to a buck and he did not disappoint. This was his first actual hunt and he came back with a solid 18” buck in velvet. By far the best hunt of the trip and of my life. I cannot tell a lie but I teared up from it. So we came back to the island with 4 deer; all bucks and 3 coolers full of meat. Sorry for the long story but I figured some of you could might not mind to feed the addiction in between seasons back stateside.
Post by: Ranger91298 on April 19, 2012, 12:36:11 AM
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7140.jpg&hash=8eb2152d9f6a8b8727896a1a0d140879e5751068)
Here is the second buck w/28" main beams w/ those distinguished #2's
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7183.jpg&hash=575337d5337ea3b0cb0d9b2d6d8372581ed64d50)
This is buck #3 that we got on public land w/27" main beams
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7366.jpg&hash=2ead5256bb804f2c415f549fa676b23768dce556)
Post by: Ranger91298 on April 19, 2012, 12:40:42 AM
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7392.jpg&hash=dc4e3615ab6b217977ce7e73ca3530cc8deefcc4)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7393.jpg&hash=509348f995a8319c30a747c95595ab0c45094d9f)
This is the buck I saw the day before the public land hunt opened up...
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7234.jpg&hash=5afbcd8583c67e7cacc779d01bc63d9c225c1341)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7218.jpg&hash=a89e1954bcab82977b63dc4cffdd853bf0203c8d)
Post by: carpsniperg2 on April 19, 2012, 12:42:17 AM
Make sure you post those mouflan pics :drool: I am a sucker for sheep hunting and they are on my hit list!
Post by: Ranger91298 on April 19, 2012, 12:46:52 AM
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7316.jpg&hash=70fc58571a363aa6a51981ad8dc29348425c8f2a)
Here are a few Mouflon Rams that I saw
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7242.jpg&hash=44b78ceff73616bb40dd5dff3ad003af20b7089c)
And more....
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7250.jpg&hash=f4ed534c3044b572f71c2f5103dc79368966ff8d)
This is by far my favorite ram... wide & lots of mass.....EASY EASY EVERYONE!!!
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1177.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fx353%2Franger91298%2FIMG_7283.jpg&hash=de576fc8d767692baf48f5441d8b4e5a4ab63150)
Post by: jstone on April 19, 2012, 09:57:16 AM
Post by: Gringo31 on April 19, 2012, 10:10:01 AM
Post by: Huntboy on April 19, 2012, 10:59:33 AM
Post by: NWBREW on April 19, 2012, 11:05:35 AM
Post by: DIYARCHERYJUNKIE on April 19, 2012, 11:49:43 AM
Post by: Holg3107 on April 19, 2012, 12:42:10 PM
Post by: carpsniperg2 on April 19, 2012, 12:44:25 PM
Post by: DIYARCHERYJUNKIE on April 19, 2012, 01:45:36 PM