In March of 1991 my wife Faye and I headed our truck west to hunt with Thompson Temple in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Faye was recovering from cancer surgery in January and I was just over a long bout with sciatica that had flattened me for three weeks. We wanted to relax and have some fun. My plan was to take a Corsican ram and a Catalina goat.
We arrived at Thompson's headquarters about noon time on a Sunday. We waited around for a couple of hours before anyone showed up. Finally our guide for this hunt, a young man in his early 20s named James showed up. He had been out with a group of hunters and had a truck load of rams they had taken. We were shown inside the headquarters and as we looked around the other guides began coming in from the days hunt. John Paul got us registered in and gave us a map to the ranch where we were to stay , the Little Creek Ranch. We drove out-way out to the ranch. It is about 7-8 miles out of Ingram which is a very small town and then about another 6-7 miles of dirt road and through two locked gates to the ranch. We loved it and were given free run of the ranch to explore and view the animal. We saw fallow, axis and sika deer, Corsican and mouflon sheep and a huge turkey.
I met James at the headquarters well before daylight the next morning. We drove about 60 miles to the Smith Goat Ranch. There were a lot of goats and sheep on the place along with a variety of others such as ibex, addax and four horn sheep which have got to be the ugliest thing I have ever seen. There were plenty of big rams and goats but they just weren't what I was looking for. They were tame! We could walk around following them and they would just stay about 25 yards in ahead of us and walk. I tired of this and told James we needed to make another plan. We had to either find a ranch where the animals were not barn yard tame or change to another animal. We drove back to HQ after lunch to talk with John Paul who seemed to be in charge of the operations. We discussed the options and he allowed as how I could find an axis in hard antler if I wanted. Boy did I want to.
The next day found James at the ranch to pick me up before daylight. We were on our way to the Roaring Rock Ranch which was just off the paved road at the far end of the dirt road we were on. We drove onto the ranch just a day was breaking and began glassing for axis deer. I saw one on a far away hill side. To me the distance seemed about 275-300 yards which would have been makeable if not for the stiff wind blowing. James felt it was closer to 400-500 yards. At any rate the huge axis which was still in velvet didn't hang around for a shot. He and a couple of others ran into thick brush and although we hunted him for several hours we never saw him again. Folks we are talking monster-his main beams must have been about 36"+ and the spread was much more than that. His points were also very long. We spent most of the day unsuccessfully searching for him but finally gave up.
We were parked and glassing again when I saw an axis doe come out of the brush to my right about 125 yards or so away. She was followed by another 8-10 does and a nice buck brought up the rear. I got my Remington Model 700 Mountain Rifle in 270 Winchester ready and found a convenient prop to rest on. The buck was walking slowly along following the does and unaware of my presence. I tried to get James to tell me what to do. I asked him how big the buck was and all I could get him to say was "he is a nice one". I knew that-I wanted to know how nice. About one step before the buck would have disappeared back into the brush I fired a single shot to his lungs at a distance of 125-150 yards. He ran a short distance and fell. James wanted to rush to the area to look for blood sign. I told him to take his time-the buck wasn't going anywhere. I was right. His main beams are 30" and he scored Silver Medal for those who care about such things. I had him processed at Rhodes Brothers and also had them do a full shoulder mount for me. The meat of axis is the best of all the deer we were told-I believe that to be correct.
Site Design by Matt Graham
Copyright 1997,1998,1999 CbD WebSite Designers
EmailCbD@wwisp.com
![[Picture]](images/billaxis.jpg)