Work and Play!

Well, as many of you know hunting season is upon us.  This is exciting news in our little family and we have been anticipating the days until bow season arrives and shortly after that, rifle season!  Dove season has already begun when September 1st rolled around, but we haven't had too much luck with that so far this year.  Plus, deer are more fun to hunt and look WAY better mounted on the wall than a bird!  But, luckily for this family of hunters, we have Axis deer on our place which can be hunted all year round.  It's absolutely wonderful to be able to hunt all year around, plus you get the opportunity to shoot them in the velvet if the opportunity arises.  The only person in our family that has actually shot an Axis buck in the velvet has been Michael (my little brother), and that's been several years ago.  It was a trophy though...and he was just a little guy when he shot it!  He was actually featured in the Texas Trophy Hunters book for shooting such a monster Axis buck in the velvet for his age.  It's a beautiful deer, and the shoulder mount looks amazing in his room.  He's shot a few others, those were also monsters!  They were definitely mountable and are also shoulder mounts hanging on the wall in his room.  My dad has shot one really big one that he's got mounted on the wall in his office in my parent's house.  He shot that one when Michael and I were little, it was actually the first one that was taken on our place.  The horns are so tall on it that the deer's nose is actually nose to nose with you when you stand and look at it.  And the ceiling in his office is either 8 or 10 feet high...so that sucker is BIG!!!

Ever since Cody and I started dating, he's been hunting on our place and has dreamed of shooting a monster Axis buck.  He shot one not too long ago, but it wasn't quite big enough and so we just had it European mounted.  A European mount is when the taxidermist treats the skull and the horns and then they are mounted onto a really thick piece of wood.  It's very pretty and it allows you to have something mounted that wasn't just quite big enough to pay the extra money to have a deer shoulder mounted.  He's also attempted to shoot one with his bow, but the opportunity has never been just right for him to get a good shot.  There have also been many times that he's almost gotten one with his rifle, but something has always seemed to spook the deer off before he gets a good shot on them.  These deer aren't like whitetail deer.  They are imported over here from India, so they are exotic.  Axis deer are extremely smart, incredibly huge, and much more territorial than whitetail deer.  Just to give you an example, and Axis doe is typically the size of a Texas Hill Country whitetail buck.  That means that an Axis buck is twice, sometimes three times the size of a whitetail buck.  This is all based on the Texas Hill Country deer.  You can go all over the country (and especially find them in Canada) and find some whitetail bucks, and doe's for that matter, that are just as big or bigger than an Axis.  Anyways, the weekend of September 10th and 11th, Cody had to go down to Kerrville for work.  One of his buddies had asked him if one of his roofing crews could put a roof on for some family friends, and so Cody jumped at the opportunity because he knew that he could stay down at the ranch and maybe get some hunting in.

And hunting he did!  He actually got to spend a little more time out on the place than he originally planned.  Most of the morning and early afternoon were spent in town making sure the job was going right and that the crew was taking care of the the homeowners.  But, he spent the afternoon at the ranch doing some work and hunting.  He moved several blinds, filled feeders, and trimmed some brush.  When he was finished with that, he spent the rest of the time hunting (and praying) that maybe that trophy Axis buck would come his way.  And that's exactly what happened.  I got a phone call around 5:30 that Saturday (which was the 10th) from him.  He was out of breath, and I immediately assumed that something was wrong.  That was not the case!  All of a sudden he says, "Babe, I just shot a monster Axis buck."  I was in shock, but soon started screaming and jumping up and down.  I had just walked through the door of my parent's house to have dinner and so they got to hear the good news too.  He said it was huge and that he hit him with a perfect shot.  Soon, I got pictures, and he was right.  That Axis buck was a monster.  Cody said he probably weighed 275 pounds, and the base of his horns were thicker than his pointer finger and thumb when he touched them together.  It is a beautiful deer.  I am SO happy for him that he finally got to shoot one of these beautiful animals.  We are going to get him shoulder mounted and put him above the fireplace mantle...it's just too amazing not to have it displayed for all to see when they come to our house!  After four long years of hunting an Axis buck, he finally got the perfect opportunity to get his trophy!  Good job babe...I am so proud of you!!!

This was the picture that was taken right after Cody shot this amazing deer.  It is so beautiful...and HUGE!!!  I can't wait to see what it looks like above our fireplace mantle!



My handsome love and his trophy Axis buck!