Anyone on here hunt around or near Concan?

We had more axis than we wanted starting in about 2001-2013. Ever since 2013 the population has gradually declined to virtually non existent.... only a rare sighting or two now.

In 14 seasons we shot 21 axis and I personally watched herds of 40-50 in one sitting. Pressure on our place wasn't the issue.

I'm wondering if people in the area are seeing a decline in the axis numbers as well?

Part of me thinks:

Someone built a high fence and cutoff the passage to and from our ranch
Or
The shift from sheep to cows from our landowner maybe increased competition for grazing
Or
Continued brush control/bull dozing lowered cover and they dont like the more open areas
Or
The rapid increase in Aoudad population has pushed them out

Really have no idea and was hoping someone might have some insight on the area axis population (which directly in Concan is flourishing) or other things that may push them out of the area, despite year round feeding and limited pressure.

All feedback is greatly appreciated!

The ones I see at GSP hide in dense brush..oak scrub and cedar scrub, during the day, and only come out at night.

I've seen the same at GSP. We still have a ton of cover it's just not so much in the riparian areas where the axis prefer.

Thanks for the feedback!

saw a pile of them by the house pasture during the middle of the day this summer. (no bucks)

wish i had a place to hunt around there so i could give you better info.......good luck

My parents place in Hunt has always had about a 1:2 axis to whitetail ratio for the 30 years we've had the property. A few years ago there was a steep decline in the Axis population here as well. Don't have a clue what caused it.

TPWD killing a bunch of Axis in Garner to "protect the native whitetail" probably isn't helping either. We have a lease 2 miles from Garner and earlier in the year we would see TPWD riding around in the bed of trucks with guns and axis stacked up.

Quote:

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CONCAN Several hundred undesirable visitors to Garner State Park have been abusing this treasured Hill Country destination, leaving park officials with little choice but to take strong measures to remedy the problem. Invasive exotic axis deer are eating up a limited supply of the groceries and displacing the local inhabitants.

Although common on the Texas landscape along with another invasive exotic, feral hogs, axis deer are not indigenous to the state, destructive and actually compete directly with native wildlife for available resources. More importantly, axis deer negatively impact a wide variety of native wildlife species and their associated habitats.

An estimated 200 axis deer currently inhabit Garner State Park and efforts to control numbers through scheduled public hunts have been insufficient. More than 100 permitted public hunters annually averaged just 43 axis deer harvested during the last five years.

Park officials are working to further reduce axis numbers through controlled harvest by an outside entity in the days ahead. The tactic proved efficient and effective during a pilot harvest last season, removing 56 axis over the course of a few days.

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http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20160208b

Wow that may be it! We're on the other side of 83 from Garner and a little south. Less than 2 miles away.

Ironically, the TPWD public draws hunts at GSP prior to this had low success rates. Evidently, the hunt areas weren't where the axis frequented during shooting hours.

Our place is about 15 miles north of GSP. We are low fence and have had the same problem

I really feel the drought was the biggest issue

We have seen a nice increase this year

Everyone we talk to with low fence has had the same problem

Haha we must be right next to each other.

You're night from shiner are you?

I think the drought did take a little toll on our place but we have 4 live springs out there that have never gone dry. Always flowing water and good water sources across the property, so if anything, I would have thought it would have helped attract them.

No, from Boerne.

This year we have pretty much seen all pigs, sika and aoudad. Even the whitetail are few and far between. Zero Axis.

Gotcha. Our neighbors to the North are Ags from Shiner.

We have seen a lot of pigs as well. Aoudad herd continues to grow and I am not sure we can control it. We are letting our Sika population recover because we probably only have about 10-15 on the entire property.

We have shot a couple of really nice bucks 2 -135-140 and 1 -140-145. It's been a great year but the whitetail are to fat and happy to consistently hit the feeders. The frost last weekend should change that.

The number of people trapping axis has gone up exponentially in the past five years and is the major cause of you seeing a decline in numbers. Most people don't understand how many times you have to pull the trigger just to keep the axis population level, let alone reduce it. With people dropping nets and removing 30-50 at a time it is hammering the population. Lot of people upset over it. I for one am glad that the numbers are going down as our whitetail have benefitted tremendously.

Wow I had no idea they were such an issue! They are on my dream hunt list for sure, but I can't justify the price tag just yet at these hunting ranches.

I'm a huge fan of axis. It's by far my favorite game meat to eat. Our ranch is just down stream from the YO Ranch which is the first ranch in Texas to import the axis. Our area was the first to see the axis get out of the game ranch and start to run free. It has always been nice having the ability to take axis on a free ranging ranch. All that said, they put a huge strain on the native whitetail. Both like browse as their primary food source, however once browse is gone the exotics can thrive just as well off of grass while the whitetail cannot. Axis breed year around and have a higher survival rate of twins than the whitetail. If you have a low fence with axis present, you probably need to be shooting 5 to 10 axis for every one whitetail to keep the exotic pressure manageable. Of course, it all depends on what you want. Many people would just as soon have all axis than whitetail.

He has... specifically to exterminate the aoudad. But they're just to smart, difficult to pattern, and have exceptional eyesight to kill enough. They don't even see any when they fly the property for predators/hogs.

We don't won't a herd of 100 axis running around, but we prefer to have some or a "manageable" amount.

I tend to believe that whitetail should be favored over any exotic so I'm glad to see TPWD controlling them.

TPWD offers ****ty slots for exotics at GSP in areas that they don't range often. The numbers are low. TPWD employees get to hunt carte blanche, great numbers are harvested.

Am I reading this right?

OP- my parents place where I grew up is between boerne and comfort. It's been the opposite for us. We had all white tail and few axis from late 90's to ~2008. Since then, we have had a ton of both axis and whitetail and have harvested 5 gold level axis in the last 3 years from our back yard. We started feeding about 4 years ago including corn, cotton seed, and alfalfa and that has really kept everything around.

A lot of people are spot lighting/ poaching axis at night around in the boerne and fair oaks areas and have been for last 10 years to my knowledge.

I can pretty well garuntee you they are not hunting carblanche. TPWD typically goes out of their way to not show favoritism towards employees, to the point it can be down right annoying.

When cull operation is put in place, the functionality is very tight. Fun is not a way I would describe it.

DuckDown2013 said:

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A lot of people are spot lighting/ poaching axis at night around in the boerne and fair oaks areas and have been for last 10 years to my knowledge.

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As long as you're on property you own, lease, or otherwise have permission to be on why wouldn't it be legal to spotlight an invasive exotic like axis the same as hogs? There may be a specific regulation against it I'm unaware of but you can spotlight hogs and other varmits so why not exotics?

Sorry for the confusion-- I meant poaching via spotlight on property that isn't theirs.

DuckDown2013 said:

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Sorry for the confusion-- I meant poaching via spotlight on property that isn't theirs.

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Gotcha. No worries. The family and I drove home to Houston from Amarillo today after driving from Silverthorne, CO to Amarillo yesterday and I'm a little punchy.