Does anybody know what the going rate is for live axis and blackbuck?

Depends on male or female and age. Do you want mature or young?
Prices right now stupid high because of low inventory.

Really high! We're letting everything live and breed this year.

I will caution you there are a lot of shady folks in the live animal exotic sale business. You can be taken advantage of very easily.
Best guy in the business is an Aggie named Chris Atkinson out of Bandera. He is honest, very high integrity, degree from TAMU in WFS and knows what he is doing. Fair on his prices and healthy quality animals. I have dealt with a bunch of these guys over the last 30 years.
I only use Chris for the last 20. He does what he says. Best in the business. His cell is 210-317-9630.

A guy I know made $45k trapping black buck and axis on his property last year. Apparently black buck ewes got up to like $900/each after the freeze killed so many of them. I don't remember cost on axis…

He did tell me prices had normalized by the end of the year.

It's not just low availability and inventory. It's high feed prices, high diesel prices to transport, high labor cost to help capture, high liability insurance etc etc.
Some ranches are getting $700.00 for axis does hunted.

Not sure on numbers as of now. Really just thinking of starting small, 6-7 does and 2-3 bucks probably. Hunt a 1200acre high fence and our lease group has talked about bringing in some stocker bucks and or a few bred does. I suggested the exotic route to maintain the all native whitetail genes on the ranch and with exotics we would have year round hunting opportunities that we can regulate as needed and would also be cheaper than bringing in other whitetail.

Going rate for axis is nothing if you have any friends in rocksprings

With the current CWD climate I would not import whitetails. You will be better off just managing and developing your current native whitetails in the long term and keeping your herd safe.
Blackbucks are grazers and do not compete with food as much as Axis will. However blackbuck does will breed twice a year so you need to manage them well. Blackbucks are really one of my favorite animals on our ranch. They have cool habits and have so much body language in their keeping of harems etc.
You have enough acreage to definitely have both the Axis and BB's. You are correct in starting with small herds of both and manage them to co-exist with your native whitetail herd..... keeping their populations in line of course.
You guys will definitely enjoy them and the diversity it will give you.
If you can purchase known bred does you get double for your money in a sense. It's also more economical to purchase younger animals and watch them grow up imho.

Exactly my thoughts! Who doesn't like axis meat anyway?

No kidding! You guys have fun with all that!
When you first get them they will walk the fence line for a day or so. Try to let them out by a water source if you can. Drive to the interior of your place by water when you let them out of the trailer. You don't want to do it close to the fence..... lest they run like idiots into it!

Gunny456 said:

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It's not just low availability and inventory. It's high feed prices, high diesel prices to transport, high labor cost to help capture, high liability insurance etc etc.
Some ranches are getting $700.00 for axis does hunted.

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Yep. Elections have consequences.

Rigged ones even greater consequences.

Yes sir.

Was gonna say, I have seen Axis does go anywhere from $600-900. It's crazy. Couple years ago they were $300. Same with bucks

I agree adding exotics will really improve your hunting experience and enjoyment of the property. With Blackbucks be sure to bring in at least two males, preferably three, with one fully mature and the others not as old. This helps them maintain their proper social and breeding order so you will start getting production from the outset. Otherwise it may take an extra year.

When we first stocked a nice group of Axis on one ranch all my neighbors thanked me as they started seeing my escaped animals within a few months! Turns out Axis, even the biggest bucks, can and will easily jump an 8' game fence for any reason or no reason. I knew whitetail could do it if pushed, but no idea that some Axis seem to do it as a matter of course. But no big deal if they are breeding well. I had one trapper tell me they can clear 10' if pushed.

Your Blackbuck will go under fence, not over. They can slip through small gaps you would swear were impossible so check your fence line regularly, especially in the beginning. If you have interior fencing the Blackbuck will be confined to one area unless you deliberately add some low gaps in that fence to allow them access to whole ranch.

Good luck, it is all worth the effort.

tx.... interesting on your comments on the Axis. I worked at one of the larger game ranches in the hill country after getting out of TAM. We had lots of Axis and the pastures all had 8' TightLok with barb wire 6" above that.
My personal ranch we have always had Axis and just an 8' fence on it.... and had a 5 acre catch pasture with 8' TiteLok. We used it to trap and capture all the time.
We worked the big pastures with helicopter capture.
I never have had an Axis, even with pushing them, ever attempt to clear a high fence.
Understand for sure certainly not calling you out. Just never seen that in my career. Very interesting.
Ours are usually so damn fat they can barely jump 4' !

wildlife buyer.com

If you want better genetics and not just anything you can get check out Sola Fe Ranch https://www.solaferanch.com/. Colby is an awesome person.

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Ours are usually so damn fat they can barely jump 4'

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I've seen a few that I've wondered how the hell they cleared the hog panels. Those suckers can get thick…

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I will caution you there are a lot of shady folks in the live animal exotic sale business.

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Not going to lie, this comes as quite a shock.

Zheinsohn said:

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Does anybody know what the going rate is for live axis and blackbuck?

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Exotic Animal Auction, Alternative Auctions, East Texas Livestock Auction, Texas livestock Auctions, Huntsville Livestock

Like others have said, prices are high right now and at auction they're bringing top dollar. My brother sold a 35ish" buck for $5,200 or so the other day, now it seems that the auction is flooded with Axis ha

Caution should be exercised as exotic animal auctions are typically not a good place to get hoof stock animals for building a herd. The animals at those auctions are many times somebody else's non quality animals that are diseased, injured or inferior in quality.
Oftentimes during capture, especially using dart guns with sucostrin, rompun, or ketaset the animals can appear healthy but have fluid in their lungs or liver issues and will die within a few days or so.
Quality animals rarely make it to auctions as they are usually sought after and bought up pretty quickly before needing to go to an auction.
I learned the hard way.

Gunny456 said:

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tx.... interesting on your comments on the Axis. I worked at one of the larger game ranches in the hill country after getting out of TAM. We had lots of Axis and the pastures all had 8' TightLok with barb wire 6" above that.
My personal ranch we have always had Axis and just an 8' fence on it.... and had a 5 acre catch pasture with 8' TiteLok. We used it to trap and capture all the time.
We worked the big pastures with helicopter capture.
I never have had an Axis, even with pushing them, ever attempt to clear a high fence.
Understand for sure certainly not calling you out. Just never seen that in my career. Very interesting.
Ours are usually so damn fat they can barely jump 4' !

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Yep, it happens. In that new group I mentioned I had two really nice bucks, 34" plus, which normally ran together and for which I had paid a pretty penny. Couple of months in they were on my neighbor and unless they somehow teleported, they jumped that brand new 8' high tensile Tite-Loc fence. Neighbors were seeing a doe as well, which might have migrated in but none had been seen before I stocked. I did no supplemental feeding so my Axis were not overfed by any means, maybe I just bought some superior athletes by accident!

Charlie 3 (Schreiner) told me one time he lost axis over their high fence, but then most of his was cedar stays and two runs of net wire. This came during a conversation in which he was telling about their introduction of aoudad to the YO. Said they had been told they would not jump at all and even a normal low fence for cattle would hold them. They brought their first ones in on a trailer and with a lot of hands in attendance wanting to see the new animal they turned them loose in a middle pasture. He laughingly said they cleared two low fences without slowing while they were still in sight and were going hell for leather toward Garvin's Store when last seen.

That's too funny!

I've seen Aoudad Sprint up damn near vertical cliffs like it was nothing. I have never seen one jump a high fence but I guarantee you they can clear one. Hell, a big ram will probably just bulldoze his way through a fence.

Always enjoy your post as they contain lots of knowledge always. I worked with YO after graduation. Knew Charlie 3 well. A shame the YO was run into the ground. At one time they were innovators in the exotic hoof stock industry.
That sounds just like C3 on the Auodads.

Thanks for all your knowledge on here sir!

I would anticipate that we see Axis pricing coming down very soon.

A big reason for this price jump is the 2021 Uri winter storm. It killed off a LOT of Axis, and those ranches with the biggest population drops are working hard (buy buy buy) to replenish, in order to offer hunts (sell sell sell).

I know this will come as a shock to some, but that winter storm was a way bigger driver in Axis pricing than anything else. Including the current POTUS. Lol. Always funny to see what folks like to pin on the govt, like somehow Biden caused the winter storm that caused the die off that caused the rise in pricing because of demand to replenish axis herds. [

Got a story for you and txrancher.....
We had just bought our place in 1991. It was a mess. We rebuilt fences and had a dukes mixture of animals/exotics. Had a bunch of mouflon we did not want.
We had a old capture field of about 5-6 acres. Had an older high fence around it. It was made of two 4 ft net wire... one above the other.
We fed inside the field to draw in the mouflons but got Auodads, axis, fallow and a couple of black buck.
We started darting the mouflon but had all the animals all running around.
Did I say the fence was old? Well we got 2 of the 14 mouflons in the trailer and went to get more.
However one of the older Auodad rams decided he had had enough..... he just backed up and ran headlong into the fence.
It never slowed him up. He looked like Jamar Toombs running for a touchdown!
Then every animal in the field ( including all the damn mouflons) followed him through the hole. In about 30 secounds all animals were gone! So much for our trapping day!

He did not cause the storm for sure. But the price of diesel to haul and deliver those animals, the AV gas to fly the choppers to net them, the drugs used to dart and tranc those animals, plus the feed to supplemental feed them, the atv's used during the capture process and grunt labor cost to handle the animals has almost tripled.

ETA- Folks who knew how to take care of the exotics during the freeze lost few animals.
The loss was on ranches that did not react properly to prevent the animals from dieing....
and/or ranches owned by absentee landowners who could not get to their ranches to take care of them.

Was that the primary driver for the cost of axis to go up here locally? No - that was the die off from the winter storm.

Did the price of feed, fuel, and fertilizer jump astronomically during that same period? Absolutely, I'm paying almost $20/bag for protein right now and am not putting out as much as I have in the past. Do you think the ranches selling hunts are not raising their prices as those bills go up?

Whether you like it or not, Biden and this administration have done NOTHING to curtail inflation, aside from releasing oil from the SPR (which is just plain stupid). He is responsible for the costs increasing on virtually everything in our country...

Thats hilarious!

I know a guy that shot one in the head between the eyes with a .270. Dropped like a rock in the pen and was lifeless on the ground for a brief time. Head popped back up, stumbled around, reloads gun shoots at head again (thinks he hit), jumps out of pen and gets snagged between hog panel and barb wire. Just hanging there like it is in a hammock not moving at all.

He gets down and goes to figure out how the hell this 300lb+ ram is going to come out of there... walks up to it and kicks it in the head to make sure it is dead and it wakes up and runs for the hills. LOL

We thought he was just FOS for a little while until a week later we had another feeder nearby with a big mature aoudad ram showed up with blood stain all over his head eating protein. Those SOBs are tough

Well said.

That's a cool story!