I'm not an antler guy so not asking anything about those. Shot this guy on Saturday and after trying to load him into my truck, cleaning him, and looking at pictures I was wondering if they actually get much bigger than this with regards to the body. He was enormous. Going to feed my family and friends for a long time. Probably weighed 220 lbs after cleaning. By far biggest deer I've shot. He has to be fully mature right?

I know there can be perspective in photos but yes that looks like a very above average body size. Good job and enjoy the meat.

That person is standing several feet behind that deer so some forced perspective going on. Does look big but need to see what stage of growth those antlers are in to get a better idea of maturity.

I think the biggest one we weighed, back before they vanished, was 242-45. Most of the mature trophy bucks taken were 210+

This was live weight, if that wasn't obvious.

Enjoy your delicious meat!

Wodanaz said:

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That person is standing several feet behind that deer so some forced perspective going on. Does look big but need to see what stage of growth those antlers are in to get a better idea of maturity.

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I don't have any more pics. I thought antlers didn't really matter in axis because they're not on a cycle like whitetails where they grow a certain time of year?

EDIT: guy in back is 6'3" and about 6' behind deer.

Also, does the black line up the spine indicate maturity? Hadn't noticed that before. It's pretty.

Ok, so I've taken several axis bucks now, and the biggest bodied one I got, pictured, weighed 280 (live weight, not dressed), and yes we actually weighed him. He was mature and in great condition, but you can see he wasn't very long, except for his brow tines. The others I've had were more in the 225-250 range live weight. Part of why I love them, beautiful, delicious and a good value on per pound of meat basis (I don't have a whitetail lease).

Awesome deer! Did he have the black on the back? Really curious about that. Wish I had taken more pictures now that I've started a thread.

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say… axis shed around their birthday and stay on that cycle (as far as I know) their entire lives. At any given point in time you can see a buck that just dropped, one that's hard horn, and another in velvet.

The majority of the axis we had were hard horned from March - September. I think we had one that was shot hard horn in November. If they had a time where they "rut" it's June-July. Seems like majority of does are in estrus then and when we would see the biggest groups

I'm not nearly as knowlegable as you and some other folks on here. Just simply meant with whitetails you know that they're at the early stage of growing their antlers now because they're all on a similar pattern, while axis can be all over the place because they're all born at different times and have babies at different times. Love learning from folks on here.

Gotcha. I thought that's what you were implying but wasn't sure. Hope I didn't sound like a jerk.

Congratulations again! Absolutely love shooting and eating axis!

All the shooter bucks I've seen have the black stripe along the spine. Here is my latest axis from two weeks ago - not as big bodied or as old as my first buck in the previous pics, but longer and better antlers…and in velvet.

I can't age axis at all by the antlers, but I also don't own land / try to shoot a minimum age axis like many do with whitetail. Some day. I'm a spot and stalk hunter in it for the meat and the trophy is lagniappe.

28" wide? Solid width

Edit because I didn't see second pic. I'm guessing closer to 30"

They can get pretty large compared to whitetails. Especially a small central Texas doe

Never measured width on any. First in 2020 was only 27" long on main beam, second in 2022 was 31 hard horn but missing two tines, and third in velvet in 2023 was also 31. Haven't tried hunting a high fence 35" axis yet but might someday…

Ag Rock. All Axis go into rut based upon their birthdays. So they rut at all different times of the year based upon that. Does go into heat at all different times based on the same.
Antler size will typically denote age. One real popular misconception is everyone judges axis by how long the main beam length is.
You will hear "mine was 31" or mine was 34" etc. In reality, if they areallowed to mature to 5-6 years the caudel tines will grow to almost equal or equal to the same height as the main beam and the brow times become very long.
They grow main beam length first, then as they mature the caudel tines also get long as well as the brows.
Most axis are killed way to early to reach their highest score because people just concentrate on main beam length.
If you look at the top scoring axis in the SCI books you will see they have lots of mass and long caudels and brow tines along with long main beams. Those were allowed to reach full maturity.
Most axis you see killed will have long main beams and short caudels of 4-5" and short brows... they are not at full potential.
The darker dorsal stripe does not denote age.
Weight of mature axis bucks in good range conditions commonly reach 240 -250 live weight. Older mature bucks will be 250-260.
Axis can eat and digest grass, whereas a whitetail can not.
For this reason they will get " grass weight" or grass belly during green up of either warm season or cool season grasses.
That's why they have heavy body weights in the spring, to late spring.... again depending on range conditions or supplemental feeding.
Can't see too much of your antlers but would guess him from 2-3. You don't age axis in half years as you do whitetails.
Good going. Lots of good eating for sure b

Great post and couldn't agree more about obsession with main beam length.



My axis buck was only 31" long but he had over 6" mass just above his kickers, 17-18" eye guards, and 13" caudal tines. I don't remember the exact score but know it was way higher than the pencil horned 34-36" ones others on our lease had shot.

If you really want to see a freak of an axis - check this one out. Pretty sure it taped out at 40"…

Wow!. Nice Axis you got there sir! That is the real deal!

Thanks for the comment as always my friend. Hope all has been well for you.

Never got an axis before but they show up intermittently to my feeder at my new place. Hopefully that changes this year.

Thanks for comment. You seem very knowledgable on the subject. My question is how can you think he's 2-3 when you say antlers are the best determinant of age, yet you can't really see them in the picture well, and also he could be at early stages of growing them back so they're much smaller currently. He's every bit of live weight 250+ because he was over 200 after I gutted him. If not then he was very close to it. I took out over 25 lbs of meat just from his neck. Was crazy how much meat was in that dude. Compared to other axis that I've shot with much larger/longer antlers, he's biggest I've ever seen. Biggest landowner has seen out there too. We all believe him to be an old man, but always trying to learn more about stuff. Thanks again for the information.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Great post and couldn't agree more about obsession with main beam length.



My axis buck was only 31" long but he had over 6" mass just above his kickers, 17-18" eye guards, and 13" caudal tines. I don't remember the exact score but know it was way higher than the pencil horned 34-36" ones others on our lease had shot.

If you really want to see a freak of an axis - check this one out. Pretty sure it taped out at 40"…

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That big guy needs to be turned into a "I'm your huckleberry" meme

I was looking at your top picture that was hanging up. It did not appear he was in velvet and was in hard horns so his antlers would not be growing any more. It also appeared that his brow tines were extremly short and what I could see of his main beams were not long. Perhaps I was looking at the wrong picture?
Typically when an Axis gets a lot of age(around 7) his antlers will be heavy in mass on the mainbeam but not real long (less than 24") and develope a club type of look and basically have no brow and tine length to speak of. Maybe that is how he is and the perspective of the picture would not show that.
You can also judge an axis age by looking at the wear on his molars but it is not as easily done as the wear is not as pronounced as on a whitetail.
If he was 5-7 you would be able to see the wear on his molars.

That bottom picture is what an axis can be if allowed to mature out. Long caudels, long brows and heavy mass.
NICE!

Again, great info. So it's not possible this was just a fully mature deer with bad genetics? That's what we thought considering how big he was. I'm just a meat hunter so I didn't care about the antlers, but with his size (and comparison to others we've seen) we decided he was a fully mature trash axis. Not possible?

Yea usually not.....but I guess anything is possible. The reason is for the simplicity of their antlers. Even "non typical" axis rarely have more than a couple or three additional tines or points over the standard 6 points (mainbeam, brows and caudels). They, at the least, usually develope decent mainbeam length with age, even though they may be predisposed to not ever having long brows or caudels no matter their genetics. He defintely had plenty of groceries to eat so small antlers were not due to poor nutrition.
Perhaps he just had so much age that he just did not develope anything on his head. I cant recall seeing that before, as like I said they ( older mature ) usually will develope 14-24" heavy mass main beam antlers that are club looking or even bladed shaped, with very short or non existent brows or caudels.....after all, its mother nature, and she can really surprise you sometimes.

At the end of the day you did good and have one heck of a nice animal for filling the freezer. He also will make a tremendous looking hide if you should choose to have it tannned......or a few pillows etc.

Axis are always a win win....great meat and beautiful hide.

Congrats on harvesting him sir!

I've killed a few. My biggest was 260# live weight