My buddy and I have permission to hunt a ranch with Axis on it around rock springs. What time do you think is the best time of year to find the majority of the bucks with hard horns.
Thank you

IME a lot of them are in hard horns starting in May. I have a buddy who has hunted them a lot and he always went on Fathers day weekend since he felt they were the prettiest antler color, larger numbers in hard horn and caught the start of the summer rut. Just seems to me that about 70% of the axis herd would be in hard horn in that time frame.

Most of the Hill Country Axis are in hard antlers by June 15. We always go in August & have never been disappointed.

I hunted my 1st back in early june. About mid may they were supposed to be all hard. I hunted them in Junction Texas.I hunted them on high fences and low fences. It was incredibly hot and they wouldn't move until it cooled off. So they hunt them at night ,with a spotlight.THEY ALWAYS CALL THE RANCHER AND LET HIM KNOW THAT THEY WILL BE SPOTLIGHTING AND ALSO THE GAME WARDEN .Now let me say before y'all get outta wack about hunting over a spotlight. Not exactly my cup of tea BUT "when in Rome do what the romans do".
We hunted hard for 2 days and 2 evenings with out even seeing anything. So I wasn't offended by having to shoot one over a light. When I shot mine it was 98 degrees at 11:45 at night. These were all free ranging Axis deer on this ranch..The only place to find them was along a heavily wooded spring feed stream. And that hunt took 3 hours.
I used Pope brothers Guide service,and was very happy with all that they provided. Now After you eat Axis deer you will want to throw out all your whitetail venison. This is THE best wild game meat that I have ever had. I've eaten Blackbuck,oryx, BUT axis is the best so far.
I would like to get a doe axis when my meat runs out.It's a fairly large animal. to re supply my freezer .