I am not familiar with axis. I see a lot of hunts for them advertised for the summer months but I see folks posting pics of axis they have taken year round more or less. Is there a best time to plan a dedicated hunt for them? Do they shed there antlers at different times?

I went through POPE BROS> out of junction tx. These as in ALL exotics can be hunted 24/7 .I shot mine on june 10th at 12:30 am. by spotlight. First off we hunted our [censored]'s off. early in the morning and at dusk as you normally do. these axis buck's had just hardened up in may. I shot my buck from the back of a pick up at 20 yards. They were all down in or near a water/creek . I would do it in the first week of june,By that time all bucks have hard antlers and they are more around. yo could hunt the during regular deer season i guess,but by then most of the good ones have already been shot. THE MEAT IS FABULOUS .you won't find better venison.

The main rut occurs in June but there may be breeding going on other times. You will see bucks in different stages of antler growth through out the year. At any time, some may be in velvet while others are hard. May have to do with what time of year that a buck is born in?

Hunting them in late June/ early July is fun because they are rutting and the bucks are roaring.

As has been posted, they are excellent table fare and they also make excellent trophies!

Everyone should hunt axis at least once. They are gorgeous and amazing to eat.

I took this picture in July. Saw him yesterday and he still has his antlers. I also saw a spike and 2 year old with antlers.

Thanks for all the replies. I will be in TX mid January and would like to hunt a mature, hard antler axis buck but I’m concerned there won’t be any or few to hunt...I really want to take advantage of being here instead of making a dedicated trip later from the Carolina’s

Axis will have antlers year round, but the majority will shed in the Fall/Winter months. As they said above, prime time is around the first of June-July as they are rutting. 100 degree days in Texas can be rough to hunt in & often times they don’t move until its dark.
As for when you are coming. That is probably the worst time to find a trophy caliber buck in hard horn. They are mostly shed or growing in velvet in January. Younger bucks seem to keep antlers longer.
That being said, you will be able to find places that have hard horn trophy bucks in January. Just make sure you do some research before you book or you may be hunting for 1 particular buck that has antlers still. That will make things quite difficult. I wouldn’t book a hunt on our ranch that time of year for a hard horn, although we will likely have one or two. Good luck wherever you go & make sure to do some digging before you book. If you come back in the summer months, let me know & I can take care of you.

I did an Axis doe hunt with Mulie Mike in January of this year. The property we hunted still had many hard-horned bucks. There were a number of bucks that had shed their antlers as well. Just depends on the ranch.

This!

So to boil it down....it is possible but not probable. I will post over in the Outfitters section and see what I can find.