Garner State Park Youth Hunt

My son was drawn for the youth, either sex hunt at Garner for this Mew Years weekend. We got to our cabin at 4J tonight just in time to watch the sun go down. There is something special about those hill country sunsets.

Since this was his first trip to Garner, he had to take an obligatory photo with the famous sign. Steaks on the grill for dinner and a good cold German brewski for me.

He can shoot one whitetail (buck or doe) and axis (only one fork horned). We have plenty of whitetail in the freezer and he’ said he’s holding out for a good one or maybe something later in the hunt. He really wants to kill an axis as neither of us have ever shot one.

We met at the park HQ in the morning at 10:00am on the morning of the hunt. After a long orientation, they kids drew stands. He drew stand 7 and it was a beautiful spot. We had lots of action and saw animals every sit except for the last day.

The first afternoon we an axis come in around 5:30. He shot it and it dropped in its tracks. We thought it was a doe, but it turned out to be a button buck. We really didn't care though. His first axis is in the books. It’s an awesome free range public land axis.

The next morning, we didnt see anything to shoot, but had one axis barking just behind us. Noah's buddy from high school also got drawn and shot an axis doe so we were excited for him.

The second afternoon, we had several white tails coming to the feeder. This spike showed up and he decided to shoot it. Our freezer is full of whitetail, so we donated it to anther kid and his dad who were on the hunt. They don't have any place to hunt and didn't kill anything on this trip either. It felt good to help another family out.

The last morning the cold front arrived. The temp went from 80F to 27F with a wind chill of 14F. The wind was blowing 20+MPH from the north. Thank goodness for the Mr. Buddy Heater and a thermos of coffee. The wind had everything pinned down and we didnt have any activity that last sit.

All in all, we had a great time and a great hunt. There is a new hunt master on staff now and he is amazing. The other park staff and volunteers are awesome as well. The hunt master even has his tracking dog on site to help with game retrieval.

I think 4 or 5 axis were killed. One kid shot a nice axis buck that was in full velvet.

That is great.

Fantastic

That was a fun hunt! Congrats to the young man!

Looks tasty!

Great job dad!!!

Nice, we stay at 4J every summer, the owners are great people.

I was there for the adult exotic hunt which was right after the kids hunt. Let me tell you......those axis deer, along with the whitetails left the country! I know that 15 of the twenty hunters never saw an animal on that three day hunt, including me. All the corn and feed from the kids hunt was still on the ground. Nobody never even heard an axis "bark" or had any feed (corn) eaten during that hunt. Those axis know when to leave the hunt areas!

I really think there is only one herd in the park, I only ever see them up behind the rangers station where you make the turn to either old Garner or new Garner.

That's crazy, but not surprising. We saw a herd of 10-12 axis each morning as we were driving to our stand.

I suppose they figured out pretty quick that when trucks are driving these roads, we're about to get shot at.

Sorry you didn't have any luck. I hunted there on an adult axis hunt several years ago and had the same bad fortune as you.

Another thing. The permit says "Unlimited axis deer; either sex; limit one forked antlered buck." During our orientation, we were told that we could only shoot 3 axis total. One buck and two does. That's it !!! Another hunter mentioned this to the head honcho in charge and he said that they can change the limit if they needed to and that we had to obide by his decision. He said that if a hunter did manage to kill 3 exotics then he will take it into consideration for that hunter to kill more. But the smile on his face gave me the impression that we would be lucky just to kill one exotic.
If you do ever get picked to hunt at Garner, do not believe that you will kill several axis deer. You will be lucky to get one. Out of twenty stands, two or three may produce. Once shooting and vehicles start driving around the hunt areas, the deer move out.