Should I cancel hunt?

I have an Axis hunt booked in June near Sonora. Looking
at all the photos of dead Axis has me worried if they will
Be any left to hunt.
Your thoughts on this.

I have seen all the doom and gloom on Facebook and some on here. I would not cancel yet. Wait a few weeks and talk with the outfitter as to what they observed on there property.

I agree with this

No, give it time.

I should have said, that this is a 75th birthday present
For my wife. You don’t get many 75th birthdays and
so I want it to be very special. I don’t want to take her
if her odds have dropped to less than 50 of being successful.
I’ll do something else for her.

You and me both. Scheduled for an axis hunt in June in Sonora as well. I'm going to give it time for two reasons:

1. It may take a bit to see how the axis population was affected and how/if it will bounce back
2. Who knows what the outfitter may be experiencing right now, business or personal. I want to give him some time to regroup after this fiasco.

I share your concerns, though. I think it's going to take at least a couple/few weeks for the smoke to clear. Fingers crossed!

You guys can do as you please but I’m canceling ours tomorrow and finding another hunt of some type. Why wait until the last minute to figure out your hunt is screwed when you know their are not going to be the same animals to hunt? Do you really think most ranches are going to say, oh hey by the way we only have 19 axis left out of 312 so don’t come we don’t need the money worse than ever before. It sucks but they knew the risks and it’s not my donations that are going to keep them going. If they ranch offers other hunts I’d definitely consider sticking with them however it’s not a guaranteed thing since different ranches are known for different animals.

FYI, I don’t think the herds going to “Bounce” back in a a few months

In Sonora a lot of those ranches could lose 50% of their axis and you would never tell

As an outfitter of over 20 years I’ve been in constant communication with all of our customers. So far we’ve been blessed to not lost any axis. However the upcoming days can be just as bad with potential of pneumonia setting in on animals. My advice would be to communicate with your outfitter over the next 4-6 weeks and express your concerns and expectations with them. An outfitter worth a dang wouldn’t allow you to come if they didn’t think they could make you happy. You could always ask them about a backup plan for a different animal if that’s an option as well.

Yes or they may have access to other propertys further south,south of I-10 and east of Kerrville seemed to fair alot better I've been seeing huge herds at my feeders the last few days in Medina/Bandera area.

For what it’s worth I’ve got an axis hunt with a buddy scheduled for June in the bandera area and I plan on sticking with it.

At least you've put some thought to it and not overreacting........

I live right in the heart of allot of it as well as our family ranches are in the area. Some places were absolutely devastated while other faired pretty well considering. So there definitely will still be some good hunting out there

If it were me I wouldn’t throw the towel in just yet.i would stay in touch with the out fitter for updates until he needed a definite answer.

Contact the outfitter first and don't jump the gun. Anyone reputable will be honest with you and may have other options for you.
Also you do not know the preparations they took to help prevent any die off such extra heavy feed, shelters, etc. The places
south of the interstate did do much better from ones north from what I have been seeing so know the exact location of your hunt as well.

And like one other mentioned we could lose 50% of the population on a lot of areas and it would help the overall population being there are so
many in some locations. Now is not the time to kick us while we are down or assume we would take your money and run or not be honest
with you. If we are worried we will let you know.

You are 100% correct in that I do not have a clue what preparations were made in advance of the cold weather. Hopefully,
some were taken to help the survival of the animals. That is why I am waiting 3 weeks and then giving him a call. I think that will
give him time to truly access the conditions of the herds on his ranches. However, I hope you can understand my concern as other
ranchers have posted photos of trailer loads of dead Axis on THF and stated that they lost over 85% of their Axis, and one stated that he
had over 100 hunters to call and cancel their hunts. THF is the only place I have to gather information right now, and that is why I am
asking questions. I am completely confident that my outfitter will be truthful and honest with me when he advises me on whether
to hunt or not as he is one of the most highly praised outfitters on this forum.

My brothers place is near Menard where they have seen post of massive axis and blackbuck losses. He did not lose a single animal. He feeds well and and kept running water available.
I agree with checking with your outfitter, they are not all the same.

Honesty depends on the outfitter.

We went to check on our place in Junction on Saturday, and I was DREADING the drive out there, thinking of all the pictures I saw on social media of dead axis and blackbuck stacked on trailers. Even before we got to the ranch we spotted multiple free range axis feeding on fields, and we started seeing both species as soon as we got to the ranch. We drove about 50% of the ranch (2000+ acres) and walked about 10-12 miles checking every draw and creek bottom and we only found four dead animals: an axis fawn that must have been born a few days before the storm, a blackbuck fawn that maybe was a few months old, one small axis doe and one small blackbuck doe. During the drive we spotted at least 30-40 axis (does, bucks and fawns) and another 10-12 blackbuck (does, bucks and fawns), plus fallow, whitetail, aoudad and red deer. Even if there were some additional dead animals, we did not see the same die offs that people were reporting in Rock Springs and in the Bastrop area. Last night we checked camera cards and saw a lot of animals feeding and milling around, during and after the snow.
Lots of variables that could have impacted that (overall temperatures, amount of snowfall, supplemental feed, carrying capacity per acre, amount of cover/brush for animals, etc..). I think we were very fortunate but the point I'm making is, it's too early to start canceling hunts, this storm may have hit some herds hard but it did not wipe out axis or other exotics in the state, far from it. Talk to your outfitter, there's still time to prepare and make alternate arrangements for your hunt.

Saw lots of axis yesterday on 41 by the YO

I didn’t lose a single axis in my pasture. Don’t believe the pics, ask your outfitter how it looks after he’s scouted it. If he’s a busy outfitter, he’s probably been on the ranch a half dozen times since the place defrosted and has a good idea.

If you have confidence in your outfitter to be truthful and honest, then there is your answer right there. Once he assesses the herd, He'll let you know if you need to cancel, reschedule, or pick a different hunt.

We have a big herd of Axis in Concho county and we didn’t lose any! I would ask the land owner or outfitter!

Good luck sir