Does anyone on here know anything about hunting the Ozona area? I am currently on a lease in Mexico but with the recent border problems i am opening my mind to other options (lease opening in Ozona).

What quality of deer (both whitetail and mule deer) can i expect in Ozona?

I am trying to weigh the pros and cons of both. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

TIA

Ozona ain't Mexico....not even closein terms of quality of animals.

DVM

My dad has been on a low fence lease in Ozona for about 10 years. In the past the deer population was huge, which made for a small sized deer. About 3 or 4 years ago they had an anthrax problem that wipe out just about everything. I haven't been since the anthrax, but my dad said that it is getting better and with the lower population of deer they are see some big deer. Around the area that he hunts, they brought in a lot of tagged deer and turned them loose. This upcoming year will be the first year that they will hunt.

Don't know if this helps, but it will give you a little history on the area.

Wannabaggie, any past experience info is what i am looking for.

DVM i understand and dont expect the quality to be up to Mexico standards (no protein low fence and a 180 was shot on our place last year). however, i just want to get an idea of what to expect. I.e. 150 is possible but not likely...

I currently hunt on a small place owned by a buddy. It is south of Ozona about 25 miles but is still in Crockett County. Their place does not have big deer on it. I think the reason is that it is 300 acres surrounded by other 100 & 200 acre parcels where people shoot whatever they see. There are some mid 120B&C, 4-5 year old 8pts on their place, and I have seen some young 10's, but I don't think there will ever be a 160 class buck on the place. But I have seen some bigger bucks along the highway a few miles north towards Ozona during the rut. some 140's and possibly a 150 class buck or two. They were all close to or on the Bagget Ranch.

TPWD has a mule deer season for Crockett County, but I have never seen one anywhere near there. I was always told that down in that area of Texas, there are no mulies east of the Pecos River. I think that might be correct.

There were javelinas on the place when he bought it 2-3 years ago. Since then hogs have moved in and we have not seen the javelinas in several months or possibly even a whole year.

I have never seen or hear my dad talk about seeing a mule deer. I'm for sure that if he'd seen one he would have shot it or at least talked about it.

Much more meat!

In the past the body and antler size has not been great, but you didn't have to worry about not seeing anything. Lots of eight and tens, just small.

FSAGGIE, theres a few mulies east of the pecos in the comstock, pandale, pumpville,juno area. Not many and I personally havent seen any but i have seen some hybrids so theres gotta be a few.

our ranch is in ozona and i can tell you that there are big deer in ozona. however, you have to let them grow up and if you feed protein you'll be amazed. we are southwest of ozona and dont have any hogs right now. if youre leasing in ozona though make sure the ranch has lots of water troughs

While we're talking about this, I'd be interested in getting on a kid friendly lease anywhere btween Ozona and OH Ivie.

I was just sent some pics from the past few years on the place and there was a 154" whitetail (narrow rack, heavy, and a few kickers) and a really nice mulie. The place is on I10 about 40 miles west of Ozona, just south of Iraan. This might help some of you Ozona area natives narrow it down a bit.

not sure how many watering troughs are on the place but one of the pics had one in it.

Anyone have ideas on what the price range is per gun in this area???

im guessing around 7-12 an acre but check this out for some comparisons http://ozona.com/articles/view/6/hunting-leases

Just last night saw 6 mule deer does and what looked like to be a yearling just north of the intersection of Hwy 191 & hwy 158 in Midland county. Have had tracks of mule deer in our wheat pasture when it was green in Gardendale so the mule deer population has definitely moved east of the Pecos River.

I hunted a place about 15 miles south of Ozona last year and there was no shortage of animals. In fact it was exactly the opposite. I had no less than 20 small does at my feeder the two days I hunted there. I also had several spikes and a 7 point buck. Lease rules were nothing smaller than 8 points, no does. Poor management.

12thManStrength, I had the pleasure of hunting Ozona for 3 years, and would still be there if it wasn't for my loud mouthed grandfather...he got into an altercation with the ranch manager, but that is another story. The ranch that we hunted was called Savory West Ranch...I believe it is now named Holistic Management or something like that. Joe Maddox is the ranch manager and is a nice guy. If you go south outta Ozona on 163, take a right on Ranch Road 1973 and go about 10 miles you run into it. We paid $2350/gun with 21 guns and the ranch is 11,000 acres (I think this is right) We had great success out there. We took 7-8 nice bucks a year (140-170 class). I took the smallest buck that my family took and it was 141 3/8 B&C. The ranch was never "managed" or protein fed before we got there. In the time that we were there we implemented a management program (nothing under 135 class and 4 1/2 years old). We didn't have any problem sticking to it either...the deer were very plentiful!! Here are some pics of a few of the medium sized deer that we took...I don't have any of the big ones that my dad and brother took...mind you that this was about 4 yeas ago and I haven't set foot on the ranch since so there is no telling what it is like now...







Speaking of which it is listed on the site that TAMUallen posted:

quote:

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HOLISTIC MGMT INTERNATIONAL WEST RANCH ***NEW LISTING***
JOE MADDOX
(325) 392-2292
(325) 226-3041 - Cell
P.O. BOX 694
8405 RANCH ROAD 1973
OZONA, TX 76943

YEAR-ROUND
11,600 acres located in remote Crockett and Val Verde counties. Whitetail deer, turkey and dove. Bring your own camp, have electricity and water and sewer. hunting from blinds only-must provide.

---

On the other hand, my g/f's dad is currently hunting 1200 acres about 10 miles, as a crow flies, from where I hunted previously. It is a nice place; however, they have a lot of young 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year olds running around. They took a few nice ones last year but they were scares. I hunted 6 or 7 weekends last season and saw 2 or 3 nice takers but nothing as big as we had on the other lease...

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 5/13/2009 11:53p).]

[This message has been edited by Ol' Rock '05 (edited 5/14/2009 10:28a).]

fwiw in the sake of texags... i wouldnt recommend any of the leases on the crockett county websites specifically. PM me if youre really interested bc i can find you an honsest lease. be weary and certainly talk extensively with everybody available online. there are some really good leases available but there are a lot of leases that are just refilled every year because they are charging top dollar and the place is shot out and has nothing to offer.

I agree 100% with TAMUallen...there are a lot of people out there just looking to fill their lease. My dad got roped into one of those a few years after we left. He paid 3000+ a gun and didn't kill anything all year.


FYI: I have no ties to the ranch that I told you about. I just happened to see the ranchers information on the website that TAMUallen posted after I posted about it. Sadly, I don't have anywhere to hunt this year. The slump in the economy took a tole on us...being a poor grad student doesn't help either...

I hunted Ozona for 12 years. We were 6 miles South on Howard Draw a little over 10,000 acres. The largest thing we ever killed scored maybe 140". I got tired of the drive from Fort Worth and the pencil horned deer. This was during the eighties and we never fed any protein. It would probably have been better if we had of fed protein. Most fun hunting I ever did though. Walked canyons, hurled rocks with a true David and Goliath sling shot, glassed, stalked etc.