I assume this has been posted a thousand times on here but the search function seems to be a weird one on here. I'm still new to navigating this site.

Anyways, who's a member of a deer lease and how many times do you guys see a open spot come available? Looking out west. I live out towards Dripping Springs. Would like to hunt anywhere from Junction, San Angelo, Brady, Sonora, Rock Springs, etc...

I don't own a camper so it would be nice if it had a cabin of some sorts, would also be nice if it's wife friendly. She doesn't care to pull a trigger but I sold her of the idea of me getting on a lease that she can go with me and get out of town.

Willing to spend up to $2500-$3K. 20-21 season, just trying to get a head start on things...I know how hard these things are to come by.

mbanker36@yahoo.com or if you post up some info on here I'll contact you.

Should be a lot of openings out west around Sonora, Ozona etc as long as you don't want to see a ton of deer every hunt.

How long until populations recover? Couple years? Decade?

FSGuide said:

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Should be a lot of openings out west around Sonora, Ozona etc as long as you don't want to see a ton of deer every hunt.

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I thought the anthrax breakout was further south than that?

Well if that causes spots to open up I almost wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to get on. How bad did it hurt the population?

Anthrax hit the southern half of Crockett county (ozona). Our ranch lost some deer, cattle and sheep but I'm still seeing lots of deer. There were 8 that came into the feeder Saturday night

TH36 said:

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FSGuide said:

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Should be a lot of openings out west around Sonora, Ozona etc as long as you don't want to see a ton of deer every hunt.

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I thought the anthrax breakout was further south than that?

Well if that causes spots to open up I almost wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to get on. How bad did it hurt the population?

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My buddy has owned some land 25 miles south of I-10 in Ozona for several years. It looks like their place has 100% deer loss. No deer on camera at feeders & water holes since July 15th. They had also been getting fairly regular pics of Aoudad, Axis and an occasional Blackbuck. None of them on camera since then either. Plenty of Hogs & Turkey though. I think the hogs actually got fat eating all the dead deer.

I know another guy who has 1200 acres down the Pandale highway area south of Ozona. He high fenced it, killed off most of the whitetail and stocked it with mulies. He said he lost almost all of the deer. 85-90% or more.

I know of some men on a 10,000 acre lease South of Ozona and it is pretty grim. Five of them hunted hard opening week for 4 days, two times each day. So 40 times in the field plus driving around - they saw one doe and one fawn with corn stacked under all the feeders. In some cases It can take decades to recover, look at Comstock area. Perhaps better to look North of IH10 if you are heading out West. Then again this may be very localized.

Well I guess I better keep that in mind when looking. I'm sure someone will take advantage of that situation and shaft someone out of some money. Thanks for the heads up.

on the flip side, might be a good time to buy some land for future....

Don't look at Comstock Buzzards everywhere this summer/ fall

Any of y'all have anywhere good to look besides just word of mouth? I know that's the best way. I know if it's posted on some site versus filled spots by word of mouth then it may not be a great situation. But, I've asked everyone I can think of and have come up with nothing.

Sonora was hit hard. Almost no deer left on friends lease.

I just got on a lease so if you have any of following items for sale DM me:

- deer lease quality camper (decent enough for wife to stay in)
- deer blind (two person tall one preferably)
- feeder pens
- crew ranger

TH36 said:

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Any of y'all have anywhere good to look besides just word of mouth? I know that's the best way. I know if it's posted on some site versus filled spots by word of mouth then it may not be a great situation. But, I've asked everyone I can think of and have come up with nothing.

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If you have Facebook join as many Facebook groups as you can that are for deer hunting and deer leases. They have groups for the whole state and specific areas. I was looking this past year and was in 7-8 different groups and saw openings fairly often. I was looking in a very specific area so I didn't find what I was looking for but if your area that your willing to hunt is bigger it might be a good option. Only down side it can clog up your Facebook feed. I never had any luck with craigslist.

I was able to find mine on craigslist but took almost two years to get one that was in budget and I could get to before someone snagged it. I was searching a 2-3 hour radius from DFW.

I'd try ozona, north of i10

Our place is 15 miles sw of ozona and lost some deer but still seeing lots of deer. 5+ at each of the feeders

Might be a good time to find a spot that has been hit a bit harder because the deer will disperse especially to areas that havent been loaded with livestock and herds will recover pretty quick

As mentioned south of Sonora got hit hard with Anthrax so be very leery of lease openings out that way. We're 25 miles south of Sonora and lost 90% of our deer and don't have a single mature buck left. We've been told things will be back in 2-3 years but we don't shoot our trophy bucks until 6.5 so I think we're looking at least 7-8 years before we have a sustained huntable population. And the scary part is the anthrax could hit again. Going east towards Rocksprings no anthrax was reported. Good luck in your search.

Man. Between west Texas anthrax and south Texas palaces, hunting is really rough to find!