Anthrax Decision

[BrianG]

The million dollar question: Will it happen again?

Anthrax has not occurred on this property in 40+ years so who knows. BrianG has any of your landowner's properties been hit in years past?

This is the first time our area has been affected according to the land owner. He also has property further down 189 and it’s hit them at that location a few times.


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[friscopaint]

Tough, I would have a hard time paying anything in hopes that in 5 plus years there are mature deer......sounds as if there will.be plenty of leases there down the road. I won't drive 6 hours to a leases to ride around looking at pastures

[Txhorns7]

Our place was hit hard this year and not sure what I will do. Our herd lost about 70-80%. Never seen anything like it in my life. I let a couple walk this year including one that I rattled up that would have been my biggest deer ever in hopes that he would breed as much as possible.

It will be a hard decision. I only saw one axis all year and used to see about 6-10 a hunt.

[ccbrown50]

I got off our place in Juno which was severely affected by Anthrax this year. Quite a few of the guys are staying on though at a discounted rate I believe. The deer activity has picked up I'm hearing recently but I still believe it will be awhile before seeing mature deer. Axis are more present then ever before. If you got a better opportunity my advice is to leave, if not, ride it out if the landowner is offering a discount.

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[Russ79]

IF you are happy with a dove, quail, and turkey lease for that price then I would keep it. The deer will probably rebound about the time the price goes back up.

[basschump]

If you don’t have a lease, it’s nearly impossible to find one (without shelling out a months salary). Replacing a lease is incredibly difficult well. Maybe more so when a whole new group of anthrax impacted hunters looking to lease on top of a saturated market.

I’m familiar with two properties that where impacted by anthrax. On one, it took six years before the first deer was harvested. The other place didn’t have a whitetail buck until two years after (although had some axis). It’s takes some extreme commitment knowing it will years before there are huntable numbers again.

I can’t imagine paying 75% of the lease fee for several years on the hope it gets better years in the future. Seems like a huge gamble to rebuild the herd with the risk of it being leased to someone else at that point.





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[tbgascorer]

well unless you have a way to make deer age atg a faster past then mother nature, you are still looking at 5 plus years to have a hunted class of 5 year olds. maybe 6 or 7 depending on how many does you still had alive this year. If there is only a handful, then you really cant count on much from this summers fawns. At least not over all numbers. but if you have good exotics to soften the blow then it might be worth it.

I know of a landowner out there that isnt doing anything for its hunters, just says full price. there are gonna be alot of leases out there available this year, so you need to helicopter survey any property you are interested in.

This

[Luckytxtoo]

I left Juno in 2010. We almost got wiped out earlier that year. You will know it cause the protein in the free choice feeders will last a lot longer. (several months) You will see the very few that made it get fat. 5000 acres, 12 stand sites, some great hunts. We negotiated a 1 buck harvest and no doe for 1/2 the lease price. I found a shed in March, so I knew there was 1 buck & if you go to my juno2010deer album, you will see my last Juno deer @ 134 5/8. I miss the best LO I ever had, best hunting lease I ever had, The best group of guys. We lost a great friend there due to a heart attack so 1 memory sticks out over all the others, RIP Harvey...hope no one ever gets to experience that 1, it stays with ya forever.
Now, 10 yrs later, in ETX the hunting experience is considerably different, tougher, more expensive, less deer, not as many amenities, but a very short drive. Miss the hell outta Juno and now reading about the wipe outs, again.
The spores never leave...Tough decision to weigh...Best of luck in what ever you decide.

[ColinR]

I would ask for 5 years at the discounted 3.50 rate and then another 5 years at the 6.5 rate. Like others have said it’s going to be around 5 years till you have mature deer to shoot.

[Grant2]

I know guys that got hit years ago and their places are doing very well now. Yes it’s almost like starting over, but now is the time if you are paying half price to buy extra protein feeders and pump the protein to them now and you will see how it bounces back pretty quick. Sorry you guys are going through this good luck.

[taco1979]

Maybe all is not lost. Found a guy on another site that hunts less than 5 miles from us that still has a good population of whitetail. He's on a very large property and only his north pasture has been affected

[Sticks&Strings]

I'm shocked no one has negotiated with the landowner to purchase some high powered breeder does and bucks in exchange for staying. If you were to buy 5 stocker bucks and 5 bred doe, you not only could have a few deer to shoot in a few years, but in 5-6 years, you may have the biggest deer you have ever seen. Which is also good for the landowner after you are done leasing if they can prove they have larger deer than most in the area. Good luck.

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[chrigging]

I'm shocked no one has negotiated with the landowner to purchase some high powered breeder does and bucks in exchange for staying. If you were to buy 5 stocker bucks and 5 bred doe, you not only could have a few deer to shoot in a few years, but in 5-6 years, you may have the biggest deer you have ever seen. Which is also good for the landowner after you are done leasing if they can prove they have larger deer than most in the area. Good luck.

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Would hate to buy deer and anthrax pop up again in a year or two.

[basschump]

Would hate to buy deer and anthrax pop up again in a year or two.

On property you don’t own...


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[kmitchl]

I hunted a ranch that experienced a more than 80% die off due to Anthrax in 2002. Recovery took a few years but the deer were better after the recovery than before.