Anthrax Decision

[James]

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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We are doing this on our place but apparently the paper work deadlines and timelines did not meet requirements for this year. The owner wants to bring in 100 bred does from a ranch out of freer.
Our place is hit or miss. Some pastures in back of ranch have maybe 2 deer in whole pasture where I still saw 9 bucks Saturday morning. I’m seeing decent numbers just no mature good deer. It’s like the anthrax not only took out 80% of our heard overall but it took every trophy we had, every single mature 10-12 pointer dead. I want To say we had 38 trophies on camera we know that made it from last season and all but 1 died those few days in July. I would Have killed my biggest Texas buck in 24 years this season if Anthrax didn’t hit.
Yes low fence, yes I am not exaggerating on numbers, yes we personally counted the bodies, yes we are sure

[bsills]

We are doing this on our place but apparently the paper work deadlines and timelines did not meet requirements for this year. The owner wants to bring in 100 bred does from a ranch out of freer.
Our place is hit or miss. Some pastures in back of ranch have maybe 2 deer in whole pasture where I still saw 9 bucks Saturday morning. I’m seeing decent numbers just no mature good deer. It’s like the anthrax not only took out 80% of our heard overall but it took every trophy we had, every single mature 10-12 pointer dead. I want To say we had 38 trophies on camera we know that made it from last season and all but 1 died those few days in July. I would Have killed my biggest Texas buck in 24 years this season if Anthrax didn’t hit.
Yes low fence, yes I am not exaggerating on numbers, yes we personally counted the bodies, yes we are sure

I would split up that 100 does to at least 4 different suppliers.

[Texas8point]

We are doing this on our place but apparently the paper work deadlines and timelines did not meet requirements for this year. The owner wants to bring in 100 bred does from a ranch out of freer.
Our place is hit or miss. Some pastures in back of ranch have maybe 2 deer in whole pasture where I still saw 9 bucks Saturday morning. I’m seeing decent numbers just no mature good deer. It’s like the anthrax not only took out 80% of our heard overall but it took every trophy we had, every single mature 10-12 pointer dead. I want To say we had 38 trophies on camera we know that made it from last season and all but 1 died those few days in July. I would Have killed my biggest Texas buck in 24 years this season if Anthrax didn’t hit.
Yes low fence, yes I am not exaggerating on numbers, yes we personally counted the bodies, yes we are sure

Everything we have seen has been young. Zero mature animals.

[BowSlayer]

Everything we have seen has been young. Zero mature animals.

I had 1 buck left on camera after July that was 4 years old. I watched him from a yearling and knew him well. Other than that, a few yearling bucks and a couple of 2 year olds survived.

[Preacher Man]

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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Drought could wipe 'em out too.

I like this idea a lot, but for me, too many unknown variables

[Sticks&Strings]

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

The odds of it happening again in the next 10 years isnt that great if you look at the outbreaks ( I haven't looked but we are in an anthrax zone and haven't had it in over 12 years). I'm surprised guys will pay to build cabins, improve camp sites, roads, brush, etc... but arent willing to invest in their actual hunting. It's a win win really. Stock it with some bucks you can shoot in 3-4 years, and some does that are high powered and have a great place in a few years. If I was a landowner, I'd be willing to help out too as it makes their place more valuable. It is an opportunity very few places have. If as a group you are spending $20k on a lease, ask the owner if you can just invest that 20k into deer as your "lease fee". Then ask him if he will add to it or match it. Even if they say no, it's a good deal if you have a long term lease. Pay 20k in deer year one. Year 2, pay 10k in lease fees and 10k in deer. Year 3 pay 10k in lease fees, and no deer, year 4 and on, pay the full 20k lease fee. Or some sort of deal like this.

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[Duckologist]

The odds of it happening again in the next 10 years isnt that great if you look at the outbreaks ( I haven't looked but we are in an anthrax zone and haven't had it in over 12 years). I'm surprised guys will pay to build cabins, improve camp sites, roads, brush, etc... but arent willing to invest in their actual hunting. It's a win win really. Stock it with some bucks you can shoot in 3-4 years, and some does that are high powered and have a great place in a few years. If I was a landowner, I'd be willing to help out too as it makes their place more valuable. It is an opportunity very few places have. If as a group you are spending $20k on a lease, ask the owner if you can just invest that 20k into deer as your "lease fee". Then ask him if he will add to it or match it. Even if they say no, it's a good deal if you have a long term lease. Pay 20k in deer year one. Year 2, pay 10k in lease fees and 10k in deer. Year 3 pay 10k in lease fees, and no deer, year 4 and on, pay the full 20k lease fee. Or some sort of deal like this.

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It's a great idea, I'd get the neighbors involved as well.

[jaime1982]

I'm just trying to figure out how to get 5yo deer without having to wait 5 years lol.

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[BowSlayer]

I'm just trying to figure out how to get 5yo deer without having to wait 5 years lol.

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Easy.....move

[taco1979]

I'm just trying to figure out how to get 5yo deer without having to wait 5 years lol.

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Who's to say mature deer won't travel from other areas? I know of one guy less than 5 miles from our place with mature deer on the south side of his property.

[Clark]

Its an interesting discussion.

The negative is easy to see.
But there are deer that lived and likely some were mature, you won't have to wait 5 years to see a good one.
And, most low fence areas that have the spores were overpopulated anyway.
The remaining deer are likely to have better browse until the population catches back up to the typical carry capacity.

From a management perspective, we shot ourselves in the foot by pouring feed with no pens, so don't do that.
Hogs took over our ranch.
We thought we could keep hog numbers low by hammering them and we were mistaken. Shooting, trapping, bringing guests, it just kept getting worse.

This was Edwards County, near Barksdale, your pasture may be different.

We weren't given a price break and we eventually bailed.

[BowSlayer]

I just finished setting up my stuff back home in East Texas. Guess I’ll see what I can grow here.



As far as mature deer go, we might have 1 next year that’s 5 on 2000 acres unless some move in. They would have to move about 10 miles to get to us from a non anthrax hit area. It’ll be years before our place is right again. Quite a few years.

[Achord83]

Do y’all turkey hunt? Are you interested in subleasing the turkey hunting?

PM me if so

[Yamahamma]

I just finished setting up my stuff back home in East Texas. Guess I’ll see what I can grow here.



As far as mature deer go, we might have 1 next year that’s 5 on 2000 acres unless some move in. They would have to move about 10 miles to get to us from a non anthrax hit area. It’ll be years before our place is right again. Quite a few years.

Crop- Iron & Clay peas.

[BowSlayer]

Crop- Iron & Clay peas.

Used to plant them every year until I moved out west. Great plots.