Looking at a lease in the Big Lake area. I was wondering if any of you hunt this area, and can anybody give me any feedback about this area. Thanks

I hunt just south of Big Lake in Crockett County, Regan has some really good deer and in good numbers, just verify there are no goats on the property you'er looking at. What direction from Big Lake are you look at?

North I think. Buddy has been to look at it. 17,000 acres. There are no goats on the place just cows. They say they have real nice mule deer on the place too.

Hunted that area for a few years a few years ago. It was 4000 acres. I think we had it overpressured so it could have been better. We killed a few deer but nothing spectacular. It was very very dry. Our landowner also had buttloads of sheep and some cows. Had some mule deer. It wasnt a bad place

Better come out here and look at it closely. There are some good places out here and there are some that have been shot out. Drought can affect some places and others not too far away get enough rain to grow good horns. There are mule deer and whitetails, but you better make sure they are in huntable numbers. Reagan County as a rule produces some good deer. To make sure, come and look. I live out here 45 miles from Big Lake. If you want me to go and look for you, just let me know. I just like being out and will give you an unbiased report on what I think. This sis a good time to come and check out a place. Deer will calm down from hunting season and you will still be able to see what kind of horns are left.

Ben, you know a guy named Roy Bobitt??? He was leasing a ranch that sat right where the actiual Big Lake was at one time. Big ranch, but NO DEER. Worse lease I have ever been on. Look closely, before you go in.

I talked to him, but do not know him. Lucked out and talked to some people getting off of the lease that I was thinking about getting on that he was the honcho of. Guy wanted people to set up blinds and then honor so much area around the blind so that he could hunt people that did not know each other from a frog in the same pastures. I knew this would not work for me, and it saved me money, heartache and probably saved me a black eye.

My buddy is on a lease between Big Lake and Mertzon...On the edge of irion county I think in Barnhart. Absolute TON of deer and some very nice deer too.

I hunted a bit between Big Lake and Barnhart. It takes a lot of land to support the deer but if you manage it, you can see deer in the 130-150 class. Be prepared to lay out some money. Like buying corn/protein 10,000 lbs at at time. Also, don't plan on having a bunch of guys to lower the cost/hunter. I hunted on a place that was 20,000 acres with 20 stands. That area won't support much more than that. The rancher where we hunted always said they got 8" of rain every year; all in one 30 minute span.

It only takes about 2 years to shoot a place out and about 8 years of shooting nothing but Does to build it back. Caveat Emporer.

I have seen plenty of quality deer around Big Lake. My grandfather was a oilfield man and we hunted the Suggs Ranch out east of town. I also live 10 miles west of town in Best (population 10) and saw of bunch of deer while we lived there. This was ten years ago though, surley it has been all shot up yet. I wish I lived there now, miss it everyday.

I'm currently on the worst least I have even been on, it's 25 miles south of Big Lake, 20 Miles North of Ozona, at the intersection or 137/190. Great looking place, big draw, but very I mean very few deer, just plain shot out, only 1 deer killed between 8 men this season. It's currently listed on leasehunter.com as "Ozona deer lease". PM me for more info if you want. Beware.

I just saw a new lease posted in around big lake on lease hunter, trying to decide if I want to spend the money just to get the guys info!

I have been on land around there with big deer and no deer, its like they said very hit or miss.

We were on a 13k acres lease 18 miles north of ozona (near 163 @ 190 intersection)for 3 years.
First year was awesome. Deer everywhere. 7 Hunters.
Next year, due to economy, some guys had to get off lease and some new guys came on. They moved a mobile home out there (uh-oh). Basically moved out there for the season.
Took another year, but we did not see one mature buck. Only does and small basket rack bucks. Pretty damn sad. We got off immediately. Didn't even hunt the last part of last season.
Be careful.

I was on a lease on Ferguson Ranch which is east of Big Lake a few miles. All of the hunters were from Florida, so we only had a limited amount of time on the ranch to hunt. While most of us were successful, the size of the bucks we killed were not exceptional. Had we been local and able to hunt more, I feel confident we would have done much better. I can say that there were a pile of deer and that there are some huge bucks out there, as we would see them on the side of the highway at night. I always enjoyed hunting there and would considerer going back, but my friend that was the lease holder no longer has it.

X2 on the sheep/ goat issue. It is hard to keep them out of the feeders and the deer did not seem to like being around them. If you do end up hunting there, I hope you like Dairy Queen, as it's about the only place to eat there!

I'm currently on the Ferguson Ranch. There are quite a few deer(me being from east Texas). The bigger bucks were nocturnal.

Are you on the entire ranch? If you have access to it, look at the Horse pasture. The last year I was on there was the 2008-2009 season, but there were quite a few in there. I did see a big one in there, but I had my son with me and wanted him to get his buck first, before I shot one. The big one never came out of the mesquite, so he might still be there!

Bob Ferguson is a heck of a nice guy. We had it for five seasons, and I always enjoyed talking with him. Almost everyone in our group was in the construction industry in Florida, which should explain why we don't have it any more! I hope you had a good season out there.