I just bought 50 acres in Carta Valley, Texas. Does anyone hunt there or know much about the area?

Hunted south of there in mid 90's lots of deer and illegals hunted on 6000 acres owed by Marvin Hutto tons of turkeys seen a few exotics good luck

Depending on the actually direction from town it could be in the area of the Anthrax outbreaks from the past years. Something one has to be aware when hunting/owning land there. Populations can be up and down due that. Still can be lots of game on ranches as long as it is not in an old subdivisions.

Shock looks like you need to read up on the Texas Anthrax Endemic Area. It's a triangle from Uvalde, to Eagle Pass, to Ozona. Land is not supposed to be sold in that area without a full Anthrax disclosure.

PM JohnRussell on here. He owns land in that area. Like 370 acres. From his pictures, it looks like he hit a honey hole.

Carta valley and barksdale are probably the two worst areas in texas for anthrax.

Whoever sold it to you should have made you sign an anthrax disclosure. was this not the case?

I was in Barksdale a couple of weeks ago...lots of deer, both WT and Axis. Carta valley has a tremendous amount of Axis. Not sure, but they don't seem to be as affected as WT to anthrax. There sure are a bunch of them.

My Grandfather in Cherokee County had his entire herd of cattle
wiped out by the govt. on the Anthrax Kill in the 20's..they left
him w/about 20 head of Herefords and killed and burned the rest,
along with all of his neighbors herds..Last I heard that was the
only way to contain it..was kill the animals..DD

How widespread is it outside of that area?

I was out there South of CV on a Aoudad hunt last wknd and Rancher told us it was a hit or miss deal on the Anthrax but the ones that were hit by it he said it seemed not as bad as Yrs past...We seen lots of WT and Axis and no shortage of hogs deer herd looked pretty healthy for being dry but they did get a good bit of rain last wk....

Hey guys,

You have a lot of good areas out there, but the key to how good it is lies in who is around you and what you do now that you own it.

Anthrax: The probability for Anthrax to be an issue is not if, but when. It happens. It is nothing to be scared of, but it is something to be aware of. There are lots of articles on the Internet that will teach you what to look for, the weather conditions that can create it (it is naturally occurring) and what to watch for in the animals.

The title company you probably used in that area might well be based in Rocksprings, since the entire area is pretty sparsely populated. They are required, by law, to include the warning in your closing documents and they are very good at it.

To how good the land is, a couple questions:

1 - I assume you are part of a larger property owners association, or did you just come across someone that owned a lot of land and wanted to sell off 50 acres?

2 - Any high fences around you?

3 - Any water?

These are the keys, along with how you manage it, as to whether it is a really good place.

Get to know your neighbors, help each other out, and I guarantee you will love your place, no matter what.. you ARE in a good area, you just need to help it get better.

R

Anthrax has been found in over half of the counties in Texas at one time or another. There are a couple of areas being worse than all the rest for it and Carta Valley is probably going to be the worst area.

It can be hit or miss but that is due to ranchers not burning the carcasses of dead animals when they get an outbreak of it. Most ranchers can vaccinate livestock. The deer get hit and most ranchers don't burn the carcasses. The anthrax is a spore that lives in the soil. When conditions get right (very wet, green spring followed by no rain/lots of heat) you get an outbreak. It takes temps like summer time temps to get it going. I was told that Anthrax can be spread several ways. An animal can inhale the spore when eating vegetation close the soil. The infected animal can die and then the flies get on the carcass and move the spore to the leaves of vegetation around the carcass. Animals then eat those leaves where the flies have been. So they ingest the spore by eating the vegetation. The flies can also bite an animal or human and you can get the anthrax in your system that way. Almost all ranches will vaccinate livestock when they here of an outbreak or see the signs of one. They do not happen every year due to the ideal conditions not being right. The anthrax can live in soils for 30 or more years. Vultures can move the spore from ranch to ranch when eating on dead animals. It is just something ones needs to be aware when hunting in that area. Landowners and ranchers have dealt with it for many years already and learned to live with it. You do not want to bring back a deer skull of a deer that you found that died in the summer months most of the time. When cooler weather moves in it is not a problem. Summer months are when you will here about Anthrax. First part of July seems to be the times when it appears, but can be earlier or later also.

I believe it's been about 10 years since the least big outbreak down there, but that is no indicator of when it will occur again.

The worst was in the mid 80's in recent times.

I've also hunted on the Marvin Hutto ranch but in the 80's. My father had a place that was part of the Rose ranch. Had to go through several bump gates to get to the place. We always had a great time, hunting was hard, lots of canyons, most places you couldn't drive too.

The year we bought our small place north of Leakey was supposed to have been a bad year for anthrax in our part of Real cty. I saw plenty of deer. Shot a buck and a doe. That's the biggest factor, overhunting. We only have 12 acres there. Hard to practice good mgmnt when you have neighbors like me.

so we post and never come back

where can I get the permit to hunt illegals?