Anyone hunt between Fort Stockton and Sanderson?

I used to hunt in that country years ago and I am going back this year. got on a lease with an old hunting friend for this year. I haven't seen the place but he swears it's good and I trust him.

Looing for a deer report, curious how the deer are doing, both muleys and whitetail and how much rain they have been getting out there. I primarily shot whitetail and a good deer for my old place was mid 140s.

Good rains for most of the area so far this year. Many a friends hunt that area with a couple 170" mulies on the ground last season, a 370" bull elk, and a couple white tails in the 140s. All with heavy feeding and good water on the ranches of course.

Rain amounts will depend on the exact area you are going to be hunting. Elk numbers have grown over the years. The drought over the past 15-18 yrs has hurt Mule Deer numbers in some areas. 3 yrs ago the ranch we hunt on only had .5" to 2.5" over an 18 month period. Last year and this year rains have been good and fawn crops have been up. We do not have any whitetail so I can't tell you what they have done.

Spotty wt populations they very ranch to ranch depending on water system throughout. Good elk herds in area decent mule deer lots of lions running through area recently. Trapper on hayre ranch towards Sheffield from you has caught 14 last 18 months. In the drought several yrs ago doe population was hurt in it bad. Good luck

Our WT are doing good. This year seems to be setting up much like last year. If August holds like in the past and we get a wet September, October will be ago and find them month because they won't be coming to the feeders. Right now we have good feed on the ground and they are in want for nothing. Like Bruce said this has been the year of the big cat. Have taken several this year on other ranches but none on mine, but they've been here. Rain has been real spotty, it's either flood or famine depending on where you are located. Speaking of, what place will you be hunting?

Bruce where are you located?

14 cats is amazing. I actually hunted on hayre ranch for about six years. He took all his property back and was going to do a corporate deal is my recollection. But that was 6-7 years ago. How are they doing? I wonder if the same ranch hand is still doing all the trapping.

The new place is about 20 miles west of hayre ranch I think. Haven't been there yet. It's off the next big rods that runs north/south.

That would be 2886. They've had some good rains up through there till you get north of the DRH. The Porter and Harkins got washed out pretty bad but they're nice and green now.

Mr. Hayre moved back from Argentina and started running stock again but I'm not sure what he did with the hunting. As far as I know it's the same guy doing the trapping on him.

Now all package hunts the last 7 yrs. Cooperate deal fell through. Yep ernesto is still there running out of things to trap. So your a couple ranches over from the contenental. You will probably have decent mule deer population and idk about your wt it varies so much the further west you go. Good luck. I'm at Tommy hayres for the deer season....pretty busy place starting oct.

I herd they had a lot of elk on them ranches.

Bruce,
Are you working for Tommy or just hunting his ranch? We had about 6k acres right across the road from his house. Loved hunting out there and I felt like we treated Tommy and LeeLee as good as anyone could be treated. never was out there when we didn't have them up for a nice dinner. Needless to say was disappointed when we had to get off.

Ernesto was always going to trap me a big bobcat but never got one big enough. I do remember being down there behind Tommy's house one night visiting with some other hunters and Ernesto drove up and told me to come over to his truck. he had a live bobcat in the back. Scared the hell out of me.

I didn't realize Tommy had ever moved to Argentina full time, they were building a house down there when we left.

Work for tommy 4 day package hunt it. Long story of what happened back then sry to here it ended that away for you. Yall hunted pasture 9 then always been prety good deer there. He never moved there full time but had a big cattle operation there now grapes. He is kinda all over the place ranches everywhere. Hope your knew place is a good one good luck and you way see some elk. We killed a 350 couple yrs ago ranch to north has big herd with some big bulls. Take care

Didn't mean to sound bitter. No hard feelings on my part. We had worked and had a nice set up but [censored] happens. Hope to see some elk, DR brought those out there when we were hunting, saw a few cows but never a bull.

Yep horton stocked 100 head 8 or ten yrs ago before he fenced now they have scattered out everywhere. Some big herds at that. Yall kill some pretty good deer in that pasture when yall were there?

I've got 3 hanging on my wall. I thought they were good enough to mount. All aged at 6.5 years old and all scored in the mid to low 140s. Two were wide 20" inside and 19" inside, main frame 9s that had multiple kickers, beem length was around 9 inches. the other one was about 16" wide but much better mass and much taller. I think the g2's on this deer were 14" and the g3's 12. But the tall deer scored the least.

I killed one just across the fence and a little east of Tommy's house. I bet the tall metal blind is still there. There were two blinds that looked alike, one was close to the road and the other was further back closer to the fence. Lots of deer would move from the road back into heavy cover in the morning.

Really not sure how that compared to other deer people were killing at the time.

I truly enjoyed my time out there. Loved to get in the jeep and just ride the roads.

Nice deer