Just curious how the hunting is in this area...it is down county road 573 to the north about 7 miles to be exact...quality, quantity, etc..thanks

I have been on a ranch that is just south of that CR back in the late 90's to early 2000's a few times. It was a larger ranch that had some pretty good deer. They started a feeding program and also put in about 90 acres of food plots. The first year they killed two bucks around 160. The area seemed to have pretty good age structure and genetics.

Had a small lease just south of Mullins for a couple of years. We were too close to town, we had some deer but mostly at night. Literally a half mile south of town there is a tiny Cemetery on the left, my Box blind was on the back edge of that cemetery. We saw lots of deer on the bigger ranches driving the backroads to Brownwood.

well the 30 minutes I rode around with the guy, we saw a small buck and probably 30 does...so I would assume the numbers are decent just curious on the antlers?

Yes, deer are plentiful. The Mills County Big Buck contest didn't break the 150" mark this year but I bet there's some out there. I've seen 140-150" bucks in the area about once a season. You'd be hard pressed to find a 160"+ low fence mills county buck these days....but it could happen.

My neighbor took a 156 in 2014, and I believe the 181 was also a Mills County (although river) deer. A crossbow hunter took a 160+ this year, the pictures are posted here. They're rare, but they are there. It's going to depend a lot on your neighbors. There are a ton of small lease places and the pricing is such that you get a lot of meat hunters.

what do leases usually go for out there..per acre?

I have seen places from $10 to $20 an acre with the most in the $14 to $15 with electric and water. Really like hunting Mills Co and hoping to find a place around there soon. Got all of the stuff ready to go, just looking for a quality management place instead of a meat place. Wish you luck on your prospect.

I hunt about 4 miles north of where you're looking on Hwy 573. You'll be in Comanche County. It's hit or miss in that area depending upon the terrain, but the buck quality is average to above average. We've been hit with 6 miles of high fence on our east, and the ranch along our south fence line high fenced last year. Then this spring we got hit with the wind generators from 5 miles north of us, running 15 miles southwest of us. The poor deer are totally confused and all the patterns changed this year, once the wind mills went in!

I took this 8pt in late December.

Nice Dickey..yeah the place is close to the intersection of 573 and 218...

I hunted 3/4 mile down the road past the cemetery from 1998-2006. We would occasionally go to underwoods bbq in brownwood and see all them deer in the cemetery after dark on the way back and think that's a good spot.

I hunted Mills County, right around Goldthwaite, for the first time this year. I was very pleased with what I saw. I was able to harvest my largest buck ever. 13 pt that went 164". I saw several mature bucks, and several great young bucks too. Actually I was kind of taken back with the deer I saw. I really didn't expect it to be as good as it was. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to next year!

Mills do has been good for me the last two years. Only once did I not see any deer in a sitting. The bigs one were old and smart and the 4.5 yo seem to get shot up early where we were south of goldthwaite. Losing the lease due to change in ownership/management. If any body knows of some opening I'd be interested. Thanks.

There are plenty of good bucks taken but not to many like to go show them off or that's the way my guys are , the closer you get to the ridge and regency area the deer are really good and I saw a few that would have easily taken the win at the general store.

Hunted off 218 by 573 last year. I cant believe how much high fence they put up. I went back by the lease in September and couldn't believe the windmills stretched all the way across to 377

A couple pics from Hwy 218 lease I was on. Deer tend to go nocturnal around October 01

We can thank the multi-billionaire Aggie Frosty Gilliam and his land company GF Land Development were responsible for the high fences. I looked it up on the Comanche CAD; if he did not get the highway frontage, he bought the land behind those ranches and high fenced there! The only ranch he high fenced on the west side of 573 was the ranch on our south fence line! Our place is for sale, but the land owner, Hub Markwart, would not give up the mineral rights, so we kept our place. Our water has sulphur in it, which usually means there's oil or gas in the area.

I have been hunting the 218-573 area(old community named Democrat) for 30 years. Deer numbers are borderline infestation. Horns are decent, I saw a couple 120"deer this year. The largest one I have ever taken was Mid 130s. I have seen a few that were 140s and one I thought would rub up against 150.

so the guy told me this on the lease...$1500 a gun...3 guns....there is no water or electricity....can only hunt the beginning of deer season to December 31st?!!...so I will say no....

You'd only miss one day I believe for regular season. I can haul water, I can't haul electricity