Anybody hunt in Sanderson,TX? I'm just wondering what to expect.

I think Creekrunner does.

Never hunted Sanderson, but hunted Iraan for a couple seasons. The terrain is really cool, I’ve thought about taking the kids back now that they’re big enough just to hike around. Good WT and mulie if it rains right. Aoudad up in the ticker bluffs and cliffs. Killed some wt in the 140’s and got a buddy that shot a 163. Never hunted the mulie season but saw some really nice ones. Predator hunting was awesome!! Might not be everybody’s thing, but I chose it over deer several times. Kill all the grey fox you could ever want, yotes everywhere, and more bob cat than I have in central Texas. Hunted lions with dogs west of iraan and even had a bear with cubs on the far west side of the lease. Quail was good again if it rained right, blues and bobs.

I’d go back in a heartbeat. I had lots of fun down there. Big rough country and big leases.

Hunted and guided in that area for many yrs. With that and the above stated 140 class wts and 160 class mule deer are far and few between. Matter of fact in my many yrs I never witnessed such caliber deer. There are some HF places that of course will get that kind of deer.

Trans Pecos is a cool place though. Lots of other game. I would be careful where you might think of hunting. There were huge ranches all in that area that were sliced into very small tracts of land and sold. IMO, not the best thing to have done and actually hurt game. But I guess they needed to be sold.

The bigger ranches produce more and better animals. Watch out for ranches with livestock. Sheep and goats are a deer hunters nightmare. Think pens if there are.

If your one of the lucky ones keep an eye out for Elk. Elk were being hit on a semi regular basis where 90 and 285 meet.

Best of luck.

7mag pretty much covered it. We're 20 mi. north of Sanderson in a 10K high fence pasture, but with no supplemental protein. (A couple of the guys are talking putting out protein, but I'm trying to convince them that the dang gemsbok will just dominate the feeder then.)

We shoot some 130s and are trying to pass up what we need to to get to 140s and up. The other hunters on the low fence pastures shoot stuff very similar to what you can find in the hill country. I was also on a low fence 9K acre place just a couple miles south for a year and it was the same, with a broad mix of hunters crisscrossing over the place, shooting anything decent.

I think it's more about being in the Trans Pecos than going after big horns. Definitely not the same gene pool/environment as south Texas.

It's gonna really depend on who's on there with you, how long you're on it, and how y'all manage it. Just like any place else.

I know what ranch that is creek runner. There are every now in then some really big deer shot. I saw a 182 killed 4 yrs ago there low fence fed protien. Biggest lowfence deer I've seen come out of there is 164 without protien. On average if it's not shot out expect 110 to 140 type deer. With mule deer 120 to 150 and not alot of them varies ranch to ranch. Biggest mule deer I have seen shot through there is 170. Once in a lifetime mule deer in that country

Was 15 yrs ago on a 3k lease that was managed well before I got there. Sad to hear most of it was sliced and sold but do remember lots of small tracks for sale some time ago around Sanderson south of the old lease now that 7mag mentions it. I’d still like to varmint hunt around Iraan lots of fun down there, cool terrain.

I've hunted the Yuturri Ranch that is sandwiched between Sanderson and the Longfellow Ranch. It is a low fence ranch that extends west along US90 and north along US285. It wraps around Sanderson immediately above the Border Patrol facility.

Agree with the whitetail and mule deer sizes, lots of turkeys and aoudads. I was hunting for elk, which I saw, but didn't shoot one as just didn't see one large enough. We came across where a mule deer doe had just been killed by a mountain lion at a wildlife waterer and was being hauled up the face of the escarpment along US90. Because of the slope of the face and thick brush, we could not keep up with the cat. I can still here that deer squalling. Lion track everywhere the soil was soft. Up on the mesa above the Border Patrol facility, I saw a black bear at a spring.

At the time, I was hunting on a place between Alpine and Marathon and twice while returning home; I saw two of the largest whitetails I've seen. One was on the western edge of the Yuturri, up on the escarpment. A large 12 that I would put in low 160. The other was a large 10 , mid 150, at the "Sanderson" sign on the west side of town. Both were about 10 in the morning.

As 7mm said, there is a lot of small places surrounding Sanderson that do a good job of hulling deer out. Honestly, the place I hunted was large but I would not have paid money to hunt deer on it. There was two of us hunting elk, the other fellow killed a 385.

Longfellow Ranch, about 20 miles west of Sanderson, on Hwy 90, has quite a few elk that show up on 90 at different times.

Back in '96, I was working in Presidio and would commute back to McAllen every other weekend. There were tons of mulies along 90 at night. I'm talking 20 or more does in a group grazing in the bar ditches. The same with 285 going north.

That's all changed since then. It's rare to see more than a couple of does on the highway at night. I suspect there was an anthrax breakout, or black leg, or a fire of massive proportions that reduced the size of that herd to where it's at today.

Not saying there's no hunting, just saying the herd is way smaller than it was 22 years ago.

From the people I've talked to, the lions have put a major hurt on mulies out that way.

Say hi to Kenny Fred Stafford if you're in Sanderson. He's a friend, runs the deer processing shop. He spends his time between Bluff Dale and Sanderson. Very interesting fellow.

I sold a ranch to a guy north of Ft. Stockton that wanted to go eat at a steakhouse there before heading home.


he refused to drive down 285 at night headed home due to the animals on the road

Hunted there 2014, 2015 and 2016, eight days each time. No huge Mule Deer, and I let several bucks walk, that needed to grow. The population was low enough the land owner felt guilty taking our money, and shut down the hunt temporarily. Even though the price was great, and all of us said we were happy to pay it, and just appreciated access to almost 13,000 acres.

My oldest son guides on the Longfellow, they have killed some monster elk already this year, lots of MD on the ranch and lots of WT, they are shooting Wt's heavy trying to get the numbers down. That whole ranch is unbelievable with the amount of game and the variety that is there.

When I was a guest last year, a whole bunch of hunters had the attitude of kill every whitetail that is seen, and the cow elk quota needs to be significantly raised. Unbelievable how many elk were there. They are going to spread out the Trans Pecos region, and I am so glad.

The elk were a major competition for food against the mule deer.

I'd much rather have the mule deer.


The elk are neat to see in small numbers but the mule deer don't need another competing animal, they have a hard enough time as it is.

I've hunted a couple big ranches down there as a guest. 120 is going to be a good buck in the area. These 140+ you are hearing about above are the exception not the rule. On a good management plan I could see some 130 deer on a large managed lease. Some of that county is getting like Rocksprings and getting chopped up into 100-300 acre places. Not good for that part of the world.

Neat country with some cool terrain. Fun place to go.