Looking to get on about 2k acres south of the river a half mile or so. Realistically, what should I expect for deer #s, deer quality, hogs, any exotics?

Place looks good but I havent seen it in person. Ive seen pics of deer harvested “in the area” and they are nice. Other group getting off because several members moved too far away and the rest are retired and done hunting/dont want to mess with it.

Any info is appreciated.

We have family land in the north part of the county, close to the Regency bridge. It's been in the family since 1932. 25 years ago it wa 25 does to a buck. It's down to probably 2 or 3 to 1. No AR . But most people are letting the young ones walk and quality has gone way way up in the last 10 years. We always get bucks we are satisfied with, probably 130's, but man, we have had some monsters on cameras. Then they disappear when season starts.Deer density is high. Plenty of hogs and turkeys. If you have water you will have ducks. We have not heard of any free range exotics. Lots of varmints, quail have disappeared about 7 years ago.

You will love it if the place has been taken care of and at least a little management in the past lots of deer out there we hunt close to Brady but live in east Texas the difference in the amount of deer seen is like night and day.

I have hunted the San Saba near the Menard/Mason county line for about 15 years. Deer are plentiful, but monsters are not that common. We see a 140-150ish deer on 5000 acres (down to about 3000 now with family dividing it up) every couple of years. It has little to do with age as we shoot deer that are 5-7 years old that score 110-120 all of the time. When we got on the lease we were shooting 8+ year old deer that everyone thought were young deer because of small antler and body size.

Depending on neighbors etc, some nice deer in places. We have a place about 12 miles SW of San Saba & have some really nice bucks.

I hunted 5 miles north of San Saba for 10 years. Mostly 125-130 deer and you would see deer 8 out of 10 setting. Buck to doe of about 1- 3 I would guess. I would still be there because of the other good people on the lease, but old man died and his son
leased it to an oil company for more money. Did not even give us a chance to match the offer. That's when I bought my own property to hunt on.

Right, San Saba is known for a healthy deer population and with proper deer herd management can reasonably harvest an occasional trophy season to season. Friends that have hunted around there have indicated quite a few 110-125 class deer with some larger ones on occasion.

Agree with this but that is some pretty countryside to hunt in for sure.

I grew up around there and these descriptions are pretty accurate. If you can cut down the number of mouths through management, they'll get bigger.

So, what is the going rate for property around there? Good roads, house and rv hook ups, electricity and water along with a few other minor amenities

I have no dog in the fight but how many hunters total on the place? Original landowner or family? You ask FB, and get $5 to $50 an acre... I would expect $15 to $20 an acre in that area based on what I have seen. Is this part of a large management area. Lots of folks do that there to stop shooting young deer. They pool 5 to 20K acres with a biologist. Age jaws, shoot doe, etc.

Near river, 2K acres, I'd think conservatively, they could get $25-$50K annually total depending on improvements, accommodations, deer herd quality. Probably 5-6 guns total is about max you'd want to put on it.

I guess my issue is, they are trying to put 8-10 guns on it. Price seems to fall in line with what is being said

That still isn't too bad. Lot of hill country area ,they give less than 200 ac a man. If the whole place is huntable, that's still a good bit of land per hunter. I would see what is the least amount they would go.

I haven't hunted in San Saba county in several years but when I did, there was an over abundance of deer, way off buck to doe ratio and 200 acres could support more than one gun easily. I know that they have been doing a better job of management and probably have the numbers down to a better ratio ... and 8-10 hunters on 2k acres doesn't sound outrageous in that area. Maybe it's changed more than I suspect...

DQ Kid, from your post, at the upper end, if the lease goes for 50k and 5 guys are on it, that is 10k a gun. It would clearly not be over hunted, but what is really the chance of someone paying that?

Yes, the high end at $8-10k a gun is what I was mentioning for awesome accommodations and an awesome herd. For San Saba, I wouldn't pay that but know a very few that have. I would think $2-$4K is more the norm per gun out that way.

Other than opening weekend and Thanksgiving, not likely to have all hunters there at the same time. Should be a good lease.