I hope the S/E wind didn't get ya'll.

Anyone have any better info on how long it will take the population to rebound?

In my understanding as long as there are no more outbreaks the population will spring back very quickly, high survival rate from the fawns that are born, much better forage available due to low density. Sure it will take years to get your age classes back, but deer should make a major come back in population in 2 years provided no more anthrax outbreaks and average rainfall.

This outbreak is bad enough for many folks getting full or partial refunds for this season. Just an FYI on anyone affected by this.

Any reports around Rocksprings?

Our helicopter survey was completed yesterday on our 5,000 acres and neighbor's 2000. Not a mature buck seen on either ranch, one 3-4 yr old on 2,000 acres, 7 yearlings and 15 does on larger place and 5 on 2,000. No fallow.! Axis seen to have done a little better. There were 9 counted on smaller ranch and about 35 on the 5,000A. Seven aoudad seen out of a herd estimated at 50 plus. Last year our MLD quota was 100 deer( 50 bucks,50 does). I don't expect us to kill any WTs. Unmitigated disaster and its going to be a long time recovering.

That is not good news...but I would not base everything off the helicopter survey as they can be very inaccurate IME. I would still move trail cams around on water sources to see how the buck/doe numbers compare to what was seen from the air. IME helicopter surveys were seeing only 40% at best of the total population on two ranches I flew each year. I hope I am right on this and you have a few more deer than what you think. Numbers can rebound quickly with average rains and habitat rebounds quickly from lesser numbers. Twin fawns can grow a population quickly. Just won't grow your mature buck numbers as fast but the numbers will rebound, age structure comes with time.

We have never don't helicopter surveys, but one of my buddies in the affected area has for years. Pretty sure they have shot more deer on some years than were counted total and they still had a good number of deer.

The first year on a ranch in South Texas we shot the exact number of deer that I counted on the helicopter survey. The next year we shot 3 times the amount of deer I saw out of helicopter on that same ranch. The third year we shot about the same amount or shade more that I saw from the helicopter. If a ranch has been flown a period of time it seems to get a little tougher to get a good accurate count. You just hope to see a downward trend on numbers from year to year.
I have heard numbers of up to 90% die off this year and that much or more in years past on the severe outbreaks. Most ranches recovered nicely in time. Just hard to take if you are on a lease or own a ranch and enjoy hunting.

Have a bud with 10Kac about 26mi south of Ozona....says he got hit hard, really hard. And his hunters had really built the place up and were taking some really nice bucks. Very sad indeed.

gotta love technology ...

1 camera coons or cows demolished, ate the strap, found camera about 30 feet from where it was mounted and the battery pack about 20 more feet away, never found the strap. Replaced the batteries and used a ratchet strap to remount, SD card wouldn't read, so I replaced.

another camera, pulled the SD card and kept giving me an error message when trying to open files, had several hundred pictures but couldn't get any open, batteries 90%, put new SD card and moved on.

another camera, pulled the SD card and it had a couple hundred pictures, mostly feral cattle, horses, a few stray loner pigs, coons, porcupine and a handful of deer. 3 separate middle age bucks towards the end of velvet plus a few does & yearlings. Last picture was late Aug time frame. I was out there during the heat of the day and did not see any live deer in the two hours I was driving around between feeder locations. All caliche pits were bone dry, so anything would have to rely on the water troughs at the area wells. The LO wants to do a spotlight survey likely opening weekend of rifle season

CTC is like tetracycline that feed makers mix into deer feed mainly for the breeder business to get antibiotics into a vast number of deer. It’s been known to help get deer through anthrax outbreaks. But it’s a good way to medicate a large number of animals if you can see the problem coming.

My buddy who is about 8 miles northwest of Bracketteville just told me they lost over 70% of their deer, no hunting this year.

After some boots on the ground,it looks like we lost 75% of our whitetail and 90% of our fallow and aoudad on our low fence lease between Juno and Sonora Caverns. Not sure why, but our Axis and Blackbuck fared much better. The worst part of the problem is that we are yet to see a mature WT buck from the air or ground. Huge disappointment after 12 years of hard work to build up the herd.
I have learned recently from others in the same situation that various lease members with medically compromised immune systems, etc have been advised by their doctors not to take the risk of exposure by going hunting. Tough deal if true.

headed out to my place 35-40 miles SW of Ozona last week to do sight survey and game counts ... I was pleasantly surprised as I saw 8-12 deer per feeder location over a 2 day time line. Does with fawns, yearlings, several 2.5-4.5 year old bucks, none of the older deer but usually don't this early in the season.