Went to the lease in Ozona this weekend and still no whitetail. Saw a few axis, but it is still the same as during the season. We hunt 30 miles south of Ozona. Anyone else that hunts down there have any luck this past season?

Anthrax got y’alls place. It wiped out quite a few

The area South of Ozona got hit really hard by the last bad Anthrax outbreak. I travel down 163 and 1973 and typically saw hundreds of whitetail and now might see 20-30. I know some ranches are being does in from South Texas.

We are on 1973. Anthrax hit us really hard. Been on this ranch since 1989 and now I’m thinking of leaving. I assume it will take years for the deer to come back.

Man that is terrible

I have a place down Pandale Road (FM 2083) about 35 miles south of IH10. It seems areas east of us (east of Pandale) were hit really hard by anthrax. We are about 8 miles west of Pandale road, the rancher lost 6-8 cows and a few horses (feral) but none of us found any evidence of loosing deer. I only got out there a few times this past season to do survey and hunting, didn't really notice any large drop in animals.

Hunt between Sonora and Juno and it's been a slow recovery. I'd say we're still down 75% on the whitetail

Hunting hogs and exotics for half price is the only reason we've stayed

A family friend that leases down there has been told 'Don't bother coming' by the landowner two years in a row. They've still gone for turkey in the spring but it may be another year or two before they can hunt deer, if even then.

Man, wish our land owners would have told us that. The year it hit they kept downplaying it, but this past year the reality set in. Ranch is run by the SIL now if the owner were still alive he would have told us not to bother.

I hunted the Canton Ranch about 20 miles south of Ozone maybe 12 years ago, and found carcasses on the place from the same problem. It seemed to recover, but I guess the problem has come back....

That's the "Anthrax Triangle"...

There's been many kill offs through the years when the anthrax spores become active again. Looks like it's always going to come back sooner or later.

Ten or twelve years ago the same area was hit and it took a couple of years to recover and a few more to recover completely.

For those interested these doe have ear tags as we've seen a few on our game cameras.

I hunted a place about 7 miles down the Juno hwy about 10-11 years ago. It was a great place and I would have stayed their forever had it not been owned by a crazy person! lmao

I also hunted a place 23 miles south of ozona off of 163 (east side) about 2-3 seasons and it was also a nice place.

Sad to hear of the big die-offs from anthrax in that general area. Both places had a ton of deer with the Juno hwy place having the better genetics and deer over the place south of ozona.

I just got on a place between Sonora and Eldorado a couple weeks ago. It is east of 277 but no access off of it and you have to go all the way to Eldorado and then come back down to it.
It shows a lot of potential with a ton of good young deer that if they hit the feed hard could be 150"+ deer in a year or two.

We're between Sonora and Juno also. We're hunting turkeys, hogs, and exotics at half price. It seems to be bouncing back better than expected.
Here's a few pics from this past weekend.

Nice animals Brian

Very nice pics and animals Brian!

The buck 3rd from the right came off the lease on the juno highway in 2010 I believe.
The one on the far right was my son's first buck from the place south of Ozona when he was 6 years old back in 2004.
That area can produce some very nice bucks if they get the feed and get to maturity

Wow, that there is some great looking bucks.

Thank you sir
Many years and hard hunting hours in the stand to get them.
The 2 on the left are from my little place where I live back in 2014 so I'm extremely proud of them.
the 2nd from the right is a deer my son shot the day before his 10th birthday on a 500 acre lease in Wilson County between Floresville and Pleasanton.
I wrote up the story and it was in TTH magazine in 2011. They butchered a well written article up instead of just copy/pasting mine verbatim and that was the last time I renewed my subscription to the magazine! lmao

Awesome pictures! We haven’t had turkey since the fire, over 5 years ago. Can’t remember the exact year.

wow,
Wow, looks cool

Brian,
How are the axis (or other exotic numbers) on your place? Curios how the axis numbers SW of Sonora compare to SE Sonora. I’m sure less but wondering if still good hunt-able axis numbers, as I am considering picking up a hunting lease in this area and expecting that I may have to forego WT hunting for a year or two before they fully come back from Anthax.