Thinking about a lease on the Upton/Reagan counties line. Understand the oilfield traffic and requirements, but curious if anyone out there had personal experience on deer populations, rut timing, muley sightings and/or reality of seeing muleys in that special season, etc. Lease pricing is good, and the pics I've seen look promising, but pictures are generally always the best, not the norm. Any help you can give, would be greatly appreciated.

Is the lease just north of Highway 67 between Rankin and Big Lake?

I believe it is north of 67, but yes, between those two towns.

There is a whole lot of oilfield traffic in that area and lots of activity. Whitetail numbers are better on the south side of 67 just because of the activity taking place to the north. There are a few mule deer in that area, but the rut usually occurs the last part of December or on into January, so the rut is not too helpful to the hunting. Water is another problem in that immediate area, unless the ranchers are running some stock. You need to be sure and look at the place you are leasing at night and you will see just how much of the area has oilfield activity by the number of lights in the area. Pictures of deer you see may be from that specific area, but make sure they are not from 20 years ago. If it is the same man leasing out that area, he has had it for a long time. There used to be more deer and some good deer in that area, but make sure that was not 20 years ago. I would really do my homework before I committed to anything. I live in Upton County and there are some decent deer and sometimes really good deer, but when the Railroad Commission forced the oil companies to dry up the pits in the area, it hurt the deer population and the quality of deer in the areas with lots of oil production. Railroad Commission did not realize how many animals, especially deer, drank from pits that contained waste water. A lot of this water contained minerals that helped the antler growth in my opinion. Is the last name of the man you are talking to about this lease Scott?

Oilfield traffic = choking dust, terrible roads, more people on the property and more poaching than usual.

Guess it depends on where its at. In the RRC oilfield map below the county line is in the center of the page and you can see Hwy 67.

I was on a lease south of Hwy 67 about 30 years ago. The oilfield traffic went overnight from zero to 100 and it was hugely impactful on game movements.

The oil infrastructure in the area is now built up around that area though, so I would guess traffic would be limited to active drilling or construction areas. You are not likely to see oil and water haulers coming through 24/7. Lots of numbers around there - driving along Hwy 67 at night it is not uncommon to see 25+ deer per mile. Corporate fleet managers will tell you that is one of the worst parts of the state for deer strikes on vehicles.

I love the area though. Very rugged terrain and a great mix of game.

[quote=COFF (TFF)]I was on a lease south of Hwy 67 about 30 years ago. The oilfield traffic went overnight from zero to 100 and it was hugely impactful on game movements.

The oil infrastructure in the area is now built up around that area though, so I would guess traffic would be limited to active drilling or construction areas. You are not likely to see oil and water haulers coming through 24/7. Lots of numbers around there - driving along Hwy 67 at night it is not uncommon to see 25+ deer per mile. Corporate fleet managers will tell you that is one of the worst parts of the state for deer strikes on vehicles.

I don't believe you will see anywhere near those numbers and I travel that road frequently. Maybe I am going blind, but I don't think so. When you drive through at night, look back to the north of 67 and the lights at locations, tank batteries, etc. will show you how drilled up the area is. Not saying I am any type of resident expert. The numbers of whitetail deer in all of west Texas from about 20 miles or so west of Ozona have dwindled in the last 5-7 years or so it seems to me.

I grew up there, Im not real sure but I know the wind farms have had an impact on some of the hunting. Not sure if there are any near that particular spot.

I drove that way today and drove from Girvin east towards rankin and down thru McCamey and Iraan. Didn’t see one dead deer on the highways.

I've seen deer standing in the middle of road on 349 between Rankin and Iraan during daylight hours. There are a lot of deer around Iraan and have been for years. I've had family in that area for 70+ years.

I hunted this exact area, however south of the highway for 9 years. I just got off of the lease a year ago. One of my blinds sat in Reagan county and the feeder was in Upton county. The first 5 years we saw tons of deer, whitetail and mule deer alike, some of which were quality animals. Myself and kids have all killed monster bucks for that area. The year we had snowmageddon and to the present deer numbers have plummeted. And the quality is poor. Oil traffic is still present and growing. Yes the deer are used to it but do get affected by it and will move away from it as it continues to encroach on their habitat. Don’t be fooled into thinking all possible infrastructure already exists. There is always room for more in their eyes. Water/fuel tankers DO still run 24/7. When they installed the windmills that killed the mule deer hunting. Doubt there are much, if any mule deer north of the highway but south up on the plateaus we had enough that each spot/stalk session would turn up 10 or so. In the 9 years I was there however we only saw two mule deer bucks that I would consider true trophy quality. Most of the mule deer don’t have great antler growth. The whitetail antler growth is typically long and spindly. No mass at all. Antler. spread is generally well outside the ears on mature bucks though. Doe ratios for both species are way over populated. Competition for feed is fierce. As mentioned above there is zero water unless land owner has stock tanks.

From what we have seen, the rut typically was in December. Some years it would start immediately after Thanksgiving and be heavy for a couple of week and other years it started up mid December and ran til January. For mule deer, the second week always had more rut activity if at all, but generally the rut seems to run after the season was over. I never saw them rutting the first week.

The reason I got off was the increasing oil traffic and the fact that in over 4 years we had only taken 1 buck 3 of the 4 years. Nothing of quality on cameras nor in person, a stark contrast to the years prior. Actually the last year not a single buck was shot out of 8 tags and we hunted over 10,000 acres. And we weren’t being picky either like as in years prior. I was trying to get my 8 yo daughter her first buck but we never saw anything that was older than 2-3 yrs of age and well inside the ears.

Definitely do your homework like you are. Recent pics of harvest would be wise, preferably with time stamps. Visit and walk the property and possibly ask to spend a night out there on a weekend to get an idea of traffic flow. There are a lot of javelina and coyotes down that way. Javelina’s chase off the deer and the coyotes have wreaked havoc on the deer populations. If you have any questions you can pm me if you wish.

And one last thing, not sure who the land owner or leasing person is, but if his initials are R.S. I have some words of caution. If it’s someone else, then i wouldn’t know anything about them.

Good luck.