I got some bad news this weekend. As I was getting ready to leave my hunting lease Sunday afternoon, I was approached by two men in a white pickup. They informed me that they were there to do some work. I asked what kind of work, and they said they were going to look the property over and a crew was going to be there this week to begin drilling for gas near the ponds. I am on 300 acres in Freestone County.
I have had leases in the Hill Country, North Texas, Central Texas and I have to say this is the best lease I've ever had.
Has any of you ever had drilling on your hunting property, and if so what were the effects?
I can't believe they have to do that this early in hunting season!!

Happened to our place near Buffalo with little or no effect, as long as the drillers leave there .22's at home you should be ok

We have 6 wells that have popped up in the last year at our place. The area they put them in is about 200 acres. The deer seemed to spook the first couple of days of drilling, but after the first week or so, they get used to the noise. They are currently drilling about 5-600 yards from one of my blinds and the deer pics have increased on game cams lately. This is in some thick mesquite areas. Try to hunt on the setups that are a good distance away from the rig.

I work in the Oil and Gas Industry and am also on a lease where they are actively drilling gas wells. New activity will spook the deer close to the rig but, after a while the deer will get use to it. You can look forward to an improvement in the roads on the lease along with new senderos down pipeline ROWs and possibly some new ponds that are built for Drilling/Frac water. You will possibly have a problem with the rig crews poaching or fishing any stock tanks. After the Drilling activity settles down get to know the lease operator, they are in and out daily and can tell you when and where they are seeing the BIG ONES

Thanks guys! Maybe it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.
I was affraid I was going to have to start shopping for a new lease.

I managed a place down in Terrell county some years ago. Constant drilling and traffic, deer adapt. They get used to it. Poaching is an issue a lot of places. We had lot's of management tags. I'd shoot 15 to 20 does a week, gut them and hang them in the freezer. I gave them to rig hands and pumpers, anyone who wanted them. Seemed to cut down on the dead mystery deer I was finding.

I hunt family land in freestone county. My family just lease out drilling rights last year. They came in and fixed us a nice huge road all the way down to the pad site, complete with two new cattle gaurds. They did put the pad site right in the best area on the place for huting, so I was kinda upset a first. But, that caused the deer to move around the pad site, and made other areas on the place much better for hunting.

They built their pad site last summer, and did all the road improvements at the same time. And since then, they haven't been back. Surely they'll start drilling once they get a rig freed up. But no activity from them in a year and a half.

Like others have said, the deer will get used to it. So will the pigs.

As far as poaching goes, I better not catch any of them on our place poaching. They will be prosecuted. They can fish the pond all they want. but they'd better leave their guns at home!


Jay

Last year th eoil company that drills on my lease tore a new road not 20 feet from our best buck preoducing stand/feeder area. Opening day/weekend/week, we did not see a single critter. After that they began to come in. They screwed us that one week, but now they do not use that road and again this year is going to produce. I'm looking forward to it.

On my lease in Schleicher county last year a rig was brought in and set up on the second saturday of regular season. It was set up about 400-500 yards from my stand and feeder. The deer paid no attention to it. I saw just as many deer as any other time. They were drilling the next weekend and it was fairly loud and the deer still didn't mind. I actually shot a 12 point the morning after thanksgiving and when I was leaving my stand riding my fourwheeler down the road with the buck on the back, the rig workers came out to the road and wanted to see the buck. I think because there are so many rigs on the whole ranch (36,000 acres) that the deer are somewhat used to it. If there are rigs or there has been drilling on land near you, chances are it shouldn't bother the deer much.

They'll get used to it, you should see all the speed goats that hang around all those locations up in Wyoming.

I have stood on rig floors all over Texas and watched deer early and late in the day within 200 yrds. Deer are amazing animals......they can adapt and carry on like nothing has changed.
How many folks have been watching deer when a gun shot was heard.....9 times out of 10 they look in the direction of the shot for a few minutes and then return to what ever it was they were doing. Heck I have does that will come out in the pasture while I am mowing on my tractor....

Yah a week ago we had a rig move in where i work next to Eagle Mountain Lake. Since the arival of the rig three bucks we where getting pictures of daily have disapeared. We found two boned out carcasses, and have located where a deer had been shot and laid dead, was dragged to the road, and disapeared. GW came out and took pictures, but kept a low profile, said he wants to bust em in the act. Sucks to be them. Skinner

no worries...them freestone county deer are no stranger to a driling rig, the bad part is XTO or any other company doesnt care where your deer stand or food plot is, so pay attention look for flagging and t-post and keep your stands and feeders and what not 300 feet away, they are going to build a road which will be flagged, a pipeline, flagged and a location probly 300X300 which the corners may or may not be flagged, and make sure you identify a target before you shoot may be surveyers and landmen and workers anywhere on the place....good luck, maybe they'll have a fast bottom hole

IF they haven't rigged up yet, you may not have to worry about it.With the severe price drop in oil and gas, a lot of companies are stacking rigs rather than drilling. Oil has dropped from $144.00/barrel to below $70.00/barrel in a little over 40 days.

Even if they do rig up and drill, the deer will come back and they will resume their normal habits after a little sabbatical where they will assess the situation and figure out that there is no threat.

a place I hunt in Johnson Co, they cut a pipeline between two of our bow stands, put up a rig by one bow stand, have been on the place for three years drilling. WE have great new roads now, we seem to have more deer now then before as there is a lot of drilling in the area. So, we put up new bow stands, did not fill feeders where they were drilling and all are getting hammered by, deer, hogs and turkey. The best part of the drilling has been the roads we have and the pad sites after they have been gone have provided with some fast dove shooting and limits for many daily.

We already have one gas pipeline through the property, it has been there a while.
We do have a couple of roads that need some help, hopefully it will pay off there!

as long as the drillers leave there .22's at home you should be ok

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last year i had a guy come in at 6 in the am with a dozer to make a location pad. after running the dozer all day i thought that the hunting was over for the season but to my amazement the deer showed up the next morning. even after the drilling rig showed up and drilled for 3 weeks the deer didnt seem to care. even now the pump trucks come in twice a day and the deer dont seem to be bothered by them.
my place is in west texas so they kinda see and hear the rigs all the time, i'm sure its the same in freestone.

Poaching more of a problem than deer leaving.

that's always a problem with drilling, to may people in and out.

Well, this is already taking a bad turn!
Today I went to my lease and was going to put a fresh battery in my trail camera and clear the memory card and put it back in, and someone has taken my memory card out already!! There is no doubt whatsoever that the roughnecks are the culprets! And to make it worse, the property is decorated with orange and white flagging tape!!

If you feel that the drilling company or pipeliners are messing with your stands, feeders, etc. I encourage you to contact the company and voice your complaint. As a Safety Director for a local pipeling construction company I can asure you that if I get a report of one of our employees tampering with someone elses property I will escort them off the jobsite and provide their information to the local law enforcement. The same holds true for firearms. The pipeline owner will not only escort the culprit off-site but will escort the entire contracting company from the site immediately and will never use them again. I have seen this happen with other companies and promise you that the culprit will have a hard time finding work for any oil/ gas company again.
I just got home from Shreveport where we are constructing a pipeline. The hunters there love that we have cleared them a nice long and wide shooting lane and havent hesitated to sit up deer blinds along the freshly cut areas which are totally covered in deer tracks. I see deer everytime we are working on locations and while they tend to avoid the equipment I have seen them back out feeding in an area where equipment passed less than 10 minutes ago.
Give it a shot and see how it goes. And you might ask the landowner if he will cut you a little better deal for the season due to all of the interference...it might work.

Thanks guys, good advise!
We have contacted the landowner, who said he was going to contact the company working there. He said he was going to file a complaint, and warn that legal action would be taken if anything else disapears.
I too think they got their picture taken and took the card to prevent getting identified!