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Posted

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Got eight this morning at one lease - should have limited, but i was missing everything with my 20g.

Was still a fun, beautiful morning with the fog rolling in. 

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Got home and made some poppers. 

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Went to a new lease this afternoon.   Birds were sporadic, but ended up with three more dove and two pigeons.

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I think I'm going to need some larger jalapeños.   

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Posted

Won't be able to make it out for dove season this year, but I found out today my dad and I got drawn for a public archery hunt down at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in January for whitetails and unlimited exotics. Very excited to get down to that part of the world and bow hunt. 

Anyone have any experience with the public hunts down there? It's the Laguna Unit. 

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Posted
7 hours ago, Noogman said:

Won't be able to make it out for dove season this year, but I found out today my dad and I got drawn for a public archery hunt down at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in January for whitetails and unlimited exotics. Very excited to get down to that part of the world and bow hunt. 

Anyone have any experience with the public hunts down there? It's the Laguna Unit. 

No direct experience at all, but does the access to exotics include nilgai?  Because that would be pretty f'n amazing if you could arrow one.

I've had some friends do the (somewhat questionable) hunt for nilgai in the tidal flats south of Port Mansfield.  One I know had success, but it came with constant concern over confrontations with King / Kenedy ranch personnel along with the chore of dragging a 400+ lb nilgai a few hundred yards through muck back to the boat.  

Any idea on the total number of drawn hunters and previous kill rates?  I looked through the TPWD draw hunt harvest results and didn't see a single listing for Laguna Atascosa.  Regardless, that's going to be a fun experience.  Congrats on getting drawn!

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Posted
3 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

No direct experience at all, but does the access to exotics include nilgai?  Because that would be pretty f'n amazing if you could arrow one.

I've had some friends do the (somewhat questionable) hunt for nilgai in the tidal flats south of Port Mansfield.  One I know had success, but it came with constant concern over confrontations with King / Kenedy ranch personnel along with the chore of dragging a 400+ lb nilgai a few hundred yards through muck back to the boat.  

Any idea on the total number of drawn hunters and previous kill rates?  I looked through the TPWD draw hunt harvest results and didn't see a single listing for Laguna Atascosa.  Regardless, that's going to be a fun experience.  Congrats on getting drawn!

This was a VERY popular draw for Nilgai about a decade ago.  People claim it used to be ~33% draw yearly (I doubt it was that high) - the numbers I saw on the draw apps vs allotments were no where close to that, but people used to post about being drawn several years in a row, etc on TXBowhunters and Txaggy. 

This link shows the apps vs allotments:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing/hunt-area-details.phtml?OArea=UC

 I don't know if the word got out or what changed, but it was a very good Nilgai opportunity if you felt like packing one out.  I put in for a group for a few years and never got nada.    Also, lol at the questionable hunting on the KR/Kennedy.  We used to see them all the time from my buddies house on the land cut, but didn't want to end up buried in an unmarked grave out in S Texas over some tamales - as absolutely delicious as they may be.   

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Posted
8 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

This was a VERY popular draw for Nilgai about a decade ago.  People claim it used to be ~33% draw yearly (I doubt it was that high) - the numbers I saw on the draw apps vs allotments were no where close to that, but people used to post about being drawn several years in a row, etc on TXBowhunters and Txaggy. 

This link shows the apps vs allotments:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing/hunt-area-details.phtml?OArea=UC

 I don't know if the word got out or what changed, but it was a very good Nilgai opportunity if you felt like packing one out.  I put in for a group for a few years and never got nada.    Also, lol at the questionable hunting on the KR/Kennedy.  We used to see them all the time from my buddies house on the land cut, but didn't want to end up buried in an unmarked grave out in S Texas over some tamales - as absolutely delicious as they may be.   

Yeah, I'm not messing with that ball of wax.  

Posted
13 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

No direct experience at all, but does the access to exotics include nilgai?  Because that would be pretty f'n amazing if you could arrow one.

I've had some friends do the (somewhat questionable) hunt for nilgai in the tidal flats south of Port Mansfield.  One I know had success, but it came with constant concern over confrontations with King / Kenedy ranch personnel along with the chore of dragging a 400+ lb nilgai a few hundred yards through muck back to the boat.  

Any idea on the total number of drawn hunters and previous kill rates?  I looked through the TPWD draw hunt harvest results and didn't see a single listing for Laguna Atascosa.  Regardless, that's going to be a fun experience.  Congrats on getting drawn!

No idea on kill rates. Based on what I've put together, it's 800 tags spread out over 4 hunt periods, so 200 hunters per period. The place is huge, about 35,000 acres of accessible ground.

It does have access to Nilgai, which will be great. There's a separate Nilgai/Exotics-only draw for the NWR as well, as flatty said. I need to put together an arrow that can handle Nilgai in case we come across one, but it'll be a matter of luck whether we actually get close to one. Deer and pig on the other hand...those will be more manageable to get close to. We'll also be catching the end of the whitetail rut down there, so maybe we'll get to rattle a few in. 

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Posted
5 hours ago, Noogman said:

No idea on kill rates. Based on what I've put together, it's 800 tags spread out over 4 hunt periods, so 200 hunters per period. The place is huge, about 35,000 acres of accessible ground.

It does have access to Nilgai, which will be great. There's a separate Nilgai/Exotics-only draw for the NWR as well, as flatty said. I need to put together an arrow that can handle Nilgai in case we come across one, but it'll be a matter of luck whether we actually get close to one. Deer and pig on the other hand...those will be more manageable to get close to. We'll also be catching the end of the whitetail rut down there, so maybe we'll get to rattle a few in. 

Quite the opportunity.  It goes without saying, but Nilgai are F'ing TOUGH.  Tough, think hide, big bones, just a big, dense animal.  Good luck!

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