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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!

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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