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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
11 hours ago, Handcruser said:

Anyone rocking a 25 creedmoor this season?

Weatherby Execs - do we have too many caliber options?

CM - hold my beer.....;)

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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Posted (edited)

Busy dove hunt out in Sealy yesterday afternoon. Tons of birds, but they were all just passing over our field with no intent to land anywhere nearby, so flying high and fast. Our group of 5 fired easily 250+ shots and ended up with 38 in the truck (plus another 10 or so lost in the brush or fell in the field behind us). I lost count of how many birds we knocked feathers off of but not enough to down.

I'd feel worse about my shooting, but my buddy, who is a competitive skeet shooter and the best dove shot I've ever hunted with, was roughly 12/50.

Edited by Storm the Field
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Posted

White wings were pretty easy limits down in Fal this weekend.   The birds were there if you did your part, hell even if you didn't.    We don't have any sunflower or sesame but have plenty in the area and that really keeps them around.   Wish the general didn't open on a Sunday. 

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Posted

Finally got the camera set up this past week. This guy is a local...still in velvet on Sunday and now it's all gone. Based on other photos he's about 14" inside. Happy to see some decent mass. Any guesses on age? He looks older to me.

Heavy 8.jpg

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Posted
Brisket doesn’t look that fat and his back looks pretty straight. Hard to say from that one pic but I don’t think he’s as old as you may think. Those main beams are thiccccc and I love it

Wait…I thought this was about me, and was flattered for a minute. I mean, I’ve lost some weight and my posture’s pretty good. But I’m pretty fucking old and my “main beams” ain’t what they used to be. So…ouch.
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Posted
On 9/13/2025 at 8:38 AM, Herbie Hancock said:

Brisket doesn’t look that fat and his back looks pretty straight. Hard to say from that one pic but I don’t think he’s as old as you may think. Those main beams are thiccccc and I love it

Here's another shot. I agree re: his brisket, but these hill country deer always fool me a bit.

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Posted

I’ve looked at one and said “damn he’s young but he’s not that great, let’s clean the gene pool” only to find an old man with no damn teeth. So I’m by no means an expert, but I’ve gotten a little bit better at looking at the back, brisket, and snout.


If I were in your shoes I’d have quite the predicament. My granny is on 2900 acres, and the land to the north and the east doesn’t get hunted at all. Combined with the fact that it’s just me, dad, my brother and occasionally my squirrelly uncle I’d lean towards letting him walk since the odds are in our favor he would survive to the next season. I would communicate my desires with everyone else though. If you’re in a high volume hunter area, I’d say fuck it let it fly if I saw him.

Posted
On 9/13/2025 at 6:43 AM, Izhmash said:

Finally got the camera set up this past week. This guy is a local...still in velvet on Sunday and now it's all gone. Based on other photos he's about 14" inside. Happy to see some decent mass. Any guesses on age? He looks older to me.

Heavy 8.jpg

Man these are always tough but I'd say that buck at least 4.5 and I bet in 4-6 weeks when he's added some weight and and the neck is all yoked up for the rut he will look older. He could also be a healthy 3.5 year old due to the long looking neck. Super helpful I know but I love those chocolate horns.

Posted
19 hours ago, Izhmash said:

Here's another shot. I agree re: his brisket, but these hill country deer always fool me a bit.

If that's a low fence hill country buck he's mature in my experience.   If I'm wrong then its the difference between being 4.5 and 5.5 but I'd lean to 6.5.

Hill country bucks are so tough to age unless you can get practice with verifiable photos or sightings over a series of years.

I've always said they age on the fringes.  Their backs and bellies start to sag and their nose starts to bull, but it's seldom obvious.

It's never as pronounced as a South Texas buck or midwestern animal.  It's nuanced.

It mostly shows up in mass (check), often in coloration (check), and in character points or stubble around bases (check), especially if they aren't surviving solely on protein year round.

The more they're relying on native forge, the more I always lean to older than they look and vice versa - if they have year round protein.

We use this sheet to help with newer hunters or anyone who's hunted outside the region.  It's pretty helpful and goes along with what we've seen in management practice for a long time.

 

Buck Guide.jpg

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