There are illegals crossing the border from Brownsville to San Diego. Every ranch within 50 miles of the SW border has illegals crossing daily/weekly. If anyone tells you different, they're lying to you.

ontherocks said:

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There are illegals crossing the border from Brownsville to San Diego. Every ranch within 50 miles of the SW border has illegals crossing daily/weekly. If anyone tells you different, they're lying to you.

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I had a lease in Webb Co. for many years. We would see illegals on a regular basis. They were never much of a problem. Usually they travel from windmill to windmill in order to have water. Each one usually carries a backpack and a one gallon jug to carry water in. We would generally just avoid them and let them pass through. When we did have a face-to-face meeting, we would usually just visit with them, give them some food and water and send them on their way. I never felt threatened by them. Of course, we were usually visibly armed and they were not.

Under 7 dollars an acre for monster buck country, dream bird hunting with a bunch of Aggies!

The above is a walker..sounds similar. Got the rules. Like hunting in nazi Germany.

If you like shooting 2.5 yr old 10 pointers, then you will not like most leases

Agreed but….

No rules - bad. Rules - good. Too many rules - bad

those rules though...

Allowed one blind per hunter….on substantial acreage. Only place u can hunt. Not only deer. But only place u can hunt dove and quail. At your blind. That's too much. So ur on a big ranch but you're pigeon holed into the same place.

You have to request permission to even go to your "lease" with 48 hours notice. What if I get off work late on Friday and decide not to go. What if I get off work early and decide I want to go.

No night hunting is another deal breaker for me. Not during deer season, but I'd want to be able to hunt varmints and call coyotes out of season.

If im paying that kind of money I want to be able to use my lease and do all the legal hunting I can there, within reason.

I understand rules, but I also want to be able to get my moneys worth.

You can't harvest a buck the first time you see it. If a deer shows up for the first time it likely means it lives somewhere else and that hunter has chosen not to harvest. You have to get approval before harvesting a trophy by text or email.

If the teeth show less than 7.5 you will be asked to leave the antlers and not return to the ranch...

That's absolutely ridiculous

And that's why it sounded to good to be true.

This was the nail in the coffin for me on my previous walker lease. Imagine spending thousands and thousands of dollars and waiting your whole life to see a 170. He walks out (text book mature deer) and you have to calm your Adrenalin rush, try and get a pic, text another grown man if he thinks he's 7.5 then hope he looks at his phone in time and replies before the deer walks off.
If you make a judgement call yourself based on 25 years of experience in south Texas, and three years of trail cam pics Of same deer then his teeth say he's 6.5 you're ****ed. Teeth have been proven over and over again to be inaccurate. The hired biologist of these properties will call a hunter off a 190 in hopes to get him to 200 the following year.
This unfortunately is what Texas trophy deer leases have become and I hate it for Future generations.

Incredibly sad. Sorry you had to experience that. Not what hunting is supposed to be like. Complete opposite in fact

Is what it is. I ended up with a heck of a buck!