I was asked in another thread to start this thread and talk about my experience on a hunting trip in Webb County. It was my first and possibly last trip to hunt there unless things change drastically.
Day one:
My buddy and I left early one morning to head to his lease for an early season Bow Hunt. It was his first year on the lease and he was allowed to bring a guest. In fact the lease manager told him DO NOT go to the lease alone. I thought that was strange but I was glad to be able to have a chance to kill a South Texas buck. I would soon find out why the lease manager told him that. We were both excited and filled with anticipation of the hunt. My buddy had been running feeders there through the Summer with game cameras on them but had not been back to check them. We were both excited to look at pictures and hopefully find a target buck. We had 5 days in this trip to get it done and I was pretty confident that one of us would score. We arrived at the lease at about 2:00 PM. The lease was high fenced on 3 sides and had a huge entry gate that was very secure. Once we pulled in the gate and locked it behind us I could not wait to get in a stand.
My buddy's stands were set up on the back side of the property from the camp and it was about 12 miles to them through some very rugged terrain. He decided since it was already pretty late in the day he would stay back at camp and cook us some steaks while I hunted that afternoon. We pulled up to camp and unloaded everything and he tossed me the keys to his truck and gave me directions on how to find his set ups and I burned out headed to hunt. As I'm driving back to hunt I looked over on a far hill and saw about 10-15 men walking single file through the brush. I thought it was very strange but didn't give it much thought. I figured maybe I was looking at a neighbor's property in the distance. I finally found the spot I was supposed to hunt and parked the truck about 1/2 mile from it. I quickly threw on my camo and sprayed down with scent killer and headed to the tripod he had tucked into the brush near his feeder. About an hour before dark I began to see some deer but they were very jumpy. I'd never seen deer that jumpy and I sat there and wondered what the heck was going on. I was supposedly the only person on 12,000 acres of South Texas brush and these deer were worse than hunting public in East Texas. I saw a few does but no bucks that evening. I kept getting a very strange feeling like I was being watched while sitting there. I was very uneasy and couldn't figure out why. At dark I headed back to the truck to make my way back to some Ribeyes at camp and noticed there were 8-10 different footprints in the sand that had walked through my tracks since I had been there. I took out my 9mm and slowly made my way back to the truck in the dark. When I finally got in the truck and started moving I felt a little better.
When I got back to camp my buddy was outside with a huge fire going and a beer in his hand. He asked what I saw and I told him about the few deer and the group of men I had seen along with the foot prints in mine. We both kind of blew it off. I went in the camp house to change out of my hunting clothes. Just as I was almost finished changing clothes I heard my buddy outside yelling something. I went out to the window and peeked out and saw him running toward the house. He ran inside, and bolted the door. I asked him what the heck is going on and he said a car full of men had pulled up just outside of camp and killed their lights. He yelled at them and they wouldn't answer and it scared him so he ran inside. As we sat inside peeking out the windows I started to get very nervous. I thought they might surround us or burn us out. We were sitting ducks! I told him "I'm going out to find out what's going on". He replied " You're crazy! I'm not going out there". I said whatever, I wasn't going to sit there and wait until they did whatever they planned to do so I went out. I heard the door bolt shut behind me and looked back to see my buddy peeking out the window. I snuck through the brush to where my buddy said the car stopped and sure enough I could see a vehicle sitting there. I turned on my spot light and when it hit the car I could see there were 6-8 Mexican Men in the car. They immediately started the car and took off. My buddy saw them speed off and ran outside with his truck keys and we tried to catch them but we were running 60 mph on those rough ranch roads and they ran off and left us. I don't know how they got in there, like I said this place is high fenced and has a huge and very secure entrance. We went back to camp hoping to finally eat our steaks and turn in for the night.
We got our steaks and all the fixings ready and sat beside the camp fire to eat. We were both very nervous about it so we sat facing each other so we could watch each other's back. About half way through the steak I heard something and looked over to see a guy walking up to us. It was a Border Patrol agent. He explained that he was looking for a group of illegals. We told him about the car full of them we had encountered. He told us if we see any more we should fire a warning shot off and they would know we are armed and leave us alone. He disappeared into the brush and was gone. We both went in and got absolutely no sleep for the night. I would occasionally hear a voice outside at all hours of the night. I just laid there with my 9mm in my hand all night.
Day 2:
Our plan was for my buddy to drop me off before daylight and then drive on back another 5-6 miles to where he was going to hunt. As we approached my stand I told him I saw a flashlight up there. He said it was probably just a cow's eyes glowing in the headlights. I agreed and I got out and started to get my stuff out of the truck for the hunt. As he was turning around to leave his headlights went into the brush and I saw LOTS of people hiding out there. I mean LOTS! I yelled at him and luckily he heard me and stopped and I jumped back in the truck. I told him about all the people hiding near my stand and I decided I just wouldn't hunt that morning. We drove back to his spot and I sat in his tower blind with binoculars while he bow hunted the feeder. He ended up shooting a Doe and we tracked it for a very long time only to lose it in some of the nastiest thorn bushes I've ever seen. It was impossible to penetrate.
On our way back to camp after that we were cruising along pretty good and my buddy said "Look, a unicorn!". I leaned over and looked around him and out in the brush running beside the truck trying to stop us was a Mexican man and he was NAKED. Not one stitch of clothing, just shoes. We didn't stop, we sped up and left his naked self in the dust.
That evening was pretty uneventful and we ate a bite and went to bed for another sleepless night.
Day 3:
We woke up to rain. I thought maybe the cooler temps and rain would get the bucks on their feet. My buddy had 2 tripods and feeders set up about 300 yards from each other on the back side of the lease so we decided that would be the safest place to hunt. We headed that directions way before daylight.
Roughly half way back there and about 5 miles from camp we looked up ahead and saw a flashlight in the brush and it was moving at a pretty good pace toward the road. Just before the light reached the road ahead of us my buddy rolled down his window and fired 1 shot into the ground from his 9mm. The light instantly went off and we laughed a little about how quickly he disappeared when the shot went off. We drove the rest of the way to our hunting spot, parked the truck, and headed our different directions to hunt.
It was still a pretty good while before daylight so I was just sitting in my tripod with my eyes closed. I thought I heard someone talking so I opened my eyes and started to look around. As I looked over my right shoulder I saw a dim flashlight coming over the hill. I couldn't figure out what my buddy was doing out of his stand already. It was still so dark I couldn't see my sights on my bow. As the flashlight got closer I realized there were 10 men and they were all carrying ARs. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. As they got closer to me I realized that it was MY tracks they were following. They were tracking me down! I looked to my left for somewhere to run and there was nothing but thorns and cactus. The only way out was the trail they were on. There was a fork in the trail not far from me. They had to walk past me on the sendero at about 5 yards and then turn on a dim trail and backtrack to where I was sitting. I said a prayer as they walked past me that they would lose my track where the trail forked. Sure enough, when they got to the fork in the trail they stopped. At that point they were about 20 yards from me and I was tucked up about 8' high in a mesquite tree. They made some hand motions and quickly fanned out to look for my tracks and determine which direction I went. Oh how I prayed they wouldn't figure it out! After a couple of minutes I saw one of them make a hand motion and point to the ground. They had found my tracks and were now on the trail that would lead them directly to me and I had nowhere to run. I slowly turned and hung my bow on the hanger and eased my 9mm from it's holster. I got out my spare mag that was already loaded as well. As I sat there it seemed as though the seconds were like hours. I couldn't believe I had been so excited to come and hunt this place and I was going to be killed by a bunch of men with ARs. I tried to decide if I should open fire on them before they saw me or wait until the first one spots me and then unload my pistol. They are now at 15 yards and slowly closing the distance. I said another prayer and raised my gun. They were single-file coming down the trail so I took my bead on the first guy in line. Now they are at 10 yards and I push the safety off. This is it, there's too many of them, I'm going to die right here in this brush. As I feel my finger getting tight on the trigger I saw something. It was a badge! It had gotten just light enough that I could see a badge! I was not going to die, it was Border Patrol! I eased my 9 back into the holster, raised my hands in the air, and softly said "Hello". They went nuts ducking and diving behind bushes. They drug me out of the stand with ARs in my face. They spent the next hour questioning me. That's when I found out what happened. The flashlight we had seen beside the road before daylight was not an illegal, it was a BP agent. He was waiting for his pick up and when he saw us he thought we were his ride so he was coming to the road to get in. When my buddy fired the warning shot he sent out on the radio "Shots fired" and that's when they all swarmed us.
As soon as they told us we were free to go we loaded everything up and came back to East Texas 2 days early. I've never seen anything like that in my life. If they would send our government officials down to Webb County and dump them out on some of those ranches down there I'm pretty sure we would get some border enforcement.
I'm sure there's a lot that I left out/forgot but if you read this far I hope it was worth it.
Day one:
My buddy and I left early one morning to head to his lease for an early season Bow Hunt. It was his first year on the lease and he was allowed to bring a guest. In fact the lease manager told him DO NOT go to the lease alone. I thought that was strange but I was glad to be able to have a chance to kill a South Texas buck. I would soon find out why the lease manager told him that. We were both excited and filled with anticipation of the hunt. My buddy had been running feeders there through the Summer with game cameras on them but had not been back to check them. We were both excited to look at pictures and hopefully find a target buck. We had 5 days in this trip to get it done and I was pretty confident that one of us would score. We arrived at the lease at about 2:00 PM. The lease was high fenced on 3 sides and had a huge entry gate that was very secure. Once we pulled in the gate and locked it behind us I could not wait to get in a stand.
My buddy's stands were set up on the back side of the property from the camp and it was about 12 miles to them through some very rugged terrain. He decided since it was already pretty late in the day he would stay back at camp and cook us some steaks while I hunted that afternoon. We pulled up to camp and unloaded everything and he tossed me the keys to his truck and gave me directions on how to find his set ups and I burned out headed to hunt. As I'm driving back to hunt I looked over on a far hill and saw about 10-15 men walking single file through the brush. I thought it was very strange but didn't give it much thought. I figured maybe I was looking at a neighbor's property in the distance. I finally found the spot I was supposed to hunt and parked the truck about 1/2 mile from it. I quickly threw on my camo and sprayed down with scent killer and headed to the tripod he had tucked into the brush near his feeder. About an hour before dark I began to see some deer but they were very jumpy. I'd never seen deer that jumpy and I sat there and wondered what the heck was going on. I was supposedly the only person on 12,000 acres of South Texas brush and these deer were worse than hunting public in East Texas. I saw a few does but no bucks that evening. I kept getting a very strange feeling like I was being watched while sitting there. I was very uneasy and couldn't figure out why. At dark I headed back to the truck to make my way back to some Ribeyes at camp and noticed there were 8-10 different footprints in the sand that had walked through my tracks since I had been there. I took out my 9mm and slowly made my way back to the truck in the dark. When I finally got in the truck and started moving I felt a little better.
When I got back to camp my buddy was outside with a huge fire going and a beer in his hand. He asked what I saw and I told him about the few deer and the group of men I had seen along with the foot prints in mine. We both kind of blew it off. I went in the camp house to change out of my hunting clothes. Just as I was almost finished changing clothes I heard my buddy outside yelling something. I went out to the window and peeked out and saw him running toward the house. He ran inside, and bolted the door. I asked him what the heck is going on and he said a car full of men had pulled up just outside of camp and killed their lights. He yelled at them and they wouldn't answer and it scared him so he ran inside. As we sat inside peeking out the windows I started to get very nervous. I thought they might surround us or burn us out. We were sitting ducks! I told him "I'm going out to find out what's going on". He replied " You're crazy! I'm not going out there". I said whatever, I wasn't going to sit there and wait until they did whatever they planned to do so I went out. I heard the door bolt shut behind me and looked back to see my buddy peeking out the window. I snuck through the brush to where my buddy said the car stopped and sure enough I could see a vehicle sitting there. I turned on my spot light and when it hit the car I could see there were 6-8 Mexican Men in the car. They immediately started the car and took off. My buddy saw them speed off and ran outside with his truck keys and we tried to catch them but we were running 60 mph on those rough ranch roads and they ran off and left us. I don't know how they got in there, like I said this place is high fenced and has a huge and very secure entrance. We went back to camp hoping to finally eat our steaks and turn in for the night.
We got our steaks and all the fixings ready and sat beside the camp fire to eat. We were both very nervous about it so we sat facing each other so we could watch each other's back. About half way through the steak I heard something and looked over to see a guy walking up to us. It was a Border Patrol agent. He explained that he was looking for a group of illegals. We told him about the car full of them we had encountered. He told us if we see any more we should fire a warning shot off and they would know we are armed and leave us alone. He disappeared into the brush and was gone. We both went in and got absolutely no sleep for the night. I would occasionally hear a voice outside at all hours of the night. I just laid there with my 9mm in my hand all night.
Day 2:
Our plan was for my buddy to drop me off before daylight and then drive on back another 5-6 miles to where he was going to hunt. As we approached my stand I told him I saw a flashlight up there. He said it was probably just a cow's eyes glowing in the headlights. I agreed and I got out and started to get my stuff out of the truck for the hunt. As he was turning around to leave his headlights went into the brush and I saw LOTS of people hiding out there. I mean LOTS! I yelled at him and luckily he heard me and stopped and I jumped back in the truck. I told him about all the people hiding near my stand and I decided I just wouldn't hunt that morning. We drove back to his spot and I sat in his tower blind with binoculars while he bow hunted the feeder. He ended up shooting a Doe and we tracked it for a very long time only to lose it in some of the nastiest thorn bushes I've ever seen. It was impossible to penetrate.
On our way back to camp after that we were cruising along pretty good and my buddy said "Look, a unicorn!". I leaned over and looked around him and out in the brush running beside the truck trying to stop us was a Mexican man and he was NAKED. Not one stitch of clothing, just shoes. We didn't stop, we sped up and left his naked self in the dust.
That evening was pretty uneventful and we ate a bite and went to bed for another sleepless night.
Day 3:
We woke up to rain. I thought maybe the cooler temps and rain would get the bucks on their feet. My buddy had 2 tripods and feeders set up about 300 yards from each other on the back side of the lease so we decided that would be the safest place to hunt. We headed that directions way before daylight.
Roughly half way back there and about 5 miles from camp we looked up ahead and saw a flashlight in the brush and it was moving at a pretty good pace toward the road. Just before the light reached the road ahead of us my buddy rolled down his window and fired 1 shot into the ground from his 9mm. The light instantly went off and we laughed a little about how quickly he disappeared when the shot went off. We drove the rest of the way to our hunting spot, parked the truck, and headed our different directions to hunt.
It was still a pretty good while before daylight so I was just sitting in my tripod with my eyes closed. I thought I heard someone talking so I opened my eyes and started to look around. As I looked over my right shoulder I saw a dim flashlight coming over the hill. I couldn't figure out what my buddy was doing out of his stand already. It was still so dark I couldn't see my sights on my bow. As the flashlight got closer I realized there were 10 men and they were all carrying ARs. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. As they got closer to me I realized that it was MY tracks they were following. They were tracking me down! I looked to my left for somewhere to run and there was nothing but thorns and cactus. The only way out was the trail they were on. There was a fork in the trail not far from me. They had to walk past me on the sendero at about 5 yards and then turn on a dim trail and backtrack to where I was sitting. I said a prayer as they walked past me that they would lose my track where the trail forked. Sure enough, when they got to the fork in the trail they stopped. At that point they were about 20 yards from me and I was tucked up about 8' high in a mesquite tree. They made some hand motions and quickly fanned out to look for my tracks and determine which direction I went. Oh how I prayed they wouldn't figure it out! After a couple of minutes I saw one of them make a hand motion and point to the ground. They had found my tracks and were now on the trail that would lead them directly to me and I had nowhere to run. I slowly turned and hung my bow on the hanger and eased my 9mm from it's holster. I got out my spare mag that was already loaded as well. As I sat there it seemed as though the seconds were like hours. I couldn't believe I had been so excited to come and hunt this place and I was going to be killed by a bunch of men with ARs. I tried to decide if I should open fire on them before they saw me or wait until the first one spots me and then unload my pistol. They are now at 15 yards and slowly closing the distance. I said another prayer and raised my gun. They were single-file coming down the trail so I took my bead on the first guy in line. Now they are at 10 yards and I push the safety off. This is it, there's too many of them, I'm going to die right here in this brush. As I feel my finger getting tight on the trigger I saw something. It was a badge! It had gotten just light enough that I could see a badge! I was not going to die, it was Border Patrol! I eased my 9 back into the holster, raised my hands in the air, and softly said "Hello". They went nuts ducking and diving behind bushes. They drug me out of the stand with ARs in my face. They spent the next hour questioning me. That's when I found out what happened. The flashlight we had seen beside the road before daylight was not an illegal, it was a BP agent. He was waiting for his pick up and when he saw us he thought we were his ride so he was coming to the road to get in. When my buddy fired the warning shot he sent out on the radio "Shots fired" and that's when they all swarmed us.
As soon as they told us we were free to go we loaded everything up and came back to East Texas 2 days early. I've never seen anything like that in my life. If they would send our government officials down to Webb County and dump them out on some of those ranches down there I'm pretty sure we would get some border enforcement.
I'm sure there's a lot that I left out/forgot but if you read this far I hope it was worth it.
Comment