Howdy yall

I found a south Texas hunt on CL... It just sounded to good to be true.. $600 for 3 days.. No trophy fee.. Camphouse provided..
I almost pulled the trigger.. Then I saw some reviews about how it was hunted out.. People saw nothing but bobcats.. What a disappointment.. Guess it's better to be disappointed than to get burned... I guess I can go get a new rifle now
I emailed the owner and told him why I cancelled and he said people who do no good are the first to talk trash.. Still after looking at the website.. The deer, just don't look mature and don't look like what I expected south Texas bucks to look like.. Here is a link to the pictures.. Tell me what you think..
pictures form the mewranch

First hint to me would have been location inbetween Freer and San Diego. Second would have been those very old mounts there on the home page. Third would be the website has not been update since 2006. How large a ranch is it? Bowhunting only or both rifle and bow? Success of hunters is also dictated by what month they booked their hunts in South Texas since in the hotter months before the rut starts in mid to late Dec.

You summed it up nicely.
Somehow the website was too small to mention the size of the "ranch".
On the positive side though, where can you go in today's economy and catch all you want catfish and release them, for a mere 600 bucks!!

Stxranchman knows his SHtuff,for sure.

I wanta say he told me 650 acres... To me that that sounded like a load.. My place is only 100, but it's well managed.. No one but my brother or I hunt it.. We have deer everywhere.. I took a 5 year old buck off of it opening day..
That place is just over hunted.. He is making that money.. All off the title of South Texas.. Hey it got me piter pattering for a min till I saw this Some people who have been burned

I only did the the research cause as much as I have dreamed of South Texas.. I didn't know much more than trees grow outta their heads.. I have heard of WEBB county.. But didn't know much about this place.. So I am guessing south Texas isn't till you get all the way SOUTH..

This area your are asking about around Freer has been poached heavily on some ranches for many years. Also there are a lot of subdivided larger ranches that are now ranchettes. 25 acres and up and they shoot everything that is legal. Duval County also used to do a lot of day leases and they shot anything that was legal. A lot of these places I described were highfenced on one or more sides by neighbors that had larger ranches. I would trust the feedback I was getting.

The whole place just looks sketchy to me.

See that is nice to really know why and what is going on... Thank you for the input.. I knew something wasn't right when my hill country buck out weighed what they was taking.. He was fumbling while on the phone..Cause I had a barrage of questions..
Oh well.. Unless I find a place down there that is legit.. I see a new rifle in my future .. Seems a lot is highfenced down there.. Growing deer for Doctors and lawyers to shoot out of a pick up.. Kinda depressing... The man with the most money gets the biggest deer. By the time I am 60, the allure of a south Texas deer will be gone unless you wanta kill in one of those zoos.. It's a real shame

Wish I woulda joined this forum earlier... Great info here

I met a South Texas poacher when I worked near three rivers. he uses google earth to get the layout of the ranches he hunts. Prefers to poach on land owned by the Catholic Church and land that has water access. Uses a bow, kayaks in sets up on a trail with a portable tree stand and is in and out with no one the wiser.

Just remember-you get what you pay for. A place under good management is a place you are not going to get a hunt for $200/day. There are lots of legit place but they are not giving away hunts for that price.

Three Rivers has had poachers for many years. It is a time honored family tradition. I have seen them years ago when they used to drive the railroad tracks at night and spotlight the ranches.

This guy was out of Corpus. the job site was next to a high fence ranch right off I-37. I over heard him telling a buddy he had a new place to hunt and offered a hunt on our place.

He was telling my boss in spanish how he hunts and didn't think I understood. I withdrew my offer.

Yeah i shoulda known better.. I am just lucky I looked into it before I got snagged...

WOW.. I didn't realize poaching is such a issue down there..
We had some road hunters... Killed a great little 8 right in the front..
GameWarden finally got him I think this last year.. Said he was rabbit hunting.. People like that should be in jail.. He coulda shot the dang house.. With us in it.. It was that close..

He must have been a guy from Flour Bluff then that I heard about. I had guy tell me about a friend of his who would go down to the King Ranch shoreline at low tide and dump a 4 wheeler out along with food and water. Ride in till he could find enough cover to hide is 4 wheeler and then walk and hunt only at night under full moon. He would hunt for 5 days or if he could find water longer. This guy supposedly had a room full of huge deer poached of the King Ranch. Poachers are everywhere and some areas are worse than others.

Some guys I work with actually were telling me about this place a few weeks ago. They went there a couple years ago. Said they didn't see a single deer in 4 days.

About 20 yrs ago We answered a day lease day hunt add in the paper for $ 100.00 in New Boston Tx ( east ) we met the guy in Dallas Tx gave him the money and he gave us the directions to the property. About an hour after being there a farmer showed up and said it was private property and to get off his land. Never did a day lease ever again.

OUCH... I guess scams are everywhere and have been around for a long time..

"You don't have a Pig problem if You want to charge $200.00" amen brother

We hunted that same area years back. Worst area we've ever hunted. We leased from the county commissioner. Had a deer poached on our lease on opening weekend, found the blood in the road and where it was drug into the bushes to gut it. My dad was there late in the season by himself and was woke up at night with full auto gunfire. After that TPW magazine had an article about how that corridor from San Diego to Freer was the worst poaching area in Texas. All season long 3hunters only saw 5 deer.

Did you notify the Game Warden of the poached deer?

Just looking at that website tells me this is a amature operation. What management plan says "Kill any 8 regardless of spread"? Take a look at the pics and you see they're killing 1.5 and 2.5 yo deer.

Looks like a local with a little land, no education, no legitimate job prospects and no income so he sets up a day lease operation with a "if it's brown, it's down" management plan.

These are precisely the type of operations that TPWD should tax and regulate into non-existence.

And many a poacher have never returned home from the King Ranch either. Those Mexican cowboys that work the ranch often do what they are payed/told to do if you know what I mean. I still hunt Duval County, but have been burned pretty bad several times hunting places down there. Poaching my deer, stealing the hogs out of my traps, and stealing my property. I love S Texas, it's my home but I've been wanting to find a place to hunt a little more North for a while now.

According to this post he only has 100 acres... http://www.texashuntfish.com/app/view/Hunt/620/MEW-Ranch

King ranch isn't what many people think!! They stole over 500,000 acres of land from many people that were granted Spanish land grants,and in the process killed many families. Duval county is poached really bad and we have had people shooting right in front of our house. It has slowed down alot and we have had great deer now.

No we didn't. We leased from the county commisioner and didn't want to upset the good ole boys club. None of the gates were locked in the area. we didn't want to get trailer, stands, and feeders trashed.

Wow... He told me 650.. Dang liars