Well the kiddo got drawn for Lower Rio Grande for youth deer. It looks like their tag also includes exotics and hogs. Any advice o this area would be much appreciated.

My son was also drawn and would love any insights. We will be down fr the New Years Weekend hunt - traveling from Virginia for the opportunity for the boy to get a Nilgai.

We will also be there for the New Years hunt.

I have not hunted sal del rey, but I have hunted the teniente just east of there. I hunted on foot and periodically would bump into them. They are always on the move so still hunting on well worn trails will work. The hard part about still hunting is being bored for several hours on end to get the 5 minute or less window of shot opportunity. You can e scout all you want and it will all go out the window when you park the truck and see the country for the first time. If you get there a day or so early don't be afraid to drive around the property in the evenings to look for nilgai. That will typically give you a good starting place.

That country had the most ticks i have ever seen in my life. If you are in the brush you will get ticks on you so plan accordingly. Lyme's disease is no joke. Nilgai are big so have an extraction plan if you put one down. This is something i had not thought through completely until i had two of them at my feet. I ended up breaking them down in the field and using game bags to pack them out in pieces. A hind quarter is around 50-70 lbs. White tail deer seemed to be sparse but the couple bucks we saw were probably 130ish. Did not see any hogs or sign of them. I would hunt sal del rey in a heart beat.

I hunted there with a buddy on the last February hunt this year; in a typical February in Texas we scouted Mon-Wed and it was hot as hell, so we got there early in the morning and try to leave by 10am, but the actual hunt days Thu-Sun temperature was 40's to 60's and all day drizzle; we had been checkign the forecast weeks and days before the trip, however Texas said "hold my beer" and showed those weathermen who's boss. So, pack plenty of clothes from summer to winter and dress in layers accordingly. On top of that mosquitos were unbearable, not bitting mosquitos but gnats, clouds of them, we ended up buying a face net to get some relief. We picked our spot based on mosquito population and nilgai signs, which are incrdible mounds of poop, as they tend to do it on the same spot, however we did not see any animals in the scouting days.
We did see the fedral wildlife agent on the fisrt day who said the nilgai were running more on the area by Chapa Rd (blue area), which is opposite to our pick, but we found more signs along 186 (red area); on the first morning I see a nilgai cow some 180 yards broadside on the road (red dot), I got the shakes as if was 12 years old again, I waited to see if I could get it under control but after what seemed a long time and still shaking a bit I took the shot but missed, waited a bit and went looking but no blood so I'm sure I blew it; even for a cow it was an impressive animal, I can't imagine a bull. We ran into another couple of hunters who were in the yellow area, said they shot a bull and went down (little yellow circle), but ultimately got up and ran, they tracked until late and the next day but did not find it. We saw a nilgai carcass (yellow X), that ravine in the yellow section is great, you can see a long way from there, but the mosquitos were terrible there.
As for whitetail, I did not see any but my buddy who was in the lower left corner of the map by the 186 sign kept seeign them in the roads all days.

As someone mentioned, bring plenty of tick and bug repellent, and a deer cart would be of great help, even if you querter the nilgai it will be a lot of weight; if you are comfortable using a regular bike you can use it to cover more ground, there is no driving inside the unit. We stayed at an airbnb in Edinburg, cheaper than a hotel and more comfortable. No camping facilities either.

Thanks for the help ! I’ve hunted one of the other South Texas WMA’s and it was. Wet wet. I’m not sure if that’s rain driven or just the nature of the beast near the coast. Any word on this place? Thanks

There unit was dry in general with the exception of the long ravine/creek that runs into the salt lake, it wasn’t running but just muddy. If you look at google maps you’ll see a few rectangular ponds, those were full. It was drizzling most hunt days, but not enough to get the roads muddy.

Thanks !!

Good report!!! Hate to hear that about the bugs, Sounds miserable if you have to wear mosquito head gear all of the time. At least you got a shot at one. They are out there.

Getting excited for my son and I to come down for the hunt. Have not heard any reports on here or other forums about the earlier youth hunts, but hopefully they left us some critters to kill. Not to be left out of the action, I am booked to try a ranch Nilgai hunt myself. Pretty sure between the two of us we are bringing some Nilgai back to Virginia...

Good luck to both of y'all and your sons. Nilgai are big animals just tell the boys to keep their shots tight to the front shoulder, and they should be fine. Hope all of you get your Nilgai, they are great to eat, safe travels y'all are in for a lot of fun

Thank you. We're are prepping and getting ready to go. Spending some quality time on the trigger!!

Us too. One last range session this morning and the Rifle is going in the case for the 1,600 mile drive down to the Refuge.

I hunted La sal del Rey in February of this year. I ended up taking 3 medium sized nilgai. 1 cow, 2 bulls. I could’ve killed 25 if I wanted to bc I was covered up in them everyday. I had to have been there the same hunt as 12shotgun bc the weather was warm on scout day and cold and rained the first morning of the hunt. The blue are on his map was definitely the place to be as I saw 40 or more nilgai and at least 100 deer late in the day off chapa road several bucks were 130s to low 140s. Take plenty coolers because you can definitely get it done there on a couple nice animals

I hope everyone connects! Unfortunately we had to put a family member on Hospice so no hunt for this crew. Family first, always.

Started out a bit rough on day one when he missed two different really good whitetail bucks before 9:30 am. We scrambled and found a buddy who could get us on a range and discovered the kid somehow developed a significant flinch. Some dry fire work and a replacement rifle that he had confidence in and we were back in the game. Day two we went back after the whitetails and unfortunately could not get the shot opportunities as they came in from odd angles for our setup. Did manage a good javelina as a co fidence boost. Trip back to the AirBnB to shower off all of the fleas and back to chase Nilgai

Got on one at last light on day two, but shooting conditions were rough (standing in brush, out of breath) and it was a clean miss (I should not have had him take the shot). But Morning of the 3rd day we got it done on a good bull. He kinda wanted to go back out after deer or another nilgai, but after a hot packout we were ready to be done.e (already had one Nilgai in a cooler from the hunt I booked before his hunt).

Hope all is good with your family member; blows but you indeed Family first.

Awesome! Can’t see the pics, not sure if it’s just me but they are all black. Sounds like a great time.

Great result to a great trip

Congratulations!

Nice!!! Congratulations

Awesome, congrats to the young man

Nice. Congrats.

I put my daughter in that one but she struck out. How many points did it take him to draw this hunt?

By the way, CONGRATULATIONS!!!