San Diego, Tx

Hello everyone,
i am fairly new to hunting , but have been visiting this website for a long time. My dad , bro and I have access to hunting a small ranch in san diego, tx. We have been out there about four or five times this season and have yet to see any deer. Tracks are abundant with hogs, bobcats, some deer.
i read all these posts about you guys that see plenty of action where yall hunt. lots of you pass on what you see to wait on what you want. meanwhile, i cant wait for the time i get to even see anything. this area seems to get talked bad about regarding the deer pop. can someone explain to me why its bad? we have feeders and game cams and see a doe or two here and there but no mass amount of deer.


any feedback, tips etc is appreciated.

Btw, we dont pay to hunt there. family of ours is nice enough to let us use their property.

Used to have 350 acres in San Diego we had alot of deer on our place. One thing that we noticed is the that if you hunt there on a full moon you are not going to see much.

Every place is different, bit it will also likely change. I'm not familiar at all with your area, so I can't speak to it specifically.

That being said, be patient and keep at it. There are deer in your area, so you just need to attract them to your land. The best way to do that is to make your property more appealing than your neighbors.

10 years ago I didn't see many deer on my place, much less bucks. Today, I could drive out to my place and at least find some does within an hour or so. Some of the things I did:

1. Started feeding year round. Corn mostly, but put out minerals as well.
2. Limited my harvest (a leasor had shot everything that moved for a few years hurting the herd. I'll never lease it out again)
3. Build food plots.
4. Set some areas as being completely wild. Fenced out the cattle and actually moved off the cattle completely for different parts of the year.
5. Make sure you have water. I'm lucky in this regard and it's likely my lands best asset.

Ten years later, I still have issues, but seeing deer isn't one of them. In fact, at this point I've likely got too many deer, particularly does, and am taking some buddies out next week telling them to each fill all their doe tags.

Good luck. Put in the time and the effort and you'll appreciate the reward that much more.

kenny , thanks for the great tips.

kenny , thanks for the great tips.

That area is heavily poached. One of the worst areas in the state for poaching. Much of it is subsistence poaching that goes on year round.

There are pockets on larger ranches that have successfully fought the poaching. The other issue is that there are a lot of smaller tracts with heavy hunting pressure and land fragmentation.

Your best bet to attract deer will be to feed corn year round. Water will also be a factor. If you don't have a water source on the property you would be well served to get one.

Best of luck.

BINGO! That is almost exactly what I was gonna tell him about the poachers. Thanks.

It's already been mentioned, poachers are a huge problem out there!

Anyone have a link to where we can see the latest poaching reports for the area? Or anybody spoke to any of the game wardens in the area?

I hunt near San Diego as well. Yes, the biggest problems are poachers & neighbors that shoot everything they see. A lot of these poachers hunt day & night, year round & many are illegals. No I'm not just saying that, I've met a lot of them over the years. It's tuff especially on a small place, bigger ranches are a different story. Best thing to do is feed year round, make sure you have a water source, & try to leave your heaviest cover for bedding areas. Good Luck!

I hunt on the north side of San Diego, we have had 8 and 10 pointers show up on the game cameras but only at night. They are pretty smart, we have only shot 2 spikes so far. We will be there this weekend and next to see if any bucks come out with the does.

We hang out at Lucazie's all the time.

We used to have to drive in and walk everywhere if we drove the truck around we wouldnt see a deer all weekend.

That is so true, we do the same thing.

There are a ton of deer all over that area but there are very skiddish. We never would go with a full moon and you dont drive on your property. We would just throw corn out as we walked in and the corn never seemed to stop them long they were always moving. We put feeders up but the deer there only came at night I never saw anything worth shooting under the feeder in the day.

I bet your neighbors are shooting everything that moves. We had that problem and never saw much. Brother and I finally got tired of it and high fenced our place. New we have native deer everywhere and we actually watch them live to be 8 years old sometimes.

Im sure it was a family place and we drove up unannounced one night to see a distant cousin strapping lights to the top of his suburban. We hunted the next morning and the Sendera's looked like the yellow brick road. We tried to buy everyone out and just got tired of all the BS and sold our portion. Sucks loved that place and really havent hunted that much since.

San Diego, Concepcion, Benavides, that there is pretty much outlaw country. On a number of levels.

Oh forgot to say also that our land manager blew up his trailer cooking meth. That was an interesting phone call for my grandpa. Burnt up most of the property.

thanks for the info guys. i'm assuming the GW's are aware of the poaching in this area??????

They used to monitor by planes but that was 15 years ago. Are the Coyotes bad on your place? We would kill 10-15 a weekend and we had 2 mountain lions.

We hunt near Realitos. The area has always been poached. Get to know your game warden and let him know what you're about.
San Diego also has a lot of land in ag use and doesn't have as much cover as some of the surround areas. There are still plenty of deer and hogs in the area though.

Chevydude, Everyone is family and everyone owes everyone favors in most S.Texas counties.

^^^ this

If it is family and they are just letting you hunt, chances are they are letting others hunt as well. That is pretty much how any deal like that I have heard about works. The area is known for poaching, our state biologist and game warden both told us this.

Now this is just my opinion.... But I would be ashamed to be a GW and admit that this or ANY area is known for poaching or any other unethical hunting behavior. To me that would mean that Tpwd and GW's are not doing their jobs. Just my two cents, don't flame me for it. : )

I also understand that it's impossible to micromanage all parts of hunting land, but when an entire area is "known" for poaching you would think more effort would be put forth to the best of their abilities.

Or is it much more difficult than one would think???

I consider that to be a very "nieve"sp view...

Wardens are spread thin, few and far between to adequately cover everything. Their are bad sides of town that you wouldnt leave your car in overnight right? Well its just like that with poaching too.

I believe there is only one or two game wardens for that whole county.

Well like I said I'm fairly new to hunting. Thanks for the info.

Chevydude,
Just exactly how is a GW supposed to know that there are poachers on a particular piece of property? Out of the hundreds of thousands of acres in that area how would a GW know to single out a specific property to target poachers?

If nobody calls the GW to report poaching he can't exactly look into a crystal ball and magically locate the poachers. C'mon man.

Mr pirate,
I think I stated that I know that is an impossible job to do. I wasn't talking about the particular place I hunt, rather the entire area is what I referred to. I was also referring to the post made by someone saying that the wardens know of the poaching. I applaud u defending the GW's. Considering what I read and learned in an earlier post regarding the amount of land that one GW covers. They do an excellent job. I guess I'll mention it one more time before someone else thinks I'm bashing the wardens :

I am fairly new to hunting. I am learning as much as I can as I go. This site has helped with that. lots of good info

Chevydude,
Understood.

In that region of the state it is generally known to be a lot of poaching. However, nobody is willing to give up specific info as to who is poaching, when or where. Makes the GW's job nearly impossible. Then factor in that there is only one GW per county and you can see how daunting the job is.

the game wardens are fighting an up hill battle in that county. Some of the wardens i used to deal with in business where what you would call special forces. They got to do the cool stuff. However even with all the tools at these guys disposal they where still out gunned. There are some hi tech poachers out there that know the land also and there game is big bucks and people apparently even pay to hunt with these outlaws.

One day I'm sitting in the shop years ago and talking to an old customer who is a crusty ol' fart. and in walks one of the said game wardens who is in charge of these certain details that combat poaching down in south texas. The warden says the customers name and a polite howdy. The old grump just grunts and tells me he will be back to pick up his truck later, and pretty much blew the warden off with out giving him the bird. Then he just hobbles out mumbling profanities under his breath. Well of course I'm curious at this point and he tells me they have been after this grumpy old man and his brother since the early 70's. The guy has money to hunt where ever he wants to, but I guess he likes poaching more. They have had him in there sights more than once, even a few high speed chases but never got close enough to see anything but tail lights through the dust. They have raided his and his brothers homes and ranches, and found nothing. Through rumors and intel they figure he has poached every major ranch in South Texas. The warden told me the old coot just knows every inch of the land down there and that he is not stupid.

I would just like to know what he does with all the horns. And that is just one poacher so there job is not going to be easy. but i believe he grew up in Duval County so he probably cut his teeth in San Diego area.

One thing in the area that I dont understand is why the agencies arent working together more. I have come across illegals, trepasser's that were probably poaching but the law is spread thin is what we were told.

yeah nado, thats what i was wondering. i guess if it cant be controlled then it just cant be controlled.

Like I said earlier I know the game wardens used to fly over with planes because of how big and thick the area is. When we saw people we didnt know or thought didnt belong we just avoided them and laid low unless they were messing with our stuff. I still hate that my grandparents sold that place I still love it down there.

How many acres r u hunting?

You boys got a lot to learn about South Texas politics and law enforcement. The GW's are State and probably not from the area. Therefore, they are outsiders. The local PD and SO officers are most likely life long local boys. They may even be related to or close friends with the poachers. In some cases they may be poachers.

Forget everything you know about how things work where you are from. South Texas is a different world.

just think Duke of Duval or read one of the many books on the man. There is another one about south texas boss rule. Like Landpirate said it is a different world

Wow guys! I had no idea all of this went on in the area I hunt. Thanks again for sharing. There's only been 2 deer taken off the property this season and I was lucky enough to take a hog a couple of weeks ago. My first big game kill! The ranch is not big and from what I've seen the surrounding properties have blinds up but the times I've been over there I haven't seen anyone hunting from them. It's all low fence. So if u have any more stories about San Diego keep on posting. Very cool to learn about the area even if it's bad... Haha.

Oh by the way , my wife's family has a 400 acre ranch in lopeno, tx. They do have it leased out though. I plan on hunting that property in the future as well. Since its so close to the border ( located very near falcon lake) I've heard some illegal activity that happens on these properties quite often from cartels, etc. But the area is still hunted so I assume it's a don't ask don't tell policy as well.

I know the game wardens in the area. I believe there is One in San Diego and One near Hebbronville..
Kinda a big area. I am not sure of how many work the surrounding areas, but my guess is there isn't more than two or three at a time.

I'll give ya an example. When I was in the Border Patrol we would come up from Rio Grande and work highway 649 just south of where it intersects with Hwy 16 which runs from Zapata to Hebbronville. We had backed off into the brush when a truck comes by, slows down, stops, we hear the shot, doors open, we hear voices, hear the fence creak as they are going through it, we hear them grunting and groaning, hear the doors shut, the motor start again, we crank up, pull out, hit the reds and blues and stop 'em before they've gone even a quarter mile.

We call the game warden, back then he was a young fella from Hebbronville, last name of Huff, (that's for anyone who knows the GWs) who has since climbed the GW ladder and moved on. He took them to the JP in Hebbronville.

Long story short, we had run the tags, knew the vehicle was from Salineno, and went back to the office that direction on US 83. The truck was back in their driveway before we got off shift.

Lots of JPs down in that area (at least back in the day) are also related to everybody and their brother and don't think poaching is a really big thing.

GWs down there work their butts off, just like in most of the rest of the state. I've worked with them often on Falcon and will tell you they are definitely professionals.

so is there alot of deer an hogs ? is it worth driveing from ft worth to hunt this area ? i got pemission to hunt 22,000 acers down that way , but from the sounds of it i wont be the only one hunting , you think if i called the game warden before i went that way if i see any body he might could come catch them ?

22,000 acres and you asking if it is worth it? Are there roads on that 22k?

Tell me where it is. I'll go scout it out for ya.

22000 acres? Yea I think you need help scouting, I'll volunteer.

22,000 acres.........my scouting/guiding services are available as well lol.

Lol my buddy checking it out this weekend we mainly run hog dogs an coyote hunt so hopefully we will have some caught here in a week or so when I get a chance to go down there thanks if I need sone help I let y'all know

I dont know how many hogs you will find but you will find plenty of coyotes and javelina.