Gus Engeling WMA, Pat Mayse WMA, Nails Unit- Lake Sommerville, and Cross Bar Ranch - Potter County

My daughter has put in for the Youth GDE Hunts since she was 9 and has never been drawn until this year her last year of eligibility for Youth. She was drawn for all four of the above referenced locations. We are trying to determine which would be the best and worst out of the these in case we can't make it to all of them due to lack of vacation etc.... Can anyone forward information on these locations if they have previous hunting experience at these WMA's.

I would dang sure hit Cross Bar.

I would dang sure NOT hit Engling.

Engeling and Mayse are tough hunts with low success. Never hunted the other two.

Cant comment on the last two,never hunted there, but I've hunted Engeling and Pat Mayse a lot. If you're not adept at hunting deer in heavy woods you'll probably struggle at GE and PM.

+1

Lake Sommerville-Nails Creek has got some deer, I would rate that one second. Just like the other folks said, Engeling and Mayse can be tough hunts. Might be frustrating for a kid.

My son was drawn at Engeling two times... he missed a nice doe the first year, and killed one the next time and shot at another. Gus has allot of deer, but you have to get off the road and easy to reach places to see them. Most people want to set up in the open fields and right of ways, etc.. where they can throw up a stand and not have to do any work. We hiked in a good ways into some thick brush, build a ground blind to where you could hardly poke a gun barrel thru and had deer all around us.

I have hunted gus engeling and pat mayse with and with out kids, they are very thick and hard to see much. I believe it is gus that has alligators in some of the compartments, so with that in the back of your mind, we tried to stay out of wading any creeks or boggs. But from a kids point of view, they would probably be disappointed with hunting either one for the lack of seeing animals.

I would go to either one of the others, i am sure a lot of ,on here would like to here a report and see pictures of the cross bar ranch- potter county. Good luck.

my son is in the same boat this year, except he has not drew out anything yet.

From what I can tell the Cross Bar Ranch Hunt will be quite the adventure. Spoke with the biologist yesterday and he informed me that there are five compartments set up on the 12000 acre tract. It is walk-in access only. His said if you get drawn for the compartment farthest upstream that it is approximately a five mile hike to just get to the compartment. He said you would probably have to camp onsite to get the most out of your hunting time. I noted that it was walk-in only when we registered,but figured you could at least drive to your compartment then walk from there, but that is not the case.Packing in enough water along with the camping gear for two days will be the problem. Hopefully our bodies will be up for it. If she harvest something that will present more challenges getting out.

Pat Mayse had some bad reports last year, youth hunters said there was a lot of storm damage, down trees made movement a real pain. May see if there archived post still lingering here on the forum.