Laguna Atascosa Hunt 11/10 --- 11/14

[firechic]

Great write up. It's got me even more excited for our rifle hunt out there. Sound like unit 1 is the place to be, but it is off limits to us.

Jeff

Is all of unit 1 off limits or just the Archery only area? Also, where about are you a medic? I work for Sugar Land FD.

[medic911]

Is all of unit 1 off limits or just the Archery only area? Also, where about are you a medic? I work for Sugar Land FD.

We can only hunt 2,3,5 and 8.

I work for Hopkins Co. EMS in Northeast Texas, east of Dallas.

[piercebronkite]

Great write up firechic. I have hunted unit 1 and have always seen nilgai there. However, I couldn't help but think of the saying, dont leave nilgai to find nilgai!

Thanks for all the updates everyone, enjoyed reading this thread.

[ABWGTX]

Good reading. Still have the "what if I didn't pass on this hunt" but will apply next year and hopefully if I am ever drawn for 2 hunts again the dates won't be in conflict.

[Mr. Public]

Nice write up FireChic! Sounds familiar. You did very well!

I love to read along while also missing my favorite hunt destination.
You’ve caught the Laguna bug!

[Mjjust]

Great write up. Glad someone was seeing something but takes away my excuse that no one saw anything. I was going to switch to 1 but I saw yours and about 3 other trucks on the side of the road and 2 or 3 more in the parking lot so I decided that was crowded enough so I went to 6 instead. I guess there was enough to share and I should have joined ya. LOL. I saw some stuff on OnX like you said but didn’t want to screw with someone else’s hunt. It was great meeting you. Hope to see ya next time around.

[Mjjust]

Oops double post

[ppeeks59]

Hopefully someone will read this even though that awfully wet hunt was several weeks ago. Question for y'all -- did anyone's rain gear actually stand up to the drenching we suffered? My son and I walked about 5 miles roundtrip in and out every day and I was soaked every day, either from absolutely pouring rain or from my own sweat inside my ancient rain jacket and pants. I came home on a mission to buy modern breathable lightweight quiet rain gear but ... I've had the hardest time finding anything that ticks all the boxes. So, if you have rain gear that is suitable for South Texas bow hunting and actually keeps you dry, and doesn't soak you from the inside merely from walking around, can you say what it is? Any suggestions are welcomed.

[justletmein]

My Sitka Dewpoint did OK, wrong camo pattern but wasn't wet.

[ppeeks59]

I tried on Sitka Dewpoint -- it is soooo noisy, I don't see how I could draw my bow without making a ton of noise. Although a bit heavier than I would want in a perfect world, I found a great sale on a Sitka Downpour set and got it. I spoke with a Sitka rep who happened to be in the store and he said that Downpour is the lightest rain gear they make that is really suitable for bow hunting. Dewpoint is perfectly fine if you are sitting inside a ground blind but that's not how I bow hunt -- though in the worst of the actual downpours a few weeks ago we did retreat to my tiny ground blind for some relief. Rain gear is tough because the requirements are contradictory: it cannot be both ultralight/packable AND quiet; it cannot be both breathable AND perfectly waterproof; pit zips and full length leg zips are really useful but they provide significant pathways for water intrusion regardless of the zipper construction. And it goes on and on. Rain gear is a compromise. As one guy said on some review website I looked at, if you want perfectly waterproof rain gear, wear a Grunden's rubber dry-suit and drown in your own sweat.

[justletmein]

Yeah if it doesn't breathe you end up wet anyway, just sweat instead of rain. I think the Dewpoint when it's wet must quiet down some, seems a lot louder before I put it on and wore it. You're right though it's certainly tough to be as quiet as I'd like to be. I'd like to try some of the Kuiu rain gear but good grief I'd have to take out a loan.

[ppeeks59]

Yeah, I went back and forth and back again between the Sitka and Kuiu stuff. Honestly, I saw more good things said about the Kuiu than the Sitka Downpour, but the good sale price I found for the Sitka set, plus being able to try it on for size at a local high-end outfitter shop before buying it from another high-end outfitter shop online (my local shop would not price-match), was the decider for me. I hope to never sit through another hunt as wet as this past one -- I'm getting too old for that nonsense -- but if it happens, I hope to stay at least a bit drier. My old rain gear was simply not up to the task and I was soaking wet most of the time out there, and that really sucked.

[justletmein]

I hope to never sit through another hunt as wet as this past one -- I'm getting too old for that nonsense -- but if it happens, I hope to stay at least a bit drier. My old rain gear was simply not up to the task and I was soaking wet most of the time out there, and that really sucked.

That might be the first time my entire life I've seen it rain for 4 days straight without a single break in between, literally nonstop. Even when tropical storms and hurricanes send rain you get breaks between the bands and they're done in a couple days. I hate buying rain gear because it's so expensive and I never use it, the Dewpoint set I found at a Sportsman's Warehouse in Cheyenne on a clearance rack and they had 50% off all clearance stuff... was dirt cheap so that's the only reason I even had rain gear for this hunt other than Frogg Toggs from Walmart.