2024-25 LANWR aka Laguna thread

[justletmein]

Well that's a wrap for my crew this year. We had a great time. My brother was blessed with the Laguna Magic, I had too many troubles this week but had the best experience. My brother as mentioned before shot a nice bull Nilgai, he also got to see deer, turkey, tortoise, ocelot, bobcat, rattle snake and all kinds of cool birds. He saw Nilgai every night and even got to see a fellow hunter put the stalk on. (he enjoyed the show). My brother even got a free extra meal the first night out to dinner. When you are a lucky streak its an amazing thing to watch. I had the unfortunate accident of my bow getting out of tune (by a lot) and I missed a 40 yard shot at a Nilgai cow. After some tuning and sighting in, I was back at it. Last night, I got to my spot, but spotted Nilgai moving with the wind towards the beach. I sprinted a 1 mile loop and set the ambush. After an hour and no show by the nilgai, I went glassing and found them back at my original location. This time I made a much smaller loop and in the process spotted them spooked a nice buck. I then was able to close on the Nilgai to 50 yards, but she spotted me. I hid behind a yucca got drawn and stepped out and she was gone. This morning I was able to come across a doe at 40 yards, tried that shot, but she was gone before the arrow got there. On the way out, my ebike got in a big tire rut and the front tire took a sharp turn and the bike tumbled and threw me. Nothing fun falling at speed off an e-bike. I should have had my helmet on, but I opted for the orange hat instead. I plan on ordering a orange bike helmet to keep me in compliance and safe. That was a nasty crash that broke the brake handle and bent the front forks. Instead of hunting tonight I'm recovering and packing for an early ride back to north texas.

3 years ago on my first trip, I saw a few deer but zero nilgai. This time, I saw Nilgai everyday, plus several deer. I had a few opportunities, just need to get over to the bow shop and get ready for my regular deer hunting and build some shot confidence back up. Also order some replacement parts for the bike.

Man I was planning to wear my ski helmet which is a nice huntable OD green, didn't even think about the orange. Now I gotta come up with a plan.
Sounds like you had some good action and excitement at least.

[bowmasterluke]

I hunted unit 4 Thursday-Sunday. Drove home on Monday. I saw nothing but dudes on Friday and Sunday. Saturday I had two close encounters. The first was a cow that I walked up on while moving from one spot to another mid-day. I moved at least once a day if I hadn’t seen anything to not lose my mind… I looked up and saw everything but her head, standing in an opening about 30 yards away. I reached for my range finder and without making a sound she took off like she had eyes in the back of her body. Cool encounter though… then I continued to the pinch point I was traveling to about 250 yards away. Sat down. Three hours later a cow popped out into the pinch point from a random spot where I didn’t realize there was a converging trail. I got lucky that I even noticed her because it was behind some brush that was directly in front of me and it was in a spot I wasn’t expecting. What happened next was super disappointing. I drew and waited for her to walk into my shooting lane. I expected her at 40-50 yards. She stepped out and I had maybe 2 seconds to shoot before she would have been out of sight. I didn’t want to grunt stop her because I expected her to just take off if I tried with how spooky they are. I let one fly. Left to right, I was perfect. But I shot just over her back. She was more like 35 yards… I was ****** at myself! I will replay that in my head for years. But at the end of the day, I can’t complain. It was a cool encounter and I’m still learning and improving. I’ll be back!

[hube06]

My Brother Friday Night.

Congrats! How'd y'all get that thing to a skinning rack??

[Huntindad]

curious as well

[Hughesb81]

Anyone hunting this weekend? We are heading out to scout to prepare for the slaying that will commence tomorrow!

[jkelbe]

Congrats! How'd y'all get that thing to a skinning rack??

Did I say this kid was lucky. The bull ran towards the road in the wide open. No thick stuff. We got a game cart in and hauled it to the road (4 of us taking turns) then lashed it on to the back of an e-bike and hauled it to the truck. Then 4 of us lifted it into the truck bed.

[TX CHICKEN]

Anyone hunting this weekend? We are heading out to scout to prepare for the slaying that will commence tomorrow!

I got down here last night with plans on scouting today and woke up feeling like crap…tested positive for friggin Covid. Hoping to sleep it off today and make it out tomorrow.

[justletmein]

Anyone hunting this weekend? We are heading out to scout to prepare for the slaying that will commence tomorrow!

I like your style! Get'em!

[HunterRoss]

I put 30 miles on the e bike scouting today, only saw one cow Nilgai, 1 buck and a doe. Time to get back to camp fix a drink, and get some sleep and get after them tomorrow!

[TN_boy]

December dates are staking up for a slaying!
Team Tennessee will be out in force!

[justletmein]

December dates are staking up for a slaying!
Team Tennessee will be out in force!

Oh hell, there's gonna be none left for us January crew!

[Luremaker]

I put 30 miles on the e bike scouting today, only saw one cow Nilgai, 1 buck and a doe. Time to get back to camp fix a drink, and get some sleep and get after them tomorrow!

Good luck manana. How was the water situation? Water in most fields?

[HunterRoss]

Thanks, I think it’s dried up a lot from the time I was here in early October. The grass and ground cover is high and thick most places though.

[TN_boy]

Oh hell, there's gonna be none left for us January crew!

Dad's going to focus on whitetail being the rut will be on. Think I'll probably hunt with him the 1st couple of days. Hopefully he can slap something.

We'll be headed out to where my friend and I took 2 bulls and a cow 2 years ago.

[justletmein]

Looking forward to the updates. Wife and I have the rifle hunt Dec 20 then wife and I join the other two amigos for a group of 4 on the Jan 10 archery hunt. I'm hoping I'll have to buy a 3rd deep freezer.