Bullwinkle
Active Member
Wondering if any of the affected land owners are worried about the wall changing deer movements
The wall
- Thread starter Bullwinkle
- Start date
kansas-Andres
Active Member
I've heard quite a few landowners on the border have quit hunting. Running into cartel, drug mules and illegals weren't worth the risk.
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
That was my first thought. Just keeping the riff raff off the property would be an improvement. Now that CWD is popping up in Texas, I say we owe it to Mexico to get the wall up to keep our sick deer from crossing into their country.
Terrific_tom
Member
Trust me that is not the case, just try buying or leasing land down there. They have been dealing with that stuff for a long long time.
Will the wall effect deer movement? Of course. Does it make any difference ? No. I crossed from Mexico yesterday and have spent many years hanging around border property on both sides of the river.
First, from Del Rio to Brownsville is some of the best hunting country anywhere. Many of the ranches are already high fenced and hunting is a tremendous part of the economy. Illegal movement thru the properties has been going on far a long long time and is just part of life down there. Many ranchers build 'bridges' or crossings across their high fences to stop fence damage. Essentially every ranch is hunted .
Speaking specifically about the area from Eagle Pass to Laredo of which I am most familiar what I can tell you is that most ranches on the Tx side are very large [ tens of thousands of acres ] and already fenced. Most of the ranches on the Mexican side the same. All are hunted and deer and deer mgt is deeply ingrained in the culture. It is vast uninhabited brush country and the wall will be meaningless....both as a practical matter for which it is intended as well as effecting wildlife .
First, from Del Rio to Brownsville is some of the best hunting country anywhere. Many of the ranches are already high fenced and hunting is a tremendous part of the economy. Illegal movement thru the properties has been going on far a long long time and is just part of life down there. Many ranchers build 'bridges' or crossings across their high fences to stop fence damage. Essentially every ranch is hunted .
Speaking specifically about the area from Eagle Pass to Laredo of which I am most familiar what I can tell you is that most ranches on the Tx side are very large [ tens of thousands of acres ] and already fenced. Most of the ranches on the Mexican side the same. All are hunted and deer and deer mgt is deeply ingrained in the culture. It is vast uninhabited brush country and the wall will be meaningless....both as a practical matter for which it is intended as well as effecting wildlife .
Bullwinkle
Active Member
What do you do if you see an illegal trespassing?
If by illegal trespassing you mean illegals passing thru your property???... then the best bet is to try and work with them to define travel corridors.Appreciate the scale. I leased a pasture on the river for a few yrs [ Mexican side ] . Not unusual to have groups of 25-50 pass thru.All going to USA to work. The drug runners were much more discreet and hidden with camps along the river. No one causes problems as its just business and attention is a bad thing.
Last year I was hunting along the river December 22. Afternoon hunt with buddy. There was a steady stream of folks coming from U.S back to Mexico . They had been working in Carrizo Springs and were coming home for Christmas. Would catch a ride on hwy 2 which was a couple miles from river to get back to there family. After the holidays they walk back to work.
May seem surprising but none of this really screws up the hunting much/ Ranch scale is so big, hunting techniques so different to what most would be familiar with and deer are far more worried about lions than people that it all works just fine.
Last year I was hunting along the river December 22. Afternoon hunt with buddy. There was a steady stream of folks coming from U.S back to Mexico . They had been working in Carrizo Springs and were coming home for Christmas. Would catch a ride on hwy 2 which was a couple miles from river to get back to there family. After the holidays they walk back to work.
May seem surprising but none of this really screws up the hunting much/ Ranch scale is so big, hunting techniques so different to what most would be familiar with and deer are far more worried about lions than people that it all works just fine.
Maybe a more cost effective measure would be a trade agreement where we take all of their people willing to come work for an honest day's wage in exchange they get two of our able bodied folks who are unwilling to work but are happy to draw a govt check. Use the savings to shut down the drug traffic.
I would like to describe some experiences I had while hunting a small ranch between Brownsville and McAllen Tx back in the late 90's.
My wife and I along with 5 of our friends drove down to hunt hogs and javelin on a low fence ranch of around 12000 acres. As we drove down we noticed that the high fence ranches had ladders built up and over them every so often that were obviously put there by the owners. These are put in place so the illegals do not cut the fence and have a way through. When we got to the ranch to the modest but very nice little lodge house and went inside we were in awe at all the nice trophy animals on the walls from the ranch but right above the entryway inside there was a big hole in the sheetrock of the ceiling. We asked the outfitter about this and he told us it was due to illegals going through a roof vent and kicking a hole through the ceiling and sleeping and taking water and some canned food. They had fixed the roof vent with wrought iron bars like all the windows and even the exterior doors had but the hole in the sheetrock was still there. Before the outfitter left he told us that we might see the ranch hand around the next day and he didn't speak very good English. The outfitter had a day job so we were on our own which is exactly how we liked it.
We slept like logs after the long drive and the next morning awoke early to head to some senderos we had looked at the evening before and to put some corn down to attract hogs and javelina. We were brewing up coffee and getting our bows in order when someone knocked at the door so I answered and a Mexican fellow was standing there looking very cold and with some difficulty asked if he could have some coffee. It was very cold outside with a frost and was very early February and as I understood it they were having record cold temps. I told the fellow he could have a cup as I thought he was the ranch hand and then he asked if his friends could come in and warm up. I then assumed they must be his help but when he went outside and whistled another younger Mexican man and a very pregnant girl came out of the brush and came in. They drank coffee and got a little warm and I then told them we were going hunting and couldn't leave them in the house so they would have to go. I asked if there were any more folks in the brush of the ranch that morning and he said there were Mucho...Many...
As we went to get into our trucks to go out hunting I noticed I had not locked my truck and someone had slept in it but luckily we had unloaded all of our gear so everything was in place. We went out and I placed my wife on a sendero with a blind along a corn trail I left and gave her a small handheld radio to keep in touch with me. I drove 1/4 mile up the sendero, 1/4 mile across to another sendero and then another 1/4 mile back down that sendero and got set up. I had shot a javelina and my wife called on the radio and told me some folks were on her sendero and she was mad because she thought it was guys from our group and they knew where she was hunting and she had javelina working her way from the other direction. I told her it couldn't be our guys so I told her to step into the sendero and wave her arms and they would probably disperse into the brush since they were illegals. She did this and then she called me back and told me they stepped into the brush and then came back out and were walking her way. I had walked 1/4 mile from my truck so I ran as hard as I could to it and then flew down those cactus covered senderos to get to her and when I got there I was greeted by 16 Mexicans right at my wifes blind but she was nowhere to be found. I was pretty scared and had nothing but a recurve bow and arrows as a weapon but I didn't show it. I asked if any knew English and a girl of about 18 told me she was taking these folks across (she was a coyote). They all wore T-shirts with American logos and sports type themes and were each carrying a jug of water. There were pregnant women and men in this group. My wife came out of the brush where she had been hiding about then so I asked them to please use another sendero that was 1/4 mile west of where we were so we could enjoy our hunt and they told us they would and they went to the next intersection and cut over...problem was they went about a mile and cut back across and ran into our friends.
We ended up seeing about 50 illegals while we were there that 1 1/2 days and I can assure you there were many more we were not seeing. They were bringing pregnant women across to have "anchor babies". I talked to the outfitter about this and he told me this was very common and to not harass them as they would burn them out if we did...sad....
The wall has got to help with some of this...we never saw anyone traveling south...
My wife and I along with 5 of our friends drove down to hunt hogs and javelin on a low fence ranch of around 12000 acres. As we drove down we noticed that the high fence ranches had ladders built up and over them every so often that were obviously put there by the owners. These are put in place so the illegals do not cut the fence and have a way through. When we got to the ranch to the modest but very nice little lodge house and went inside we were in awe at all the nice trophy animals on the walls from the ranch but right above the entryway inside there was a big hole in the sheetrock of the ceiling. We asked the outfitter about this and he told us it was due to illegals going through a roof vent and kicking a hole through the ceiling and sleeping and taking water and some canned food. They had fixed the roof vent with wrought iron bars like all the windows and even the exterior doors had but the hole in the sheetrock was still there. Before the outfitter left he told us that we might see the ranch hand around the next day and he didn't speak very good English. The outfitter had a day job so we were on our own which is exactly how we liked it.
We slept like logs after the long drive and the next morning awoke early to head to some senderos we had looked at the evening before and to put some corn down to attract hogs and javelina. We were brewing up coffee and getting our bows in order when someone knocked at the door so I answered and a Mexican fellow was standing there looking very cold and with some difficulty asked if he could have some coffee. It was very cold outside with a frost and was very early February and as I understood it they were having record cold temps. I told the fellow he could have a cup as I thought he was the ranch hand and then he asked if his friends could come in and warm up. I then assumed they must be his help but when he went outside and whistled another younger Mexican man and a very pregnant girl came out of the brush and came in. They drank coffee and got a little warm and I then told them we were going hunting and couldn't leave them in the house so they would have to go. I asked if there were any more folks in the brush of the ranch that morning and he said there were Mucho...Many...
As we went to get into our trucks to go out hunting I noticed I had not locked my truck and someone had slept in it but luckily we had unloaded all of our gear so everything was in place. We went out and I placed my wife on a sendero with a blind along a corn trail I left and gave her a small handheld radio to keep in touch with me. I drove 1/4 mile up the sendero, 1/4 mile across to another sendero and then another 1/4 mile back down that sendero and got set up. I had shot a javelina and my wife called on the radio and told me some folks were on her sendero and she was mad because she thought it was guys from our group and they knew where she was hunting and she had javelina working her way from the other direction. I told her it couldn't be our guys so I told her to step into the sendero and wave her arms and they would probably disperse into the brush since they were illegals. She did this and then she called me back and told me they stepped into the brush and then came back out and were walking her way. I had walked 1/4 mile from my truck so I ran as hard as I could to it and then flew down those cactus covered senderos to get to her and when I got there I was greeted by 16 Mexicans right at my wifes blind but she was nowhere to be found. I was pretty scared and had nothing but a recurve bow and arrows as a weapon but I didn't show it. I asked if any knew English and a girl of about 18 told me she was taking these folks across (she was a coyote). They all wore T-shirts with American logos and sports type themes and were each carrying a jug of water. There were pregnant women and men in this group. My wife came out of the brush where she had been hiding about then so I asked them to please use another sendero that was 1/4 mile west of where we were so we could enjoy our hunt and they told us they would and they went to the next intersection and cut over...problem was they went about a mile and cut back across and ran into our friends.
We ended up seeing about 50 illegals while we were there that 1 1/2 days and I can assure you there were many more we were not seeing. They were bringing pregnant women across to have "anchor babies". I talked to the outfitter about this and he told me this was very common and to not harass them as they would burn them out if we did...sad....
The wall has got to help with some of this...we never saw anyone traveling south...
Kabic
Active Member
If I was in charge there would be no such thing as anchor babies. ...your parents are illegals you are born an illegal and will be deported when caught.
Same thing with these kids brought over at a young age..send them back. How terrible of us to do that? How about how terrible their parents are to but them in that position!
Same thing with these kids brought over at a young age..send them back. How terrible of us to do that? How about how terrible their parents are to but them in that position!
