I have read all of the negative posts about Duval County on here. I was wondering if anybody has anything good to say about it. I have been in Coke County for close to 10 years now and have killed some nice deer. My lease has been totally destroyed by the oil company that leased it. I have an opportunity to lease a 1000 acres in Duval County. The lease has alot of sign and looks good. Has anybody had good luck in this area or are all the leases in the area not good. I am tired of driving to west Texas every weekend to see maybe a few does. I am ready to have a chance at seeing a good buck again.

I love my place in Duval. Lots of stuff to hunt

Thanks, that is what I needed to hear.

Where abouts in coke co? Might keep someone else here from getting it when you get off, if it is no good.

It wont be advertised. The land owner is a good person and has a list of people that it will be offered to. It has a potential to be a good place again in 3 or 4 years if the drilling slows down are stops. I am not sure I am even giving it up yet. I might just stop going on trophy hunts and do two leases.

Where at in duval county?

Thanks for everyones info. For anyone looking at leases around the San Diego, TX area, I would ask a lot of questions. Mainly who owns the land, physical address, make sure that you will be able to speak with the land owner before exchanging money. The ranch manager could not do this for my group so we are backing out. There is just too many negative things about the area to invest major money without answers. I have done google searches of the area and found a lot of negative and really no positive's about the area. That is the only area of Texas that I have found that is like that when you do a search about it. Everyone be careful and when it comes down to it I believe if your gut tells you there is something wrong there probably is.

Every county has good and bad areas.

the best areas around Duval are east/north east of Freer and South west of freer south of 59 all the way to the webb county line.

there is some pretty rough stuff south of Duval and south east. Some good country around conception towards jim wells county.


You can't judge a place sight unseen.....you have to look at it and make an assessment.

if you judge a place based on just the county then you are going to be dissapointed

I went and looked at it and it definitely had signs of activity. I just don't feel right about a situation when I cant get all of my questions answered. And I have read too many stories of other people getting burned on leases in that area. I have also never seen a land manager that wants the full chunk of money right away and will not take half down and half later. Maybe I have just been lucky and dealt with easy going ranchers in the past.

all upfront is a red flag. I would also want something in writing upon the lease payment guaranteeing he has the right to lease. I've leased places paid in full before but I knew the guy and who the landowner was and there was no question it was legit.

people get burned on leases all over the state its not exclusive to Duval county. it has gotten a bad rap because of :

poaching was common there in the past. now that its a felony to poach a deer from what the wardens are telling me deer poaching has gone way down.

a lot of large ranches were busted up and sold as 100 acre tracts, a lot of places got shot up real quick and not only did those properties suffer but also the surrounding ranches. go south out of freer on 339 I think to conception and there is a stretch where you can count 100 deer blinds.

But, Duval is a big county, like I said, there are good and bad areas to it. Lots of good hunting west of 16 where that cutoff is by the old creepy abandoned house on the side of the road. that road goes into webb county and connects to the bruni highway.

lots of good country east of Freer on 59 by the Temple ranch

If your gut feeling was not good, you did right to take a pass. If more would do that, the horror stories would decrease.

I am still up in the air as to what I will do this year. I am thinking about forking out the big bucks to hunt the golden triangle this year on a guaranteed trophy hunt. That has always been something that I want to do. However if I fork out 6 to 7 grand I have to have some guarantees. If anybody has good experiences with a ranch in the south texas golden triangle that can produce over 160 class consistently please let me know. I am also looking into perfect 10 white tails in junction but have not found any reviews on the place.

www.highlonesomehunting.com



if I was gonna pay to hunt big native whitetail there is where I would go. I've hunted there several times and the ranch is simply incredible