South Of The Border Bucks by Gordon Whittington January 31, 2008
An overwhelming percentage of North America's more than 10 million whitetail hunters reside in the U.S., and it's in their own country that nearly all of them stay when autumn rolls around. For the several thousand U.S. residents who travel internationally for whitetail hunting, somewhere in Canada tends to be the destination of choice.
Dr. James Kroll admires a non-typical buck mount at ANGADI's office in Nuevo Laredo. ANGADI is helping Mexican landowners manage their wildlife and provide quality hunting opportunities to outsiders.
But there's another North American nation in which whitetails -- big whitetails -- can be hunted, and it's becoming a better option with each passing season. That nation is Mexico, a true whitetail hotspot just waiting to be discovered.
For now, at least, the most promising area is in northeastern Mexico. Situated alongside the Rio Grande, the states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Coahuila are literally but a stone's throw from South Texas, which is one of the most renowned trophy whitetail areas in the U.S. The whitetail potential of Mexico has an increasing number of savvy Americans heading south of the border to hunt muy grande bucks. Many of them do so not just for the quality of the hunting, but also for its timing. The whitetail rut there tends to be later than is the case virtually anywhere else in the U.S. and Canada, providing for great late-season hunting in relatively mild weather.
On Jan. 18, Dr. James Kroll ("Dr. Deer") and I, along with cameraman Mike Clerkin, ventured an hour or so across the river from Laredo, Texas, to sample the hunting. Our goal was to down a couple of mature bucks on camera, wrapping up our TV show's final episode for 2008.
Thanks to the helpful folks at ANGADI (the wildlife division of Mexico's largest organization of private agricultural interests), we ended our season with a bang. In fact, it took us only five total days of hunting in Mexico to get two trophy deer on separate ranches, and our hosts were a big reason why.
James has worked with ANGADI a lot in the past few years, helping ranchers and other landowners in northeastern Mexico set up programs for managing their wildlife. Deer management obviously is working, because we saw dozens of bucks, as well as droves of does and healthy fawns. Throw in several songbird and waterbird species rarely (if ever) observed on this side of the border, and it was a wonderful hunt from start to finish.
Cameraman Mike Clerkin checks out a 170-year-old rock house in San Rafael la Tortilla. When under attack by Comanches, settlers taking refuge inside the home could shoot their rifles through small, strategically placed holes (left).
Thanks go out to Gabriel Serna, our primary contact with ANGADI, who helped us with the logistics on this trip. After landing at the airport in Laredo, we drove across the Rio Grande into Nuevo Laredo. There, with the capable help of ANGADI's Osca Ayala Mata, we quickly got our customs and immigrations paperwork done, then headed south to begin our hunt. Everything about the process was quick and easy.
In short, it was a great experience, one I believe many more American hunters should try. And it isn't just the hunting that I'll remember fondly. The local culture and cuisine also were major factors in our enjoyment of this trip.
And then there were the interesting artifacts of history -- and even prehistory -- we had the privilege to see. First, we checked out some ancient cave paintings near where James hunted, in the state of Nuevo Leon. Joel Benavidez Jr., son of ranch owner Joel Sr., showed us colorful figures on the rocks, including one that very obviously was of a bison with a spear sticking out of its back. I guess we weren't the first hunters to visit that cave!
A few days later, Joel Jr. also gave us a personal tour of the 1837 home in which his dad was born, in what is now the "ghost" town of San Rafael la Tortilla, Tamaulipas. The building's thick rock walls were constructed with small holes through which residents could safely aim their rifles at marauding Comanche Indians. James, Mike and I were thankful for our opportunity to get such a dramatic, up-close view of history in that part of the world.
I ended up shooting my trophy 9-pointer only a few miles from the old town, on a beautiful ranch now being outfitted by Robert Beall and Ted Jaycox of Tall Tine Outfitters. Like James' mature 8-pointer from Rancho El Estribo ("Stirrup Ranch"), my deer was a great representative of what northeastern Mexico has to offer today's trophy hunter.
Landowner Joel Benavides Sr. (right) and ANGADI representative Gabriel Serna (center) check out the author's big 9-pointer. This hunt will be featured on an upcoming episode of North American Whitetail Television Presented by Arctic Cat.
While not every whitetail trip turns out to be both productive and thoroughly enjoyable, this one did. We made a number of new friends, saw memorable sights, ate amazing food and tagged a couple of fine bucks. So if you want to know if I'm looking forward to my next deer hunt in Mexico, the answer is an enthusiastic, "Si!"
For details on ANGADI and its thousands of member-owned hunting properties, visit the group's Web site: www.angadi.com.mx/english. For information on Tall Tine Outfitters, log onto www.talltine.com.
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