On September 10, 2010, the US Department of State issued a Travel Warning about the security situation for US citizens traveling to Mexico. You can read the full text of this lengthy and detailed notice at www.travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_4755.html. Citing instances of drug-related violence, assassinations, military-scale conflict between Mexican government forces and the drug cartels, kidnappings, carjackings and robberies, particularly along the US border, the warning states, “US citizens are urged to exercise extreme caution when traveling throughout the region.”
Northern Mexico, particularly Sonora, Chihuahua and Coahuila, is, unfortunately, the destination for most international hunters, so travel warnings for that region should not be taken lightly. Still, we currently have 13 reports in our trip planning database on hunts taken in Mexico since November of 2009, and NONE of those reports mention any security concerns.
What they do mention is quality hunting. For example, the two reports we featured in our March issue: Paul Dachton took four desert mule deer bucks in the 160- to 180-class in two weeks of hunting, and Rod Fogel passed on 75 Coues bucks before going home empty-handed because he was “looking for something special.”
Since then, we have received a flood of positive reports on hunts taken in northern Mexico in December 2010 and January 2011—well after the State Department travel warning was issued. Most of these reports deal with hunting opportunities around Hermosillo, Sonora.
In early December, W. Laird Hamberlin hunted desert mule deer near Hermosillo with Martin Flores Huerta, booked though Wade Lemon Hunting in Holden, Utah (435-795-2299; www.wadelemonhunting.net). Hamberlin says that Huerta delivered a top-quality hunt, and he reports taking an SCI Gold desert mule deer. He also sought a Coues buck but ran out of time looking for his monster mulie.....
