I've got a terrific new ranch for super exotics

This article was first published in my email newsletter in June of 2026. I've added it to my website, because I think the information is useful in general, not just for the month it was published. If you'd like to keep up with the latest hunting information, including my open dates and available hunts, you can subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of this page.

I'm always looking for new ranches. That's a big part of what I do as an outfitter — building and maintaining a collection of properties so that I can offer my hunters the right place for whatever they want to hunt. Over the years I've developed a good sense of what makes a ranch worth adding to that collection: the quality of the animals, the way the landowner manages the property, and whether the overall experience is something I'd be proud to put my name on.

Earlier this spring, I went back out to a ranch I've hunted off and on for five or six years. It’s located between Menard and Eden, two or three hours northwest of San Antonio. Lately, I had been focused on other things and hadn't spent much time there. But when I drove out in March and saw what the landowner has built up, I knew it was time to make this place a much bigger part of what I offer.

I’d call this a super exotics ranch, and it may be the most interesting hunting I've added to my calendar in years.

WE'VE GOT SPECIAL GAME ON THIS RANCH

When most people think about exotic hunting in Texas, they think axis, blackbuck, and fallow. Those are popular, and I run those hunts. But there's another tier of exotics — bigger African plains game: scimitar horned oryx, gemsbok, eland, addax, sable. These are the animals you'd find on a plains safari in Africa.

There are a few things that set these animals apart from the more common Texas exotics.

For one, they're horned animals, not antlered. Antlered animals — axis, fallow, elk — drop their antlers and go through cycles where they're in velvet and not ideal for hunting. Horned animals keep their horns year round, so these hunts work in any season. A scimitar or a gemsbok looks just as good in June as it does in January.

And the prices are better than you might expect. On this ranch, you can take a gemsbok for $6,000, and scimitar horned oryx are $5,000. That means you can come out here and take a gemsbok for less than you'd pay for a good axis hunt, and you're going to go home with a mount that will stop anyone who walks into your house.

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE ANIMALS

Scimitar Horned Oryx

The scimitar horned oryx used to range widely across North Africa and parts of West and Central Africa, but it was declared extinct in the wild back in 2000. These days, scimitar horned oryx survive primarily on ranches, and Texas ranches, including this one, carry the largest free-roaming populations anywhere outside of some reintroduction programs currently underway in Africa.

The scimitar gets its name from its horns — both males and females carry them — that sweep back over the body in a long curved arc that can reach 50 inches and resemble North African scimitar swords. These oryx are cream and white with reddish-brown markings on the neck and chest. Mature bulls run 300 to 450 pounds. They evolved in the Sahara, which is probably why they do well in the Texas heat, and because open desert doesn't offer much cover, their instinct when threatened is to face the danger rather than run from it. That's what makes them so visible on the ranch.

Gemsbok

If you've spent time looking at photos from African plains game hunts, you've seen gemsbok. They're the ones with the dramatic black-and-white face — like something painted on — set against a fawn and gray body with bold black stripes running down the flanks. Both males and females carry long, straight horns. Females often have longer horns; males have heavier, thicker ones. On a good bull, the horns will run 35 to 40 inches. A mature bull can weigh 400 or 500 pounds. These are big antelope.

Gemsbok are native to the Kalahari and Namib deserts of southern Africa, where they're considered one of the toughest animals on the continent. They’ll take on lions, if they have to, and those horns are dangerous weapons. That defensive temperament is exactly why they'll stand their ground when you drive up on them. A gemsbok bull is one of the most visually striking animals you can put on a wall — I don't think there's a more distinctive-looking antelope in the world.

Eland

The eland is the largest antelope in the world. A mature bull can push 1,500 pounds. You can’t really appreciate what that means until you're standing next to one.

Both males and females have horns — the males' are shorter but much more massive, with a tight spiral twist, and the horns thicken considerably with age. Bulls also develop a heavy dewlap, a fold of skin at the throat and chest, and their faces darken as they mature. Despite their size, they're athletic animals. An eland can clear a six-foot fence from a standing start. On top of all that, eland are considered some of the best eating of any large African species. In South Africa, many farmers have switched from raising cattle to raising eland. That’s a real bonus when you're talking about that much meat.

Addax

The addax is the rarest animal on this ranch, and one of the rarest large mammals on earth. There are fewer than 100 animals remaining in the wild, in what's left of the Sahara in Chad and Niger. Texas ranches now carry more addax than exist in all of Africa.

Addax are medium-sized — 200 to 250 pounds — with long, open-spiral horns on both males and females. Their coat is white to pale gray with brownish patches on the face and a short mane at the neck. Unlike the oryx and the eland, addax are more nervous animals by temperament. They evolved to outrun predators across open desert, so their instinct is to move. That's why these are a stalk hunt rather than a vehicle hunt, which gives them a different feel from the others on this ranch.

THE RANCH

This ranch is high fence and runs around 3,500 to 3,600 acres — not a small piece of ground. It's located in the Hill Country between Menard and Eden. You can fly into San Antonio, and for hunters coming from the Dallas-Fort Worth area it's a reasonable drive — shorter than making the trip all the way down to the southern Hill Country.

What the owner has built on this ranch is impressive. When I drove out in March, the herds were big and the animals were in excellent shape. He manages carefully for quality, including the live capture and sale of animals he doesn't want to hunt out. He's pretty particular about it, and it shows.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE OUT THERE

I've hunted in Africa, and there are moments on this ranch that remind me of it. The scimitar, gemsbok, and eland don't scatter when they see you. That's just the nature of these animals — their defense is to hold their ground, not to run. They've got the size and the horns to back that up. So you can drive up on a group of gemsbok and sit there and look at them, compare the animals, and figure out exactly what you want. I can point out the differences between a cow and a bull, show you what a good set of horns looks like versus an average one, and let you take your time with the decision. That's a different experience than stalking axis through the oaks and cedars.

The addax require more work. They're more skittish by nature, and once you spot them we'll get out and put a stalk on them. Same with blackbuck, if we're after those. But the gemsbok, the scimitar, the eland — those we're typically shooting from the truck. And because we're hunting suppressed, the shot doesn't push the other animals off the field.

THE ACCOMMODATIONS

The lodge on this ranch is comfortable. There's a large common area in the center with a flat-screen satellite TV and good Wi-Fi, and then two wings running east and west off of it. Each wing has three bedrooms and two baths. The corner room on each side has a king bed and its own private bathroom. The other two rooms on each wing have twin beds and share a bath. You can comfortably sleep six people per side.

WHY I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS

I've been running axis and blackbuck hunts for a long time, and I'm not giving those up. But these super exotics are a different kind of hunt — bigger animals, a different experience in the field, and the chance to bag species that many U.S. hunters have never had a chance to pursue. Let me also point out that there are big commercial hunting ranches in Texas that offer super exotics, but those are places that deal in volume, places where you're sharing the property with a bunch of other hunters. That's not how I work. On this ranch you've got exclusive access, and when you're done hunting you're eating dinner with your group, not with strangers.

I'm also building out my access to these animals on a second ranch I recently added, which carries gemsbok, blesbok, lechwe, springbok, and sable. Between the two ranches, I can offer my hunters a real variety of African plains game — animals that are available year round and that most people in this part of the world have never had a realistic opportunity to hunt. As more hunters discover what's out there, I want to be in a position to deliver.

THE BOTTON LINE

This is a great alternative to an African plains safari. You can hunt animals that rival anything you'd see on a Kalahari safari — gemsbok, eland, scimitar — for a fraction of what a trip overseas would cost, in comfortable lodging, in a place you can reach in a day.

If you're interested in booking a hunt for any of these animals, reach out and let's talk. I'm filling dates now.