My most frequently asked question: Where is your ranch?

This article was first published in my email newsletter in March 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.

MY RANCHES

There’s one question that I get asked more than any other:

“Where is your ranch located?”

The answer, of course, is that I don’t have just one ranch. I have a couple of dozen, spread out across Texas and Mexico. Close to a million acres total. So I’m in a position where, no matter what you want to hunt, I’ve got the right land for hunting that animal. All year round, based on my hunt calendar, I move from ranch to ranch, choosing the best place for my current hunts.

In this month’s newsletter, I want to talk a bit about the regions where I hunt — the areas where I’ve got ranches — and what it is that defines each of those regions.

A BACKGROUND NOTE

Really briefly, for those who don’t know how I work as an outfitter, here’s why I don’t have just one ranch: As an outfitter, I don’t own land myself. Instead, I have leases with ranchers that let me hunt on their land.

I’ve spent twenty years building a collection of well-managed ranches, so that I can get the best possible trophies and hunting experience for my clients. You can read more about how that works here and here.

WEST TEXAS

This is the Trans Pecos region of Texas. For me and my ranches, it’s the land from Fort Stockton west and south.

West Texas is where I hunt elk, mule deer, pronghorn, aoudad, and javelina. I’ve got about 300,000 acres in this part of Texas, spread across four ranches. It’s all free range.

This is the true mountainous part of Texas. On the ranches I hunt, the elevation goes from about 3,000 feet in the Rio Grande Valley up to around 6,000 feet in the mountains. As a result, there are a lot of micro-climates. It’s pretty warm down in the Rio Grande Valley, and it’s a lot cooler up in the mountains. In general, this is desert country, but the mountains get more rain.

All my ranches, in all my regions, are managed for the quality of their animal populations. In West Texas, there are plenty of aoudad and javelina, so I can hunt those on any of my ranches. Pronghorn and mule deer, on the other hand, are more carefully managed — ranch owners are protective of them. So in any given year, there will probably be a ranch or two where those animals aren’t available. But there’s always a good hunting population on at least one of my West Texas ranches.

West Texas is good for pronghorn and mule deer. They’re suited to the rugged terrain, the sparse vegetation, and the wide open range, unbroken by fences. 

Elk, I have to admit, can be found outside the region. The fact is, you can raise elk pretty much anywhere, so high-fence ranches in the Hill Country and elsewhere will stock them. But that’s not natural, in my opinion. If I’m going to hunt elk, I’m going to hunt them in the mountains, on their terms.

The ranches in West Texas are really big, so we generally have to do some driving to get to the areas we want to hunt. Once we find animals, we get out of the buggy, and the hunt becomes spot and stalk.

I should also mention — since this is another question I get a lot — that when you’ve got a hunt in West Texas, you should fly to either Midland or El Paso, whichever is more convenient for you. (Keep in mind, if you fly into El Paso, that it’s on Mountain Time.)

THE HILL COUNTRY

I define The Hill Country as the area north of San Antonio, south of Austin, and over to the Kerrville or Rock Springs area.

Hill Country terrain is much different from that of West Texas. It’s rolling hills, not mountains, and there’s a lot more vegetation. The ranches here are smaller, and the majority of them are high-fence. I’ve got a dozen or so ranches in the Hill Country, with a total acreage somewhere south of 100,000 acres.

I hunt whitetail and Rio Grand turkeys in the Hill Country. It’s also where I hunt all my exotics: black buck, axis, fallow deer, mouflon, gemsbok, oryx, scimitar, blue wildebeest — I think there are something like sixty exotic species on ranches in the Hill Country.

About those exotics: No single Hill Country ranch is going to have all sixty of them. In general, each ranch will have a handful of species — typically four or five. It doesn’t make sense to have a lot more than that. All the animals are competing for the same resources, so, if you’ve got more than that, it’s hard to raise a sustainable population of any one of them.

You’ve got to mix the species carefully, too. If you don’t, some of them will interbreed and you can end up with a population that no one wants to hunt. And, if you mix the wrong species, they’re likely to fight, and you’ll lose animals to injuries. So a ranch will not only limit the total number of species, they’ll also carefully select them for compatibility.

That’s why I’ve got a collection of multiple ranches, so I can get access to all the exotics my hunters are looking for. And when someone wants to hunt an exotic that can’t be found on any ranch in my collection, I’ve got relationships where I can get access to a ranch that’s outside my usual collection.

It’s kind of interesting that my Hill Country hunting style isn’t that different from West Texas. In both places, we have to drive around to find the animals, but it’s for a different reason in each place.

In West Texas, there’s terrific visibility, but the territory to cover is enormous. In the Hill Country, there’s a lot less territory to cover, but thanks to the trees and brush, it’s harder to spot anything. So in both cases, we drive until we’ve located the animals, and then the hunt becomes spot and stalk.

When you’re flying in for a Hill Country hunt, I recommend that you fly to San Antonio.

SOUTH TEXAS

The primary reason to hunt in South Texas is to get one of the big, native South Texas whitetails.

I’ve got a single 5,500 acre ranch in South Texas that I’ve picked specifically for whitetail. It’s a high fence ranch, but the population there is native born, right on the ranch.

South Texas whitetail have a distinctive look. They have dark chocolate horns and a tuft of hair on their foreheads. And they’re big. They’re bigger-bodied than the whitetail you’ll normally find in the Hill Country. They’re expensive, too, but if you want a legitimate chance at bringing down a 160 to 180 inch native-born whitetail, this is the place to hunt.

I also hunt turkey, javelina, and hogs in South Texas. In total, I’ve got about 20,000 acres there.

This part of Texas is much lower elevation — something like 500 to 800 feet, I think, on the ranches I hunt. It’s warmer than the other regions, too, partly because of the difference in elevation, and partly because of warm air coming off the Gulf. It’s also more humid than those other regions. Generally, it’s pretty flat country with mesquite brush.

When you hunt South Texas with me, you can fly into San Antonio.

MEXICO

I also hunt in Northern Mexico. I’ve got a single ranch there with about half a million acres. It covers the Sierra del Carmen mountains, so it’s high altitude, like West Texas. It’s got maybe nine different ecosystems organized around altitude, ranging from the desert floor at 3,000 feet up to 9,000 foot mountains.

I hunt here primarily for Carmen Mountain whitetail, although we also take mule deer, desert sheep, and even some elk.

The Carmen Mountain whitetail is a distinct species of whitetail that has a very limited geographic range. Safari Club International recognizes them as a distinct trophy category. 

These deer are small: A mature buck might weigh 100 pounds and stand in the low thirty inches at the shoulder. They live at high elevations — 4,500 to 9,000 feet, for the most part.

Things are a little different hunting here, because it’s outside the U.S. You’ll hunt using ranch rifles — you won’t bring your own — and you won’t bring the meat or trophies back with you. The meat you can’t bring back at all. As for the trophies, we’ll arrange that for you. We bring all the trophies back after the end of the season.

I have to make one big point: This is spectacular, beautiful country, and the ranch has really nice accommodations. Hunting there is the experience of a lifetime. 

To get there, you’ll fly into El Paso or Midland and drive to Marathon, Texas, where we’ll stay overnight. The next morning we drive through Big Bend National Park to Rio Grande Village, where we’ll take a little jon boat across the river and be met by folks from the ranch. Occasionally we’ll have to cross at Del Rio and drive to the ranch from there, but we prefer to cross at Boquillas.

THE BOTTOM LINE

So that’s the answer to my biggest Frequently Asked Question. I don’t have a ranch. I have a collection of ranches. And when I schedule a hunt, I pick the right ranch for that specific hunt.