Blood and Beauty on a Texas Exotic-Game Ranch

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The ranch's contributions to animal conservation have all the authenticity of Harvey Weinstein's checks to Planned Parenthood.

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An elite hunting ground for the rich, unregulated, seems one more crazily unnecessary sign of how out of touch we as a nation can be with nature and its creatures, with common sense, and with how our collective dollars are exchanged.

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This guy doesn't like it, but enough common sense to realize it can have positive benefits to wildlife:

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Wild animals are under immense pressure worldwide, and anywhere they can survive is now a refuge. If these ranches have the breeding capacities and resources to keep rare animal species going, then that, pragmatically, has to be a positive for me in what is now becoming a world-wide wildlife emergency.

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A few exotic game ranches in Texas, which many people, myself included, are repelled by, should further down the list of wildlife and animal concerns.

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Wow, I know the taxidermist, Browder Graves, mentioned in the article. If they would have driven the area a little more they might have come across the sign that says "Dick Herndon's Damn Goat Ranch". Although my understanding is the Damn Goat Ranch is either for sale or has already sold so the sign may be gone now.

Finn Maccumhail said:

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I fully admit to being pretty conflicted about high-fenced places but this ranch is 18,000 acres, you can damn sure bet that "fair-chase" ethics are achievable on a place like that.

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That is true when impeccable game management practices are being consistently employed. OTOH, the ranch to the west of ours is 16,000 acres of high fence, and there is a path that is worn 8 inches deep along the entire perimeter where animals are constantly trying to find greener pastures. This is pretty much the norm from what I have seen.

DifferenceMaker Ag said:

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Finn Maccumhail said:

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I fully admit to being pretty conflicted about high-fenced places but this ranch is 18,000 acres, you can damn sure bet that "fair-chase" ethics are achievable on a place like that.

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That is true when impeccable game management practices are being consistently employed. OTOH, the ranch to the west of ours is 16,000 acres of high fence, and there is a path that is worn 8 inches deep along the entire perimeter where animals are constantly trying to find greener pastures. This is pretty much the norm from what I have seen.

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Where is your place at?

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Where is your place at?

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West Kerr County

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"Hunting has absolutely nothing to do with conservation," said Ashley Byrne, the associate director of campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

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I especially liked this one.

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The best thing to be done for any troubled species is to let conservation-minded hunters put their money where their mouth is. They will start arranging habitat and hunting & before you know it you'll be flush with formerly threatened animals.

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Look no further. These were close to extinction. I'd heard any few as less than a hundred at one point existed on the planet.

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Today, the Pere David's deer is found widely in deer parks, Texas hunting ranches and zoos. It's even been returned to small reserves in its native China. But it doesn't roam freely in the wild.

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beefiedoubleoh said:

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If you want conservation to work, you've got to figure out how to tie it to commercial success.

The best thing to be done for any troubled species is to let conservation-minded hunters put their money where their mouth is. They will start arranging habitat and hunting & before you know it you'll be flush with formerly threatened animals.

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Yep. But some people just cannot comprehend the logic in this, or flat refuse to open their minds to the fact that if something generates revenue, there is an incentive for it to not simply become extinct.

There was some lady that lived in CA a while back that filed a federal lawsuit to get some animal (cant' remember all of the details now) put on the national endagered register. Her goal was pretty much to eliminate exotic hunting, most of which happens in Texas somewhere. Her attitude was "its' better for the species to become extinct than to have people hunt it".

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A World War II-era M4 Sherman tank. The ranch also has a shooting range built to resemble a Nazi-occupied French town.

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Yeah, it's a little odd how much Nazi memorabilia is in the tank shop . That ranch is incredible though. People like that will never understand it.

I hunted the Ox Ranch three times right after the new owner acquired it. Found it almost by accident (they weren't marketing it then). The investment/development by Oxley is incredible. It was an amazing place then and he's turned it into this adult playground of sorts. It was almost off-putting in a way for a group of guys that just wanted to hunt some whitetail but I could see the attraction for many. For 18,000 acres you could probably kill anything on that place with a tennis racket other than the whitetail and some of the axis.

Hunted the Ox 2 years ago in the spring for axis. Words can't describe our badass it is.

Just curious - did they keep the whitetails on the place?

Yes. Place was crawling with native whitetail.

As horribly funny as those comments on the article were, i just can't shake a sobering reminder: those people vote. Not only that, but they are the pompous "I know better than you" elitists who don't have a clue, but you can't tell them anything.

One of the commenters referred to it as the fast food equivelant of hunting, claiming it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I'm guessing he/she has never witnessed the vast expanse of land that is 18,000 acres...I would hardly call it shooting fish in a barrel.

CE Lounge Lizzard said:

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Wow, I know the taxidermist, Browder Graves, mentioned in the article. If they would have driven the area a little more they might have come across the sign that says "Dick Herndon's Damn Goat Ranch". Although my understanding is the Damn Goat Ranch is either for sale or has already sold so the sign may be gone now.

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It was "Dick Herdon's Damned Goat Outfit" and it is gone, I believe. I caught one of my biggest bass ever on that place. Those were the days.

I'm thinking about taking my dad here to hunt Axis as a retirement gift.

Would someone recommend somewhere different?