Hunting for the best in the Hill Country

Hunting for the best in the Hill Country

Buck Valley Ranch offers trophy game, guide service, comfortable environment for hunters of exotic animals

Published October 28, 2011

By Peter McCrady

Staff Writer

Kerrville Daily Times

CENTER POINT — Nestled about four miles from Center Point on 315 acres of Texas Hill Country is Buck Valley Ranch. Although the property contains trademarks of the area’s scenic reputation, such as rolling hills and woods thick with cedar and oak trees, there’s more out here than vegetation.

“We have about 250 deer,” ranch foreman Cathy Cannon said. “We’ve had two world-class animals: an Axis buck that was 22nd and a Dybowski Sika that was 5th in the world.”

Buck Valley Ranch is a private hunting reserve, which opened for commercial hunting in 2005. The ranch features day hunts, ranch-based hunts that include accommodations and full-service packages that include lodging, gourmet meals and private use of the ranch. All hunts include one-on-one guide services.

Owner Eric Roehl said the decision to make the ranch a hunting reserve sprang from his and his wife’s desire to take care of the property and do something different.

“My wife and I are not hunters,” he said. “We wanted to be good stewards of the land and decided this would be an interesting business venture.”

Roehl, who is from the Chicago area, said large hunting reserves are a rarity where he’s from, but he didn’t let that stop his ambition.

Roehl and other ranch workers have put their focus on providing the best possible game while also tailoring the hunting experience to emphasize customer service.

“We have a goal to make this business a profitable one,” Roehl said. “To do that, you need to be able to sell really nice trophy (whit-tailed deer). The ranches that make money are the ones that have both hunting and breeding.”

Cannon said the breeding program will help the ranch get the “largest typical white-tails we can get,” which she described as true, clean looking deer with symmetrical horns.

For Buck Valley Ranch, white-tailed deer season, which runs from October through February because of a Managed Land Deer permit, is the ranch’s busiest time according to Roehl.

White-tailed deer aren’t the only animals a hunter will see while at Buck Valley Ranch. The ranch includes exotic animals such as Axis deer, fallow deer, red buck, blackbuck antelope, scimitar-horned oryx, dahl sheep and buffalo.

Roehl said the exotic animals, which can be hunted year-round, are a bonus for the ranch and hunters.

“(They) allow us to have some revenue when it’s not (white-tailed deer) season,” he said. “And they add a lot of interest for the hunters. There’s a lot of really neat looking animals out on the ranch. It’s part of the excitement.”

Another part of the ranch’s atmosphere comes from its customer service.

“We offer a good hunting experience,” Cannon said. “We offer the tour (of the property); we hang out and cut up with (the hunters). We make sure the animal they shoot is the one they want.”

Roehl said everyone on the ranch understands the principals of providing the highest customer service.

“What we do here is we put the customer’s perspective at the beginning and the end (of the hunts),” he said. “All our guides understand this. I don’t think you can find anyone that goes away unhappy.”

The ranch is offering three specials for white-tailed deer season, ranging from $1,995 to $6,495.

For more information on the ranch, its game and specials, visit www.buckvalley.com or call Eric Roehl at 928-2629 to reserve a hunt.