Hunting on Legendary Ranches

Long known – and until now – largely inaccessible to the public, these landowners have partnered together to open their ranches for discerning sportsmen to take advantage of unparalleled dove hunting.

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to these legendary ranches

Vinson Ranches - McLemore
This ranch is one of the premier Shackelford County ranches of North Central Texas. It is a sought after hunting destination that centered its principles on treating people fairly and superior wildlife preservation. The McLemore ranch is about fifteen miles northeast of Albany, Texas. These 10,750 acres consist of seven differing terrains - rugged canyons, rolling hills, sand post oak thickets, upland flats, live-oak thickets, cultivated fields and river bottoms along 16 miles of river frontage on the Clear Fork River that flows through the ranch. These diverse ecosystems offer the sportsman numerous options for his daily hunt. They also provide excellent habitat for the abundant game that roam the ranch. This secluded ranch has no high fences or any released game. All animals are native to this area and are hunted under fair-chase conditions.

Vinson Ranches - AW - Blanton
Sunflowers that grow with tenacious persistency in the fields and along the roadways make this place, locally known as the Blanton, a real favorite with doves- and dove hunters! The Blanton consists of 1,645 acres, which are part of the Diller North Ranch. Diller brothers Samuel and David came to Shakelford County around 1885 from Macon County, Illinois, and operated ranches in the south and north portions of the county. They operated as a partnership for many years and The Blanton, eight miles north of Albany off Highway 283, is a part of the North Ranch, where David headquartered and lived with his family. Set back over three-quarters of a mile west of the highway, this area is a preferred site for hunters.

Lambshead Ranch
Beginning in the 1850s, the combined force of the Reynolds and Matthews families pushed back the frontier along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and established the Lambshead Ranch. Covering sixty-two square miles in Throckmorton and Shackelford counties, a hundred and forty miles west of Fort Worth, this is one of the last great Texas ranches.

John Alexander Matthews began putting together the lands that eventually became the Lambshead Ranch as early as 1870. In 1886, Matthews leased and later purchased, Indian agent Jesse Stem's widest valley on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and named all the collective tracts Lambshead Ranch for an early pioneer, Thomas Lambshead, who had emigrated from Devon, England. Colonel Stem had been the victim of a roving band of Kickapoo Indians. The land of the Lambshead was exceedingly rich and Matthews faced very little difficulty in getting crops to grow. Parts of the Lambshead Ranch once served as campsites for the Forty-Niners on their way to riches, the location for Camp Cooper under the command of Robert E. Lee, and Indian agent relations with Comanche Indians. You can still see the ruins of various forts and outposts abandoned at the beginning of the War Between the States.

The Lambshead Ranch, a 50,000-acre tract thirteen miles north of Albany on U.S. Highway 283, is now a day known for quality Hereford yearlings, preservation of native wildlife, the restoration of the historic Matthews-Reynolds family ranch homes and excellent dove hunting!

“There are a few big creeks, some of which we designate as rivers, and they become mighty rivers at flood stage, able to float the largest steamer on the Mississippi. It is a land of broad praries, quiet valleys and vast distances; a land of bright skies, glorious sunsets and most brilliant starlight; a land where the hills and plains are gay with lovely wildflowers in the springtime, and where we have the everlasting hills unto which we may lift up our eyes. It is a land where the cries of the coyote and the hoot owl and an occasional scream of a panther break the nocturnal stillness.”

Sally Reynolds, Interwoven

Collins Creek Ranch
Located 15 miles North of Albany, Texas, Collins Creek Ranch covers 5,000 acres in Northern Shackelford and southern Throckmorton counties. The Lambshead Ranch borders the Collins Creek Ranch on the north and the Nail Ranch borders the Collins Creek on the west. At this great location, you can’t help but enjoy the great outdoors at its best!