The Prairie's End Hunt Club

History

The Prairie’s End Hunt Club is located on the historic Enderby Ranch. It was founded in Cooke County, Texas by Edward E. Enderby in 1876. Born in Wainfleet Lincolnshire, England, Edward was experienced in agriculture and grist milling. After a brief stay in Canada and Wilton, Wisconsin, he and his family settled in Texas after Edward bought 1,000 acres of Texas’s spectacular tall grass Blackland Prairie for the high price of 3 dollars per acre.

Enderby Ranch, intact to this day, is located five miles southwest of Gainesville, Texas and lies directly on the old Butterfield Stage line (1858 to 1861) route and the legendary Chisholm Cattle Trail (1866 to 1880). This over 125 year old ranch bore witness to a time period in U.S. history when Manifest Destiny was still a dream that called upon westward expansion which heralded the “Old West” and true Western cowboys. These cowboys gathered long horn cattle from the open ranges of South Texas and herded them north along the grueling cattle trails. Thousands of head of cattle would stop in Cooke and Montague Counties to rest and feed on the vast stretches of prairie grass. However, long horn cattle were not the only icon to grace Enderby Ranch, remnants of buffalo wallows can still be seen on parts of the property. Once the cattlemen and their cattle were rested and their chuck wagons restocked, the herds crossed the often treacherous Red River and moved into Indian Territory continuing their slow move north for final shipping to the beef hungry northeast markets.

Captain Enderby, an astute businessman, built his cattle ranch southwest of Gainesville, Texas for a reason. Gainesville was soon to become a booming cattle town in the 1880’s and was listed as the home address for 40 to 50 members of the newly formed Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. The T.S.C.R.A. held their two of their earliest annual conventions and social balls at the town’s famous Lindsay Hotel in 1883 and 1888. Several large two and three story Victorian homes built by some of Texas’s early cattle barons still remain as testaments to the area’s once prominent role in Texas’s cattle history. Ironically, the first ten rolls of barbed wire sold in the State of Texas were sold in Gainesville, an event which would oracle the demise of the open cattle ranges and interstate cattle drives.

Still owned and operated by Enderby family, Enderby Ranch is one of the few ranches in the Dallas and Fort Worth area to be open to the public for upland game bird hunting. Clumps of native big and little bluestem grasses still wave high above the floor of the ranch’s old prairie meadows offering a habitat that hides birds from hunters just as this beautiful ancient grass has done for a thousand years. Enderby Ranch has worked with the Sam Noble Foundation for years restoring the prairie to its habitat before the intrusion of mass agriculture altered it.

Upland Bird Hunting Priced Affordably in North Texas

If you are part of a company who entertains clients or employees, why not expense it or book an additional hunt? Talk to your company today and speak to them about how we are able to customize your quail, chukar, and pheasant hunting to build client relationships and/or team building.

Our standard hunt package per individual runs $250 for half day hunts and includes:

– Mixed bag of upland birds*
6 quail
2 chukar
2 pheasant
– Lunch
– Guide service
– Bird cleaning
– Beverages provided from the time you arrive to the time you leave.

*Our mixed bag may be adjusted at hunter’s request. Also additional birds can be purchased for the hunt.

Additional upland birds run: $12 a quail, $16 a chukar, and $18 a pheasant.

For children 12 and under, who are hunting, there is a $35 youth hunter’s fee while hunting the rest of the party’s birds.

Non-shooters can accompany the hunters in the field for a $25 fee that includes lunch.

Please remember to tip your guide. Our guides do an outstanding job, beyond scouting the field and cleaning your birds, they work hard to see that you have the most successful hunt possible. Average gratuity to our guides is normally 20% of the bill, but we suggest whatever you are accustomed to tipping at restaurants.

North Texas Hunting Membership

Memberships at The Prairie’s End Hunt Club are intended to provide quail, chukar, and pheasant hunts at discounted prices to those individuals or companies in Dallas/Ft. Worth area that wish to hunt more often than the average sportsman, while saving additional money.

Memberships cover 10 upland bird hunts for the price of $2200.00. The 10 hunts can be used separately, in blocks, or all in the same morning or afternoon, while still respecting our 2 person hunt minimum. Once the 10 hunts are used, members can buy additional hunts for $220.00 per gun.

Memberships last from the initial date of purchase to the same date the following year, any unused hunts on the membership do expire 365 days after purchase. Please understand that the trade-off for taking advantage of the below savings means that any unused hunts will be void after 365 days.

Memberships include:
1. 10 initial hunts a season, with the opportunity to purchase additional hunts for the discounted price of $220.00 per gun instead of the regular $250.00.
2. Field choice over non-members
3. Discounted individual bird prices at 10.00 quail, 12.00 chukar, and 14.00 pheasant.

The Prairie’s End Hunt Club is already the most economical quail hunting in Dallas, Ft. Worth, and the rest of North Texas, when considering quality and services offered. Memberships offer an opportunity to save over 10% through the course of the year for avid hunters, companies, or groups of friends.

Memberships will go under a company’s name or a representative’s name, if a group of people. A point of contact will be designated to represent each membership, which The Prairie’s End Hunt Club will contact before each booking confirmation to confirm approval on behalf of the group’s membership.

Memberships are non-refundable after 72 hours of being processed.