Lagarto Ranch is one of the top hunting properties in the State of Texas featuring world-class bobwhite quail and white-tailed deer hunting. For the past 28 years, Lagarto Ranch has been manicured, improved, and developed as a hunting paradise. Seven pastures for quail hunting produce an average of 8-10 coveys an hour of wild birds. Deer scoring up to and over 200 Boone & Crocket points are harvested and managed annually on this remarkable property. If that was not enough for the discerning sportsman or woman, the Ranch also features fantastic dove and turkey hunting. Impeccable improvements, roads, fields, lakes, fencing, waters, creeks, and habitat bring it all together for whatever outdoor recreation activity you have in mind.
Location
Lagarto Ranch is named after the Creek that meanders west to east as a tributary of Lake Mathis creating a rich woodland of Oaks, Mesquite, and Willow Trees. The ranch fronts on Highway 281 for 2 miles, FM 3162 for 4.5 miles and country road 308 for over a mile just 16 miles south of George West and 22 miles north of Alice, a regional hub of South Texas. Being between San Antonio to the north and Corpus Christi to the south, the ranch is very convenient to regional amenities and airports. There is a large, gated entrance with improved oak and palm lined road located off Highway 281 which brings you into this very private high fenced ranch.
Acreage
9,446± Acres in Live Oak & Jim Wells Counties
Description
Lagarto Ranch is 9,446± acres of a substantially improved high fenced hunting ranch with a focus on wild bobwhite quail, dove, turkey, and deer hunting. This is a turnkey sale with an opportunity to walk right into a ranch from day one that has literally been transformed into a hunting paradise and enjoy the decades of meticulous hard work and planning from the previous owners.
Not only a hunting ranch, Lagarto Ranch also has a reputation as a cattle and irrigated hay production ranch. An outstanding herd of Nelore Cross cattle can also be purchased separately. Lagarto Ranch comes with the inclusion of much of the equipment, tools, vehicles, and furnishings so it is literally ready to go for this upcoming season.
Lagarto Ranch is gentle rolling South Texas Brush country on the edge of the coastal plains that have been transformed into improved pastures, food plots, lakes, senderos, motts, and manicured huge oak and mesquite grassland savannahs. There are a series of improvements broken down into four main areas described as follows:
Entrance Complex Area 1
- Just through the main entrance gates is a log cabin with bathroom and separate 2 car garage. Historically this was used as the area rancher’s poker room or can be used as an office and today it serves as a cottage for traveling employees
- Frame Managers House 3 bedroom/2bath with large covered back porch Managers Garage and a Game Room. Yard has large shade oaks and mesquite trees with privacy fencing.
- Metal with concrete floor and electricity five car garage with roll-up doors.
- Little equipment shed with a medical and tack room
- Three-sided Livestock Shed and turnout pen
- Stables with attached 1bedroom/1 bath apartment. Game cooler with cleaning area and whelping room
- Excellent working pipe cattle pens with water troughs.
- Employee house 3 bedroom/2 bath with covered front porch and back deck. Adjacent metal two car carport and storage building.
- Little house and carport 3 bedroom/2 bath with large, fenced back yard.
- 8,700 sq/ft Metal pole barn and 3 sea containers
- 8,700 sq/ft second pole barn and equipment storage and adjacent drill pipe storage racks
- Hog/deer tracking dog kennel
Main House Area 2
- Furnished 4 bedroom/4 full-bath and 2–half bath brick “ranch style” Main House with Spanish tile roof and circular drive. Outdoor patio trestle and BBQ area, and four-bay attached garage. Large main house yard is enclosed within brick privacy wall.
- Large heated swimming pool with a salt-water system and limestone deck
- Nearby constant level lake fed by irrigation well and oxygen pump to support fish habitat
Guest/Equipment/Kennel Area 3
- Framed 3 bedroom/2 bath employee house with attached two-car garage and fenced yard.
- Restored furnished 4 bedroom/4 bath ranch guest house with fireplace and covered front porch. Separate guest house garage and storage building
- 3 bedroom/2 bath bunk house with covered metal carport and fenced yard
- Very large metal shop with rollup doors. Adjacent overhead grain storage and fuel tanks.
- Custom designed covered dog kennel with concrete floors, clean out drains, vet room, and storage room, with two dog handler guest rooms, each with a full bathroom
- Two large outdoor kennel runs and puppy pens
- Large metal equipment storage building with multiple bays and roll-up doors.
Crew Quarters Area 4
- Motel style crew quarters with long porch that have 2 separate rooms with baths, kitchen, and a laundry room.
- Steel Hurricane escape quarters for emergency use with generator connection
Ranch Improvements and Equipment
Lagarto Ranch owners have spared no expense in the conditioning and improving of the ranch into an immaculate hunting and cattle operation. To accommodate and manage the infrastructure at the ranch, there is a complete equipment inventory and all the tools you need all in excellent working order. Below is a limited summary of some of the improvements and equipment:
- 23 MacDaddy Deer blinds with feeders
- 300 plus quail, deer, and turkey feeders and numerous wildlife water stations
- Two 5 acre deer breeding pens with 200 plus Boone and Crockett deer genetics released into the entire ranch
- One 1300 acre high fenced executive pasture managed for only 200 plus Boone and Crockett deer
- Pointer Bird Dogs with training equipment
- Exterior high fence
- Interior fencing and cattle guards; much of the wire, pipe and posts all being hot dipped galvanized
- Irrigated hay meadow for round bale production
- Skeet shooting range with generator powered portable skeet machines, and rifle range
- Several large, stocked lakes, one with Dove perch lines for hunting
- Caliche roads infrastructure to all Building areas
- Seven Quail hunting pastures with GPS sub meter crafted brush Mott design all on 440’ surveyed marked centers
- Pheasant hunt ring style with 10 stations and includes; Pavilion, fire pit, and elevated tower to aid bird release
- Two large caliche pits
- Stripped brush Sendero lanes with food plots
- Twelve water wells and buried large diameter poly-pipe to numerous water troughs and storage tanks
- Redundant water systems that supplies main house, front entrance, guest house, employee housing, and big shop.
- Air conditioned portable restrooms for convenience
- Entire ranch treated for fire ants every 3 years via aerial application, fences cleared with herbicide, and laned courses meticulously mowed
- Two dual tire large 4×4 Farm Tractors and custom heavy-duty discs and batwing bush hogs for mowing, clearing, and maintaining ranch
- Entire shop for any ranch need including pulling engines, repairs, metal fabrication, welding etc.
- D9 Bulldozer for heavy brushwork
- Loader, dump trucks, and maintainer for road work
- Ranch trucks and trailers
- Custom built stainless hunt truck outfitted for quail hunting
- Supplies, pipe, fittings, everything you need to manage the ranch
Wildlife & Habitat
Lagarto Ranch is in the northern part of the Tamaulipan Thorn-Scrub ecoregion of Texas commonly called the Brush Country. This ranch is dominated by excellent soils of Lagarto Creek drainage and ringed with caliche rolling hills for an interesting mix of topography and vegetation. Decades of brush sculpting and clearing has created a variety of habitats for wildlife and productive forage for livestock. Improved and native grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees create a mosaic of habitats.
Bobwhite quail habitat, hunting and facilities are the foundation of the property management. Lagarto is in the top tier of Texas wild quail hunting ranches. Intense brush control management via GPS guidance system have produced a one of kind quilting pattern that maximizes quail populations while providing a more enjoyable hunting experience. Many principles of quail habitat management have been applied from research provided from the Kleberg Institute along with regular site visits to maintain development. Whitetail deer are managed through a MLD permit from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and have been harvested in accordance with their guidelines to produce trophy deer. No expense has been spared improving the deer genetics year over year and the results shown in antler size. South Texas dove hunting around water tanks is a special treat at Lagarto Ranch. The current owners took great care designing dove habitats to maximize the birds and enjoyment. Rio Grande Turkey roost in the huge Live Oaks and Bull mesquite along Lagarto Creek and its drainages. Waterfowl in the winter are abundant on the several large lakes that are fed by irrigation wells.
Minerals
The owners of Lagarto Ranch own 25% minerals on 1,815.67 Ac and 5.56% on 7,630 acres the rest they own no minerals. There are a few old wells but there are no real impacts from existing Oil and Gas fields. Minerals are negotiable.