Having experienced the hospitality and inhospitality of hunting lodges across the US and other countries, I was duly impressed with my reception and results from the staff of the Lonesome Bull Ranch. From the first booking to my trip home, I was impressed by how efficient the hunt was. The sprawling South Texas Ranch was a delightful short adventure with no mishaps in what is truly a target rich environment. I made my expectations clear while booking the hunt. As a lifelong archer I learned years ago that most hunting lodges are not archer-friendly. This was also true of the Lonesome Bull Ranch which actually made my hunt more enjoyable. The guide went to extraordinary lengths to make my goals easily attainable. Nothing major, but their willingness to make my hunt successful was impressive. How such a small staff can keep up with the daily demands of maintaining the hunting grounds amazed me then and that amazement still lingers. Short side, this is a self hunt which keeps the prices competitive. No cooks or cleaners or unnecessary doodads. I took my targets with the help of a knowledgeable and patient guide. The accommodations are clean, modern and simply. I am already making plans for a return trip. read more

Hunted here in January, 2023. 1st off, was scheduled to arrive on a Thursday, called Wednesday before I left town to confirm what I needed to bring. NOBODY had a record of us coming to hunt. Story was that nobody told the ranch manager we were coming. Red flag! Purchased Axis Trophy hunt. Traveled across the country - before we took the luggage out of the truck, they wanted CASH payment and signed contract. They offered us to hunt for about an hour and a half in the am + an hour and a half in the pm. Ranch had very few species and the species they did have were very young, year and a half at the most. Last morning of the hunt, after not seeing any Bull Axis deer, manager offered me to shoot a Fallow for the same $4000.00 price but it was running across the field. I discussed getting a refund because I purchased an Axis Trophy deer package but they had NO Axis deer to offer, was told by the ranch manager I needed to contact Fred Rich, the ranch owner. Unfortunately, ranch manager never showed his face again, didn't say bye, thank you for coming, NOTHING, sent his brother to do his dirty work & collect his tip. Called owner Fred Rich after returning home, stated my name and his immediate response was "you can come back for $495.00 a day guide fee + $69.00 a night for the room." Told him I wasn't interested in spending any more money there, just wanted to get a refund. He proceeded to tell me "I'm not the owner, talk to the ranch manager" & HUNG UP ON ME. Called the ranch manager and he said this was all out of his control and he was not authorized to that. BAD BUSINESS. Ranch offered no satellite, meal plan is you buy your groceries and the ranch managers wife will cook you 2 meals a day for $125 a day. Not to mention, they want EVERYTHING paid in CASH, CASH, CASH. If you're considering purchasing a hunt @ Lonesome Bull Ranch, I highly recommend doing some research. You won't have to look far. Texas hunting forums, yelp, Facebook, etc. This is Fred Rich - I tried to post review on Facebook and was blocked. This was their response on Facebook prior to being blocked - read more

Lonesome Bull Ranch - Fred Rich - Archery Near Me - Sandia, Texas

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If I could, I would put zero stars. I attended a Nilgai hunt on property this past weekend. Firstly, they were dishonest with their population. The ranch is around 1,710 acres and have only 6 Nilgai bulls. Early on, the guides demonstrated even more dishonest or a disability to perform simple hunting tasks such as ranging a target. After being told it would be made right, they denied us our money back or the ability to shoot another animal in a similar price bracket even when offered to pay the difference. This ranch has demonstrated both dishonesty and the inability to be proficient for any kind of hunting. To any considering, I implore you to stay away. You will be scammed out of $5,000. read more

This was the worst ranch that I have ever hunted at. I arrived there for my scheduled hunt to find the gates locked and nobody there. I finally got in touch with the ranch manager, who was extremely rude and obnoxious. The price I paid for my hunt was supposed to include overnight accommodations but instead I had to camp at a nearby campground. I had paid for a trophy aoudad sheep but there weren't any available on the ranch so the ranch manager wanted me to just shoot any pathetic animal that came along just to get the hunt over with. The whole hunt only lasted for about two hours. The ranch manager was so incredibly rude and obviously didn't want me there even though I had paid a large amount of money for my hunt. Never did get the aoudad that I had paid for and the animals that were advertised on their website simply didn't exist. False advertising and extremely poor hunting experience. Not recommended. Ranches like this place give all hunting establishments a bad name. Please don't waste your time or money going to this place. read more

The old reviews are indicative of what I recently experienced. Offered animals, sent check, got a limited number of animals and constantly told "we are catching them next week" which was certainly not true. Finally asked for refund and after awhile received it. I certainly won't deal with the ranch or Fred Rich again - do so at your own peril! read more

I brought my son to LBR for a whitetail hunt. We had a great time, and he loved seeing the exotic animals throughout the thousands of acres on the ranch. I shot the biggest whitetail in my life here, and will be back for some exotic hunts this year. They have HUGE Addax, and lots of other great exotics. I heard they are getting some bad reviews from a couple of outfitters who were thrown off the ranch, but I personally had a great time and had great service from the hunting guides and the ranch manager. Their prices are very reasonable. Only problem was that we had to bring our own food since they don't supply meals. Worth it for the price! Craig Sparks Dallas TX read more

Fantastic Time! guides are very knowledgeable of animals and where they are at. Entire staff is very courteous, friendly & hospitable. I will definitely come back and recommend to my friends 10-22-13 read more

I wasn't really sure what to expect considering I had never heard about this ranch until I got there. The hospitality was top notch, the accommodations were simply better then most bed and breakfast you can stay at in all parts of Texas. Large bedrooms, kitchen area and TV/Trophy Room were well maintained and clean. Smoker and BBQ pits and a large outdoor fire pit made the nights outside grilling and sitting by a fire telling hunting stories and enjoying a good laugh made it a priceless experience. The staff JR and Dee are the most professional guides I have ever been around and I have been hunting for over 25 years. One of the things I liked was how attentive they were to making sure we had everything we needed when in camp. So without even leaving the camp house... I would definitely go back just to see those guys! Now lets get to the reason we went hunting. The ranch has a large array of exotics from Axis, Fallow, Buffalo, Black Buck, Ram, along with many more and they have Cull Permits available for Scimitar Horned Oryx, Addax, & Barasingha. Also Whitetail and Turkey for days! The ranch is 2600 acres and the layout and terrain is outstanding. The animals that I did see were solid high quality looking animals. Protein feeders setup all over the ranch along with ponds and plenty of natural vegetation make this ranch a must hunt destination. The hunts were successful and when in the field our guides knew everything about all the animals so it was like riding around with a biologist and a game warden, informative and educational. It was one of the best overall hunting experience that I can honestly remember. Bonus*** Ask them about the Critter Gitter! WOW, this vehicle is a must see to believe! Shooting Range - 200 Yard Steel Targets of various sizes to claim your bragging rights. I WILL DEFINITELY BE GOING BACK HERE! read more

GO TO TEXASHUNTINGFORUM/LONESOMEBULLRANCH.COM TO SEE WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS PLACE!writing this review to try and help any dads out there that are thinking of trying to take thier kids hunting on this ranch. what happened to me is i contacted fred rich the ranch manager and set up a father/son turkey hunt with a fallow deer hunt added on, went and dropped off my deposit at there portland, texas real estate office. the time came for our weekend hunt and i hadnt recieved a call to let us know what time to be there and any additional info, so i called fred rich friday afternoon, didnt get an answer, so i left a message. well the whole weekend has come and gone with me making several phone calls and leaving messages and i still havnt heard anything. they were real quick on cashing the deposit check, but arent as fast at returning a phone call to let a paying customer know whats going on. wouldnt care if it was just me, i'd just go and spend my money else where. but this involved my son,and it was going to be his first hunt, what a huge dissapointment for him. I can already feel i'm going to have a hard time trying to recover my deposit and will probably have to take legal action. what a mess! just trying to be honest here and i hope i can save dads out there alot of anger and grief.i'll even include my email just in case anybody has any dispute or questions.rogerg7473@yahoo.com----------12/19/2011-------UPDATE------finally got a call from fred rich the "ranch manager" and we got into it a little bit,wanted to put the blame on me,funny, when i called him several time through the weekend with no response. well he informed me that the only way i could get my deposit back is if i took down my reviews and signed a waver, well fred you can keep the money. the thing about it is i recorded the phone call so i'll be posting it to youtube. they can try and dispute this but I have the hunting form(contract) i turned in, the cashed check, the phone records of all the calls i made with no return calls, and his phone call recorded. look people bottom line is think twice about hunting this place, the decision is yours to make. i can only post my honest experience. I'D HATE FOR ANOTHER KID TO GET DISAPPOINTED read more

We received the call on a monday that our baby was ready to come home with us. We had called a few weeks before looking for a male zebra, and he gave us the line of bottle feeding, etc. We had bottle fed many other animals, so this was to be a no brainer for us, so we put the $1000 deposit down. So, when we got the call, we drove the 900+ miles to pic him up. When we got there they hadn't caught him yet as we were told they would. We watched as they ran him down with atv type vehicles, chasing him and the rest of the herd he was with. Then we watched as someone lept from the vehicle and tackled the baby into the dirt. All of this while we sat and waited outside the gates of the facility. When we were finally brought up, he was in a small crumbling brick pen, with a crudely made gate. He was trembling, his face horribly scraped up, and his ankle slightly swollen. I asked about the deep painful looking scrapes, and he and his farm hand (or whomever) laughed about having to tackle him, and his face hitting the rocks and hard dirt. He was a beautiful baby, and he and I just clicked. I had noticed though, and questioned that his front ankle was swollen, and it was blown off. He continued talking to my husband ignoring my questioning, and my husband finished paying the remaining balance. We paid a total of $2990 for him. I asked multiple times, as the swollen got worse, and his foot was starting to be pushed a little sideways, and in the end was told as a baby his ligaments aren't strong and probably pulled one when they caught him. He was put in the back of our SUV and we left for the nearest store. We hadn't gotten far when we noticed the foot was getting worse. We stopped and bought ace bandages and a kennel to keep him as stabilized as possible. I made a make shift cast to keep his foot straight, and put heavy blankets in the kennel to keep him comfortable on the long trip home. The first stop for a bottle, I changed the wrap, and checked the ankle, which was by then very obviously broken. We stopped at every rest stop to let him stretch his legs, and to re-wrap his ankle using fresh magazines, cardboard and anything else that would keep his foot straight. By the time we got him home, his foot was completely sideways and he was in gross amounts of pain. He was rushed immediately to the vet, who said it was detached from the leg bone, the ligaments were torn to the point of being not much more than thin strings left, and put him in a cast with injections of pain medication. We brought him home and put him in a clean dry stall with fresh straw to keep his cast dry and clean. Over the next few days, the scrapes on his face became infected, and we took him back to the vet who put him on rounds of antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories. We did a twice a day regimine of washing his face with antiseptic wash and iodine, and putting antibiotic cream on his face. It continued to get worse to the point when he would move his head a certain way, puss would run from the scraped up areas. He... we fought as hard as we could, but he passed away almost a week after coming home. None of this would have happened, had they not tackled him, injuring him in the way they did. It was the results of their rough and abusive treatment of a newborn baby that cost him his life. My children are heartbroken. I am heartbroken. And my husband is out approximately $4000 on an animal that lasted a week. The vet told us, he would have been fine had it not been for his injuries. This place should be out of business. NEVER buy anything from Lonesome Bull Ranch in Sandia, TX. read more

I hunt lonesome bull every year. Last year I shot my biggest buck at 183 B&C. I would highly reccomend this ranch to families with kids and other groups. I know there are a few outfitters that they refuse to work with that post bad reviews. I like dealing directly with the ranch and cutting out the middle man (and costs). There are lots of exotics to see throughout the ranch, giving it a safari type of feeling. The guides are friendly and professional. Norris is highly reccomended! read more

NEVER PURCHASE AN ANIMAL FROM OWNER FRED RICH - he is in it for the money only and I just want to warn others what happened to me!! Purchased a zebra this past summer who died 3 days after leaving the ranch and was 6 days old. The owner, Fred, was never there from the day the baby was born to the 3rd day when she left to go to the bottle feeder that was recommended by Fred Rich. After months of warnings and allowing chances for him to refund us or exchange us with another zebra, all he told us was we could get $200 off the next zebra (mind you - she cost $3850 plus shipping, bottle feeding, vet work, etc.) Never saw one vet record, cancellations of blood work that was never completed, receipts, bill of sale, transfer of ownership, etc. Not one document was ever provided from Fred that proved our ownership of the zebra before we received her and he never answered phone calls or purposely ignored them, clearly to avoid the situation. I DO NOT want anyone else to suffer like I did, do not trust him. I have not seen a single dollar back for my experience with his terrible business and I will never recommend him to anyone for the way he treated the situation after taking $4000 from me and giving me a dead zebra in exchange which I never even saw with my own eyes! Never purchase an animal from Fred - If you are unlucky enough to have your baby die after it leaves the ranch, he will tell you AFTERWARDS the facts of the survival of the young animals, but has no problem rushing you into a deposit as soon as what you want is born and he has it. I NEVER received my money back, I NEVER received an apology (instead he tried to turn the blame on me), I was pressured into sending a deposit, NEVER received a bill of sale or ANY paperwork what so ever, I NEVER received any vet work - NOTHING after I paid for all of that, not even a receipt and if Fred does not want to pay us our money back or replace our zebra, I will gladly let the public know how horrible his business and service is. I also have recorded evidence of phone calls with him, including his offer of $200 off another $4000 animal. read more

for anyone looking for dove we found some at the lonesome bull yesterday, they told us the birds were weak but we limited out in the am, and while we were there we saw so many animals we decided to get some meat for the freezer. we all pitched in and shot a cow elk. borrowed a gun, and I got to shot her because I drove. the grass was a little high and she ran off a bit , but Norris finally found her. there is a ton of animals here and I would have to recommend this ranch to everyone read more