The “How To” of Our Preserve Bird Hunting
Spread Oaks Ranch offers upland bird shooting through well-known outfitter Top-Flight, headquartered in Columbus, Texas. Your hunt will be situated in one of our prairie pastures, in a setting that is ideally suited for the sport. We usually handle all upland arrangements on your behalf, but if you prefer you are welcome to book on your own. Regardless of who contacts Top-Flight, the upland decisions you need to communicate are: 1) the number of guides you expect for the hunt, and 2) the number of birds you want to shoot.
Number of Guides: Top-Flight generally runs groups of four to five hunters at a time. If you have more than that number of shooters, your options are to run a concurrent hunt with up to two guides at a time, or back-to-back, with only one guide. Guides bring all the birds, as well as flushing and pointing dogs.
Volume of Birds: Your upland bird choices are pheasant, chukar, and/or quail. We have arranged hunts for as few as 50 upland birds for four guns to as many as 200. Our repeat guests tell us they favor pheasant and chukar over quail.
Costs: Each guide charges between $1,000 and $1,200 to bring an upland hunt to the ranch. In addition, you must pay for the birds. The cost per bird is $16 per pheasant, $12 per chukar, and $8 per quail. Our guests traditionally tip the guide or guides 10 to 15% of the total upland bill. We can handle this on your behalf, or you can tip your guide directly. Just let us know. We never want to overlook the hard work the Top-Flight guides provide to you, and to the ranch.
