History of the McCune Ranch - Texas Hog Hunting Outfitter
About Our Property
In 1965 my father was with a friend who was visiting some property he had recently purchased in East Texas. They decided to stop by another property for sale and my dad decided to buy it, unbeknownst to my mom. We actually lived in Grand Prairie at the time. Although my mom was somewhat surprised by this decision, the place would become something that they both treasured and invested much time and effort into over the years. The property has been expanded over the years and has primarily been a working cattle ranch (with Brangus, Hereford, and Brahma) as well as a catfish farm run chiefly by my mom. Much to my delight it also became a playground where I hunted, trapped. and camped with a childhood friend who I still tell stories about, that always begin with “this one time me and Bobby . . . “.
Over the years many changes occurred, including in 1978 meeting my wife Linda, who is a 5th generation resident of Van Zandt County and grew up on a dairy farm not to far from McCune Ranch. We are both graduates of Van High School as well as graduates of the University of Texas at Arlington, and Linda is also a graduate of University of North Texas at Denton. For many years we have lived and worked in the metroplex area, primarily Plano. East Texas has however remained home as we have roots here and family that live in the area, as well as a fondness for sunset watching, birding, hunting, and spending time with friends. Sadly, we lost my mom in 2010. In most recent time, although my dad is still robust and active, some other health issues have made it difficult to run the ranch and the cattle were sold in 2017. As we look forward, the connection to the land, the people, and the history of place has fostered new ideas about how to continue the tradition that remains of inviting friends we know, and friends we have yet to meet to enjoy this special place of beauty, solitude and plenty.
The McCune Ranch Vineyard
After years of planning we planted the first part of our vineyard in the spring of 2018. The spring and summer of 2018 kept us busy getting the vineyard established. We built trellis systems, planted almost 600 vines, drilled a water well and installed an irrigation system. Not to mention all the work required for the maintenance of the plants. If all goes well we will have our first crop of wine grapes in the Summer of 2021.
McCune Ranch Outfitters – Texas Hog Hunting Outfitter
With the explosion of the Feral Hog population in the State of Texas, our property has become over run with wild hogs. Several yeas ago we used traps to attempt to control the wild hogs. One trapper harvested several hundred wild hogs from McCune Ranch in a period of a couple of years. Wild hogs continue to come into our property from the Sabine river bottoms. Since we no longer have cattle, we have decided to open up the property for recreational hog hunting.
In the Spring of 2017 we purchased an additional piece of property to use as the base camp for the McCune Ranch Hunting operation. We converted an existing structure on the new property into our Hunters Lodge and base camp for our hog hunting guests. The base camp includes picnic tables, a charcoal grill and a fire pit for our guests. After dedicating a great deal of time and effort into the Hunting Lodge and Vineyard we opened the hunting operation in the fall of 2019.
