Dream Ranch

From our July/August 2025 Issue

Mental note: Don’t hunt pheasants before taking on bobwhite quail! Why? Because if you start big and then go small, shooting success will shrink, literally before your eyes. In hindsight, my recent quail hunt at Dream Ranch, near Guntersville, Alabama, should have taken place before a preserve hunt for pheasants at home in Michigan.

Hitting small targets is tricky enough when they’re hard-flying bobwhites, which is what Dream Ranch offers along with a liberal, no-limit policy. And hunters can leave their shells home, as the guides will supply all the 20- or 28-gauge ammo they need. After a few misses, I managed to flush the pheasants out of my head and pick out single quail from covey after covey. Opting for the all-inclusive split hunt ($1,650 per person), I headed afield on a January afternoon with head guide Cody Alford, and then enjoyed a morning hunt on another part of the property.

During each foray into thick food and cover plots of grain sorghum and Sudan grass, Alford chose a different trio of dogs from the 30 in his Coosa Bend Kennels. Typically he relies on a setter or shorthair for locating birds and a pair of English cockers for flushing and retrieving. We hunted behind wirehairs and Labs too. Breeding and training for obedience and efficiency, the 37-year-old former teacher is schooling his third generation of cockers. I was so impressed with each of the four pointer-flusher combinations that I wondered if he also trained others’ dogs. He said he did—prompting a second mental note.

Hunting at Dream Ranch is leisurely, thanks to the level terrain and checkerboard walking paths mowed through the cover. A guest who has a walking disability can arrange for a guide-driven ATV. The toughest challenge I experienced—besides hitting those tiny buzz bombs—was negotiating slick spots where the frozen ground had begun to thaw.

Dream Ranch dates to 2001, when two businessmen brothers established the 2,000-acre estate as a deer and upland hunting getaway for corporate clients. Just as the pandemic began, the husband-wife team of Kyle and Claire Richards took ownership of the property, including a three-story, 14,000-square-foot lodge built a decade earlier. The Richards’ upland operation is part of an ambitious enterprise that includes trophy whitetail hunting on 700 fenced acres; a five-star retreat for employee training or recreation; and a private, exclusive venue for weddings and other social gatherings. The massive lodge is headquarters for these activities.

From plush accommodations to gourmet dining, everything at Dream Ranch is first-rate. The lodge sleeps 24, and a party of eight hunters can reserve exclusive use of a like number of private bedrooms with baths downstairs. Amenities on the first level include a locker room with personal storage cabinets, a recreation area, a gun safe and a gun-cleaning station. The expansive central floor houses the kitchen, dining and conference rooms, lobby, bar and fireplace common area. Upstairs are bunkbeds and more bathrooms.

Dream Ranch offers complimentary shuttle service from the nearby Guntersville and Albertville airports and will arrange for transportation to and from international airports in Birmingham and Huntsville, each an hour away.

If your shooting eye needs sharpening, there is a 5 Stand setup that can be shot from the lodge patio. For a real test try this same course for cosmic clays after dark. And if pheasants are your game, they’re available through a tower shoot, and then a walk-up hunt afterward.

My advice: Go for the quail first.

For more information, visit dreamranch.org.