Stuart Ranch Outfitters
Brenden Gallagher for SPLIT REED
The Oldest Family Owned Ranch In Oklahoma
Just earshot from the small town of Waurika, Oklahoma is a red dirt cattle ranch, the oldest family-owned ranch in all of the state, dating back to 1868. The 33,000 acres of cattle and horse land are covered in pastures, shrubland, cattle ponds, and scattered wetlands which constitute the majority of the habitat for the wintering waterfowl, white-tailed deer, and wild turkeys that call this ranch home. From cattle production and outfitting to horse training and meat distribution, Stuart Ranch has come a long way in its over 150+ years of existence. While the outfitting business may be young compared to the legacy the rest of the ranch holds, Clay Forst, a 6th generation rancher and the owner of Stuart Ranch Outfitters, has planted his roots in the shallow red dirt ponds of Oklahoma's oldest ranch. “The legacy of Stuart Ranch is truly everything, my family name, my reputation, and my character” Clay explained to me. “It is, no pun intended, what we stand on”.
The story of Stuart Ranch Outfitters inception, like that of the Ranch, is one of persistence, although Clay never knew guiding would be part of his future. “The outfitter was really a way for me to build my own niche within the ranch, my brother runs our meat company and does a lot of our horse stuff and our mom is the general manager and our boss. The ranch has had several 3rd party outfitters in the past 30 years and it just wasn't working great. At the time I was actually getting my masters and my mom called me and said I’ve got a job opportunity for you, to keep Stuart Ranch Outfitters in-house. I did not go to school to be a guide or an outfitter, it was not even in my wheelhouse at the time. I didn't actually waterfowl hunt until I was in college, with a group of buddies who are still some of my best friends on earth. The first group of guys I brought, back in 2010, I did not have a clue what I was doing. It was just chucking a few decoys out, setting up some layout blinds and I could basically do a single quack on a duck call and we were just hoping something came in! I just cut my teeth and learned more, and that brought us to where we are today”.
Stuart Ranch Outfitters has access to thousands of acres of prime waterfowl hunting habitat. Everything from moist soil slews, cattle ponds, sheet water, dry fields and Stuart Ranches own version of timber hunting. While our prime focus is usually waterfowl, we’d be remiss if we didn't mention the other incredible hunting opportunities on the ranch. Like chasing Eastern and Rio’s turkeys, feral hog hunts, and some of the finest whitetail hunting in all of Oklahoma. Clay and the team of guides at the ranch, work year-round to manage the habitat, “control the controllables” and create their own legacy that will certainly only continue to grow. “Just looking back it went from, driving around on the ranch and seeing forty ducks on a pond and planning to hunt it in the morning, now to the management that we’re doing year-round, especially with habitat. It’s super interesting to me to see just how far we’ve come from chucking a couple of layout blinds and decoys out and hoping some ducks came in, to what we’re building and what we’re doing today”. Stuart Ranch Outfitters is an incredible destination for anyone looking to get back to their waterfowling roots. The hunting is great, the settings are scenic and more importantly, Clay and his crew will treat you like family when you're here. They would quite literally give you the shirt off their back and I’m speaking from experience… While visiting Stuart Ranch in January of last season, my luggage got lost by the airlines. So I set out on the morning hunt dressed down in a load of Clay's extra gear.
In a time when waterfowl hunting and hunting in general only seems to be about killing, it's always refreshing to find people that care just as much about the experience and the people, as they do pulling the trigger. If the morning slows down in the blind, jokes are cracked, coffee is passed around and everyone has a smile on their faces. Persistence, personability, and hard work have brought Stuart Ranch Outfitters to where it is today, all of which speak to the experience one can have when you're here. “It's a collective effort, we just work and we bust our asses. We layout plans and we go to work and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but we're just consistent with what we do. We're thirteen years into this, we're building a brand new lodge right now and I just hope one of my boys is helping run these hunts in a couple of years from now”.
If you’re looking for an incredible hunting destination unlike many others, then hunting on Oklahoma's oldest family-owned ranch with the Stuart Ranch crew is for you. You can check out the full breakdown of Stuart Ranch Outfitters on our website, along with our other trusted and premiere outfitters.
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