Preserves and Lodges Take On the Offseason Work for Hunters
Will Curtis always loved managing land more than hunting?
In 2000, Curtis started Piney Woods Hunting Preserve. 24 years later, he welcomes people from across the country who stay in the Piney Woods lodge near Troy and pay to hunt his preserve’s land for deer, turkey, and hogs.
“They’re able to hunt well-managed land,” Curtis says. “It’s a place where they can go hunt and not have to do all the upkeep or anything. They just show up to hunt. Basically, all the hard work in the offseason, such as food plots and stand work and that kind of stuff is done.”
In Pike and surrounding counties, preserves like Piney Woods provide hunters with places to sleep, meals, and even transportation to hunting sites. Patrons don’t have to worry about anything but the hunt itself.
“We can wine and dine them as much as they want, or they can come for just a hunt and leave,” says John David Taylor, who started Covey Point Outfitters in Goshen in 2021. “We try to make sure we go above and beyond to make sure everybody has a good time.”
The Impact of Hunting
Hunting is huge in Alabama. It is part of the state’s culture, yes, but it also makes a big economic impact. Hunting license fees alone add up to millions of dollars in revenue.
For the 2023 through 2024 season, the state issued 161,863 hunting licenses, including both all-game and small-game licenses, according to numbers from Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Those figures don’t include people exempt from purchasing regular hunting licenses — those under the age of 16 and Alabama residents aged 65 and older. Also, Alabama resident landowners and their immediate family members do not need regular hunting licenses to hunt their own property.
Nonresidents can buy a 3-day hunting license, a 10-day hunting license, or an annual license. Last season, nonresidents purchased 18,987 3-day licenses, another 3,724 10-day licenses, and 15,663 annual licenses.
An Alabama resident can currently buy an all-game license, which includes turkey and deer, for $33.55. The price goes up if a hunter buys separate licenses for hunting feral hogs and coyotes at night or for hunting with bait. For non-residents, the price for an all-game license can run from $169.55 for a 3-day hunt, $240.40 for a 10-day hunt, and $389.40 for an annual license.
Attracting Visitors
While local hunting preserves and lodges get a fair amount of business from Alabama residents, many of their guests come from out of state. Outfitters also see repeat customers each year.
“We have an elderly couple that comes from Tennessee – they’re in their mid-70s,” says Stephanie Ferguson, of Racknine Outdoors, which has operated in Alabama since 2007. “They are the biggest hog hunters that you have ever seen in your life. When we take them out, they go out at like 5:30 in the afternoon, and they don’t want us to pick them up until 7 in the morning, and they take all their meat home.”
Most of Racknine Outdoors’ hunting land is within a 10- to 20-mile radius of its lodge near Banks.
Racknine, which also hosts hunts in Kentucky, offers an early deer hunt in Alabama after Thanksgiving but doesn’t schedule additional hunts until January when deer become more active.
Ferguson says out-of-state hunters come to Alabama when their own states’ seasons are closed. And the fact that they don’t have to manage the land appeals to guests. Inquiries into hunts come from all over, she says.
“In the last month, I’ve had several from Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee,” Ferguson says.
Creature Comforts
Private hunting lodges typically offer all the amenities of a home, although guests are expected to share rooms. Packages vary in cost and can typically be found on outfitters’ websites. Along with state rules on game hunting, most private hunting preserves have their own rules about what game guests can shoot. For example, with deer, it’s usually larger, mature bucks. Lodges also vary on how many people can hunt at 1 time.
Piney Woods Lodge is located near Troy, but visitors get access to land in Pike, Bullock, and Montgomery counties for hunting. At the lodge, guests can fish in a large pond. Chairs and benches line the front porch so guests can relax while taking in the surrounding landscape. Inside, a small kitchen, dining area, and den make up the main room. A hallway leading to another sitting area is filled with photos of hunters who have visited Piney Woods.
“We get a broad base of hunters,” Curtis says. “We get really experienced hunters that hunt really hard back home, and then we also get people that just come here once a year and that’s the extent of their hunting.”
At Covey Point near Goshen, hunters visit for quail, pheasant, duck, hog, and deer. Bird trips use pointers and other breeds of hunting dogs to flush and retrieve birds.
About 3/4 of Covey Point’s property runs along the Conecuh River. At the Covey Point Lodge, guests have access to a kitchen, living room, full dining room, a game room with a pool table, bedrooms, and an outdoor kitchen.
But with fair chase hunting preserves like Racknine, Piney Woods, and Covey Point, there are no guarantees a hunter will go home with anything.
“Only God knows who’s going to be the lucky winner,” Ferguson says.