Banded Drake Ranch gives serious duck hunters in North Texas something different from a typical lease, outfitter or day-hunt operation.
Founded by Matt Roseman and backed in part by waterfowl personality Chad Belding, Banded Drake Ranch has quickly positioned itself as a private duck club built around managed habitat, membership access and a duck-first approach.
From engineered marshland to an ownership-based club model, the ranch is aiming for something more permanent than a seasonal hunting lease.
In a hunting world where access keeps getting harder to find, Banded Drake Ranch is taking a different approach.
Located near the small town of Telephone in North Texas, this isn’t an old-school lease and it isn’t an outfitter chasing day rates. It’s a long-term, equity-based duck club built around habitat, access and the kind of experience serious waterfowlers are willing to invest in.
At the center of it is founder Matt Roseman, who didn’t just want a better duck club. He decided to build one.
Why Banded Drake Ranch Stands Out in North Texas
Roseman’s path to Banded Drake Ranch didn’t begin in Texas. It started in Northern California, where the Pacific Flyway has long been home to some of the country’s most respected private duck clubs.
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After 25 years hunting elite properties in California, Roseman assumed he could find something similar in Texas. That proved harder than expected.
“The reality,” Roseman explains, “is that the best clubs here have extremely long waiting lists or they’re social clubs first with a little duck hunting sprinkled in.”
For a serious waterfowler, that wasn’t good enough.
Roseman wanted a club where duck hunting came first, not as a side benefit or an occasional add-on. When he couldn’t find that model, he created it.
A Duck Club Built Around the Hunting
The foundation of Banded Drake Ranch started with a rare piece of heritage land.
The property had been owned by the Merrill family for more than a century and represented one of the last remaining pieces of a once-larger homestead in Fannin County. When Roseman first found it, only 136 acres remained, including a house and a natural marsh system.
After months of conversations, patience and timing that came together during the early days of COVID, the Merrill family agreed to sell Roseman the property. They also trusted his vision for what the land could become.
What followed was six years of development.
When Roseman took over, there were no blinds, no infrastructure and no real waterfowl system in place.
Today, Banded Drake Ranch includes:
- 26-plus strategically placed blinds
- Miles of levee systems
- Advanced water-control structures
- Soil-management programs
- Wild rice, millet and corn cultivation
- Prescribed burns to reset and improve habitat
The point wasn’t simply to create places to sit and shoot ducks. It was to build a managed waterfowl system that could hold birds consistently.
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How Banded Drake Ranch Built Its Waterfowl Habitat
Waterfowl habitat doesn’t come together overnight. Every decision made in spring can affect what happens in winter, and a serious mistake can cost a season.
Roseman and his team approached the land with a three- to five-year plan. They studied how birds moved, where they fed and how the property could be shaped to attract and hold ducks more consistently.
That long view matters. Good habitat isn’t just about flooding ground and hoping birds show up. It takes water control, food, cover, pressure management and the ability to adjust when the birds, weather or season don’t cooperate.
The result is more than a hunting property. It’s a managed system built for consistency.
The Chad Belding Connection
A major turning point came when Roseman reached out directly to Chad Belding. That contact eventually became one of the ranch’s most important partnerships.
Belding, best known for The Fowl Life, saw the potential quickly. Both men had roots in California’s elite duck club culture, and both understood what it takes to build a high-level waterfowl property.
That partnership brought credibility, but it also brought attention.
Banded Drake Ranch has hosted athletes, musicians and industry figures, including Dan Henderson, Chase Rice and former MLB All-Star Will Clark.
Still, the ranch isn’t trying to be famous just for the guest list. The bigger idea is to create a place where duck hunting, outdoor culture and private-club access naturally overlap.
Why Banded Drake Ranch Isn’t an Outfitter
This is where Banded Drake Ranch separates itself from most Texas hunting operations.
You can’t book a single hunt. You can’t simply show up with a license and pay a day rate.
Banded Drake Ranch is an equity-based membership club. Members buy into the property itself rather than paying for individual hunts.
The current model includes:
- A 5% ownership stake per share
- Access to more than 580 acres of managed land
- Full use of lodges, blinds and amenities
- Annual dues currently set at $24,000
That model is designed to solve a problem many modern hunters understand. Owning and managing land is expensive, time-consuming and complicated. Most hunters don’t have the time, staff or expertise to build and maintain a property like this.
Banded Drake Ranch offers members the experience of ownership without having to handle every part of development and daily management themselves.
READ MORE: Into the Blind: A Newbie's First Duck Hunt
The Business Model Behind Banded Drake Ranch
There’s also a business strategy behind the blinds.
Roseman isn’t only building a duck club. He’s building a property that can operate beyond duck season. In Texas, duck season is relatively short, which leaves much of the year available for other uses.
The plan is to make Banded Drake Ranch a year-round destination through:
- Corporate retreats
- Couples experiences
- Shooting and safety clinics
- Private events
The goal is to generate off-season revenue that can help reduce, or potentially eliminate, annual dues for members.
It’s a model that blends hunting, hospitality and private-club ownership, which is one reason the ranch is attracting buyers who want more than a traditional lease.
From Duck Club to Year-Round Destination
Membership pricing has already moved from early-adopter levels to $750,000 per 5% share, with the next round expected to increase to $1 million.
Part of that increase comes from the continued growth of the property.
What began as 136 acres has expanded to more than 580 acres through additional land acquisitions, infrastructure work and ongoing improvements.
For members who want to go further, the ranch also offers limited opportunities to build on-site. Available options include:
- Limited homesites
- Up to 40-by-80 lodge footprints
- Private, custom-designed spaces
Former MLB pitcher Justin Wilson is among the members building a lodge on the property, turning the ranch into more than a place to hunt ducks. For some members, it’s becoming a multi-generational retreat.
That’s where the model shifts from access to ownership and long-term use.
What Banded Drake Ranch Says About Modern Waterfowling
Banded Drake Ranch is more than a single duck club. It reflects a larger shift in the hunting world.
Access alone isn’t always enough anymore, especially for hunters who want consistency, privacy and a property that’s managed with a clear long-term plan. For those buyers, experience, ownership and lifestyle are becoming part of the same conversation.
Matt Roseman didn’t just build another Texas duck club. He built a model that combines waterfowl habitat, private access, real estate, hospitality and community.
The barrier to entry is high. That’s part of the design. But for members, the draw is clear: managed habitat, dependable access and a seat at the table in one of North Texas’ most talked-about waterfowl properties.
In a state known for big land and big hunting traditions, Banded Drake Ranch may represent a new chapter in private Texas duck hunting.