Rangers had to eat and sleep, liked to have a drink and chased women on occasion, and a few were thrown out of the force for excessive fondness for some or all of these habits. A ration was the amount of each of these items an individual Ranger would consume in one day, and the company orderly sergeant was required each month to write out a list of how much was on hand of each item. There was some variation in the rations issued the companies because the quartermaster could not always find every authorized item in each company location. Although the Rangers did not have a very varied diet, it was not bad for the time and probably better than most people on the frontier, who ate what they could grow or hunt. Many of the staple items were hard to find away from the settlements, and the Rangers often swapped surplus flour, rice and sugar for fresh milk and eggs and butter.
Many accounts mention the ease of finding wild game and fish.
At times the Rangers would camp near pecan groves or in an area where they could find wild honey. These natural supplements to their diet were always welcome and often vital on long scouts when supplies ran low. D. W. Roberts' Company in camp, ca 1878. 1999, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. The canvas tents which the state furnished as the basic Ranger shelter worked well enough in warm months, but the bitter weather in North Texas required special winter quarters, generally log huts or cabins depending on how much timber was available.