RockinU
New member
Well, I live in Texas, and I suppose we probably have more acreage under high fence than anywhere else (we pride ourselves on "going big"). While I've never personally hunted a high fence place, I have guided on a few, and have run my tracking dogs on a bunch, so while I'm not a definitive expert, it is something I know a little about.
Now I'm not going to lie, and tell you that all high fence hunting is just like any other hunting, or any of that, but I will tell you that with the exception of some pen raised deer operations it's harder hunting than you think. Well fed deer are often hard to get on in daylight. I know of a deer who escaped a small enclosure into a 105 acre pasture that is nasty thick. They tried for 3 years to dart that deer so they could put him up. Then they decided to just kill him...never happened. They could get trail cam pics of him, and could spotlight him, but that was the only way they could see him. He died at age 9 from something other than a projectile induced hole.
There are also some pretty big places down here where a whole bunch of the deer don't have a clue they are high fenced, as they've never seen the boundary of the ranch. In those cases the fence just doesn't have anything to do with the hunt...so is it less than fair chase? I don't know...
I've seen the arguments about why people high fence forever. Some claim its simple greed, wanting to keep all the good bucks to themselves, or ego, wanting to grow huge Frankenstein bucks, and there probably is some of that. There are also other reasons, like the guy who scrapes and saves to buy a section, does all the right things as far as habitat management, and makes a financial commitment to maintaining a healthy deer population. Yet year after year he sees a maturity skewed less than healthy population because each of the 4 50 acre "ranchettes" that boarder him have 4 deer stands and are shooting 10-12 deer each. He can either continue to toil in futility, or he can consider fencing, and thus remove a variable that is effecting his success.
High fence deer don't really blow my whistle, and when showing off the deer I've shot, I'm likely to mention that they are all low fence/no protein, but I also don't think they are ruining deer hunting, or are evil, and everyone who high fences is a greedy, shady no good cheater either. It's just different...
Now I'm not going to lie, and tell you that all high fence hunting is just like any other hunting, or any of that, but I will tell you that with the exception of some pen raised deer operations it's harder hunting than you think. Well fed deer are often hard to get on in daylight. I know of a deer who escaped a small enclosure into a 105 acre pasture that is nasty thick. They tried for 3 years to dart that deer so they could put him up. Then they decided to just kill him...never happened. They could get trail cam pics of him, and could spotlight him, but that was the only way they could see him. He died at age 9 from something other than a projectile induced hole.
There are also some pretty big places down here where a whole bunch of the deer don't have a clue they are high fenced, as they've never seen the boundary of the ranch. In those cases the fence just doesn't have anything to do with the hunt...so is it less than fair chase? I don't know...
I've seen the arguments about why people high fence forever. Some claim its simple greed, wanting to keep all the good bucks to themselves, or ego, wanting to grow huge Frankenstein bucks, and there probably is some of that. There are also other reasons, like the guy who scrapes and saves to buy a section, does all the right things as far as habitat management, and makes a financial commitment to maintaining a healthy deer population. Yet year after year he sees a maturity skewed less than healthy population because each of the 4 50 acre "ranchettes" that boarder him have 4 deer stands and are shooting 10-12 deer each. He can either continue to toil in futility, or he can consider fencing, and thus remove a variable that is effecting his success.
High fence deer don't really blow my whistle, and when showing off the deer I've shot, I'm likely to mention that they are all low fence/no protein, but I also don't think they are ruining deer hunting, or are evil, and everyone who high fences is a greedy, shady no good cheater either. It's just different...
