Can Someone Please Explain The Attraction Of Hunting Fenced Animals?

[Mark37082]

Another interesting thread here. Perspectives can change as life goes by. I chose not to judge others as long as they are following the laws and regulations. If someone gave me the opportunity to hunt a HF property, I'm probably packing my gear. Some of my acquaintances were very wealthy and hunted around the world. They spent more $$$$$ on hunts and taxidermy fees than I have probably made in my lifetime. Am I a bit envious of some of their adventures, but I'm not impressed by their trophies taken at some of the game ranches. I stopped measuring a good hunt by the quality of animal harvested. At this point a good hunt is simply being out the woods with the ever present anticipation of an opportunity to put my shooting practice and hunting skills to the test.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

same reason someone sees prostitutes... easy pickins...

Actually, prostitutes would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

Just kidding. LOL

 

[CMP70306]

Just wondering the appeal of hunting an animal that, in the final analysis, and if you`re persistent enough, can`t escape. Or at least it seems that way to me. Then again, in the interest of honesty, I`ve never done it. Closest thing to that I`ve done is " hunting" put, pen raised quail. Did it only once. Felt like shooting chickens. One guy actually beat one to death with his cap!

For me I've done two for big game and more recently some put and take chukars.

The first was a wild boar hunt on a 200 acre property when I was 13, it was fun as a kid but I have zero interest going back as it just doesn't appeal to me anymore. They had a bunch of different animals on this place and it was pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel. Plus the clientele left much to be desired, between the guy shooting a box of shells with a slug gun at rams 200+ yards away, the 10 year old that shot a bison multiple times with a 20 gauge that didn't even look injured, the cop that shot multiple mags of 9mm at a boar and the guy who accidentally hit the water buffalo in the femoral artery with a bow as it chased them around the woods I can only imagine what else I missed or don't remember from that day.

The second was a bison in 2022, this was spot and stalk on a 4,000 acre property in Nebraska, I had a bunch of fun and would absolutely do it again. The hunt was challenging, the bison were only interacted with when they were hunted so they were wary of people. I was limited to 150 yards with my Sharps and the bison got skittish if anyone got within 300 yards of them. To me it was the closest I could get to hunting wild bison without the multi decade wait/ missed opportunity for a non resident bison tag. This trip also gave me the opportunity to go on my first bird hunt over dogs which was a mix of wild and released pheasant hunting several cedar hedgerows.

The last and most recent is pen raised birds, I am in the process of raising a bird dog and in PA we lost the majority of our wild birds decades ago. As a result pen raised chukars and pheasants on either a game farm or stocked by the PGC are pretty much my only option outside of taking a week long vacation to South Dakota. Since I can do 6 half day hunts or buy a 120 birds over the season to release on our property for the cost of that trip those would be my best options.

So for me personally it really depends on the quality of the hunt, I have no interest in hunting animals dumped into a tiny space with nowhere to run but given several thousand acres to roam and it makes the hunt much more enjoyable.

 

[Victor3Ranger1]

View attachment 592273
$5000 hunt, best wild game you'll ever eat! 22 cal allowed!

Moooooove over I be there in a minute

 

[26Reload]

Actually, prostitutes would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

Just kidding. LOL

Where?

 

[hesse]

The old statement good fences make good neighbors.my buddy has a nice piece of ground. The problem is there is a 60 acre peace that is a hunt club wooded that butts up to his property that a part of it is his 160 acre woods we know there is a lot of people sliding in to his property from the hunt club . we have 12 acres of clover 7 acres of corn and 2 of turnips going in shortly. That is why they slip on to his property. Not to mention his other ag crops he grows for cattle and sheep and hogs. We may do a survey and put up 10 ft woven wire on the 2 sides where the property meet the animals can walk around to the open sides it just keeps people out of his property . So I guess what I am saying is you do you enjoy what ever u want as long as it is legal and try to enter it into a record book.

 

[Turkeytider]

The old statement good fences make good neighbors.my buddy has a nice piece of ground. The problem is there is a 60 acre peace that is a hunt club wooded that butts up to his property that a part of it is his 160 acre woods we know there is a lot of people sliding in to his property from the hunt club . we have 12 acres of clover 7 acres of corn and 2 of turnips going in shortly. That is why they slip on to his property. Not to mention his other ag crops he grows for cattle and sheep and hogs. We may do a survey and put up 10 ft woven wire on the 2 sides where the property meet the animals can walk around to the open sides it just keeps people out of his property . So I guess what I am saying is you do you enjoy what ever u want as long as it is legal and try to enter it into a record book.

No problem whatsoever fencing out people! Lack of respect for others people`s property is why one can no longer go up to the house, ask for permission, and hunt. When I was growing up if you had told me that I would have to pay to hunt ANYTHING I would have looked at you like you were nuts!

 

[osok-1k]

I photographed whitetails on a high fenced ranch near Junction, Texas a few years ago in exchange for a Red Stag hunt. They had 3,000 acres of high and cross fenced property containing 1500 acres for whitetail and 1500 acres for exotics. They raised and managed everything on the ranch with some some 300 plus Boone & Crockett whitetails. The experience was all of the things many open range hunters despise. There is no skill involved, they pick you up at the Junction airport, bring you to the ranch, bring your luggage in for you, check your rifle, watch you confirm zero at their range, wake you up in the morning, feed you breakfast, drive you to a stand with what they call a "guide" who identifies the deer you chose from the catalog (which I photographed) and the animals are so regulated as to when the feeder goes off and when water troughs are filled it doesn't take long before the unsuspecting critter steps up to the plate. The client is walked through the shot, makes the kill, goes back to the lodge as the hands retrieve the animal and begin to process it. Then the client packs his belongings, is taken to the airport and goes home. If the client wants the meat, they process that and prep the head and hide for mounting and ship it all to the client when it's finished. About 30k for a 300 class whitetail at that time, at least ten years ago. Remember that it's business and many of these clients are Doctors, attorneys and other wealthy folks who don't have or want the skills involved in real "hunting". They are content to be catered to and don't mind paying for it as long as they can brag about this great expedition they were on and what it took to bag this huge rack as they sip their 21 year old Speyside Scotch with their "friends" and impress themselves.

I hope it is apparent that this is not my idea of hunting, I suppose it has it's place as it is much of what things have become (although not quite to the degree I described). Sadly, high fenced or lease property hunting with substantial stands and feeders is for the most part, what's available in Texas and with all of the yankees (most anyone who is not a native born Texan) and people from California moving here and buying large tracts of land, I don't see it getting any better soon.

 

[Mike6158]

I hope it is apparent that this is not my idea of hunting, I suppose it has it's place as it is much of what things have become (although not quite to the degree I described). Sadly, high fenced or lease property hunting with substantial stands and feeders is for the most part, what's available in Texas and with all of the yankees (most anyone who is not a native born Texan) and people from California moving here and buying large tracts of land, I don't see it getting any better soon.

It is and I feel about the same. I was born in Odessa. My mom's side of the family settled all over TX way before there were cars. I drive quite a bit, by choice, can't stand commercial cattle carriers, I mean airlines, and I try to stay off of the interstate when I travel. Driving the FM roads I see a lot of high fencing and evidence of "people moving to paradise" all over central TX. I also see a general decline of west TX towns as people die off or move away. Lot's of big ugly fans, most of the time not spinning. Lots of oilfield activity. I work in that business and the reality is, petrochemicals rule modern society. If it stops, so does everything else. Even so, it's pretty sad...

The Eagleford boom made a mess of the Gulf coast too. There are way too many houses built on wetlands down at Rockport, Port Aransas, and Ingleside. That'll make for a lot of trash in the GOM some day. The boom(s) made a mess of the land situation in general. And now we have "migrants" <-- not, and "other folks" coming. Back on topic,

I hunted a ranch, one section, high fenced in by his neighbors, not far from San Angelo a long time ago. Two of us hunted up on a bluff that looked down on a creek after we hunted our morning "stand" hunt. Morning and evening, we hunted stands that looked over sendero's. And of course there were stands with feeders.

The ranch fencing formed funnels that made it easy to push the cows into the main corral. The owners house was on the opposite bluff and looked over the creek. They had moved away from cattle ranching long before I hunted there but it was interesting to see how they did it back in the day. I doubt if it looks like that today.

Day 1, they put me in a stand on a sendero. All I had to do was watch the game trails on three sides. There was a fence about 100 yards in front of me and at the time I didn't know for sure that the property on the other side was theirs. I wasn't there long when a really nice buck walked down the trail on the other side of the fence. This was before cell phones. I carried my DSLR camera but only brought a 70-200mm lens. The 600 f4 was too much to deal with. I got some photos of the buck but didn't shoot it. Later, when I told them about it and showed the photos they were pretty excited. They had an 8 point or better rule and didn't cull anything so their herd was getting kind of thin due to others high fencing them in. The deer I saw was a high wide 10 point (we count all of the "points" in TX). I thought, cool, I'll get to hunt the same place tomorrow. Nope, they saved that spot for someone that would pay more.

Day 2, finally getting to the point, I was put on a stand with a feeder about 100 yards away. At a few minutes before 7am a few does stepped out and I kid you not, they stared at the feeder where the corn spinner is. Clearly they knew what time breakfast was served. A few more came out and did the same thing. By the time the feeder went off there was a ring of bucks (all 8 point or less) and does, some coons, some crows, etc. around the feeder. It was like a cartoon. Corn was bouncing off of them as they vacuumed it up. Granted... there was a drought and "normal" food was scarce but man... having to hunt a feeder is one thing, hunting a feeder in a zoo was a special kind of disappointing.

Day 3, We hunted that morning and planned to leave at noon. I had developed some good loads for the rifle I was using. We could shoot a doe, I wanted meat, we paid to play, so I took my first ever 300 yard shot with a .308. She made a little circle then fell over. That was somewhat satisfying, sort of.

It was an interesting ranch from a historical perspective, the hunt wasn't all that expensive, the food was good, living quarters were "rustic" but comfortable, the people were great, I never went back. I can harvest meat from my back yard if I want to.

 

[RWE]

View attachment 592273
$5000 hunt, best wild game you'll ever eat! 22 cal allowed!

Man, I never thought of fenced range hunting but you have my gears churning!!!! I think I would go .22MAG though!

 

[FEENIX]

Actually, prostitutes would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

Yep!

 

[nksmfamjp]

View attachment 592273
$5000 hunt, best wild game you'll ever eat! 22 cal allowed!

That trophy fee seems a bit high, huh?

 

[Revolting Peasant]

I've hunted high fence. If it's a big enough property, it's not an issue for me. Not really my preference, but it is the future in Texas it appears.
Right now I hunt low fence. There are high fences all around our area.
Side benefit in Texas, exotics are considered livestock. Property of the landowner. If they get loose without a specific identifier like an ear tag etc. there is no proof of ownership, free range time.
There are lots of high dollar exotics escape on a regular basis. It's like the lottery every time you go hunting! In our area there are elk, red stag, eland, oryx, Damas gazelle, and other in addition to the standard axis, sika, blackbuck that are established breeding populations.
And before some folks complain about invasive species, remember, honey bees, cattle, and horses are also technically invasives.

 

[Mike D Texas]

I photographed whitetails on a high fenced ranch near Junction, Texas a few years ago in exchange for a Red Stag hunt. They had 3,000 acres of high and cross fenced property containing 1500 acres for whitetail and 1500 acres for exotics. They raised and managed everything on the ranch with some some 300 plus Boone & Crockett whitetails. The experience was all of the things many open range hunters despise. There is no skill involved, they pick you up at the Junction airport, bring you to the ranch, bring your luggage in for you, check your rifle, watch you confirm zero at their range, wake you up in the morning, feed you breakfast, drive you to a stand with what they call a "guide" who identifies the deer you chose from the catalog (which I photographed) and the animals are so regulated as to when the feeder goes off and when water troughs are filled it doesn't take long before the unsuspecting critter steps up to the plate. The client is walked through the shot, makes the kill, goes back to the lodge as the hands retrieve the animal and begin to process it. Then the client packs his belongings, is taken to the airport and goes home. If the client wants the meat, they process that and prep the head and hide for mounting and ship it all to the client when it's finished. About 30k for a 300 class whitetail at that time, at least ten years ago. Remember that it's business and many of these clients are Doctors, attorneys and other wealthy folks who don't have or want the skills involved in real "hunting". They are content to be catered to and don't mind paying for it as long as they can brag about this great expedition they were on and what it took to bag this huge rack as they sip their 21 year old Speyside Scotch with their "friends" and impress themselves.

I hope it is apparent that this is not my idea of hunting, I suppose it has it's place as it is much of what things have become (although not quite to the degree I described). Sadly, high fenced or lease property hunting with substantial stands and feeders is for the most part, what's available in Texas and with all of the yankees (most anyone who is not a native born Texan) and people from California moving here and buying large tracts of land, I don't see it getting any better soon.

There are certainly operations like that. However in my experience on the HF ranches I have hunted only the young animals come to the feeders like that and the does. I've gone on hunts for does knowing full well that I was going on a meat shoot, and I was fine with that.

However, for the couple of game species that I have shot for antlers have been a completely different hunt even on the same ranch. Typically spot and stalk or safari style and you have to be on your game. They don't hang around and pose for you to shoot. You need to be proficient at snap shooting and sometimes at longer distance.