I just have to vent!

[Fiftydriver]

Roll-Yur-Own,

I agree with you, there are wide differences in different ranches. Animals that are human fed up until the time the customers show up to shoot them is hardly a challange. Hell they probably think the guys are coming to feed them.

Those animals that have lived in a large encloser and had humans chase them day in and day out are a much different story.

Lumping all hunting ranches into one catagory is not wise, just as everything, there are differences in all things, in high fence hunting ranches, the differnces can be STARK!!!

I would agree with your thoughts.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[stxhunter]

my problem with high fenceing a ranch is in the state of texas the game animals belong to the state( the peaple of the state) thats why i said the state should remove the native animals and the land owner can restock with the ones he buys from a breeder why should he profit from the game thats supposed to be for the rest of us to have a chance at. what if you own a 500 acre ranch and all your nieghbors decide to high fence their property and the aniamals are no longer allowed free movement

 

[eddybo]

I hear what your saying about releasing "tame" animals...but that probably isnt what is happening at that ranch. (I think I saw that episode)
Most ranch owners who run breeding programs keep small pens where breeder bucks are kept(usually under an acre but they may have 50 of them). The breeder bucks dont do anything other than eat and have semen drawn for artificial insimination and wait for the rut when the owners throw like 20 captured wild estrus does in with them.
Not all the captured wild does are insiminated and some do not take. This large group of does are turned into these big pens (sometimes like 80 acres or more) with the "cover bucks".(cover bucks have superior genetics but have not come quite to the level of breeder bucks) If the does didnt take from being placed in the breeder buck pens or AI, then the "cover" bucks take care of business when they cycle back in. During the spring the captured does are released back into the main enclosure. The fawns although benefitting from the improved genetics are not "tamed."
There are usually "proven" does that are kept in captivity year round.(proven does are usually the offspring of great sires and does that have produced breeder bucks) The "proven" does provide the future breeder and "cover" bucks. It is pretty rare for a breeder buck to be returned to the main enclosure...they are too valuable for the services they provide. Deer breeding and sales are big business. You can sell a live animal for more than most hunters would pay to shoot them. If they are returned to the enclosure they will probably be ear tagged and off limits to hunters.
Like these forums where it is sometime hard to get context from the written word you only get limited information from television. I think you saw either breeder pens or the "cover" buck enclosure and mistook it for the main enclosure, but then again I may be wrong and it may just be a canned hunting operation. Do not be down on a high fenced ranch just because they have a breeding program. In the ranch where I have done most of my hunting behind high fence the animals are just as wild or even wilder than free ranging animals because of the lack of exposure to people. They get used to the feeder truck running about once a month, and the tractors planting plots, but any other intrusion drives them into the thickets. During deer season bucks are often taken that no one even knew was there, not even a game cam pic. Also bucks that have been seen all year just dissapear not to be seen again until after season.

 

[Wildcatter]

Where I live, I see deer in peoples backyards and they don't even run. They're just not afraid. I've seen deer in high fenced ranches that are are fearful of humans as they can be.

I agree that not all high fencing means canned hunt. Like R.Y.O. said, breeding or purchasing animals is usually a giveaway. Perhaps, captive breeding doesn't automatically mean canned hunt, but I think its the borderline of the debate. I just can't believe a captive breed animal can be totally wild.

 

[blackco]

Oh heck, I'll jump in on this too.


It sounds like we all agree that "canned" hunts don't count as hunting. I have also used the annalogy that "hunting" inside a pen is like shooting my friends free-ranging cattle. Only the cattle are cheeper and there is more meat. BUT! the absence of a fence doesn't mean fair-chase either. My dad was asked to "guide" for "fair-chase" elk in Oregon, he declined when he learned how it all worked. The client paid $5000 to hunt plus $1000 per point; agreed upon before the hunt. Elk matching what was agreed are bought from a breeder and taken to the ranch. They are penned in a tiny enclosure with plenty of food and water for a week or two. Then they are moved a short distance to a different pen where there is NO FOOD OR WATER for a few days. On the morning of the big hunt the client is put in a position overlooking "where a big bull has been seen traveling every morning heading back to his bedding area." Unknown to the hunter, the hungry/thirsty bull is relaesed from it's pen and heads for the only place it knows about for food and water, straight past the hunter. All the hunter knows is that he got the best guide in the world and had a great hunt; hand shakes and tips all around.

Whenever there is big money to be made or big egos to be boosted, people are going to find ways to cheat and scam.How about the computer hunting that was banned all over?