I've been reading this thread from the start and there will never be an end to the difference of opinions. I can see both sides of the fence. I was raised in Connecticut and learned to hunt there,( shotgun only I'm a bow rookie). I know what it is like to hunt high pressure public land. And that includes here in Tx. Last year for the first time I managed to get on a private lease. The lease is pretty small, 300 acres with 2 people besides me hunting it. I love it.....But I would love to hunt one of the many quality large ranches in south Tx. I know guys that spend what I consider exorbitant amounts to hunt these ranches. I just can't afford a hunt like that. I'm an electrician, blue collar as it gets and I've heard of $25,000. trophy fees. Way out of my league and that of most hunterts I know.
Now that I've said I'd like to hunt one of those ranches I want to make clear that I want to HUNT the ranch. I don't want to be taken to a stand and told to sit down and wait until my trophy comes along. To me that would be shooting not hunting. I would like, no, love the opportunity to scout and pattern deer, choose stand or blind locations and then ,if my work paid off harvest a 160 class or better deer off of one of these ranches.
I don't want to make any enemies but I'm not sure some of you understand just how much land is involved on some of these large ranches. They are massive! That said I'll just flipflop again! To the best of my knowledge none of the land owners near my lease high fence and I'm grateful for that because the place is so small it really matters. Deer travel from one property to another. But then this is east Tx. South Tx is a whole different critter.