ahunter55,

You are absolutely correct about opening a can of worms. Just like the recurve bow vs compound bow or inline muzzleloader vz traditional muzzleloader or rifle vz pistol controversies, there is no one answer that will satisfy all of the parties involved. And does use of feeders, illegal in some parts of the country and heavily relied upon in others, reduce the trophy quality of the animal harvested? Each of us as individuals have to determine what is fair chase and what is not fair chase within our own personal set of ethics. Not one of us can judge another for the decisions we make. Now for me personally, I don’t have a problem with someone choosing to hunt on high fenced ranches as long as they are of adequate size and have enough cover to give the animals pursued a decent chance to evade the hunters. For example there is a ranch near Medina, TX that I absolutely refuse to hunt. It is only about 450 acres in size and all but a few trees around the 2 watering holes have been removed. This “hunting outfitter”, and I use the term very loosely here, normally has around 150 to 200 “exotic” rams and goats on the place at any one time. In my book this is not hunting. However, on the other hand I have hunted high fenced ranches that afford the animal plenty of territory and cover, thus giving them a fair chance to get away undetected. Some of these are the YO which covers over 70 square miles of prime hill country hunting territory. Others are the Greenwood Valley at 23+ sq mi, La Solana at 8+ sq mi, Ft. McKavitt at 54+ sq mi and the Forrest ranches at 6+ sq mi. There is nothing easy about hunting these ranches and I am proud of each and every trophy I harvested on them. Granted any high fence may make a ranch unattractive to some of us, irregardless of size, but there again, I think that this is an individual decision and not one for someone else to decide for me or you.



denvas