RE: Elk Ranches...
Stealthy, having spent more than two months in the field, huntingin Zimbabwe and Botswana, your scenario is one I feel I can answer with some experience. All of my African hunting has been from tent camps on completely wild and open concessions. Not only were there no fences, there weren't many roads where I've hunted, either. That said, I think that many African hunting operations where they have high fences are plenty fair chase. Most of the high fenced operations are in South Africa, from what I've learned, and most of those properties are thousands or tens of thousands of acres in size. I have no doubt that they can hunt in a fair chase manner on large properties that are fenced around the perimeter. The primary reason they fence their properties, from what I understand, is to keep the game on their property, and with many thousands of acres, the animals are easily able to avoid the hunters. I'd have no problem with hunting on many of those properties, though I've never done it. I would not be inclined to hunt on a property with high fences that was anything less than thousands of acres but probably never will as I really love the experience of tent camping in the wild where you have leopards and other creatures of the night come through camp while you're sleeping. At various times, we've had lions in camp (they ransacked our kitchen while we all huddled in our tents), leopard tracks around the campfire in the morning when we got up for a cup of tea before heading out; an elephant that blocked our path between sections of a camp one time; as well as having the heck scared out of us by a cape buffalo bull that we surprised as we waked through some brush just 50 yards from our tents one time. That's the Africa that I love, and why I've chosenhunts where I can tent camp in the wild.