Originally Posted by
Timbrhuntr
I have never hunted one either and I never would but I used to hunt in Texas with a buddy for turkey and he took me around to look at some of the high fence operations. Just amazing the money they must have in fencing alone . I agree with rockport as an outfitter on a free range whitetail hunt wouldn't it be great to guarantee a kill on a huge buck especially since you know the buck or bucks is there and can't leave ever ! I watched a hunting show once where they were hunting a couple huge mature whitetails with a crossbow and they bumped these two bucks several times but still kept seeing them and even in daylight. I thought man those bucks must be different than where I hunt as one bump and I'd never see them again especially in daylight. well at the end of the show they gave the name of the outfitter so I looked it up and guess what high fence. Also there is a good book by a Michigan biologist on a deer study they did over many years where they kept deer in a mile and a half enclosure to study. Well they knew everything about every deer in that enclosure !
I've also read about a study where something like a mile square enclosure was fenced off and they collared a buck and turned a hunters loose and it took them hours and hours to even see the deer. It's been a long time ago since I read that article, but if I remember right someone finally did kill the buck but it took a long time. they knew where the buck was at all times and many times the hunters would be within a few yards of the buck and they never saw him.
I've hunted Northern Alberta twice. Up there the bush is so dense in places you can't see 15 feet and it goes on and on and on for miles and miles. It's hard to envision if you haven't seen it. I've driven through Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Manitoba, and of course, it's the same there. I'm willing to bet if 1,000 acres of that area was fenced off and some deer were turned loose, a hunter would have a very, very tough time killing one of those deer, but from what I've seen on tv most "estate hunts" are conducted in much more open habitat and they are baited.