"I dont fence deer in, I fence bad neighbors out"


This is a statement made by the ranch foreman of one of the Briscoe ranches in south Texas. The Briscoe family is the largest private land owners in the state, they own well over 1 million acres in Texas alone. The reason why I posted this is because I wanted to show you that high fencing a ranch is done for several different reasons. I have a friend who owns 5,000 acres. He high fenced the west side of his ranch, about 2 miles, because the ranch on that side sold off about 200 acres of land. The people who bought it put up 12 deer stands, 10 deer feeders, and started selling day hunts. As soon as a deer would jump the fence from my friends ranch onto this other place, it was shot. My friends family has owned their ranch for a long time, and they had a management program for years. But after that neighbor shot over 20 bucks after one season, my friend got tired of it and had an 8 foot fence erected. Which solved that problem.

Another reason why high fences are put up is because the rancher does not want other deer coming onto there ranch. If a rancher wants a 1:1 buck to doe ratio then a high fence should be put up. You dont always have to put up a high fence to keep a 1:1 ratio, but if you dont then you better be ready to kill a high percentage of does each and every year. Which after a while starts to turn into a pain in the butt.

But by far the #1 reason why high fences are erected is because of game management reasons. Deer management is huge, especially down here in s. Texas. But around here most high fenced ranches are 5,000+ acres, so when your talking about an area as big as this, the high fence dosent come into play when your hunting.