My opinion: Some of the high fence, high dollar, game ranch type of places are NOT really true, get-down-and-dirty, types of hunting. I mean, what - do they put a leash on a pen raised deer and parade it around in front of you?

The way I look at it, outfitters are okay, as long as they are fair chase with no huge 20' fences and so on.

The other thing is that (in my case), if you don't have your own secret little place on private land, you end up having to compete with 9000 other hunters on public land on WMA's and state forests. It gets rough and tough out there and the deer just seem to "know" when opening day is. I washed my hands of hunting WMA's here in Virginia when the last time I went out to one, I just kept seeing this parade of blaze orange out there! [:@] The deer (if there were any there to begin with ) were totally nocturnal and/or spooked out of the area, never to be seen again. This is my 3rd year of consistently being skunked, and I am really considering looking into an good reputable outfitter.

Butch A.