red river

Julia, my computer has been down for a few days, sorry for the delay. Your price for the hunt seems too good to be true. Most reputable outfits generally charge a daily rate of about $250 plus a trophy fee. On a good large ranch where the game is wild you will need at least 3 days to get a blackbuck and a ram with a bow. Just be careful of cheap hunts, you will get what you pay for. The guy I hunt with is great and has very large ranches where the game breeds, has offspring and lives in a very natural environment unlike other places that resemble petting zoos. Check him out at www.rynohunting.com

Tim Buma

I have never felt comfortable with the concept of "Penned Game", and have never hunted other than fair chase. However I have taken out hunters on short time frame, that have needs for a certain type of trophy and are willing to pay.
And they go home with a great "Wall-Hanger", and maybe some sort of story to go with it!! Often trophies that I would only dream about taking by "Fair Chase"
The game ranch industry is big business down here, employs a lot of good people, and has opened an economic land use, for land that would otherwise be not much good for anything else. So I see it as a positive.
However the result is that you have two teirs of "Trophies" the big high-scoring even/perfect trophies, that have been purpose bred for the industry and the "Wild" fair chase trophy, that will never compete in score, or any other parameter. (Unless someone is incredibly lucky.)
Only a discerning hunter will distinguish the difference.
Personally I will never a berate a trophy on size, score, looks etc.
As every "Trophy" carries the hunters individual experience in obtaining it.
I think we will all have an ugly old head or tanned hide, that wouldn't rate a mention in any record book, but to us represents an awesome day in the hills, or a huge test of endurance, or maybe just the day we got lucky.
Still those ranchs fill a niche, and some do it very well.

SOUTHERN MAN.
"GO HARD OR STAY HOME"

ahunter55

We just booked a 4 day exotic/boar archery hunt. I have researched these day ranches for about a year now & found some good quality hunting places-not canned hunts.
Go to TexasBowhunting.com & go to Rate The Day Lease. You post your questions & someone from the area will usually respond. I narrowed my search down to TWO. Carta Valley in south Texas & Sweetwater Creek in the N.E. corner. High marks on both from many Texas hunters but booked with Sweetwater cause it's 8 hours closer for us. I am going to be making a video of our hunt-my son hunts 4 days I film & then I hunt 4 days he films. I want this to be a Informational video for people to use as a guide when selecting such a hunt. I will let you know how we do under The bowhunting forum when we return in Feb.
Since I started my search-I have found other very good reputable places (not canned hunts) and not Bill Jordan $3500 hunts. If this goes good we plan on other hunts to other ranches to check out the Whitetail & Turkey hunting.
Check out the Texasbowhunting.com site.
It is a good source of ranch hunting..

always thankful

Deleted User

[Deleted by Admins]

Blackhawk357

BullHunter,

I'm with you, and I need to correct MTHunter. Montana has not made game farms illeagal, we have put a moratorium on any NEW game farms. There are many fully fuctional and legal game farms in operation today in Montana.

The reason that I did not vote for the measure that placed the moratorium on game farms is that I hold a strong belief in Private Property Rights. Now, with those rights come many responsabilities. I have absolutly no problem with holding the property holders responsable for their actions if they cause damage, but to simply say that they can no longer make a living on their land, I feel, is wrong.

GAHUNTER

Just what are you guys calling a "ranch hunt"? I think you are confusing high-fenced operations with working ranches. There is a huge difference.

A high-fence ranch is really a game farm where the game is contained behind the fence. Depending on the amount of land, these hunts can range from fair chase to downright slaughter -- and everything in between.

A working ranch hunt out west is simply a cattle, sheep or other agricultural operation that offers hunting on their property for whatever native game happens to reside or migrate there. The only advantage the hunter has over public land is that there is usually much less competition for the game on hand. Also, ranches tend to have an abundance of game because they offer what wildlife needs most -- food -- in the form of agricultural plantings. This is the type of operation I hunt on in Colorado and have yet to strike out. This type of ranch hunting is very fair chase, albiet at times there seems to be so much game on hand as to make it seem like you have an unfair advantage.

Just what kind of ranch was the original question referring to?

stealthycat

" Hunt wild boar, deer, sheep, goat, turkey, buffalo, elk and more on the largest hunting preserve in the east with guaranteed hunts. "

Black Boar (Russian) ,European Boar ,Wild Goat,Turkey, Rocky Mt. Ram, Corsican Ram, Pure Mouflon, Texas Dall Ram, Sika Deer, Elk, Black Hawaiian, Fallow Deer, Buffalo, White Tail Deer


Those are the animals on the Tioga Ranch. 14 species of game animals listed. If there wer 10 of each, thats 140 animals spread on 1500 acres. 1 animal per 10 acres. If only 20 % of the places were fields, it'd be a safe bet you could see animals all the time. In my opinion, thats not really hunting wild animals - it falls more under shooting animals that are in a high fenced enclosure.

You can do it, its legal, but I don't think its really hunting like hunting should be.

MThunter

Thank you for the correction Black hawk and I would like to say that the reason I singled Bullhunter out was because he specifically asked why Montana put a freeze on new game farms. I agree that a person should be able to do what they wish with their own land with one exception: If that practice jepordizes others by doing so. A person would not be able to grow disease ridden cattle that could infect other cattle and the same should be for any captive animal including elk. The captive elk, in my opinion, posed a real threat to the common good of hunting in Montana. My problem is that the owners of these organizations are advertising SOME of these places as a true hunting experience. I have hunted many places around the state (including Forsyth) and I just can not understand how people can shoot something in a pen and call it hunting when there are some many other places around the state and outfitters that could use the business.

Howler

The "so called hunts" that crack me up, is when the amount you pay is in direct proportion to the size of the antlers.I recently seen an add for white tail "hunts", ranging from $1500 to $20,000.Now who the heck is paying $20,000 for a deer, that's flat stupid, but shows that theere is a market for "canned" hunts!Not for me, a doe or two for the price of the tag will work just fine, thank you very much, oh and throw in the possibility of getting a shot at a good buck, where the deer are free to cross any fence they please!

Robb92

I'VE NEVER BEEN ON ONE AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL, BUT ITS YOUR CHOICE AND IF YOU WANT TO DO IT GO FOR IT, BUT DO YOUR HOME WORK AND YOU'LL DO FINE