timbercruiser

I have a tract of land I manage that is approximately 4 miles by 3 miles in size, about 7,000 acres. It isn't fenced, but I would bet you could hunt on it for the entire season all day, every day and you wouldn't have much success unless you baited or took every adavantage you could. It is basically 100% pine thickets you can't see over20 yards in unless you are on aroad. A fence around a tract that size wouldn't make any difference to your hunting succcess.

APRock

I guess I kind of look at it this way....When you have high fences around an area, you have a captive population of larger game. You KNOW the animals are in there and within some set distancefrom you dependant only on the size and shape of the enclosed area. Now, sure, there are some extremes where one could say it doesn't make a whole lot of difference like your 50,000 acre ranches in Texaswhere animals may be many many miles away from you. But for most game farms that I have heard of, you are dealing with captive and contained animals with limited area to get or stay away from you. It just ain't hunting to me. Hunting to me is when you do EVERYTHING right - scout, set up, camo, scent, all that stuff, and STILL run a significant risk of coming up empty handed.

Lanse couche couche

I would be interested in knowing how many large (say 1000 or more acres) ranches/farms are actually high fenced in a manner that completely contains deer. Or, in terms of costs and effort is it something that is actually onlyan issue withmuch smaller operations?

Champlain Islander

My take on fair chase is that the deer aren't hampered by something man made if they are trying to flee. Deer can jump a barbed wire fence, stone wall or cross a road. They can't jump over or go under a high fence designed to keep them in. Enclose several thousand acres in a high fence is different than creating a 40 acre penned area to confine deer. I personally won't hunt behind a high fence but to those that are on a vast Texas ranch I don't really have a problem. Fair chase is also a personal thing. Some people, for instance, won't shoot a grouse on the ground, ducks not deeking into decoys, rabbits not in front of a dog etc. We all have personal morals and ethics as well as a feeling about what is fair. When the doc said "to thine own self be true" is fitting. We all set our own standards.

kevin1

Fair chase is pretty self explanatory , canned killing ain't fair chase .

TXhighrack

In most of the US I would say yes mainly because the size of private land is generallymade up of small places. In this area of the country, south Texas, the average high fence ranch is generally between 2,500 and 10,000 acres in size.Most high fenced ranches are going to fall somewhere between those numbers. But I know of many ranches that are much larger then that. For example there is a 125,000 acre ranch not to far from our place that is almost totally high fenced and theirneighbor is a40,000 acre ranch that is completley high fenced.

Actually deer can jump a high fence, but more common then that is a deer who actually runs through the high fence.

Lanse couche couche

125K acres!!! I wouldn't mind having just the money that it takes to fence it. Thanks for the info.

TXhighrack

The family owns another ranch out by laredo that is 85,000 that they have had for many years. They made their money in oil & gas and about 8-10 years ago they bought the 125,000 acre ranch 2 counties over......