Jim Przybyla

I would do it just to try it. If you don't like it, don't do it again. You've got to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. You may NEVER get a chance like this again. Like txhunter 58 stated: if you do go, tell us how & what you felt, good or bad, and how you did.

TREEDOG

do it.

http://kyhunter.proboards10.com/index.cgi

texastracker

OK I have to put in my 2 cents I have hunted on high and low fances ranches and I can tell you a ranch that size is no cake walk and as far as feeders go you will see alot of deer after they go off but you will not see the big boys only young deer looking for a free meal.The big boys are too smart to eat at the feeders durring the day.Thay will only hit the feeders at night,thats why they are the big boys.Pabol I will be happy to take you up on the offer to cone down to south texas.I live in Wimberley and hunt the hill country.Bgidd2280 go for it you will not be disappointed.

TxCowboy

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote> i do not believe in high fences. even with 10,000 acres you know pretty much where te deer will be. you have to ask your self the question,&quot;when the deer get to the end of this property, can they keep running free or does the fence turn them around?&quot; if they can not keep running it is not fair chase. if they are turned around by the fence then they are penned up. makes no difference how big the pen is, it is still a pen if they can not get out<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

Dep214, I mean no offense but that statement is almost silly. No matter how big the pen is, it's not fair chase? So if we put a fence around the whole US and penned in every deer it's not fair chase? Give me a break. 10,000 acres is over 15 1/2 square miles! Most deer will live and die within a mile or two (or much less) of where they were born. So in this situation alot of these deer might not even know there is a fence holding them back! I'm not a big fan of high fences either, I've never hunted behind one. But to make comments like this is pointless is in my opinion. If you don't agree with that way of hunting, fine, he asked for opinions. But to say that any fence no matter how big it is, makes it not fair chase, is a joke.

Bgidd, I say go for it. No one says you have to kill a deer if you go. At the very least you could have a great experience getting to watch whitetails. If the hunting seems like fair chase, go for it. If it is like a zoo, take alot of pictures. Good luck!

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Hunting the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas.

lockheed

I hunt on 600 acres in south Mississippi. The land is very thick with trees and low bushes. Many times while in my tree stand, I have had deer pass within 20 yards and have still not been able to see them because of the dense cover. You could fence in all 600 of my acres, and the deer would still be just as elusive. In my opinion, 10,000 acres is definitely fair chase. Good luck.

dep214

what is the purpose of the fence if it is fair chase. it is to keep the deer from getting out. i see nothing silly about fencing in animals to shoot them.you can go by many high fence ranches and see deer at the fence.they are not allowed to leave and roam free.this is not a normal fence but one built high enough to keep them inside.that is like saying prisons are built just to house but not keep the inmates inside.fair chase means where the game roam freely and are not fenced inthe only thing allowed to roam freely is the hunters. the hunters can leave.

.270Shooter

This is really silly, guys. Ten thousand acres is an enormous amount of land, much more than any deer would range naturally. In nature, rivers, canyons and mountains create boundaries. A high fence at the perimeter is irrelevant. Many deer on a piece of land that size will spend their entire life without ever encountering the fence. Much more important whether they fend for themselves, or are fed by man and comfortable around him. My guess is that these deer are as wild as any. The biggest problem I can see, is that if you see a Boone and Crocket buck, you can't shoot him...

soonershooter

Many of you guys must be confused with deer hotels on those dinky 60 acre parcels of &quot;hunting preserve&quot; operations. This was a ligit question and one that has no bearing on the ethics of hunting deer in the type of country and proportions of the ranch the original poster described. But there's a bigger issue here not fully explained or understood by many of you.
Dep214 said

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>what is the purpose of the fence if it is fair chase. it is to keep the deer from getting out. i see nothing silly about fencing in animals to shoot them.<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

Actually none of you guys, including dep214, have hit it exactly on the head yet. I'll tell you the real purpose of a high fence. In the years before high fences huge ranches were poached to such an extent that most good deer were removed illegally and only inferior bucks remained. Law enforcement had too many vast counties of Texas brush to patrol to be effective. Naturally if you owned this much land and many times oil flowed up from it you could afford a remedy. The original purpose of a high fence was, and still is, to keep poachers and bad neighbors from killing deer illegally. Now there's another equally important reason for staking a high fence and it's not to keep deer in believe it or not. Rather the reason a high fence is built is to actually keep inferior deer OUT so you can properly manage your herd remaining inside. The majority of high fence ranches have no imported genetics so there's no incentive to build a high fence only to keep deer in. The first and true reason to build a high fence on these huge ranches is to keep out inferior bucks and to help deal with poachers. Period.

Deer hunting is an investment for all of us. Some people with bigger bank accounts want to manage their own private herd. Wouldn't we all if we could? It would be fun! The description of this particular ranch of over 15 square miles definatly ranks as fair chase. The only problem I see is that many international record books may not admit an animal to their book because of the high fence issue. This is not a &quot;hunting preserve&quot; where bucks are bred to die for sure from a clown who buys a 100% percent guaranteed hunt. Let the original poster enjoy himself.

dep214

if the purpose of the fence is to not keep the deer inside, can the deer roam past the fence?no! sure they do not want inferior deer. they want to keep this group at a certain way . they are bred to shoot.too many worry about racks and that is what causes problems.it is not deer hunting anymore. it is rack hunting!<font face='Trebuchet MS'></font id='Trebuchet MS'><font face='Script MT Bold'></font id='Script MT Bold'><font face='Stencil'></font id='Stencil'><font face='Verdana'></font id='Verdana'><font face='Lucida Console'></font id='Lucida Console'>

MJL927

I completely agree with soonershooter. I've read several articles over the years from different magazines talking about the merits of hunting fenced in areas. Many of these echoed what Sooner is saying. That the fences were primarily used to keep out other deer. Of course this also keeps deer in but I recall that many of the writers stated that there was absolutely no perceived difference in the hunt! The deer inside the fence were just as elusive as free ranging deer.

I've never hunted inside a fence but I doubt I would feel too weird about doing it so long as the place was large like the one the original poster mentioned. I think one has to simply evaluate the quality of the operation. It just stands to reason that some hunting preserves are going to be run better than others. Needless to say, a 50 acre high fenced preserve would be akin to &quot;shooting fish in a barrel&quot; and I wouldn't pay to hunt a place like that. 15 square miles though is an entirely different ball game. That is HUGE!

One more thing. I think people are becoming too paranoid of the phrase: &quot;100% guaranteed hunt&quot;. One would need to to ask questions but I don't think that always translates to: &quot;YOU WILL KILL A DEER!!&quot; Rather, I believe the statement might actually mean: &quot;Your going to see lots of deer&quot; or possibly: &quot;If you don't take game, you don't pay&quot;. Again, it would be very important and wise to ask the outfitter questions to find out exactly what their 100% guarantee actually means.

-Mike