speyrjb the statement you make is far from true, I do not hunt public land, I hunt private property, I have killed some very nice mature bucks over the years and a ton of doe. None of the property I hunt is fenced, my favorite piece of property is surrounded by hunt club property on one side and the other side of the property doesn't allow hunting at all.

I am not knocking you at all for having your own lease high fenced or not, but as I stated earlier, there is a distinct difference between fenced in deer and free roaming deer.

To me one of my biggest real challenges is getting permission to hunt private property. I have never had to lease or pay a dime to hunt, but I can tell you it is quite a challenge to find people that will let you hunt thier place, so far every person I have gotten permission from have limited the hunting to jist me. I do plan on buying some acreage when I retire that will be large enough to hunt, but I will not be fencing it, just not my style, I prefer hunting free ranging deer.

Spey, You should see some of the bucks killed by myself and friends. No high fences hunting priviate land and not worrying what the guy on the property next to them is doing. My wife is getting a digital camera for christmas I plan on going to some houses and taking some photo's too show on this site.

If you like it go for it.

I bet we pass as many bucks as you do. Putting meat in the freezer is never a problem. With the doe permits we are issued having enough freezer space is.

I don't bumm out when I walk up and some guy is all proud of the spike he has laying next to their car. Not when I see deer laying all over the road dead.

I do have a question. In your state do you have to buy the deer from the state that become enclosed in the fence?

How does he know Larry?

spey,

Well said!

Question for all - with increased urbanization in a lot of areas, esp. on the east coast - how is a high fence significantly different than a gameland/public land that is rapidly being enclosed by development? In Maryland we have all sorts of folks who would have you believe they're friggin Grizzly Adams - with all the deer here it's like hunting in a petting zoo. Is that more of a hunt than a managed deer population on a huge ranch with fences?

One has a ten foot fence that deer can't escape the other one doesn't.

I'm not saying it should be illegal, banned or anything like that. I've stated before that I'd hunt a large fenced in area, large being the key word.

I'd rather go hunt a huge WMA with people like Taz and Newyork Bow hunter and come home empty handed then go to some game farm and shoot a 170 class deer.


I'm lucky never had to pay a land owner a cent to hunt their property. Maybe in the future I will ,who knows.

I like that idea!!

Not trying to rejuvinate this argument again, but you'd rather not be burdened waking up early to hunt free roaming animals knowing that with the pressure on them they are nocturnal and you have to be out there in the weeeeeeee hours of the morning to try and catch them heading back to bed? You'd rather open the gate and enter the cage when you get around to it? Maybe after a good breakfast and cup of coffee. Shower shave turn down the wood burning stove and get in the cage? That deer probably feels really bad that you had to get up insanely early to hunt him.
I'm done arguing this high fence thing. Seems like we're on different sides of the fence on this![8D] ok that was pretty lame.

This is my last post on this topic CharlieP and Nybowhunter abviosly think that all ranches that are fenced in you walk up and shoot your deer and you are done, damn are you guys wrong, I know people who hunt high fences are not all american hunters like youll neither, but i hunt them 7-9 days a year in texas and trust me i kill large bucks in the southeast which are hard to hunt and these large 5-6 yr old buck dont just walk out and say shoot me. We dealt with the full moon and 40 mph winds and hunting is alot different than you think, All i am saying is i know you have said if people want to hunt deer behind fences that is fine with youll and that is cool, but dont think for one sec. that these LARGE ranches that have fences you walk up say that deer looks good and shoot him, dont kid yourselves my 2 cents good hunting to all of you though

trophy,
I never claimed that at all. I realize the animal is still a whietail deer. You can't take away his defenses and genetics by putting up a fence. Actually I also realize this. If you blindfolded 2 people and sent them to 2 different hunting locations. One was a open free ranging area and the other was a fenced in area. You get them to their stands, neither one of them would know if they were in the open or in the fenced. Tell them to hunt for the day and by the end they probably still wont (unless of course they find the fence).
THE POINT IS one of those 2 has a 100% "CHANCE" of getting a deer. Not saying 100% he will. 100% chance meaning a deer is in the fenced area. The other guy in the free roaming area ?? Who knows the closest deer may be 2 counties away.
But hey no sense of arguing and getting into a war about it. It's here and not going away so. If that's your cup of tea, go for it.

Griz I have to assume by that statement you have never hunted in the suburbs. I live on the outskirts of Fredericksburg Va., I killed a 7 pointer that dressed out at 160 the 1st of this month, and know for a fact there is a fairly large 8 pointer and a monster 6 pointer in the same area only 6 miles from my house, last year there was a very nice 8 pointer 1/4 mile from my place. I can tell you right now I have hunted deer for over 35 years both way out in the country and in the suburbs and I can tell you right now that it is not "like hunting in a petting zoo"! I can also tell you that a deer in the suburbs can and will leave an area, unlike a fenced in operation.

Like I have said before I have no problem with anyone hunting inside a fence, but please do not tell me that they are as hard to hunt as free roaming deer. You know as well as I do that is not true. They are still smart and hard to hunt, but the biggest difference is unless it dies the deer you see inside the fence today will be there next year! This is not true with a free roaming deer, heck the deer you see today may not be in the area the following day!

Trophyhunter, I've said before on these boards that I would hunt a large fenced in ranch. In fact you must have missed this from just a couple posts ago.

I did a lot of kidding about hunting in a 5 acre pen, I admit that. There's alot to joke about hunting a 5 acre enclosure wouldn't you agree?

Actually it's you that's wrong because I never said that about the large fenced area's. But there are small enclosures that are just like you mentioned. Where you can basically order the buck you want. I've seen places where they drive around on platform on the top of a truck until they see what their looking for, WHY?

Let's go back to the Suburban compared to high fence example. I'm hunting a buck in 1,000 acres surrounded by houses, your doing the same behind a high fence. In the morning my buck could be 5 miles from where I am. Where's yours in that 1,000. No guarentee that either of us will get a shot, but yours isn't going any where.

I'm not calling you less of a hunter. The person put down someones hunting skills was Spey, with his comment about shooting a button buck.

I did say you really can't tell how skilled a hunter a guy is anymore by the bucks on his wall.Is that a lie?

If you let what myself ,NYBH and Taz, said about a 5 acre enclosure get to you, your skin pretty thin. Heck, the guy that owned the place thought it was pretty funny.