Game Ranch (long read)

My son treated me to a hunt on a high fenced game ranch this past weekend, and I thought I would share with the forum. To start with, I was not looking forward to it, after all the negative things and remarks I have read in the past, but I didn't know a polite way to decline. I own a small farm, and can kill deer most anytime on my land, and also have a deer lease in jack county. So we start by getting lost Saturday morning, and was late arriving, but the host was very pleasant and helped us get things together and took us to the stand. I was on a management hunt, and he had picked out a buck, and had given us pictures from the game cams, and knew the feeder he frequenting. We saw him briefly the first morning, but no shot, as a doe smelled us, and alerted everything within 2 miles. That evening, we saw 8 bucks that would score over 200, a few smaller bucks, and about 20 does and fawns but not our buck. The sit that evening, was amazing! What a treat. I was excited as we took the video recorder back to the lodge and viewed the evening in the stand. What a treat. I got my buck Sunday morning, and he was a beautiful 10 point with 3 little cheaters, but they were only .875" long. scored 147 2/8 and weighed 201 lbs on the hoof and 167 field dressed. The staff at Lucky 13 game ranch, treated us like kings and did everything they could, to make us comfortable and have a good hunt. First class all the way. If you have a chance to hunt a place like this, jump on it. I have hunted elk, mule deer, pronghorn in 4 different western states, and whitetails here in Texas, for almost 50 years, but this hunt ranks in the top 3 of all time. It is no different than hunting your own lease or land, except someone else does all the hard work, and you just enjoy yourself. Nothing negative at all. I will post some pictures later.

Good to hear that you didn't let your previous judgment of HF affect you from giving it a chance. Congrats on the buck and want to see pics!

Congratulations. Nice to hear about the fun factor involved in going on a guided hunt that makes it all worthwhile.

If you saw 8 bucks over 200" in one evenings set then it's far different than hunting your own lease. Sounds like you had a good time though so that's really all that matters.

Glad you had a great experience!

Have hunted on a few HF places, mind you they were native stock not a 200" deer on the place 1,000-1,300 acres. I felt they were little to no different than any place I had ever hunted out of a blind/feeder combo. To me the only difference is you have a better chance of seeing a big buck because due to feed and management they probably actually exist in decent numbers.

You are correct, in that the big difference is the quality of bucks you will see. The ranch I hunted is passionate about their deer, and spend a lot of money taking care of them. I shot the biggest buck I have ever harvested, and it was a management buck.

That would be a trophy on our HF ranch

Can't wait to see pics, glad you let yourself experience the "dark side." lol

Congrats

Looking forward to the pictures

here is a pic

Congrats on a nice buck

Yup.

Nice buck. Glad you see that all high fence ranches are not easy hunts.

Nice buck OP

Good looking buck

Look at that cat claw behind you! Hope our tannerite Sunday morning didn't bother you. We were just a few miles away from there. Congrats!

Great buck