I'm a Florida hunter that has traveled to Missouri for archery hunts, Idaho for wilderness hunts, Wyoming for mulies and antelope and was on a lease in south Georgia. I love 100% fair chase hunts (low Fence) and have had success, but I just got back from the Nooner Ranch where I smacked two trophies with my TC smoke pole. All I can say is WOW!!! High fence at a ranch like that is more about keeping inferior genetics out of their herd, and unwanted hunters, than keeping their deer in. I had 5 sits just like another low fence hunt I did in west Texas (2 small eight points) where there were nothing but small bucks and doe. The forth hunt made a believer of me. A few small bucks and doe came in early, and just when I figured nothing was going to show a non typical 200 stepped into view followed within minutes by a few other monster bucks.
Between the morning hunt and that evening hunt I harvested two awesome bucks. One was a main frame 10 point with 15 scored points that totaled 170, and the other was a main frame 12 point with 16 scored points, one was a drop tine, that totaled 213. Both were taken with my TC smoke pole. High fence or not, I'm grinning from ear to ear.

Always better off to cut out the middle man.

Congrats, where the pics?

Welcome.


This post about the Nooner may open up a different can o' worms.

Awesome!!! Tye how big is your place? Got a BIL that would love to shoot a cull.

Sucked for us though. Oh well, we tried the low fenced thing for 7 years with the biggest buck being in the mid 120s. Oldest we ever saw was 3.5 and this was a 1 buck county back then. Don't regret putting up a complete fence. Just wish would would have shot everything out and started from scratch. Genetics in the area aren't the best. We can produce some 140" 8s though

The deer do not belong to you. Think that one over.
HF deer are trapped. Think that one over.
HF hunting is NOT fair chase. It is not the same. In your heart you know that or you wouldn't come on here bringing the subject up so you can try to justify your actions.
Think that one over.

There's three. Don't want to overload ya.....

So it would have been easier to HF him in???

Our place is 670 acres and hunts like a 1000. Finally saw one of the big 8s last weekend. Still have 3-4 more mature deer that no one has seen. Don't have anything to offer this year. Pm me next year. Sorry, poor fawn crops have hurt the herd for age structure

heres the way i see it. you have manipulated natures laws when high fencing deer. the number one predator of deer is humans, when you eliminate that predator from a high fence deer your chances of shooting mature deer escalates ten fold. a natural free roaming deer has to elude the man predator on his own so when you do get a a nice mature free roaming deer its quite an accomplishment as uposed to a manipulated high fence deer.

the other thing is high fences curtail the movement of all deer, those inside and those outside, its like damning a creek.

Thanks, Tye. Will do.

By damning that creek, does water never flow below the damn with the creek still existing?

yes and i believe its against the law to curtail water flow to neighbors down below

Apples and oranges. I've heard 'em all. Just more rationalization.

Then how are ponds and lakes made? I know you can't back water up onto someones property upstream.

I'm trying to figure out how to upload pics straight from my computer, as soon as i do I'll upload pics.
As for natural predators on the ranch, they have those too. They had a mountain lion at one point, several bobcats and coyotes.
The most obvious advantage to high fence is knowing that despite not seeing big bucks every time you get in the stand, you know they are there. Low fence, depending on the region and herd, you may never see a big buck regardless of how much corn you put on the ground, and could be simply because they aren't there.

I've often wondered why the bucks in the area out around the Nooner don't really compare size-wise. I ran cams out that way for a few years and about the biggest thing ever to show up was a 145-150" 10pt.

never hunted HF eh?
Your view holds no water, neither does your can't dam a creek statement.

Hell guys lets all just try to get along. I dont do HF and never will, I hope. My BIL lives in the city and he only has 1 or 2 wkends free a year to hunt. So for him that is the best option. To each their own. We will never agree on the subject so us LF hunters just need to take a grain of salt and grit our teeth and accept it. The HF guys need to quit being so defensive. Maybe Obama wont get our guns if we are not divided.

Genetics, diet and management. Buck to doe ratio at 5:1.

probably so, those STX/HC genetics crossed can grow some massive deer it seems.

we are, just a fun freindly exchange from the start!

All in fun, just sharing thoughts, well the first 7 pages were pretty enjoyable anyway.

Dang, can't believe I looked thru all of that... Guess it beats hangin Christmas lights. Barely!

Ya they belong to the state people of Texas but does the state of texas see it that way NO. And 98% of tx is private property so the neighboring ranches are free to do as they please if they choose not to high fence that's there deal. Trapped??? You sound like PETA our deer get fed awesome and there is water per 100 ac so ya if I was a deer I'd be very happy. I never said lf and HF is the same. But if you sit in a blind and hunt over a feeder please tell me the drastic difference then a HF guy sitting in a blind over a feeder. I'm happy to hunt both. But what you don't understand is the amount of money ppl put into their ranches to make it a great place to hunt and ppl like u demonize them because they don't want to have $$$$ hop over a fence and be gone for good. When u invest the kind of money some ppl do and not high fence please message me and I'll say ur right on all points till then don't speak of which u have no experience of. And I promise u I have HF places I could make just as tough as west tx if you ever wanna take me up on it and they ain't big. Also low fence works great on big ranches not always the case with smaller. A prime example is Zapata county that used to be a great place with huge deer now 99% of the low fence ranches that aren't big don't have jack because lots of ppl do t have good management practices.

We did fence him in then one guy put a HF all the way around so we decided to put a lot more money in the ranch than we ever planned on and thought of it as protecting your investment