What it boils down to is this isn't going to get better because it's the effects of a expanding population and urban sprawl. 30 years ago there were very few individual land owners that hunted their own "ranch". Now they are springing up everywhere. A guy buys 50 acres and hunts it like it's 5000 because he's hunting far more deer that his land will support. It's a domino effect as we've seen with these ranches turned into "ranchettes". This is the dynamic that drives most landowners to high fence.

The great thing about deer is that it's a renewable resource.

Indeed.

In many places, if you want to have nice, big, mature bucks & plenty of does, your gonna have to HF.

28 million people in Texas and growing daily.

3.9 million deer, shrinking daily.


Just a matter of time.

Woah, there are no where near 250 million people in Texas.

googled it, current population is 28 million.

Yelp that’s US, I added zero sorry, but none the less

If you’re on interstate 10 in Houston, you’d swear there WERE 280,000,000!

10 is bearable..now 45, it exceeded CC a long time ago and it’s causing a great migration out 290.

guess I don't see the issue with LO's highfencing their property. If enough around you do it then you can run a little and have one yourself and manage those deer in your place as you see fit. I know guys that never would have highfenced if the small acreages around them wouldn't shoot everything that walks. Hell, I own small acreage (68 acres) and I am very selective when I harvest a deer. If that means not shooting a deer off it for a few years so be it. To each his own in my opinion. That's not much I guess!

I don't get your concern. You either own the place you hunt, or you lease or hunt at the pleasure of the landowner. That doesn't change with a fence.

Typical high fence ranches have MUCH higher CC's. I'm sure you've noticed the fact that the cost to hunt bigger bucks has gone way down over the past decade. 150-160 class deer are within most people's budgets today. Mainly because high fence ranches produce so many of them.

What I do see happening in the next few decades is big low fenced deer will draw a premium price. Simple supply and demand.

But relatively cheap big bucks are here to stay thanks in large part to hf ranches.

AND thanks to hf ranches operated like mine there will be virtually free does and cull bucks. Friends of mine have been slaughtering the "states" native deer on my place pasture by pasture since 2011. Making room for those deer with my preferred genetics.

And the states not getting anything out of it. I'd LOVE to pay the state for those natives to get them out of my business.

^^^^^^^^

Exactly....Thank You.

It changes the amount of habitat native game has available to utilize

That is my main concern not the ethics of what happens inside... thankfully not everyone is in the position to pay for such a thing but if its made easier and cheaper each year our future generations may not even get to see such a thing as a wild native Tx deer

There will always be those that take pride in Native(before fence) genetics. I worry more about the demise of the big ranches more then the fence height, But then again they kind of go hand in hand.

If Bernie Sanders was in this discussion this is exactly what he would say, too.

Even if a particular property wasn't high fenced, you still couldn't hunt the deer on it without permission. Not legally anyway. Wait a minute... are you complaining because the high fence makes it harder to poach?

About 40-50% of the state that's low fenced does not have native Texas deer.

Then even more of a reason to keep what we have

They had to restock these areas where the natives were hunted to extinction. Your area is one of them.

Interesting enough the only pure genetic Whitetail herd left after the 20-30’s restocking programs(screw worms, commercial hunting) is a private herd, aka the King Ranch.


If Flounder is correct with his apocalypse CWD view, only animals left will being ranches like George straight that’s double fenced.

What about the native game that's in the HF?

Now the game inside (native) can be managed properly, without Dickhead Von Cheapskate (the neighbor who owns 40 acres & has 10 hunters) shooting everything. Decreased predation, increased food, selective hunting, all equal better deer.

Nav has managed and guided LF and HF. He is aware on how to grow big deer. He has a photo album full.

As a landowner Nav just loves the surprise of the river bottom monster that pays heed to no fence and no man just mother natures raising and falling waters.

I get it, I don’t think anyone truly knowns the best way to preserve it since the big ranches are being sold of by the square foot, especially his country

I don't understand why anyone would have to reimburse the state for animals inside the fence when they throw up a HF. Say they never put up a fence. Sure, some of the animals would leave their property to be taken by other hunters, but some would leave surrounding properties and settle on their land. The deer on their property when the fence went up should theoretically be the equilibrium quantity of deer that would've been there and unavailable to outside hunters anyway.

Even under the argument that they put up food plots, feeder, etc to attract more deer than the surrounding properties where the argument is that they are trapping deer that would've otherwise been taken by others - they paid money to feed more of the state's deer anyhow, and the state is still going to tell them how many they can take, high fence or not.

I guess in exchange for reimbursing the state they're now allowed to harvest however many and under whatever timing they desire? Is that the tradeoff?

See thats something you hear from soooooo many people... the durn neighbors that are shooting up all the deer.... Id bet in maybe MAYBE 10% of these they are actually causing an issue with the herd performance... increased food would be the same on your property depending on how much you put into it.. the fence wont change that.. now the control of food you want them to eat can but not the amount.. whats available on your property will be the same either way.. and even with running snares 24/7 you will not decrease the predators in a sizable HF property.. dig holes will be all along the fenceline and will continue to grow in numbers.. with a large enough property they will be able to thrive just as well as the other wildlife like any other property. Selective hunting will be for sure the key in the HF. but at what cost.... iv hunted plenty of HF places like I said its not an ethics thing.. im not against putting meat on the table but id never pay to hunt in one.. this is yet just an opinion of mine.. nothing against anyone who does.