In My Opinion

In my opinion, and I know I'm probably greatly outnumbered, high fences are destroying deer hunting in Texas. Every time I do a search online, trying to gather information regarding Whitetail deer hunting, almost everything I find is behind a high fence. I absolutely understand the need for management, however, it seems that the cost to fence and maintain such properties requires going beyond management. No one has the patience to properly manage hunting property, instead it's all about the money. The cost required to maintain and fence these properties "jacks up" the cost for a hunt. And when a hunter pays these exorbitant prices, he/she feels obligated to harvest a trophy deer. Therefore, for his/her money he/she expects a "trophy". To provide that trophy, ranchers pay more and more money for genetically enhanced animals. To recoup those costs, they therefore charge even more money for their hunts. It creates a snowball effect that seem to have no end.
What happened to the days when we actually went "hunting"? Remember when it was okay to not take a shot? Remember when it was okay to look at a buck, and pass it up, allowing it to grow up? I do.
And hunting shows are sickening. I see so many hunting shows where so many immature bucks are shot, so many bad shots are taken; that it makes me embarrassed to be a hunter, sometimes. I watched a TV show briefly this afternoon, where the hunter (bow hunting) shot a buck through the upper back, and called it a miss. With my TV, I am able to rewind and slow play. There was no question, he hit the deer. If he ever once looked for blood, the show never shows that. Instead, he stayed in the tree stand, and shot the next doe that came along. In my opinion more than half of the bucks taken on TV shows, are immature, and should be left alone. On the other hand, how can you have a TV hunting show and not shoot something.

I AM ABSOLUTELY FED UP !!!

That explains a lot. I thought they were mad at the deer and fenced them off their property

Times have changed. Not all for the better.

But it's not all bad. I no longer watch most hunting shows for the reasons you mentioned and some you didn't mention.

There are still great places to hunt that aren't high fenced. They are not easy to find, I'll agree on that, but this forum can be of help with that.

I hunt on 165,000 acres of low fence. We border a ranch that's over 100,000 acres low fenced. You might try looking in the rolling plains and panhandle. There is plenty of God's country left out this way.

Focus on the positives and what you can control. Stressing out over what you can't isn't good for you and doesn't change what your upset about.

I wish you good luck finding what your looking for and good hunting this season.

Lots of opinions on high fences hunting that vary a great deal. Now those hunting shows are something else, most opinions are the same.

Thanks Pitchfork. Had to get on my rant there for a bit. I know you're right. There are some great places left.

I agree with the first part of your rant, but not the part about hunting shows. Most of those guys are very much in to shooting mature bucks of at least 4 1/2.

I am on the side of not liking the hf thing because in my opinion it's just killing not hunting (no preperation or hard work involved) which to me is and should be included in a hunt. That being said I just choose not to partake and don't get on the ones that choose to hunt that way. It's just my opinion and nothing more. I'm still trying to get over paying to hunt (lease) I am from the north where there is so much public land you can hunt for a week and not see anyone...and it's free. I however am paying to have a lease now because I just can't go without having a place to get away and play/hunt and fish. When in Rome do as the Romans. To each their own.

Welcome back JWM. You have hit your average of two post a year already on this thread. But a fair-good rant anyway.
The hunting market has deep pockets. But at some point when prices get out of control, there will be a correction. I just wouldn't expect that happening anytime in the near future. Lease prices even went up during the recession. Less land and more hunters will make the snowball you spoke of even bigger.

I think HF came around mainly because of people shooting anything and everything...the money part came later when those HF owners turned their places into a hunting haven and then thought, maybe we can make some money to offset stuff and it grew.... If we could go back and make the restrictions tighter on what we can take, meaning bucks, I wonder how it would be. I truly love low fence due to the "what if" factor of not knowing what may come by. I still have that on our ranch but I know of the 4 bordering fence lines only two seem to manage properly. Do like Pitchfork says, stay on the positive! Good Luck

You are always arguing liberal agendas on TBH. Did they boot you off there and you had to come here to satisfy your need to argue?

There are many reasons for hf. Some are good and some are bad. You are forgetting the first rule in history. Money Makes The World Go Around. There is always good and bad. I have a smaller place and a tool for a neighbor, he now has a 9ft fence on his side. For me it was about protection of game to allow them to get old. A lot of ranchers are looking to add income to their properties that ranching is not providing. HF hunting helped. I think it has reached its pinnacle and with the addition of cwd there will be more problems than answers for a while. As for hunting shows I cant stand them.

Won't matter after the zombie apocolypse...

Hunting is much more enjoyable without a holier-than-thou attitude.

And anytime I hear the phrase "ruining hunting" it's usually made by a relative newcomer to hunting.

There are plenty of options in Texas if you don't want to hunt a high fenced place. You can get on a deer lease or go with a hunting outfitter that offers low fenced hunting. I do both. Texas is a wonderful place to hunt "free range" animals. Hill Country has all sorts of exotics running around thanks to animals escaping high fenced ranches. West Texas has plenty of mule deer and Aoudad. South Texas has Nilgai. Hunting is getting better in Texas with all the diversity in my opinion. I did a free range Axis hunt in the summer and it was awesome.

Wha, wha, wha.... How many time is this dead horse gonna be kicked? It's not changeing, it came about for management purposes, then came bigger money opportunities, it's here to stay! If you fed up there's plenty of opportunity in the North West, expensive but there. I'm not saying HF is great, but I can say the same about LH. In today's rush rush society most guys don't have the time or money to obtain a lease, drive back and forth, maintain the lease and then go sit every opportunity they have and end up killing a spike, cull buck or a 120 class 6 year old buck! With that said don't get me wrong my dream is a Fairchase 150 plus 8 with my bow, a true trophy and what was considered a giant 8 before the world of genetically enhanced deer came along, odd of that happening, slim and none! I've been hunting since I was 6 years old in the hills of Tennessee, and rarely had to ask anyone for permission, but those days are gone and pretty much forgotten. When I came to Texas 33 years ago I was like all of this is private, fenced and you can't hunt it, nope you can lease it, I'm like what it's not that way back home. The point is enjoy what you have today because there's a time coming that hunting opportunities will be few and far between. At that point people would love to go sit in a blind behind a high fence, watch the sun rise or set and remember the days they had with there dad, granddad or whoever! These holier-than-tho, liberal attitudes are killing America, and sorry but those less than 55 or 60 probably don't really realize what there missing, so enjoy what you have, cause at some point it will be GONE!!!!!
JMO and only worth 2 cent...but I own it!

I personally am not a fan of high fences. That being said I don't want a bunch of other people telling me how I should or should not hunt, so I'm not going to do that to someone else. I may not be interested in hunting behind a HF, but I'm not going to look down upon someone else. Also, I can't fault a landowner for trying to maximize their profits off of hunting as it is getting more and more difficult for landowners to make a living off of traditional agricultural land use. I'd rather see a rancher put up a high fence and start a trophy hunting operation than see them sell their property to a developer that subdivides it into ranchettes. IMO it is not high fences that are "ruining" rural areas its the fragmentation of that land that is changing rural Texas for the worse.

P

I agree.

I'm not a fan of HF but I support the right of land owners to manage their property the way they choose and if people want to go shoot animals that way then good for them. As long as I can hunt deer on LF land I will and I'll be happy with whatever I get. One day I'd like to hunt Axis and in order to do so here you pretty much have to hunt them on HF property so how could I be a hypocrite and slam it for WT and yet do it for Axis?

He's already gone fellas. Shows up kicks the hornets nest and leaves....