TUESDAY NIGHT PURSUITS!!

[switchback87]

Jdickey,

Wow, not to offend. But I think there are more guys here that appreciate that the animals they are hunting have a fair chance to escape and evade a hunter. In a High fence area I doubt there are places where the deer are safe from hunters ever. Where I am at , a guy may have (if he is lucky) 200-800 acre's to hunt. However, their could be no hunting on 1200 acres right across the road or section. Now thats where patterning a deer takes time and lots of effort. Not that I am a professional hunter or guide. but given 3,000 acres and a good pair of bino's and A high fence. I could probably have that deer sooner than later. But given the choice. I would do, like I have been. Filling my archery tag with a doe on last day cause I didn't bag Mr big.....(2 yrs in a row now) I just wouldnt feel right about it if my quarry didn't have a fair chance to deceive me..or get away. I would be a shooter not exactly a hunter. Now in defense of the hunters on TV and such. They have a job, its called entertaining. And I am positive that even they may agree with that at some level.

Chris


dont have a lot of time and I have less money. So if I even get a shot at a good deer I am happy. And if I do get Mr. Big it will be pricless................

[texasrack]

My opinion is simple. Give me a wild animal of any sorts and place them in an open, free range atmosphere and allow them to use their natural senses and I will consider that a fair chase hunt.

Place that same animal in 3,000 acres of high fenced area and that is NOT a fair chase hunt. Reason?

Because..bottom line is that you are "limiting" that animals coverage area...no questions about it.

Over the years ALL Deer change their patterns and habit areas. All deer. When you high fence them you are saying "I have no problem with them moving, because I know they are still only going to move the amount I will allow them to and they are still without a doubt on my property someplace...it will just take me more time to find them again". Put that same animal on a free range and there are no promises that the animal will be there year after year for him to grow large enough for you to take him as a trophy.

[jdickey]

texasrack said:

My opinion is simple. Give me a wild animal of any sorts and place them in an open, free range atmosphere and allow them to use their natural senses and I will consider that a fair chase hunt.

Place that same animal in 3,000 acres of high fenced area and that is NOT a fair chase hunt. Reason?

Because..bottom line is that you are "limiting" that animals coverage area...no questions about it.

Over the years ALL Deer change their patterns and habit areas. All deer. When you high fence them you are saying "I have no problem with them moving, because I know they are still only going to move the amount I will allow them to and they are still without a doubt on my property someplace...it will just take me more time to find them again". Put that same animal on a free range and there are no promises that the animal will be there year after year for him to grow large enough for you to take him as a trophy.

I agree. I hope that I don't get too many people hacked off about this subject! But it's something that needs and should be discussed from time to time. Most of us "more experienced hunters" (old farts) hunted when the high fenced ranch was strictly a novelty. They contained mostly exotic animals, many of which were almost extinct in their native habitat.

Time was when there were no such thing as high fence hunting (shooting) for deer especially; then the American way found a method that would make a rancher a lot more money than his cows could! Thus began the HIGH FENCE, and those that didn't high fence, saw their opening to begin increasing their lease prices per gun.

One situation that is extremely critical now in high fenced operations is Chronic Wasting Disease. It has caused a lot more operations to become much more sensitive when acquiring new stock for their ranches.

You touched on a point that really concerns me, and one that I had mentioned earlier - the "free range" for deer in particular is decreasing rapidly in many areas, because of the high fence operations. I had the opportunity to hunt at the Y.O. Ranch in south Texas, about 30 years ago. Hadn't been back in that country since; made a trip down there last summer - and was totally and completely shocked - virtually every ranch along higway 41 was high fenced from Mountain Home to Rock Springs - that's 50 miles, and it continued on south of Rock Springs to Camp Wood.

With all those ranches with high fence - you have to wonder, where the free ranging deer can go? IT IS SAD!

[tuffbroadhead]

hoosierhuntinful said:

high fenced hunting has no place here in Indiana it has been banned.

Hoosier bro, I respect what you are saying, BUT NEVER, NEVER compare what went on in Indiana to a respectful high fence operation...What happened up there was blantant criminal acts that needed to be dealt with, I have a few friends that go hunting in Indiana every year and all say that if you see a high fence it is usally a couple hundred acres, that is just plain canned hunting, period.....I respect what you hunters did up there and got a good thing done.. But the difference between a High fence ranch and what was present in your state are two VERY DIFFERENT things.....Like apples and oranges....

[tuffbroadhead]

I saw the King Ranch mentioned...........Lets talk about it instead of High fences!!

I simply love the history involved with the ranch and Texas, it goes way back, all the way back to the roots of the Republic of Texas (Nation)....

Butch Thompson, Director of the hunting division, and a good friend fo mine and my daughters, The lead biologist Justin Fields, also a good friend....and great to hunt with....good story teller also, ask him about getting six trucks stuck at the same time!!!!! He made me put up my video equipment, he did not want any proof that it ever happened, LOL!!

Ah.... the ranch, the main part is 625,000 acres located around Kingsville , Texas, with another peice south of town around 60 miles that is 200,000 acres , the corporation sold all the land holdings in South America and brazil a around 13 years ago, also they still own a HUGE sugar cain operation in Florida, but last I heard sale was pending...The main Ranch house is only used for a big family function or company funtion nowdays, museum is in town and is cool, just down the street is the King ranch saddle shop, plenty of cool stuff, also has tours availiable..cool stuff..

Now for the DEER, THEY ARE ALL RETARDED!!!LOL!! We took 12 children out to the ranch for a cull animal hunt, all 12 kids made their parents very proud and made harvest's the first day!!! 12 bucks ranged from 70 inches to 127 inches all were sweet sucess for the kiddos, they have this hunt every year, its a draw hunt done through the Texas Wildlife Association, best 7.00 I ever spent..
They do most of there cull and management hunting from trucks, simply drive down a road and corn it with a road feeder and stop at the top of the hill, watch the retarded deer and get the truck turned around and pick one out.... drive toward it till your close enough for a shot and load it up..simple, but not what I call hunting.. most of the 1.5 to 3.5 year old bucks will just stand and look at you from the big safe distance of the side of the road as you drive back past....the older the smarter or less reatrded, LOL!! The bigger boys are took by spot and stalk and from stands set by protein units, for some big boys they will do things different to bag there intended target..
To sum it up the King Ranch deer are more like animals at the petting zoo, and have little or no fear of humans..thats, the ONE day I was there with my daughter we saw over 200 buck deer but she did get a good one...

[jdickey]

Jim Zumbo just had a show on last week, where he was hunting Nilgai on the King Ranch. While he was talking to Justin Fields, a young doe kept nudging Zumbo's hand!

Seeing that, it was kinda bizzare in a way. Especially when the Nilgai would scatter when the wind blew!

But like TUFFBROADHEAD stated, the older smarter bucks... just aren't hangin with that crowd!

[loserchumpandfool]

tuffbroadhead said:

hoosierhuntinful said:

high fenced hunting has no place here in Indiana it has been banned.

Hoosier bro, I respect what you are saying, BUT NEVER, NEVER compare what went on in Indiana to a respectful high fence operation...What happened up there was blantant criminal acts that needed to be dealt with, I have a few friends that go hunting in Indiana every year and all say that if you see a high fence it is usally a couple hundred acres, that is just plain canned hunting, period.....I respect what you hunters did up there and got a good thing done.. But the difference between a High fence ranch and what was present in your state are two VERY DIFFERENT things.....Like apples and oranges....

i agree TUFFBROAD.i believe at a certain amount of acres than the fence is no longer a hinderance to a deer.but who can determine what that amount of acreage would be.i dont think there is a right answer.every year i put my son in for a youth gun hunt at big oaks national wildlife refuge.it is a former military base that is 50,000 acres i believe that has an barbedwire 8 foot fence on it.

[tuffbroadhead]

Alrighty Hoosy-Poo, why do I have to be a Broad, LOL!!!

There has been studies done here on Texas ranches that are VERY large and low fenced, and have data that prove doe are very territorial and will stay within a core area unless forced out..buck deer on the other hand during rut will move up to 14 miles a day, I hunted a 14,500 acre high fence ranch and never saw the buck that I was after, In one week of HARD hunting....I did whack a few hogs and a Javilina....almost whacked me a few Illigal Aliens that ruined one of my hunt set-ups one evening.....the brush in South Texas is like something out of a horror movie, in some spot you cant even crawl into it, its some nasty stuff that deer can live there whole lives in and never see a man...

[THE GOB-FATHER]

Man, that bird Harold Knight took tonight gives THE definition of a "longbeard"!! ... the spurs were pretty sweet too! Sweet bird of my dreams

[mrjbigfoot]

I'm going to jump in to the high fence debate from a pro-choice standpoint... If you got those kind of $$$ who am I to say that you can't go hunt any legal way you want but as far as I'm concerned, I've never paid to hunt & don't want to have to... With all that said, & I find this very interesting, Texas A&M University does all kinds of developmental research on deer and they have provided a wealth of information to Wildlife Management all over the country. One of their most interesting studies, that I read about, included placing 100 deer inside of a 100 acre area that was high fenced on a Texas ranch. They then proceeded to use all the different methods that Wildlife officials use to try & get a census on the deer population. They used 10 people to walk the 100 acres & count, They used elevated stands & spotting scopes from the 4 corners in the morning & evening, they made multiple passes over with a plane and they did the same with a helicopter. Well, if you haven't already guessed, they did the best with the helicopter but they could only find 50 of the 100 deer and an even lower percentage of the buck population vs the doe population. It was a pretty interesting study! They also did one that involved killing 36 deer, 18 of each sex, various ages, by various methods & processed various ways to come up with an analysis on what yields the best tasting meat... but that's another story! Hope that was educational for ya!

[THE GOB-FATHER]

I don't care what anybody says... those Primos shows are where it's at... the industry should follow in their footsteps! I especially liked the fact that they were on point tonight with the fact that they did some "real" hunting things tonight. Getting the guys together to search for a badly hit deer and finding it.. Man! Teamwork right there! And the whole deer drive, man that is so cool because you don't see that all too often on t.v. We all as hunters face that situation from time to time in any given season when things just aren't working out according to plan.... I'm glad those guys show their true colors by proving to the world that they too find it tough and have their own challenges in the woods. A+ all the way tonight!

[RodnGun]

Have to agree GB....the Primos gang shows more of what the "real world" of hunting IS rather than just showing a shot from an elevated living room....and a cut away to the "big buck that only went 20 yards" and photo op time.

I only remember one other show that had a deer drive that I watched....and it was not a prime time TNP show.

Hunting the Country was also an A+ last night in my book. It may be the best show Hunting the Country put together this season. If anyone is missed it...and chasing turkeys are one of your passions....here is when it will be shown again: Fri Sep. 23, 2005 1:30 PM and Sun Sep. 25, 2005 9:30 AM.

It's worth puttiing the VHS to work so you can watch it.

[tuffbroadhead]

Was that cool or what, The Drury boys stepped up!!!! Just think there will be a AWESOME video coming out with those five teams and the Catch a Dream hunts that they will do!!! Man I cant wait!!!

Congrats to all teams!!!!