Why Hunt High Fence?

I wanted to start this thread to open up the topic of, As a hunter why would i want to hunt in high fence? I didnt want to put this on the same thread as we must make this work! Because i think its a great start and do not want to take anything away from that. I signed it and recomend that you all follow suit as well.



Our industry is under attack daily from not only animal rights, but hunting population as well. Im new to the industry, help me show those around me that high fence is an option! Educate me and others on here on some of the good points that may make one consider hunting high fence or to think twice about saying no all together. I know as deer farmers its our end market how do we, what can we do as individuals in everyday discussions do to sell our industry?



Why Hunt High Fence?

Matt first off it gives you an opportunity to harvest an animal you would never have harvested in the wild(size wise). Most of your hunters have what they call ethics. Their definition of ethics is hunting free ranging deer with no high fences to limit the ability of the animal to escape. If you live in Missouri it is legal(Ethical) to hunt behind a fence no higher than 7'. I guess that 1 foot makes a big difference. My first question for them is have you ever fished a farm pond. 99.999% of them have and say that's different. How about a pheasant hunt where the pheasants are not native to land they are hunting on. How about a trout park where all the fish have been hand raised in hatcheries. They will have an excuse again. The bottom line is we offer an opportunity for you to experience a freedom of choice. So I invite each and everyone who opposes it to explain face to face to the disabled vet, the child or somebody who has no where to hunt why they shouldn't. I'm sure they have a hobby we could oppose.

Matt some other reasons..........1. it is safer as you are the only one in the area that is hunting and thus the chances of being mistaken for game and being shot is not there. 2. The animals are healthier as they are under higher scrutiny than our beef that we buy in the stores. 3. The quality of animals is much better than what you can kill in the wild. To name a few.......

prior to me becoming a deer farmer many people scruitized me for wanting to hunt in a high fence operation but most have change there minds my thoughts and reason for hunting in a preserve are as follows 1. gives you a chance to see deer of size that you would never see in the wild 2. you will see a deer every time your out 3. your guaranteed to go home with an animal and great stories for your money unlike booking with outfitters spending thousands of dollars and not seeing a deer let alone killing one 4. you kill what you can afford 5. if your hunting season is limited and you love to kill deer then you can get it done here 5. if you have children its a great way to keep your child interested in the outdoors as many get bored if they dont see anything or kill anything even a doe hunt can keep them interesed 6. if you hunted your whole life and never killed a buck heres your chance 7. no licensing required 8. can hunt seven days a week 9. no antler restrictions other than sci score of what you pay for 10. you can hunt with weapon of choice no matter when you hunt 11. qulity of meat deer are fed well year round and tested 12. last but not least all the memories and freindships that are made

11. almost 0% chance of losing a wounded animal. 12. you won't get to your stand and find somebody else sitting in it. 13. You won't have to shoot the first deer you see.

The truth is there is some in this world that will never think a high fence hunt should be done.They raise beef for what...meat..Sheep,goats,hogs and on and on.Then they raise a backyard angus steer and walk out in the fenced in area and drop him where he stands.Explain the difference.....The animal...They say beef are raised to be killed and eaten but the whitetail deer is not to be shot as meat,it has to be hunted...I would be willing to bet that you could put most of those so called hunters in some of the ranches out there,show them a trail cam pic of a buck,give them 3 days and that buck would still be walkin.

Scedule. lots of people do not have time to scout for deer. and spend weeks hunting and never seeing a mature animal. or you might try to manage your piece of property and have the neighbors shoot all the 2 year olds.Go to a preserve spend 3 days and shoot a world class animal . Does not get any better.

Personally, it isn't for me. However, I'm glad there are people who enjoy it, and I don't hold anything against them for it. I heard a good argument just last weekend from a guy who said it was cheaper to hunt a 140" on a ranch and be guaranteed he'll fill his tag, be fed right, sleep good at night, etc., than to buy a tag, drive out west, get lost, be in danger of becoming lost or injured (on foot), and might still come home empty-handed. I thought that was pretty good.

I've been lucky enough that I've lived on a farm all my life to hunt on.

But I'm sure there's guys that are just like me, has kids, has a full time job with not much time to spend on hunting except on a few weekends during deer season, but maybe they live in town with no property to hunt on. Its expensive to lease a farm for the year to just hunt on for a few weekends. That's a lot of $ when your hunting free range deer and trying to get the checkbook away from the wife to pay the lease can be hard when there's a good chance you might not get a shot at a deer. Wives ain't stupid. You'd have better odds convincing her to let you pay to hunt on a guarantee fenced hunt probably.

Why pay for a place to hunt that could leave you empty handed going home when you could pay to hunt something that gives you a more guarantee of making the wife feel better about you spending money to hunt?

I doubt I'd ever pay to hunt on leased land or for a fenced hunt. I'm one of the lucky ones that has free hunting and satisfied with what I take home.

I DON'T MEAN THIS WRONG BUT!!!!!

ANTLER VALLEY said:

Personally, it isn't for me.

Click to expand...

Why are you raising deer then!!!



1. I don't want my 14 year old in the game lands with umpteen thousand hunters who hold a gun one time a year that shoot at anything that moves!!

2. Everything else is posted.

3. Deer in the wild are killed way too young...because someone else will get them.

4. lots of people live in Cities and don't have many options to hunt.

I'd love to raise a great shooter buck that would give someone the chance of a life time dream hunt. Would I hunt one of these hunts if it was my ONLY option? Yeah as long as I could afford it.

But I don't have that kind of cash to spend on a hunt like that when I can hunt on family property.

There's a lot of public hunting land around me. It boards 2 sides of my property. I've hunted on it and it amazes me where some of theses out of state hunter learn to hunt. It ain't a very safe place to hunt.

You gotta love deer to want to raise them and if someone says you don't love them because you hunt them, their wrong. Probably most people farming deer hunt or have hunted them.

And probably most people that hunt that say they wouldn't pay to high fence hunt is because they have access to hunting property some how.

Fenced hunts have gotten a bad name I've seen on different hunting forums I belong to because of some videos of guys shooting a big buck that was cornered in a fenced in area. It was a pretty bad video to watch and I'm sure is not what most fenced in hunts are about. To me they might as well tied the buck to a tree. It leaves a bad image on high fenced farms. I know there's a lot of great high fenced hunting farms that can give a guy a nice hunt but a few bad apples make everyone look guilty of doing the same thing.

I'm glad this thread came up. This is one of the areas where I kind of think we shoot ourselves in the foot a little bit. I personally would like to see us come up with a list of do's and don'ts when it comes to debates over high fence hunting. 100% success rate is probably my least favorite to hear. I know there are a lot of people that need a little extra help to have a successful hunt. There are also many hunters that think it sounds too easy and don't want anything to do with it. If worded differently, I think we could gain a little higher percentage of the more hardcore hunters. Maybe a few preserves should advertise some harder hunts. Just to see how many hunters would be willing to high fence hunt if they knew it was going to be just as, or more challenging than a wild hunt. But with a much nicer reward.

PaintedMeadowsBJs said:

I DON'T MEAN THIS WRONG BUT!!!!!

Why are you raising deer then!!!



1. I don't want my 14 year old in the game lands with umpteen thousand hunters who hold a gun one time a year that shoot at anything that moves!!

2. Everything else is posted.

3. Deer in the wild are killed way too young...because someone else will get them.

4. lots of people live in Cities and don't have many options to hunt.

Click to expand...

Deer are what I love, not the hunt itself. Yes, I am a hunter. I won a free hunt inside a 650-acre pen once, and did have fun. But...since I'm also lucky in that I can always find a place to hunt on the outside of the fence, that's where I would rather be. And personally, if I can go out and see a pen full of good shooters when I do chores every day, I don't need to squeeze a trigger on one to float my own boat. Thankfully, there is an outlet for these deer, and that is the high-fence ranches (the terminal ranches) and I don't mind one bit that my deer are being sold to be shot. I would venture to say that there are other deer farmers who would rather hunt outside the pens and keep selling inside. I don't have a problem with it, ok?

Just wondering...are there still such things as mail order brides? I would imiagine so..somewhere. IF this is still 'available" are they not real women? And remember, I'm not the one who said God took a rib and created a loud speaker. !! got to go..wife's coming around the corner.

Painted meadows - you are absolutely right. Why hunt high fence - why not???

As I read through the answers here it reminded me of a powerpoint page on a presentation that I've given several times to many people in our industry.



I raise deer and I love to hunt high fence. I think almost all hunters if presented with the right high fenced hunt would love it. Just like every other aspect of hunting, not all high fenced hunting is created equal! Here is the slide I show at my presentation:

Here is a the list of reasons that we can use to promote high fenced hunting. Feel free to copy any and all of this discussion!



I will make a post for each point.



High Fenced- Fair Chase. I like to tell everyone I can that we can offer a "High Fenced - Fair Chase" hunt. In fact I have challenged several people to take my challenge of killing a certain buck in our preserve with ANY weapon. This year the following buck has appeared on camera. We have not seen him one time and have had about 20 hunters so far! I have a group coming to hunt for him and several other bucks that we have seen on camera but never in person.



I am so confident in how cagey this buck is that when my hunters arrive this week I will make the offer that they can hunt this buck in two different ways. The first option would be to hunt the buck for a certain amount of money. The second option will be to allow them to hunt it for 1/2 of the amount. However, if they fail to kill the buck, they owe me 1/2 the amount. I'll let you know which option they take. Now if thats not fair chase I don't know what is!

Before I get to the second point, what does everyone think that deer scores?

The second reason I love to hunt high fence is because that it offers the rare opportunity to have many close encounters with mature whitetail bucks! I just love being in a preserve where you find big bucks, huge rubs, old sheds, and an age structure that is impossible to replicate in the free ranging deer. In fact I often tell people that one advantage that we have in this industry is in the way our state agencies try to manage the deer herd. Its never for age or quality. Thanks to all those state biologists that make us look better! And its good to know that when I take a group of hunters out, the buck I got on camera or saw last week hasn't left the area, been chased away by dogs, or killed by a poacher!

190ish, but that's just a guess