Anyone Go on a High Fence Hunt? What is it like? I will admit when i was younger my thought process was i was totally against them! All my game i have hunted has always been fair chaise in the wild and each animal ive taken ive been extremely proud mainly cause they were so hard to get cause im sort of a Trophy hunter and only shoot big buck. With all that being said ive been watching TV shows here and there and every once in a while you see one on a Ranch and just reading different stories online i always wounder what it would be like? Is it easy? Is it really hunting? Main reason im asking is i have maybe a thought of going on a ram hunt with the .44 mag revolver but i want it to be hunting not shooting an animal in a petting zoo! Any pointers or experience i would like to hear cause im not really sure i wuld do it or not. Part of me thinks its a good idea to test ammo and get good with my revolver for my whitetail hunting in the fall.. obviously i would do tons of target practice as well. Uncle Ted is always saying critters on his ranch..LOL

So you'll get a lot of opinions on this and there are a lot of people who will say that it isn't sporting. I agree there is certainly a potential for a less than favorable experience depending on your definition of a good hunt and your objective in going to a high fence operation. Decide what your objectives are and what appeals to you then find a place that meets those criteria. I guide on a ranch, which is about 2000 acres, and if you're hunting a specific animal there is very little difference in hunting in a low fence area where I work.

Pros to hunting behind a high fence:

• You can hunt year round.
• You can hunt species that don't exist in a free-range.
• The herd density can be high which means more potential opportunity.
• Great opportunity to test bullets and get experience shooting game that could take quite some time otherwise.

You mentioned a ram and this really isn't the best time of year to hunt them because they are shedding out for summer. If you want to do a euro mount then ok but if you want a shoulder mount to put on the wall wait until late fall / winter. Most folks this time of year here in TX are looking at axis deer hunts.

Great advise Gary thanks! I would deff look for a large ranch. Good call on the rams I didn't know to much about them.. Axis deer might be something to look into as we'll ...

I have hunted high fence for hogs in two different settings. One of them I felt like I was in a pen even though there was about 800 acres. Haven't been back. One of them has over 30 miles of roads on it. It seems like a hunt because it is a hunt. There is enough land for critters to avoid you and they act wild in htis setting. reflex264

I've done it once and it was a mixed experience but overall good. The time of year I went had alot to do with it, it was -10 without windchill so the animals were having to be supplemented with hay. I guess it really wasn't any different than hunting a water hole or food source. I went to get an Asian water buff and feral hog since I wasn't going to Australia any time soon and we don't have much in the way of wild hogs. I ended up shooting an 1800# bull and a 750# hog. Like Gary said it makes for year round hunting and you can hunt species you may not other wise be able to hunt.

Gary, explained it to the tee! It's basically what you make of it. If your accustomed to hunting nothing but mature whitetails, a ram hunt might sour your high fence experience. From my limited experience hunting exotic ram; they're not near as elusive or cautious as a whitetail. If you keep that in mine going in, your hunt will be more enjoyable. If not, you'll have to go to the native land of the critter (ram) and hunt without the fence and see if its more of a challenge.

If you combine your high fence hunt with other handgunners, it'll be even more enjoyable. Nothing like sharing a camp with a like minded crowd and show 'n tell with the handguns.

My axis hunting experience is much different. My observations with them is they're as, if not more, "wired" than a whitetail. They're not a curious animal at all. Axis is bar-non the best meat I've ever eat. But as Gary stated, most ranches will have fairly high density herds, so your sightings will be more often.

You'll probably want to leave with a trophy and the enhanced opportunities will better your odds. Nobody likes to go on a paid hunt and not see or kill anything; I don't care what they say. That's why you carry a weapon.

In the end if its "only" the challenge you're looking for, get you a T/C contender with 45/410 barrel and come to Mississippi and hunt public land turkeys! Just don't be surprised if hunt the hole season and not kill one...

Bottom line is: it's what you make of it. Although some can be a "canned" hunt, most aren't; it's just not free range whitetail hunting. Think of this; is it less challenging, or fun, fishing from a pond than it is a lake or from a lake than a river. The fish are only free roaming from the river, they're trapped inside the pond and lake.

just a different perspective. Good luck if you choose to go!

Thanks guys really helps paint a picture for me! I think the smart thing for me to do if I decide to go on one is research the ones interested in and make sure it meats my expectations .. Do some asking around too and try find hunters that hunted the ranches I'm interested In... I really don't want to go to a really noticeable canned hunt! Any hunts in the northeast that are good??

Rams can be very challenging to hunt or I've seen places where you could kill em with a claw hammer. I don't know what makes them wild per se but those at the Texana are wild as 10 cats most of the time.

don't live there so I can't say but don't follow my lead and go during a decent time of the year.

ya I watched a video online where the guy was getting ready to shoot them and they started coming to him like pets. Not at all what I would want!

If you like sheep you might want to consider an aoudad hunt. I've never seen tame aoudad although I wouldn't guarantee they don't exist.

Well I'm more of a whitetail nut more then anything but they are crazy expensive! I was looking at rams case it looks like they run around $350 to $550 to start.

Not down here they don't. Ours are the least expensive I've seen and the trophy fee on them is $1250 but they are hard as hell to hunt because of the country they hang out in. We have about 15 rams and I wouldn't give you any more than a 50% chance on a 3 day hunt and it may not be that high. We usually take them as a bonus after someone has already taken their primary animal or just a target of opportunity.

Having hunted rams in Indiana, Ohio and Tennessee, they are a challenge.

I have hunted a "high fenced" ranch for the last 20 years. The ranch contains more than 40,000 acres and has virtually no interior fencing. In addition, there (and where Gary hunts) it is brushy country. It has been stocked with exotic animals for more than 50 years and has breeding herds of most of the more common exotics. Thus, the animals are "native" to the ranch.

Depending upon the species and even with reasonable herd density, if you simply want to "fill your tag," it is not difficult. If you are particular, you may hunt for three days & come home empty. I have done that on more than one occasion.

Thus, as stated above, it depends on the operation & your perspective.

KRal what kind of range do you get with that .410 barrel?

on the subject, the most important reason for high fenced hunting is that these game ranches allow hunting for our youth outside of the typical football and basketball seasons in school. most kiddos are faced with a choice to play sports or be free to hunt during the season. mine were, but we go on annual spring and summer hunts. i also used some easy/more canned hunting opportunities for my daughter to experience some success and now she's becoming an avid handgunhunter seeking out more challenges and wants to go handgunhunting for blackbear next year. if she'd have had to have been faced with a backcountry hunt with no amenities or adverse conditions as a little 12 year old she'd likely never have gone a second time but she's built up and now she's an avid participant. since theyre the face of the future of our sport and gun rights i'd say that trumps any old curmudgeonlike feelings on the issue some may have.

i've been on several from easy to hunting with gary and having very challenging hunts. just do your research on the ranches and the experience YOU want to have.

Let me start this off by saying I have NOTHING against anyone that does the high fence style of hunts. But its not for me. I tried to do a hunt like this a couple times, and it was like a switch flipped in my mind as soon as we drove onto the ranch and crossed through the high fence. It could be a ranch the size of Texas, but it was just the idea of seeing the high fence that just put me in the wrong frame of mind. I didn't enjoy it at all even though I never saw the fence again! It was that little voice in the back of my mind that just wouldn't leave me alone.

As stated before, I think it would certainly be a great place to introduce someone to hunting, or for kids in school athletics during the normal hunting seasons. But for me, I don't know what it is, but I just can't do it.

Maybe it has something to do with my fly fishing, and why I only fish rivers??!!

hey i only like fishing rivers!!! i can say i truly understand

I think thats what id be afraid of is getting that wrong feeling when seeing the fence or especially hunting by the Fence!! Weather i do it or not i will say that im NOT against it! Especially in this day and age we as Hunters need to band together and fight for our right to hunt, and to Bare Arms.. So any kind of sports that includes hunting, shooting, guns ammo, weapons anything you name it im all for. Cause right now more then ever there are to many Anti gun and Anti hunting activists and Government everywhere fighting to take it all away! They win one little battle and succeed in taking something away whether its High fenced hunts or something else like a pigeon shoot the rest will eventually follow!!! So even if i go on one and end up deciding its not for me i still will be all for it! Just wanted to put that out there!!!

Mountainman, you nailed it. We MUST stand together no matter what our opinions are concerning different types / methods of hunting. Give em one thing, they will take it all.

Very well said. Many of us on this forum are right there with ya.

ditto raptortrapper

The only type of "hunting" I won't condone is that crap where you can pull up the animal on your computer and have someone shoot it for you. I haven't heard much about that lately so hopefully that's died off. That's the type of stuff that really makes hunters look bad.

what?? Lol.. I never even heard of that! I think my mind actually just blew in front of my face! Lol oh well gotta say I still support it! Do they at least send you the meat???

it's a trophy deal for city folk, from my understanding it took place primarily in texas and a guy could sit in his office while a guy with camera linked to the internet would hunt the animals and then he would pick the animal and the guy would shoot it. There was a big deal about it a few years ago. They had some articles about it and everything that came out of it was negative. As far as the meat these guys were just interested in the horns on their wall which I don't understand since they didn't kill it.

I'm pretty sure that was outlawed almost as soon as it happened and I'm not sure it originated in TX but maybe.

Some may not know it but a lot, maybe most, of South Africa hunting is high fence. When I hunted there in '07 my PH even stated "it can be a good idea to hunt along the fencelines as animals walk the fencelines looking for a way to get out."

BTW I went on that hunt with a friend who had hunted with that PH before and said he was great but I was extremely disappointed and would never recommend him.

Gregg, You bring up a good point which reminds me back in `03 I was hunting in South Africa and one morning I returned to my tent because I forgot my binos and left my guns in the Land Rover. As I neared the tent which was at the end of the camp I see a lioness laying in the grass not 20yds from me. Let me tell you its a bitch to be that close to a lion without a gun. Will always remember her eyes. I slowly walked to the tent and after a minute looked out and she was gone. I often wonder if the reason she did not charge was because of the fact that she felt the high fence was not a challenge to take out a human....

Ya i have heard that from many people. So it should be no big deal to hunt african game over here in a fenced in establishment. I also look at it in another light as well being that if you got lots of land and want to manage it for trophy whitetail without outsiders messing with your property its the best way to do it!! obviously unless you own 10,000 acres! I can tell you living in PA even tho there is a point system it is very hard to get people on the same page in just shooting big buck and pass on the small one! 90% of the Hunters in this state are if its brown its down meat hunters! So for someone like myself to manage there area its impossible and frustrating when everyone else is just mowing them down. It would be my dream to have enough land to manage and shoot Trophy whitetail. I think if i ever got a hold of 500 acres or more it might be smart to fence it off and start your own Trophy manage paradise! Obviously i would rather it be non fenced but in this day and age its very hard to control other hunters and what they shoot!

Mountainman, don't get to upset at meat hunters. I am one of them. We own 400 acres in south Colorado, and our big complaint is the trespassers. We deal with them every year. If they would just ask, we would have gladly let them in. Now we have closed it off to everyone, and call the law on anyone we catch. I am tired or repairing the fence line because of A..holes that cut the fence to get animals out of the property.

My family depends on wild game as a food source because my wife is allergic to a LOT of the things they put in store bought meat these days. Her doctor recommended a wild meat diet a couple years ago, and her over all health has improved dramatically. Ducks, geese, elk, deer, bear, rabbit... all of it! We didn't get a deer or an elk this last season, so now we have what is left from last year, and when its gone, she will go to garden grown veggies till hunting season gets here. Its not easy, but its certainly changed her quality of life.

I do understand there are trophy hunters, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But there is nothing wrong with meat hunters either. I apologize for the frustration it causes you, but just keep in mind that some of us do it out of necessity. I've always been one of those that shoots the first legal critter I see because I prefer having the meat in the freezer.

I've never shot anything huge because I've always taken the first legal one I see. Someday, the first one I see will be a trophy, and I will be the first to admit, I won't be passing it up!

Just my .02

So, what's the problem. I wouldn't hunt if I didn't like the meat. Horn soup doesn't stick to the ribs very well.

I get what your saying and i should say its not like i disagree with meat hunting if you take what you need cause you truly need the food like you say you do. But some meat hunters in PA are crazy out of control taking way more then they need and use the meat as an excuse! When really they are just killing addicts. The deer herd in PA right now is being destroyed buy these people and the game commission selling way to many tags and creating extra seasons like inline hunting during archery! I can the entire archery season and i might see 4 to 10 deer the entire season if im lucky! I used to see 10 to 15 deer a day! I getting so bad its causing people to shoot illegally as well. I hear rifle shoots in Archery down below me every year then 1 day later the neighbor has pics being passed around of the big buck he just shot like he got it with "his bow"! People buy all the bonus doe tags they can use them all up and still keep shooting! Its crazy here!!! Me i take one 8 point a year or bigger and thats enough meat for me and my family and i get a nice mount for the trophy room..

S4S4U..Nothing wrong with hunting for meat in general but if your in an area where the deer herd is suffering you have to practice deer management as a caring respectful hunter. Lets say you only have 2 doe working an area of 4 spare miles.. Are you going to shoot them? Now if you have 30 doe in that same size area you have to shoot a couple! In my areas case its the later with 1 or 2 bucks running around here and there that you really dont even see until the rut kicks in cause there all nocturnal and scared from the massive Hunting pressure!

Mountainman, I see your concern. To me, that is a state looking for money rather than caring for its wildlife. I would be ticked off as well!! My wife and I try to get two cow elk at a minimum. If we ration that through out the year, we can do just fine. We try to get tags for deer, bear, and elk every year just in case we don't get drawn for something. I have drawn them all for the same year several times, but have never filled all tags. Not because we didn't want to keep hunting, but rather because once we have enough, we are done. We consider that 400 acres in south Colorado to be our grocery store, and certainly don't take more than we can use!

Believe me, what my wife and I take does NOT go to waste! Even the hide is saved and donated to the local boy scout troop. They use it for classes. They learn how to tan the hide, then make gloves, quivers, etc out of them. Some of them are REALLY nice!

Why the distinction "meat hunters" vs. "trophy hunters" why aren't we all just hunters? Using those terms does nothing but drive a wedge between our own ranks and gives anti's fodder for their agenda.

Your right i apologize! I didnt mean to sound off like that. Its just really frustrating around my area! We need to all stick together! But some "Hunters" Need to care about the wildlife as well before there is nothing left to hunt...

Yes the state is looking for money! Its PA..LOL tax tax tax the people is there modo here and there is nothing to show for it! As far as all the deer tags go its the Game commission because the deer licenses PAY their salary! They dont get a paycheck from the state.. all there money comes from hunters so the more tags they hand out the more money they make! So its a shoot out! People in this area dont realize that and they buy all the tags they can and go to town on the wildlife! Even Ted Nugent was talking about the travesty in Pennsylvania on one of his shows last year..

[/quote] Yes the state is looking for money! Its PA..LOL tax tax tax the people is there modo here and there is nothing to show for it! As far as all the deer tags go its the Game commission because the deer licenses PAY their salary! They dont get a paycheck from the state.. all there money comes from hunters so the more tags they hand out the more money they make! So its a shoot out! People in this area dont realize that and they buy all the tags they can and go to town on the wildlife! Even Ted Nugent was talking about the travesty in Pennsylvania on one of his shows last year.. [/quote]

MM,
I'm wondering where you're getting your facts from. Not trying to start an argument. Just asking.
I live in Pa and usually buy 4 doe tags and more often then not, 2 of them are donations to the state. If I"m blessed enough to take a third deer it gets donated to those that need it. So not all of us Pa hunters are as you indicate.
OH, and by the way, I wouldn't repeat ANYTHING Ted Nugent has to say about anything.

Jeff

Yes the state is looking for money! Its PA..LOL tax tax tax the people is there modo here and there is nothing to show for it! As far as all the deer tags go its the Game commission because the deer licenses PAY their salary! They dont get a paycheck from the state.. all there money comes from hunters so the more tags they hand out the more money they make! So its a shoot out! People in this area dont realize that and they buy all the tags they can and go to town on the wildlife! Even Ted Nugent was talking about the travesty in Pennsylvania on one of his shows last year.. [/quote]

MM,
I'm wondering where you're getting your facts from. Not trying to start an argument. Just asking.
I live in Pa and usually buy 4 doe tags and more often then not, 2 of them are donations to the state. If I"m blessed enough to take a third deer it gets donated to those that need it. So not all of us Pa hunters are as you indicate.
OH, and by the way, I wouldn't repeat ANYTHING Ted Nugent has to say about anything.

Jeff [/quote] What facts would you like? I know one fact when i sit in the woods and see 0 deer there is a problem! Im not the only one talking like this and seeing the damage done with all these extra tags! Many guys are starting to complain. I use to see hand fulls of deer a day 15 or more years ago. The facts of this piss poor state are 1) To many bonus tags being sold 2) 0ver 1 million hunters take to the woods on just the first day of rifle alone here! 3)Inline during Archery 4)Full 2 weeks of doe during rifle. 5)Game commission makes there Salary on tags being sold. Only 1 good thing in this State is the point system! If you look at states that have similar to PA Management like Michigan their deer hunting sucks too! Look at states like Ohio and Iowa! They love there deer herds and Manage them the right way thats why they are well known Trophy whitetail states that people pay and travel to go hunt.. Most hunters that i know in PA are happy just to see brown and they shoot instantly cause they know they may not get another chance and it creates a snow ball effect. Most here dont let the small Bucks walk if its got bone on its head and 3 tiny little 1 inch points on one side BANG!!! 90% in PA hunters dont care about Management sorry i know it for a fact!!