I would agree with JED on this one. And CHC i would not highfence my land. The highfence is there for the ranchers to keep the deer on their land for there clients to hunt. There are pass ways that the deer can enter but can not exit out due to the design of the pass way. I cant see a rancher spending that kind of money on a highfence for even a few acres just to keep people from trespassing. As far as me locking my house at night, you dam right i do. That has to be the most ridiculous comment you have made. I lock my house because of my family. It is also call breaking and entering (The gaining of unauthorized, illegal access to another's premises, as by forcing a lock.)

I can assume all I want, and I have been watching people for a long time. One thing I have learned over that time is that you can not assume that everybody was raised up with the same values or under the same circumstances as you were.
Since you grew up evidently out on Ed Bass' place, you were in a special situation.
I think that more than 1% of the private land is under high fence, but even 1% is a bunch of land that has been taken out of the free-range system. ( Not free-range like the western states, free-range as in low fence.)
I have never said that I was the only one that knows anything about the subject, but OH WAIT, that means that you DON"T either.

Trespassing is the same thing. And I have seen people that have high fenced their place just to keep people out. They don't even allow hunting on those places.
As for statement being ridiculous, I know of places where people don't have to lock their doors at night, or when they leave for a few hours.
As for your statement about the pass ways for deer to go in and out of, the only place I have ever seen anything like that is in Colorado along I-70, to get the deer/elk off the highway. I have never seen a highfence of any kind in Texas, with intentional pass-thrus built into them, because if it is a hunting ranch, they don't wantwild deer from the general population coming on to their place and diluting their herd or bringing in disease.
Additionally if a deer can get in, so can a human, and a human will figure a way to get back out.
High fences are designed and built, even on the WMA's, to keep game and livestock in and humans and predators out.
I may be ridiculous, but you need to do a little more research in to high fences/land/game management in Texas.

It is a lot of fun, to fish in a small tank, but it is fairer than hunting on a lot of high fenced properties.
Unless you are using a seine, fish don't always bite.
I ain't including the commercial catfishing places that are open to the public, or even the ones on private land where they feed the fish.
Just an acre or so pond out in the pasture that is only fished occasionally, you can be there at times when the fish won't bite.
Yes, The Forum is a great place, because if nothing else it gives everybody different opinions to look at and think about.

IF there are people putting up highfences just keep others out or don't allow hunting, They are hiding something or they are paranoid. And trespassing is not the same thing. If someone breakes into my home, i can use ANY force at my disposal to protect my property and remove that person. Land owners can not remove trespassers with force. As with the highfence, i stand corrected, but on the WMA's the purpose of the highfence is to perform research on wildlife populations and habitat, conduct education on sound resource management, and to provide public hunting, hiking, camping, bird watching and a host of other outdoor recreational opportunities - all of which are compatible with the conservation of this valuable resource.
I think you need to do more research on highfenceing of the WMA's. The TP&WD allows people in for number of activities, not just hunting.

Nature boy is right, their are High Fence places that look like they are intentionally designed to let animals in but not out. One place in particular that I know of is around the Acton area. The fence is placed in a spot next to a road on the side of a sloping hill that from the road and adjoining ditch the top of the fence is at ground level so it is very easy for a deer to jump in, but impossible for the deer to get out once inside. If a person wants in bad enough he will always find a way.

I'd have to say yes. I grew up fishing out of a stocked pond for catfish and bass and crappie. Its a lot of fun and I stil do it today with my kids. We catch and release and sometimes we keep a few. It's outdoors activity and it beats the hell out of haveing my kids sit in front of a TV all day long.

A lot of people don't look the same way at fish as they do a cute cudly warm blooded deer or other animal.

Have you ever got out and actually walked up to that fence and seen why it looks the way it does. Seeing it while driving by is not the same as getting out and looking to see why it is that way. The rancher next to us where we hunt in Montague, put up a High Fence 3 or 4 years ago, but just along the highway in front of his place and for about 200 yards or so down his east and west property lines. From that point is goes back to a 5 wire barb wire fence. He did it just to keep trespassers out. I have seen that same set up several places.
I will say again, people that are trying to manage their place for hunting, don't normally put in entry portales to get more deer on their place.

There you go again assuming that everyone else are just idiots and your the only one out there that knows what is going on. Yes I have stopped and looked at it, and I am very familar with the place and the area. The hole place is high fenced in. Yes I have seen a number of other places with similar set ups in low places like that, but they have extended the height of the fence to stop this from happening. You can rant and rave all you want I am done with this subject.

That was my point, exactly. Just as some think a high fence is not fair, others think catching fish in a big lake is the only "fair" way to fish. Same as some thinking fishing with artificials isn't fair. Is rifle hunting really fair over true "hunting" (which I assume is with hands or spears...?) All these arguments are relative, subjective, and devisive, at best.

In a time when hunting is being threatened by all who experience the "Bambi effect", we should be supporting our right to hunt, not bashing the different ways that people may choose to.
You guys will argue yourselves to death on this topic. If you don't like high fences, don't hunt them. If you do, then hunt them. Use bows, use guns, use camo, use artificials...none of it's "fair", but I sure enjoy it!

By the way, I'll hunt anywhere I'm invited. I'll also fish anywhere I'm invited. I don't discriminate.

And it all eats the same.

Sorry that I did my usual stunt of letting things get carried away.
You are quite correct in the fact that because hunters as a group, can't stop our in-fighting on subjects like this, is not helping our cause.
I do like your lines about being willing to go where invited.

Sure fishing in a small tank is fair ! Why wouldn't it be ?

How many of yall have actually Hunted behind a high fence??

Can we leave fishing out of it? I better stop casting at schools of sand bass since it is like a high fence... Fishing has nothing to do with high fences. It never will! Fishing is about having a good time, not being fair to the fish.

I do it all the time. I have hunted inside and outside of a high fence plenty of times and do it for all kinds of game. I'm not bragging, I just like to hunt and I go whereever and whenever I can afford to go just like everyone else does and has the right to do so.

Here is what I took this past week on Wednesday before the hurricane. It was outside of a high fence and the biggest animal I have taken yet. It was escaped from a high fenced wildlife park that no longer operates. I know the ranchers in the area and from time to time they get something on their land and give me a call.



I've taken a lot smaller game of the same species inside a high fence and out and I feel this hunt was not that hard. Not because he was an exotic, but because I knew where he was going, I have studied him and a lot of others in the same species and I know their habits very well. This buck didn't get this big being stupid. He was 8 1/2 years old and living on natural environment. Taking this buck doesn't change my opinion of high fence hunting nor does it make it a "sweeter victory". What it does do is give me a good feeling of accomplishment in my bow hunting career. I worked just as hard for this hunt as I have on many, many others and I just happened to get pretty darn lucky this time. I have had the privilege to hunt lots of game and its been a long, long, time since I have seen one this big in or out of a high fence. To take this buck, I had to do exactly the same thing I do in any other hunting situation. The same skills, the same knowledge, the same amount of patience are all required at 100% capability.

Lots of high fence hunts that I have been on the animals were harder to get because of higher hunting pressure than what you get outside of a high fence. They know what a human is and as they should, and run away when they catch your smell or see movement or something that just doesn't belong.

Wether or not someone has taken game in a high fence or low fence or with bait or not, I will still congradulate them.

I can understand arguements about high fence trophy enteries competing in contests directly with low fence and different record book CLUBS having certain rules, but that's really about it. Clubs have a right to because they are just that, a private club and being a member means you agree to their rules. Other than that, I will continue to hunt in a high fence or low fence when I see fit to and then fish in a small stock pond the day after.

Best of luck to all of you out there. I hope you all have a safe and fun hunt this year and remember to share your outdoors experience with someone else. Sorry if what I say upsets anyone else. This was just my opinion and I don't intend for it to change anyone else's mind. I just felt I need to tell others what I think of it and that's it.

To be honest, i have never hunted highfence. I have heard highfenced animals mainly deer, have a better chance of contacting CWD. I know the TP&WD have banned all export of deer and elk to Texas, but the chance is still there. I wouldn't want to pay $4000.00 the a trophy to find out it had CWD. There has never been a report of any animals in texas the contacted CWD, but i don't want my animal to be the first. The facts are there on highfence and CWD. Just my opinion.

Are you differentiating between the state managed WMA's and the Trophy Ranches.
One is being used to test and research wildlife management practices, the other, and probably in the majority of cases is being done to provide someone with a living.
All of the TP&W, WMA's are high fenced, so I have hunted on several of those. As for the other kind, I have hunted on 2.
I think everyone, me included or especially, lost sight of the original intent of this topic.
I do think though that it is really hard for the folks that are on here just to have things in a yes/no-black/white, cut and dried manner.
If a person can hunt high fence and has no problem with it, that is great.
As I have said all along, if it is one of the state run hunts on a WMA, I have no problem hunting a high fence area.
But as much as I would like to kill an American Buffalo, or a Greater Kudu, or a lot of other stuff, I just have not been able to bring myself to the point of doing it.
The reason I won't save up the money and go to Africa, is because I can't bring the meat home. I can bring the meat home if I shoot something in Texas on a High Fence property, it just don't seem right.
As for the part about fishing, just as I said earlier it don't matter the size of the pond or the type of fish, you can't always get a fish to bite.
As Curtis pointed out in his post, if you know the habits of the exotics they are not all that hard to take, with a rifle, in nearly all cases, if you go on one of the High Fence hunts for an exotic, the only way you aren't going to kill one is if you want to hold out for something bigger, or just will not shoot what walks out.
Fairness and ethics are PERSONAL attributes. I have no problem if a person wants to hunt High Fence properties, as to the arguement about whether they should be allowed into competions, I want to know who in the Hell decided that hunting anything was supposed to be a competitive sport.

Try hunting on 15,000 acres and then tell me it is not fair. We would fly this ranch every year and see tons of big bucks. We would be lucky to see just a couple of these great bucks each year. It all depends on the amount of acreage. Before you knock HF you must hunt a sizable piece of land. Then see if this changes your mind.

I have not hunted myself but i did guide an orpan on a large high fence ranch. To me it was like shootin fish in a barrel.

Well the way I see it is this way:
a)in low fences OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST has a way of giving you a gift from nature.
b)in high fences the LANDOWNER has a way of taking your money without regards to GOD's creatures..

Welcome to The Forum, lots of good folks on here, with plenty of godd info. As for your post, in Texas, the Good Lord Doesn't Give Anybody Anything, the good low fence properties are higher priced and more closely managed than most of the high fence properties because game off the low fence stuff, qualifies for B&C, and Pope & Young. Game off of high fenced properties only qualifies for Safari Club.
I don't hunt high fence except on the state run hunts on the WMA's, and there are several exotics that I would like to hunt, but I just can't bring myself to do it. It is more a personal ethics question than an actual idea of what is or isn't fair chase. An intensively managed low fence set-up will guarantee you a record book buck, it is just not the same as shooting it in a pen.

That goes to show you what a hunt really means to most folks. To me the experience of being out there has a lot more meaning. If i shoot something or not i leave the ranch really satisfied. It seems like now a days all that matter is who has the biggest buck, who has the newest boat and who has the heaviest duty truck. Anything below these standards are not good enought anymore..

No, it shows you what a hunt means to some folks. There are those of us out here that don't want to, or wouldn't hunt a high fence place, but you seem to think that high fence places are the ones causing the problem, check and see how much it costs to hunt on the King Ranch, and that is all low fence, yet they have a 100% success rate, unless a person is really picky. I don't support high fences, but I do support people buying hunting license.