Indiana is probably going to be outlawing high fences:

http://www.state.in.us/dnr/cervidcouncil/fencing.html

Indiana official plans to enforce fence law
10:07 PM CDT on Saturday, October 1, 2005


By RAY SASSER / The Dallas Morning News



Indiana Department of Natural Resources director Kyle Hupfer has taken aim at high-fence hunting operations in that state. Hupfer said killing animals, including white-tailed deer, behind high fences is illegal in Indiana. The law has not been enforced but will be next year, he said.

Hupfer said he is giving Indiana's legislature time to ponder the matter but hopes the law won't be rescinded.

In August, Hupfer signed an emergency law making it illegal to hunt exotic mammals in Indiana.

The state has about 350 deer or elk farms or both. About a dozen offer hunting. Texas has thousands of high-fenced properties, many of which sell hunts for native and exotic wildlife.

http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/news/article/0,19912,671154,00.html

I think that is what they need to do here !!!! Those deer they fence up are texas deer not theirs just because the deer just happens to be on their land when they fence it up. High fences should be removed !!! The whole state needs to have a minimun size limit to the bucks before they are harvested. Just my opinion !!!

So you are in favor of the state telling you what you can or can't do on your property?

this goes back to my original statement. you can pay a lot of money on some leases and not even see a deer. In some cases you get invited to a friends place and get to harvest a trophy buck. My point is that GOD has a lot to do with it. Heck right now i wouldn't mind hunting in a high fence ranch only if i'm hunting for doves..

In this case yes, i do think the state should be able to tell you you can't have hight fences. This would not hurt anyone in the state except for the poeple chargeing through the nose for a trophy hunt. What other need would there be for one ?

While I am not a supporter of high fence operations, 1., it won't happen here in Texas. And 2., When the goverment starts telling us what we can and can't do on our land is not going to stop at high fences.

i think greed has a lot to do with high fences.

i'm with nofence on that !!

You both may be right, in some situations, but not all situations. Why do people have fences anyway, low or high.
In many cases it is to keep livestock in and people out.
Not everyone that high fences a place allows or does hunting.
This whole subject is getting bogged down, because most of us on here, don't agree with the practice of hunting behind a high fence, but most of us do agree with the concept that landowners have the right to do what they want to with their property.

I could not answer 100% as to where I stand on this issue in Texas. My friend put a high fence up between him and his neighbor since the neighbor started day leasing the place and lets anyone shoot anything and everything. My friend does not manage their place but it is 2,500 acres and do not want the neighbors client just to have free reign on all game. Now the game can easily go around the fence but it will make them go onto a highway to get around. Maybe they should make all places that charge money to make a profit to shoot whitetails to high fence their places.

I'm 100% right there with that idea ! And maybe even charge and outfitters fee on the size acreage ther are outfitting for. Like maybe $10 an acre they outfit for.

And the only thing that will be accomplished by that is that the folks that don't participate on this forum will just pay the extra that will be included in to the price of those hunts, and all the folks that have property will increase their prices too.
Folks, wake up, the day of the one group/season/year long lease is on its way out and we can't stop it.
It is an issue of money, and people that will spend whatever it takes to feel important.

This is when I'm glad I don't mess with whitetails.

I am glad that I only mess with stink hogs.

Dove and quail don't care about the highfence. Fortunately B&C and TTHA doesn't care about records for them either or else my dove lease would triple in as many weeks.

As far as I know, B&C are still into thr "Fair Chase" idea.
TTHA and SCI though do recognise High Fence trophies. How would you measure a dove anyway, bill length or wing length, and are they going to distinguish between mourning doves, white-wings, and Eurasian Collared. Also are they going to have categories for pass shooting, over grain fields, at waterholes. This is beginning to traumatize me just thinking of the possibilities.

I am starting the TTDHA. Reply is you want a mourning or whitewing skull sticker for your vehicle. Mojo's are not allowed.

Let’s look at this from a biological/ ecological standpoint and take all opinions out of it.
If an area is greater than 10,000 acres, high fence or low fence or no fence your probabilities of seeing a trophy are going to be about the same. The reason for that is that the average home range of a white-tail deer is about a 3 mile radius. If you take and calculate that based upon 640 acres (1 section) is a 1 square mile then actually anything over 6 sections is likely to fit the home range of a deer. Yes, I know that deer's home ranges overlap and there are going to be several individuals in part of the same home range, but the point I am trying to make is this. Anything less than 10,000 acres under high fence, you run the risk of manipulating the home range of the animals which can and will adversely affect the population. I am not a proponent of high fenced ranches. I do know of certain situations where I like high fences. Along highways is one of them. Here is West Texas we get an average of 10-15 deer killed per week on the highway. I know that in the Hill Country the numbers are higher than that. In Wyoming, along all major highways, they have erected high fences to keep wildlife off of the highway. They have built a ramp ever .5 mile to allow any big game animal, which has made its way onto the highway right-of-way, access back into the ranches or state/national park land. Now, by B&C and P&Y standards this would not constitute a fair-chase hunt if you were to hunt the land behind that high fence. I have to disagree because the fence is only limiting movement on one side not all. This means that they are still able to have their entire home range, just in a different direction. This is no different than some natural barrier that impedes movement of a wildlife species through its home range.

WOW Kiowa, i am glad you mentioned the above. I totally agree. Putting a high fence along main roads is one of the best solutions for high fences and deer. Imagine how many deer (bucks and does and people) would get saved yearly. Also I want to add this: Instead of high fences why not put somekind of silent soundwave device to scare the deer away from the fence fronting the main roads.

They have tried all sorts of stuff all over the country to keep deer/elk/moose, you name it non of it, even the high fences work 100% of the time, they help, but you still see stuff run over on I-70 west of Denver. I would l;ike to see the state try it here in Texas. Go along 67 going from San Angelo to Mertzon. I counted 10 fresh deer, less than 3 days old, in a one mile stretch. PETA and all the anti-hunting groups ought to jump on that, that is a complete waste of both game/non-game, and many times human lives.

I believe the out on the high fence clause in the B&C rule book is that a least one mile of your boundary fence must be low fence for the animal to qualify. Anyone out there with a rule book that can confirm or deny the statement?

You are probably right, I don't pay any attention to the record books, I know that SCI recognises nearly everything. They have a set of records for Javelina, luckily that hasn,t become an issue yet with our hunts. Amaizingly, since I have checked in to it, the skull is the only thing measured, not the tusks. Also they recognise Feral Hogs as trophies and have records for them.

Now THAT is funny. One thing, how will the record keepers handle the differences between native Texas doves and Kansas doves. Will there be a cut-off date and doves killed after that date be considered non-resident migrants?

Come on man, be a smart-a$$. We can turn this into a bigger topic than the Black Panther & Chupacabra combined. I mean we'll have to have public land, day lease, corporate lodge, we might even have to add a category for birds taken in Mexico. Think of the possibilities.