Why is it, no one is concerned about the hunter being fenced in????

Where I live I have very small parcels of land from which I can hunt but cannot cross the boundary. These vary in size from 5 acres, 40 acres and 80 acres. Some of it is flat and open with a thin brush line. Some of it is wooded.

So when I am not hunting in Africa, the game must come to me. I also have to make sure when I decide to shoot something, it dies fast, before it crosses that property line. Not everyone can do that.

Do any of you have similar situations? Are you feeling fenced in at all?

Time for another trip to Africa!

Anne,
We aren't quite so absolutely fenced - at least not here - as is the case with high-fence hunting like what has been advertised on the Big Game Board recently.

In this state, we have rights to enter or cross private property in pursuit of wounded game w/o asking permission. However, weapons must stop at that fence.

Of course, it's preferable that things die fast, very fast, but if a doe makes it over the fence as happened to me last fall, it is not a big deal assuming that it is well hit. I simply left my rifle leaning against a tree, walked the 50 yds required and dragged her back. All perfectly legal.

Brent

Aye, then it is good I live here and not in Sweden I suppose, though you have much more beautiful country and much better weather as well.

These rules will vary in the USA according to state laws. There are not national laws - so each of us have it a bit different. I cannot remember the rules with regards to this issue when last hunted in Michigan where Anne lives - but then that was 25 yrs ago now.

Brent

Shame on you Ann! Don't you understand you are not a true hunter unless you are standing in the middle of miles and miles of untamed raw land teaming with wild beast?
Now here is a little fact for those that bitch about hunting fenced property. Besides having a hunting store I am in the sheep and cattle business. I have 48" net wire with 2 strands of barbed wire atop. Sheep can not get through. Deer must jump the fence (no problems). I have a full time foreman on the ranch everyday and I am on the ranch often. Eight lease hunters are on there throughout the year.
The biggest whitetail we have scored to date was never seen until discoverd dead. Lived 6.5 years on my ranch and died there for some unknown reason. When we found him his antlers were still on his head and his jaw bone was still attached so we were able to have him scored. Nobody ever saw this deer. Not my hunters, me or my ranch foreman ever got a look at this bad boy. He was never seen at night when driving into the ranch, never seen during horseback roundups for shearing or for working cattle. This deer was right in the middle of 5400+ acres and never shot at.
Naw...you don't want to hunt on fenced in property...it is not sporting enough! Like having them tied up to a tree or in a pen!

Well, Kirk Douglas used wirecutters to address the problem in "Lonely are the Brave" -- but, he ended up with a dead horse ("Whiskey"). I'm not sure if there's a moral in there somewhere or not, but this is my post and I'm sticking with it.

The whole thing is silly, frankly. Sooner or later, anywhere on this planet, you're going to run into a fence.

Russ

My typical deer hunting spot here in Ohio is 4-5 acres of creek bottom/wood lot at one edge of a 40-80 acre farm.

I have to work hard to stay 1500 ft from a house - and I probably don't always make it...

The game movement depends more heavily on (lack of) human activity on the neighboring farms than on weather or phase of the moon. If the neighbor decides it's time to cut wood then I am busted for the day.

Bless you all and stay away from Big Game Hunting, those folks ain't nice to fence hunters

Ann,

I think the problem some see is when the "game" is fenced, not the hunter. I hunt some on my little 11 acre farmette in East Texas, but the deer come and go as they please either through, under or over the cattle fence. I also belong to a hunting club that leases about 2700 unfenced acres, with a pretty decent lodge, and we pay about $5 per acre. I don't really feel fenced in at either place.

However, in places in Texas, they have been known to high-fence (8ft net wire) places as small as 100 acres where they have "trophy whitetail" management, hunting, and a kill fee of about $2000 . This sort of thing has been espoused by some very high profile biologists, one of whom is known as "Dr. Deer" (BTW, I had 2 classes with him in college so I'm free to say whatever about him just in case someone takes offense). And everyone uses corn or high protein deer pellets. Considering that a wild whitetail buck's home range is approx 1 or 1.5 square miles, hunting on a couple hundred acres is not really "fair chase". There are also some places that have "wild hog" hunts where they put you out in a some enclosure and you get to "hunt" the one you want, disregarding the fact that the operator bought those hogs down at the local livestock sale or from somebody that trapped feral hogs and kept them up and fed them in a lot for awhile. Some operations are just not sporting.

I really don't have a problem with hunting behind fences where the game are actually oblivious to them and where it is not a "put-and-take" operation. I want the game to be as wild as possible because the experience is what I'm after. I think in Texas I would like the high fence area to be more than 2500 acres and if I ever get to Africa, I think 5000 acres would be the minimum. I will say that driving around in a vehicle glassing for game is not the same as pack style elk hunt into some wilderness area , a float moose hunt in Alaska, or a sherpa guided Marco Polo sheep hunt, but you pay for what you want as an experience. Some are once-in-a-lifetime adventures (for the less than really dedicated) and others are more of a nice outing with a better than average opportunity to shoot something that will look nice on the wall.

I also feel that if people would put as much effort into proper habitat and game management as they did with fencing, feeding, and buying stock, they would be better off.

A low point in my hunting was a time I went with some friends on "quail hunt". When we got to the field, you had to kick the little piles of hay that had been set out to get the quail to "flush" . It just ain't the same; I'd have just as soon gone to one of those live pigeon shoots they have in Louisiana.

BTW, nice eland.

Thanks for the great responses, guys. My point in posting this was to show that in many cases the hunter is the one who can be handicapped by "fences" rather than the game. Don't get me wrong, I've done a meat shoot/hunt for bison bull in a very hilly, 500 acre enclosure. I live in FLAT country and this was a challenge to me as there was also 8 inches of snow. I used my bow and waited for the herd to come to me in an ambush. It still really wasn't hunting, I was going for freezer meat and to see how well my archery equipment fared on a large animal.

I see nothing wrong with meat shoots. I will do another sooner or later for pork. For that matter, what ever strikes me. Don't look for me to make an issue about anyone who goes and does one of these. It is your business.

I also believe in mind over matter. What matters for one hunter/shooter may not for another. We would do best to remember we live free (fortunately) and what may not work for us personally does work for someone else and they should not be condemned for being different. It's all a matter of opinion and that is all it is. I can tell you, make no mistake, I kill a lot of animals just for the sake of killing them. They would of course be varmints that are damaging my farm and or killing my livestock. I don't care how I kill them either. I just want them dead. In a way it is a hunt but it is also a shoot, I leave 'em to lay where I kill them.

Some of the writers here are fortunate to live in places where few people live and infringe on their hunting season and land access. Those of you who are so lucky are the ones who make the most issue of high fence. Just remember how lucky you are. I am not one of those and I know many of you are in the same old boat I am. My game and hunting is pretty limited unless I pay to go somewhere else. It will always be that way. I don't mind as long as I get to go play once in a while.

I don't have a spare 25K laying around to drop a whitetail at "Legends" or any of the other mutant whitetail places. I wonder if I did have that kind of dough if I would go shoot one? I don't think I would still call it hunting but I have known people who can afford to go to these places every year. I do appreciate that those deer are beautiful, fat, happy and huge beyond imagination. Kind of makes me sad that wild deer where I live will not make huge racks because they cannot live such a long life to develope to their full potential like those fence bucks do.

For now, with my limited land access and funds, I will stick to my six point bucks and 200 pound does and squeeze a safari in once in a while, high fence or not! I've done both and had equally challenging hunts.

Yes, yes yes, they were hunts, that is my opinion and it was my experience and that's all that really matters.