Okay fellas, I have a question and am curios to see all the different answers. Shooting deer from the road or at night, or over bait for that matter is illegal because it's not "fair chase" to the animal. But I just want to know how hunting a deer in a 500-1000 (just throwing a number out) acre high fence is considered "fair chase" and legal, when the deer only have a certain range they can travel. They only have the places that are planted within the fence to eat and the does within the fence to breed. Just say a 700 acre high fence has 20 green fields planted, and 1 person Is in every field on one day of hunting. The deer have nowhere at all safe to eat that day (except whatever little bit of woods the 20 fields don't take up on 700 acres, but it won't be much) and bucks can roam well over a mile when in rut, but in the high fence are restricted to those boundaries. How is that any more "fair chase" than someone piling a buck up over a pile of corn, or on the road at night? I'm not knocking anyone's way of hunting, just simply asking what other fellow hunters think. I'm assuming their will be 1000 diff definitions of fair on this one!

Don't really know..........I aint a night or road hunter or high fence hunter. But I'd suspect a big buck shot at night on the road is a lot cheaper than a high fence buck.

I'll start. I only hunt at night behind a high fence over corn.

Double if you can't tell I'm joking

One cost money one don't. One is legal one ain't.
Only differences I can think of.

Its not "fair chase" I'm pretty sure high fence deals can hunt year round no license needed etc. Its not technically hunting more like farming....

Your not even gonna bait the hook, huh? Just gonna get right to snag fishing.

High fence = cattle

Road hunting is messing over whoever actually owns the land.

If you're worried about the poor deer having a fair chance, you need to go on a high fence hunt. I've been (just to observe) on 1600 acres, and it's 100% a joke. 20-30 deer in a field 5 mins after you just blew their buddy away (still lying in the field). It's an interesting way of killing a herd of "cattle".

High fences are awesome mines 50 acres with a 49 acre green field that has a 1000 pound pile of corn in the middle, and I have staidium lights all aroud it so I can see em at night.

I'm just gonna sit back and watch this thread.

Not a fan of high fences. They have ruined many neighbors hunting land. They change the natural movement from the different types of habitat. What if you worked your tail off to purchase a 400 acre farm then your neighbor fences his 800 acres joining you. Don't think you'd like it. Some people think they own the deer just because they walked across their property so they high fence it so the neighbor can't shoot "their deer".

I went on a management hunt in Texas a few years ago, it was a sight to see all the deer in a high fence. It's not really what we consider hunting. It was just like a tv show. Only Time I have ever really seen rattling work, and really big bucks come running. It was interesting when the guide sat us out on the stand then drove his truck down the road with the feeder throwing corn and by the time he got back there was deer in the road. It was fun but not really hunting to me.

I love these new guys.

I've never been a fan of high fence hunting, I can't see how it's any more fair chase than the reasons I mentioned above. I think every single deer that's trapped in a high fence when it's built should be trapped and released out of the fence, then when the owner has to purchase and manage a herd of deer from the ground up, they can call them their deer.

75% of the bucks on my property never leave 200 acres. Summer, fall, winter, Rut or not.

So even if they were in 1000 acres fence they'd never know it.

The difference is, one cost money up front and the other only cost if you get caught!

I have a close friend that had a high fence hunting operation in Franklin County. He had "X" number of deer on the property and knew each one by a specific name. When a hunter showed up to harvest one of the deer, he was paired with a guide to make sure he shot the deer he was after. If they wanted to shoot another deer that was bigger-once they saw it hunting-the guide would be able to tell the shooter just what it would cost before pulling the trigger.

The surprising part of this high fence operation was their success rate which was just over 60%. Just because they were fenced in did not mean it was like shooting fish in a barrel. The biggest deer were almost never seen by hunters as they had learned how to avoid the fields, etc where hunters were set up. There were many hunters that had a great time hunting there, and went home without a deer. They were a lot harder to kill than anyone can imagine. The younger deer that were less than 2 years old would dare you to shoot them though because they knew they were safe.

I would have loved to have killed a couple of those deer, but my pockets were not deep enough to allow it. There were some absolute Giants in there that were never killed. I have no trouble with anyone hunting a high fence operation if they can afford it. I just don't have much interest in doing it myself.

I wish I had the funds to fence our place. Would do it in a heartbeat. Fences are awesome management tools.