A little history first. FWIW I was a history teacher for close to 30yrs. I have only hunted Texas, except one trip to New Mexico and one to Africa.
Texas was an independent nation before it became a state. There are many nuisances to this, but one of the main ones is that Texas retained all it's public land. There are national forests now, but those were purchased from local landowners.
I grew up on the edge of East Texas. I spent lots of time driving the roads and hunting small areas in the mid to late 60s, for rabbits, squirrels dove and quail. I never saw a deer until 67, when I saw one doe. There were deer in pockets, but not many. Driving the back roads to college in the piney woods I never saw a deer along the roadside. There were some deer in the national forests, but not many. Much of this was probably due to hunters that would shoot any deer any time of the day or year. I once knew a guy that always carried his gun on Wednesday and Sunday go-to-meeting night and drive the long way home hoping to get a shot.
Most hunters, from basically Dallas-Houston east, if they wanted to deer hunt, went west or south west. The ranchers in these areas, seeing a way to make money began to lease for deer hunting. My father and a bunch of his buddies, began leasing a place near Kerrville, in what's called the Hill Country, in the early 50s. It was a big deal, and still is to many, to go 'to the deer lease.' It use to kill me when Daddy would leave and not take me.
Beginning in the mid sixties problems began to show. It was illegal to shoot spikes, and does, and for a long time afterwards many landowners frowned on it. The rules on our lease said 12yrs was minimum age to go and 14yrs to hunt(accompanied.) It was not uncommon to see 20+ does and a handful of spikes per morning or night. The deer were small also. A mature buck (3.5yo) might not weigh 100lbs. I once shot a buck that had an 8pt, perfectly formed, rack that had an 8", that's right, 8" inside spread. At that time 'forward thinking' landowners began to high fence their ranches. A friend's father was on a lease. We used to see lots of deer, but few bucks.That was 50yrs ago and I've forgotten some of the details. I believe he had over 3000 acres and they wanted 75-100 or so, does and spikes killed. The leasees took local boys club and scouts on a one day hunt. A good day was had by all, except the deer. There was also a management plan where bucks and does were to be killed in equal numbers. The next year the leases were worried because they were not seeing many deer. The following year both size and quality improved. Unfortunately, due to college I was unable to hunt that ranch again.
There has been good and bad connected with high fencing. As with anything abuses do occur. On the whole I believe that they are for the good. On hunting high fenced areas, I have never had to make a shot at an un wounded running deer, nor a 'texas heart shot.' I don't practice these shots as I'm sure you do. I have never had a shot close in my direction nor had anyone walk by where I was hunting. I have never had one jump a fence and get away ( although I have on low fences,) nor have I ever had one run 200yds only to be claimed by someone else.
As far as hunting over a feeder from a deer stand. Is that so much different from hunting over a mast crop, or an agricultural field, from a popup blind or a tripod. Also I have never had my hunt made miserable or shortened by bad weather, except 100+% during summer axis or hog hunting.
This leads to my last point. Many animals are in hunting numbers today due to high fencing. This had lead to the establishment of a free ranging population of Audad, blackbuck and axis. These seem to be a good fit with our deer herds as these are grazers unlike whitetail which eat forbes. Although everyone that kills a hog claims that it is part Russian, it's not true. But, the ones that are are because of escapees.
We basically play the hand we are delt. I hunt the way my father hunted. I have also still hunted, been part of mini drives and hunted choke points on high fence, low fence and national forest.
So before you criticize it too much, come down, try our way, try your way and make your judgement. Let us keep this civil! captdavid
Last edited by captdavid; 02/12/17.
