I am a firm believer in Fair Chase and I am also a believer in high fence hunting. I've never done it, but I had a trip that took me to the Texas Hill Country, and spent a good deal of time riding roads that were high-fenced on both sides for miles at a time.
I'm not against fencing, and I'm not against feeding. I don't feed on my property as a general rule, simply because I find I get better bang for the buck using other methods.
What I worry about is based on my hunting experience in Kentucky and Ohio. Public land hunting is too crowded and never to my taste. I never liked bumping into other hunters, and I never liked strangers' bullets zipping through the trees over my head. I opted for 200 acres of abandoned farm land and have been happy to hunt there with my family since 2001.
When I got there, I found the farm had been used as an unofficial WMA by the locals for a generation or more. Everyone knew my property. The old lady that lived there never denied anyone a hunt and regularly entertained them in her house. There was bitterness when I took over the place and posted it.
Now let us look at it from the other side: here's an out-of-state hunter swallowing up the local honey hole and hoarding it for himself. Damn! That's not right! What I see is that's the way the whole world is going. Everywhere the private land is being put off limits to hunters and the hunters that remain are being pushed onto ever more crowded public land.
Now here is a high-fenced alternative. Is it wild? Nothing is wild anymore. Everything has been touched by Man. I see hunting these days as sort of a Zen Garden type of thing. We aren't going to find true Wilderness anymore, so what we need to do is find an acceptable venue that reminds us of it. What I see is a future where folks can rent a spot in a simulated wilderness to capture that feeling. This may be where hunting is headed.
The Zen Garden My point here is that we should not be too quick to knock hunting behind high fences. If you're in the middle of 3,000 acres or even 300, it feels wild. Fair Chase? Look I've got 200 acres of land. Statistics say there is probably one mature buck on the property at any given time. My chances of seeing him? About zilch. If I'm in the middle of the property, I couldn't tell if there was a high fence going around the perimeter or the Great Wall of China.
Supplemental feeding? I understand why that is part of the deal in Texas. You've got vast tracks of land covered with low brush and the odds are in the deer's favor. When a hunter talks about a deer running 30 or 40 yards after the shot and the carcass getting lost, I listen. It isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I understand.
So why do I think the Texas model may be the future of deer hunting? Look at where I am-- 60 some miles from Cincinnati. A Dad wants to take his son hunting. He has no access to private land and every WMA within a day's drive is filled beyond capacity. Now what? Let's say a place opens up an hour or two away from the metroplex that offers a weekend hunt, rustic living, full meals and processing for a father and son for a reasonable price. The only catch is that you're hunting inside a high fence. Who is going to mind? I've hunted with my back to a K-Mart. I've bowhunted in the 'Burbs. As long as you're not staring at the fence, the Zen Garden Effect is going to be just as real.
Just before the Deer & Deer Hunting forum folded tent, there was a fellow on there that was railing about how high fence hunting was complete anathema. He hated foodplots, minerals, etc. He took every opportunity to take umbrage with a couple of guys who ran Texas exotic ranches and pay-for-play hunting. He insisted that he would only hunt a wild, untouched place. As his story came out, I found he was hunting a large Wisconsin dairy farm exclusively. I don't want to call him a hypocrite, only because he was absolutely clueless as to what a dairy operation entailed. He showed up in the fall and did his bowhunting thing and had no idea what was going on around him.
