Waiting for the punchline...

[TheCougar]

So I’m a Texas transplant, and I thought I knew about high fence operations and how they work. So there I am, fresh off my NM OTC Aoudad hunt. I’m at my local taxidermist picking up the euro for my ram, which is respectable, but not huge - and a well earned trophy. I’m checking out all the heads he has in there - lots of elk and exotics and obscene white tails that have obviously come off game ranches. There is a MASSIVE Aoudad on the wall. I mean like 36” or more. It dwarfs mine and I start to feel a little emasculated. I mention it to my taxidermist and the following words, verbatim, are said by him.

Him: “Oh yeah, that’s a nice one. Funny story, the guy that was supposed to shoot it ended up shooting a smaller one and another client got this one”
Me: “You mean he had paid to shoot his one?”
Him: “Yup. They called him up and he came down to the ranch to shoot the ram. They were UNLOADING IT FROM THE TRAILER INTO THE PASTURE SO HE COULD SHOOT IT, when it took a dive off the trailer and broke its neck in the fall (implied that the ram had been tranquilized for the movement). The hunter didn’t want to shoot a paralyzed animal because he felt it wasn’t sporting. They went and got the next biggest ram for him, moved it into the pasture and he shot that one, and another client shot this big one.”

My jaw hit the floor. I was waiting for the punchline, but there was none. I asked why people bother to even pay for a hunt at all? All you need is a photoshopped grip and grin, buy a mount from someone else, and buy 100# of beef from butcher and you’ll have the same outcome for cheaper than buying one of these hunts. He said that is just the way a lot of folks do it around here. It still blows my mind. On the positive side, that’s one less guy I have to worry about crowding out the elk hills!

 

[bsnedeker]

Well, I do agree that shooting a paralyzed animal is not sporting, so at least this guy and I have SOME common ground! Good grief, some people's kids!

 

[jspradley]

I've been in TX going on 7 years...this doesn't surprise me in the least. ugh.

I used to work with a guy who worked a side job with one of those high fence petting z.. I mean hunting ranches and the shit they did was sickening. Not from an animal cruelty standpoint or anything like that just the sick joke of someone paying upwards of $10k to shoot a tame deer that had been tranqed and stuck in a pen so someone can pretend to hunt it. It's basically high dollar hunt LARPing.

It's disgusting what sometimes passes for "hunting" here.

 

[TheCougar]

I've been in TX going on 7 years...this doesn't surprise me in the least. ugh.

I used to work with a guy who worked a side job with one of those high fence petting z.. I mean hunting ranches and the shit they did was sickening. Not from an animal cruelty standpoint or anything like that just the sick joke of someone paying upwards of $10k to shoot a tame deer that had been tranqed and stuck in a pen so someone can pretend to hunt it. It's basically high dollar hunt LARPing.

It's disgusting what sometimes passes for "hunting" here.

I had to google LARPing. Wow, you never can tell what people will do when they have time and money to waste. Hunting LARPing... where people who aren’t hunters dress up and pretend to be hunters! I like it. We should Patent it.

Im also officially asking Rokslide to create either a “High Fence” or “Tranqed Animal” forum.

 

[hflier]

I have a guy I know that has a wall full of nice trophies. He shot each one of them by driving out on the ranch and shooting them. Many of those were terrible shots and not even clean kills. On one 7x7 Elk he drove to the ranch, shot the Elk in 1 hour and then the ranch owner did not handle the meat correctly and it all spoiled. He paid almost $10,000 for that Elk. I don't like to bash other hunters, but this guy and these types of hunters don't get my respect. I won't bad mouth them as it is all legal, but I just always wonder how the hell they call themselves hunters. I know his wall is an ego thing, but he doesn't get that every legit hunter that walks into his room laughs and completely discards his trophies. He might as well bought fake mounts, he would have saved himself a lot of money and at least people would say they are nice decorations.

Ron

 

[FURMAN]

I agree for the most part. You guys do understand almost all South Africa hunts are high fence? They are very large tracts of lands and the animals are free to range inside but the same none the less. Pretty much any red stag you see over 300" is a farm animal. It took me years to find a free range NZ hunt. I just can't see the point in the US when there are so many other opportunities.

 

[WoolyBugger]

I agree for the most part. You guys do understand almost all South Africa hunts are high fence? They are very large tracts of lands and the animals are free to range inside but the same none the less. Pretty much any red stag you see over 300" is a farm animal. It took me years to find a free range NZ hunt. I just can't see the point in the US when there are so many other opportunities.

I think the OP is more talking about the fact that the animal is unloaded from a trailer in front of the guy and he shoots it.

 

[bsnedeker]

Good point! I don't want to hunt South Africa (or anywhere in Africa) either, but I totally support the people that do, it just doesn't appeal to me. This falls in the same category...I don't get it, but to each his own as long as it is legal. As long as people are honest about the 'hunt' and not trying to get endorsements and money by misrepresenting what they are doing I don't see it as a problem.

 

[FURMAN]

Ya, I absolutely do not understand and never will the guy who picks his animal to be release to a pasture to shoot not hunt. This happens often in NZ with the big stags. As far as africa it is a hunt every hunter should experience once. It, too me, like all other hunts is truly about the entire experience. One of the properties I hunted last time we never saw the fence after entering it and we hunted all day for several days cover tons of ground. Finding the animals is easy. Finding the one you would shoot not so much and then the stalk is often more difficult because of all the eyes. They are often more skittish than most US animals.

 

[BluMtn]

I walked into a guys office one time and his wall was full of trophy mounts of whitetail and mulie bucks. I looked them over and ask if he would be willing to let me go hunting with him some time. He looked at me and his response was " I don't hunt". He collects mounts from the internet. He said people will sell them for pennies on the dollar when they get bored with them, so he buys them. I said "but there is no story behind the mounts" and his reply was there doesn't need to be. People collect all sorts of things, I just happen to collect beautiful mounts. My son played college basketball with a kid from southern Idaho whose parents owned a pheasant farm and he use to tell me stories about the hunts they use to supply birds to where guys in suits would come out and hunt birds on their long lunch hour. As was mentioned above, I would rather have them confined to a small space instead of having to watch out for them in the real world with as gun.

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

Watch 'Trophy' on Netflix.

Some game farms keep animals in pens for the 'hunter's to select' then they release them, track and shoot them. The shooter shows up in a rover once the animals is found by the trackers. Pop it in the head, grip and grin, drive back to the lodge for cocktails, and select the next species you want. Not all are like that, but some of them are. I'm not sure where the line is when you say it supports conservation. The argument that animals have no value unless hunted is a poor one.

But back to the main post, I wouldn't even call those people hunters, they just killed and animals, they did not hunt it. In my brief experience of hunting, I've found that the hardest core hunters don't pay a lot of attention to the trophy aspect, usually a diy euro mount or whatever, hang it on the shed, it's about the hunt and adventure.

 

[MuleyFever]

Back before I moved I worked and hunted deer with a friend who discovered high fence operations and got totally hooked. This guy has spent a fortune shooting animals on these operations. What’s funny to me is the people around him who think he is this great hunter.

 

[Chesapeake]

When a rancher lets someone come out and kill livestock it’s not called hunting. It’s called dispatching livestock.
Why folks tend to call it hunting if it’s an animal species that is commonly hunted is beyond me.

 

[Apollo117]

I agree that this activity is far from sporting and not at all what I consider hunting. However, I realize the money these "hunters" spend on these hunts and the gear they buy does make it's way into the hunting industry. That's a good thing in my book.

It's their money and they can spend it how they choose. If a land owner can convince these folks to fork over their money then good for that land owner. +1 for capitalism.

Why these folks spend $10,000 to shoot a fish in a barrel is beyond me. I'd much rather take that $10,000 and spend it on a western hunt.

Lastly, and I have no evidence to support this, I imagine the people who pay for these hunts lack the physical and mental fortitude to hit the mountains. I'm a native Texan, so I can say this confidently, Good Lord we have some dumb, fat people in Texas.

 

[jspradley]

I walked into a guys office one time and his wall was full of trophy mounts of whitetail and mulie bucks. I looked them over and ask if he would be willing to let me go hunting with him some time. He looked at me and his response was " I don't hunt". He collects mounts from the internet. He said people will sell them for pennies on the dollar when they get bored with them, so he buys them. I said "but there is no story behind the mounts" and his reply was there doesn't need to be. People collect all sorts of things, I just happen to collect beautiful mounts. My son played college basketball with a kid from southern Idaho whose parents owned a pheasant farm and he use to tell me stories about the hunts they use to supply birds to where guys in suits would come out and hunt birds on their long lunch hour. As was mentioned above, I would rather have them confined to a small space instead of having to watch out for them in the real world with as gun.

Not my thing but so long as he's not passing them off as his accomplishments then it's alright in my book...

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Lastly, and I have no evidence to support this, I imagine the people who pay for these hunts lack the physical and mental fortitude to hit the mountains. I'm a native Texan, so I can say this confidently, Good Lord we have some dumb, fat people in Texas.

I'm not a tough backcountry badass by any means and never portray myself as such but I think you are dead on here. I tell my coworkers (many of whom do the typical TX hunting over a feeder, which I am not against by any means) about the hunts I go on and sleeping in a tent 50 yards from my vehicle might as well be summiting Everest to them.. it's weird.


I think here, especially in the Houston area in the petroleum industry, hunting is often a corporate activity that customers get rewarded with so you can absolutely be a casual hunt LARPer and end up with a wall full of all sorts of critters with no real investment in what we would consider the hunting culture

 

[SWOHTR]

WWTRD


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[WoolyBugger]

Not my thing but so long as he's not passing them off as his accomplishments then it's alright in my book...

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I'm not a tough backcountry badass by any means and never portray myself as such but I think you are dead on here. I tell my coworkers (many of whom do the typical TX hunting over a feeder, which I am not against by any means) about the hunts I go on and sleeping in a tent 50 yards from my vehicle might as well be summiting Everest to them.. it's weird.


I think here, especially in the Houston area in the petroleum industry, hunting is often a corporate activity that customers get rewarded with so you can absolutely be a casual hunt LARPer and end up with a wall full of all sorts of critters with no real investment in what we would consider the hunting culture

Yep... my dad used to work at a place in Dallas and the company owned a large ranch somewhere in the state to take their larger clients to hunt. Not sure if it was high fence or whatever but they had giant shooting houses setup on auto feeders and willy's jeeps to drive all over the property

 

[YankyMate]

So you're going to stealth brag about getting a OTC aoudad and not post pics? That's cool

 

[TheCougar]

So you're going to stealth brag about getting a OTC aoudad and not post pics? That's cool

I tried, but I keep getting an error message.

 

[jmez]

Happens a lot more than you would think. My brother worked on a big ranch in WY that had a buffalo herd. They sold buffalo hunts.

Many of the guys that came didn't want to and would refuse to shoot the buffalo. They just wanted the mount. Pay a bunch of money, brother would shoot it, they don't the meat and take home the head.

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