Ten or fifteen years ago I never thought I’d say this but I’m to the point now where if I were one of these guys with a lot of land and DEEP pockets……I think I’d just go ahead and high fence it. Every high fence property I’ve been to has pretty much told me the same thing….”We just got tired of investing a lot into our property only to have the neighbors blasting everything we worked to produce”…….I get it now…..Why pay to have a bunch of land that you cant ever see it’s true potential come to fruition.

another perk is that it would keep the deer dogs out

The State dropped the ball years ago by allowing high fencing to happen.

If one side of your place borders the river and you fence the other 3 sides, can you claim its low fence like they do in Texas?

Yep it’s happening at a very fast pace too.

How could they have stopped it? Legally I mean.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want the government telling me I can’t put a fence around my property.

You could eradicate hogs off your property if you have a high fence. Another plus.

Bingo.

Not a fan of high fences but it's their land.

Fugg the gubberment.

Well at the point that you high fence it you should have to get all wild game out of said fence. Remember wildlife doesn’t belong to individual landowners so at that point you are stealing from your neighbor by fencing in any wildlife contained.

You can fence your property all you want. However, when you take ownership of something that belongs to the public, that’s an issue.

So, you don’t mind people stealing from you? Got it.

I guess my views on it are different from alot of people's when it comes to highfences. I know a great family with a highfence. Really think alot of them, down to earth type people. I love trapping on it just because I don't have to worry about anyone stealing my stuff or catching pets. I've tracked a few deer for them over the years. Don't have to worry about my dogs getting ran over, shot or stolen. At the same time I have zero desire to deer hunt it. The quail and pheasant hunting I can really get into though

Horsechitt.

There is NOTHING on my property that belongs to the public, or the government, if there is I need to start getting a rent check or they need to get it off and KEEP it off

Pretty sure he's talking about the native critters (Deer) I believe most commercial high fence operations do their best to get as many native deer off the property prior to fencing it in. They want their genetics only in the fence. They do this by fencing in stages, starting smaller and expanding.

Private land owners that high fence are taking away resources from neighboring land owners. Kind of like damming up a large creek that runs for miles across multiple properties.

Pretty sure I'm talking about everything, native and non native. If my property takes resources that are vital to the public, the public needs to buy it maintain it and own it. If I dam a creek on my property that's vital to others, others need to buy it or move. My property is my property. What's on my property is mine. If it's not the owner needs to get it off. This is the problem everyone thinks the government shouldn't pass laws to restrict their freedom, but everyone loves a law that restricts someone else's freedom, as long as it benefits them! Again I say, if there is anything on my property that belongs to someone else's, they need to get it off!

Years ago I remember reading about about a high fence being put up on a large tract of land here in central Louisiana. If I remember correctly it was the property owned by the wildgame innovation guys. A group of landowners field a suit against them saying that the fence cut off the access to their properties that the animals have historically traveled and pretty much shut down the hunting on their properties. Again it’s been a while but I believe they ruled with the high fence because all their properties were surrounding the fenced property and the animals were free to travel any direction they wanted and property rights allowed the building of the fence. I’m 100% for property rights and agree you shouldn’t be able to tell me what I can and can’t do with my property but I can also see where it might hinder neighboring properties but they’d just have to suck it up and deal with it.

All of this talk for some bone that grows on top of a male pine goats head

The high fence never did it for me. Guess my neighbors aint pissed me off enough yet - i would not do it if i owned property

We dont own the animals - they dont hav our name tag on em

What you're missing is that if you could do "anything you want on your property" then large corporations would very very quickly do things that you personally would find awful. They'd buy up sections of rivers and charge fees to pass through, dump anywhere, etc. etc.

You don't want the public to determine your property is vital and buy it... trust me. It's called eminent domain and the check you get isn't going to be as big as you think.


High fencing is interesting. Could see it becoming more popular as the price of land continues to climb and small parcels surrounding bigger properties get more and more pressure. High fencing 500-1000 acres that has 15+ small neighbors would let you have more control over the age class of the deer on your property and not worry about neighboring pressure. Heck... could just fence off sections around problematic neighbors and add as needed.

The most interesting one I saw was one holdout landowner in the middle of a huge tract. He had I believe 10 acres completely encircled by high fence. He was obviously upset. He won in the local courts but lost when the large landowner appealed.

If it is related to the article that I read, the 10 acre landowner was quoted in the court documents as saying, that with the intensive management efforts around it, it was an excellent place to hunt for he and his whole family but once the fence was put up,they could no longer use dogs to hunt on his property. I'm betting that they (being the 10 acre landowner and his family) wandered off the 10 acres more than just a few times and it kinda explains why they put up the fence around him.

You can’t even man drive 10 acres. Absolutely no way you could dog hunt it.

I think it’d be cool to be able to hunt other species as well like red stag…..After seeing what hunting has become “outside of the fence” and getting to track for quite a few different high fence operations…..I’ve lost that feeling of being inside of a fence mattering much….It doesn’t change how deer behave, it just changes what the neighbors can shoot.....One of the places I go is roughly 1000 acres.....One of the guys that hunt it said they kill bucks that they have never seen on camera before.....They've also had bucks that they've only ever seen once.

No kidding ! Who cares if neighbors kill big buck . Proud for them. Just damn deer .
This is how disease spread . God didn’t intend for wild animals to be penned up.

There's no changing the stigma around it being high fence because it will never be the same as hunting free-range deer. But I do tend to agree, if you fence in enough property, at some point those deer don't really know they're fenced in. There are multiple places in Texas that are good examples

Lot of those TX ranches play a game with the fence heights so that their deer can still be eligible for B&C entry. 3 sides game-proof "high fence", one side 60 or 72" "low fence". Typically, the "low fence" side runs along a major highway, developed area, or something that creates a natural border that deer dont want to cross or enter anyway.

As a landowner I get the attraction, as a hunter I have no interest.

I kill the ones in a small pen within the high fence. Ain't got time for that. Show up. Shoot. Go home

Not a fan of high fences and it has nothing to do with the deer.

Are we that worried about what neighbors shoot legally?

If I spent seven or eight figures to buy hunting land I would be......

Yep. Guy spends a couple million on a good tract in a good area, spends a couple hundred grand a year in improvements, habitat modifications, etc, and can’t grow a deer past 3 years old because he’s doing all the work for the neighbors with 20 acres around him to pull the trigger. Is what it is. Right or wrong, I don’t blame them one bit and can understand it.

Are you telling me that a guy with 20 acres can really impact someone with 1000 plus acres and millions of dollars?

If so, the guy with the millions must be dumb AF. Go offer the owner cash that he can’t refuse. Outspend him, out bait him. It doesn’t require a fence.

It doesn’t have to be as much as 20 acres.
An outlaw with one acre, a booger light and a pile of corn can wreak havoc.

Also, some land can’t be bought. Just doesn’t work that way.

A guy with 20 acres can wreck the crap out of 1000 acres easily.

Absolutely. I’ve seen small land owners kill more bucks in a weekend than larger landowners will in an entire season, and they do it every weekend they can. It’s kind of like the poor getting free benefits at the expense of the wealthy. Not much different. They’re reaping the benefits of someone else’s hard labor. Now, in a lot of cases it’s perfectly legal, and they’re taking deer according to the law and regulations, but it’s highly frustrating to the guy or guys producing the deer. Another scenario I see often is one group of hunters trying to produce a certain age class of deer and their neighbors content on killing every deer they see one year younger. You’ll get to the point that one is killing 85-90% of the age class just under what the other wants. And yes, it’s very easy to do. People think killing deer is difficult. It’s not at all. With todays technology a group of hunters can effectively kill an entire age class of their choosing every season. Then the other gets frustrated and either sells, drops the place or fences it in to achieve their objectives.

Let me rephrase, unless the 20 acre hunters are outlaws there is no way they can really put a dent in 1000 acre landowners herd.

Especially someone with 100k a year to spend? Cmon man.

Again, you guys act like you’ve found the magic bullet. A corn pile. Better habitat? Check. Less pressure? Check.

If I have 100k a year to spend on pine goats and have to build a fence over 20 acres then I need new hired help…

If I had the money and a few more acres I would high fence for sure. To add to the discussion of a how a small tract can hurt; several years ago a family that joined my place had a smallish tract (47acres) they killed every deer they saw. Any given weekend afternoon I would see a truck with at least 2 in the cab and 3 more in the bed. Every single weekend afternoon I would at least 1 shot. At the end of one particular season I asked one of the guys if they had killed much and said something like 25ish small bucks, a couple 8pts and a dozen or so does. They only hunted it like that for maybe 10 years until someone passed away and now the guy that has it doesn’t let everyone hunt there. But in that 10 year period they significantly affected the hunting on my place and at least one more that joined it. It was crazy.

You’re basing this opinion on the assumption that deer won’t travel if you provide all their needs. Well, they do, and a lot as a matter of fact. It’s also not necessarily he impact one 20 acre landowner has. It’s the cumulative affect of multiple neighbors. 1000 acres in nothing when managing for deer. You are totally at the mercy of your neighbors. You can’t manage 1000 acres with neighbors who aren’t on the same page. All these so called whitetail habitat experts who are pushing these ideas on the masses with their small land management practices are very deceiving. It works if you have your neighbors help. If you don’t, there’s nothing you can do to keep deer on your place without visiting other properties, except a fence.

Happening all over Alabama on a much more regular basis than most people realize. In Alabama, if you're actively managing for mature bucks (4 yrs and older), a good rule of thumb is that you should be able to harvest 3-5 bucks per year off 1000 acres depending on the quality of your property and what your neighbors are doing. Basically 1 buck per 200-300 acres, once again depending on land quality and location. Bad neighbors, that 3-5 drops to 0-1 or 0-2. Great neighbors, large landowners all around, all on the same program, real good quality land, letting all bucks younger than 4 walk, you might be able to harvest 6-8/yr or even more, without hurting it, in an established program. So yes, a single 20 acre landowner with 3 sons, all of which can kill 3 bucks each (12 in total per year legally) and unlimited does can absolutely ruin any attempt at managing a 1000 acre property. Or, if it was already being well managed, the 20 acre landowner that moves in and starts shooting any buck they see, can ruin years of management efforts in just a few seasons. 12 bucks a year off the 20 acres will be well in excess of what the guy managing the 1000 acres will harvest/yr and none of the bucks killed on the 20 will grow up, live/stay on, or even spend 10% of their time on that 20 acres. But when they walk across that 20 acre piece, and they will walk across it many times a year and during the season, they'll get whacked. And Matt's right. Small property management, 1000 acres or less, has zero chance of success without the surrounding neighbors being on the same page and working together, or in a best case scenario for the deer manager, not hunting their properties at all.

If you were to simply fence off and trap in the native deer.....then really over time the only difference inside of the fence versus outside would be age structure and herd density.

^^^^^Exactly correct Harold.

I’m tempted to do it on my property for the same reasons

Will this cause inbreeding problems?

I guess technically you would also have an easier time impacting generational nutrition as well and you could have the herd inside of the fence expressing more of their potential over time

And you could more easily eliminate hogs and predators completely from the equation too.

Help Me Hold On

I was told years ago by a guy that when you fenced your property you had to pay the state for the deer you fenced. Is that not correct?

not correct.

No, that is not correct. They've got absolutely no clue how many deer are inside a fence. They dont even know how many deer are killed per year in Alabama by licensed hunters. It laughable that the state would say, you owe us for the 161 deer inside your 1200 acre fence. I could see them trying to do that, because Chuckie never saw a dollar he didnt want to put in his back pocket, but no, there are zero regulations governing high fencing your land and no permits are required to do so in Alabama. LOL.

Now if you are bringing in non-native deer or transporting deer in from another area in the state, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few regulations you have to work under there.

What if I dammed up a creek on my land that flooded your entire property? It’s my land and I can do whatever I want, right? If you don’t want your land under 5 ft of water then buy my land and bust open the dam.

Don’t try to reason with him

Probably several hundred high fence properties in Alabama

Maybe all my neighbors will high-fence their properties... then mine will effectively be fenced for zero cost to me.

Dang. That would be genius. Start selling them in it now. Tell all of them you are about to start a “whitetail cleansing” and no deer are safe.

Not making a statement of any kind but I always think back to the Indian who asked "how can a man OWN a piece of the earth?" An outdated question but he had a good philosophical point. As for the reasoning behind high fencing, it is hard to fault anyone in the state of Alabama for doing so. Neighboring hunters can and do absolutely ruin any efforts at improving the deer hunting on your own property. It is precisely why I gave up trying years ago.

🤠

Just a sign of one of Our greatest faults as Humans- GREED and SELFISHNESS/ SELF CENTEREDNESS

Truth.

I remember hunting as a teenager and being happy seeing a deer, let alone actually killing a deer. On the ground with 00Buck or a lever 30/30, happy to to kill fork horn... happy to kill anything. And was happy when the neighbors killed something too. Never ran out of deer to kill. It all changed when Realtree and Mossyoak hit the airwaves. They brilliantly made monsters out of most hunters... me included for a little while.

Selfishness is the root sin of all sin. At least I couldn’t think of any that weren’t rooted in selfishness.

I would want to know i could kill him free range - not some sissy fag way!!!

Damn T dawg !!! Did you just call all high fence people a bunch of low down sissy faggets ???

To each his own. Fence if you like dont if you don't who cares.

Taking down my fence this morning. Thanks TDog 🙄

Lol. I love this bar.

3% is that you?

Good fences “do” make good neighbors though…

How Much would it even cost to fence on something like 700-800 acres? I’d love to have mine fenced in and grow deer to their true potential, but up in these mountains, running a fence and maintaining it through the year would have to be a nightmare.

I just ran 30’ of fence with a gate for my yard and had dang near $800 in it, I can’t imagine what fencing in 800+ acres would cost.

Most high fences I’ve seen have at least a 20-30ft wide road beside them. Some are 50ft+ to reduce the amount of stuff that can fall on them. I would think clearing a path that wide around a place would probably cost as much or more than the fence itself.

A high fence is one of those things in life that if you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it. 😁
When you add up the cost of clearing the lane, installing the fence, maintenance and constant monitoring it would be astronomical.

Oh, make no mistake about it. I have no actual interest in doing that, Nor would I want to spend the money on doing it.lol

$40-$60k per mile of fence. Depends on how much clearing/ROW you want.

This time last year we fenced about a mile and it was $44,000 with predator wire at the bottom. In the process now of putting up several miles but we are doing it ourselves. Cost will be a little more than half of that per mile.

Nobody wants to talk about the fact that a high fence would help keep out coyotes and hogs.

Both are a tremendous drain on the fawn and turkey populations.

If I win the Mega Millions on Tuesday night, I will try to assemble 5-10,000 acres in Alabama and throw a high fence around it. Matt Brock would be my first hire to manage the place, and I would hire as many equipment operators and construction folks off here as wanted to go to assist with road maintenance, food plots, and structure work.

Would report back here in 6 years advising what we were able to accomplish with native genetics, low predation, great age class management, and ideal minerals/forage.

It’s incredible what can be accomplished in AL with native genetics when all other environmental needs are met and social stress kept to a minimum. Absolutely incredible. I don’t encourage introduction of outside genetics, because it’s not needed most of the time. And it leads to all kinds of herd health issues to have multiple breeding seasons in an enclosure.

High fence is shooting, not hunting

Nah. A large enough fence is no different than hunting any other way, in fact I have been in a few fences where it was actually harder to see a deer than it is on several free range places I hunt

40 acre high fence, sure, I can agree with that. But when that fence goes over 1000 acres, it's a different world.

We have hunted a few in Texas over 3000 acres, and one over 8000 acres. Lots of the game concessions in Africa use perimeter high fence also.. Same in New Zealand.

The deer that nobody can kill would disagree with you. There are deer in 500-600 acre fences that are never seen by human eyes. Native southern deer don’t act any different inside a fence, as they would outside of it. There are deer in fences that cameras detect, but hunters never see, and deer hunters see that are not detected by cameras. It’s not shooting fish in a barrel.

But they not free ranging - they caged

I hunted a 100,000 acre high fence in South Texas (Piloncilla ranch).... never saw evidence of a fence in 4 days once i went thru main gate. There were other fences( inside a 6000 acre +/- pastures) around food plots, but deer jumped them easily-only there to keep hogs out.

AND DOGS

That’s a lot of fence. Never heard of one that big

So if I buy land on both banks of the Alabama River I can dam the river up? Good to know. LOL! You have a very naive and flawed concept of land ownership. But by all means dam up a creek on your land and flood your neighbors property. Then when they take you to court be sure to tell the judge to f#*k off cause it's your property and you will do whatever you want. LOL ! Take some Preparation H to court with you and the phone number of someone that can post bail for you. LOL! .

I can't imagine what it would cost to fence in 500 acres, much less 5000.

Deer on our farm don't range they do the same thing every year and stay in the same places. Could fence all 1200 acres and nothing would change. We have 0 new bucks move in ever and the ones we grow stay on us all year.

That seems abnormal. Deer move, especially bucks, and young bucks range to seek new territory.

What do yall grow on the farm?

Weed, obviously.

Was just on a 5700 acre high fence in Texas it’s pretty much just like regular hunting but has control. I don’t care either way but them deer was just as wild as free range on that size

I would love to see every inch of private land in Alabama high fenced. That way each land owner would be responsible for his herd. Shoot what you want.

But we couldn’t do that!!! You guys wouldn’t have anything to bitch about!

Wonder what the biggest high fence in Alabama is?

Good question cheveydude, I would like to know also. And where it’s located

The one around Talladega Spwy

Scott Drummond had around 7000 acres before he passed.

One of our favorite places to hunt is a high fence near Laredo. Right at 4000 acres, and the deer are very challenging. 1.5 miles on the East and West boundaries, over 4 miles on the North and South sides. There is a bunch of brush country in the middle with a pond/tank about 5 acres in the center of the ranch. Most of the deer in that area don't know that a fence exists.

Would the naysayers here hunt near the interstate? High fence for miles down some of it.

They could still bitch about new trucks and turkey hunting “etiquette”

I’m not interested in high fencing our property. Couldn’t afford it if I wanted. I would be interested in deterring the deer to cross a power line that neighbors blast everything adjacent to us. Would an electric fence work? I’d have to run it about half a mile. If I could condition the deer to cross at another area of our property, they could cross without getting blasted to hell, and continue to the other side. Anybody have any experience in doing something like this? If it would work, it’d be a heck of a lot less expensive. Can you even run a 8 strand ( or whatever height it would need to be) hot fence?


Just tossing around ideas.

Way more than that. There are 298 licensed deer breeders in Alabama currently. That doesn't include the non-licensed that breed and release into their own enclosures.

Hoer Contruction guy has one in South Talladega that is over 6,000 acres. I doubt that it the biggest.

For those trying to convince the "you're going to hell of you hunt inside of a high fence" guys that some enclosers are just the same as real hunting....you're wasting your time.

Years ago, when I was part owners in a high fence operation in Saskatchewan. (I had whitetail deer, elk and bison) I publicly offered a guy that was the most anti-high fence guy I've ever dealt with a free 200" Canadian deer hunt. He jumped at the chance and was all for it when it was free. He went and didn't kill a deer because he didn't see a big one on his trip. He came home with a totally different attitude. (yes there were numerous 200"+ bucks on the 1300-acre wooded property when he was there)

The bottom line is if you don't want to hunt inside of an encloser no one is making you. If you want to hunt inside of an encloser who give a phuck what the cuckholds think?

Who has that place now ?

And season dates

Why should the state have any say if they don’t own the land

I don't judge anyone wanting to hunt high fence. I do not care to see high fence deer kills being compared to low fence in regards to antler size. They are two different categories of deer.

I do not care if someone wants to hunt inside a high fence. What I do care about, is if someone puts a fence up right along my property line.

I could care less..i lived in one for nearly 2 years an its not for me for the most part..bug i tell you how it is in texas..an ill use the place i worked on as an example…we were one of many ranchesin the family of the people i worked for...the smallest in fact at3700 acres or so when i was there..they have expanded now an i believe are rockin on about 6000+ acres now..still the smallest tho…we implemented what they call “EXTREME” trophy management..we were one of 2 that focused primarily on the improvement of whitetail deer,rio grand turkey, and bobwhite quail..an boy..did we have alot of all 3…we maintained at around 1.5-2 deer per acre density an that is extremely high…an we were on a state managed deer management program. We operated with native south texas genetics and only native texas deer…no deer breeding..no genetic manipulation whatsoever from the outside…we operated 3 6 acre pens, we captured native bucks an put them in each pen with 15 does…this is standard practice throughout south texas and every real trophy ranch there tries to do it..most have to deer breed and make scentific deer on much smaller acreages…they are the small time peons. We spent around $25k a month on protein feed alone…not to mention our amenities being of the absolute highest quality, and we were and still are, tho im no longer affiliated with them….one of the highest quality private ranches that DO NOT sell paid hunts in south texas, staye biologists came and inspected our property every year…and we were involved with many research programs in partnership with the kleiberg wildlife institute along with other large private ranches..king ranch being another. Incredible wealth…. unbelievable amounts of money spent to grow these native deer to an age class that can be found nowhere else on earth consistently…and a trophy structure that has been decades in the making…with hundreds of 200in native deer being killed and a good many coming from properties that we managed….all that said….why…would we spend millions every year to improve these lands and create the highest quality habitat you cojld conceive…..an let some redneck with 5 acres next to us kill a 235in deer we have been waiting 7-10 years to kill…or worse…shooting a 175in 2yo that has the potential to be one of the largest native deer ever recorded…hypothetically…i mean…i get why they put up the fence…it aint my thing…but i get it.

CarbonClimber1, what made you give up that gig and move to Alabama?