Missouri Game Ranch

[markc]

http://www.highadventureranch.com/elk.html
 
I would be curious as to your take on this ranch.  My trips to Colorado to Jeep always have me wanting to return on an elk hunt. At some hunting show in Houston I picked up a brochure for this place. I would not have thought of the Ozarks in Missouri for an elk hunt, but here it is. Now, calculating their statement of over 5 square miles (640 acres is a square mile), they have somewhere around 3200 acres.  Looking at their web site, I am asking myself if this the type of hunt I want my first and possibly only elk hunt to be.   
 
Not to get into a discussion of high fences etc, if they are legal then to each his own.  This wouldn't necessarily be the experience I am after, but would mean an elk to fill the freezer with etc..   
 
Anyone hunted or heard of this ranch? 

[Graybeard]

They've been in business a very long time Mark. Most everything I've heard about them has been positive. I thought I had heard somewhere they had 6000 acres but that might be one of the other ranches in MO. There are three such preserves in MO.

High Adventure, Show-Me Safaris and one other I can't recall the name of at this moment. Mark Hampton a world famous handgun hunter used to own one of them but I can't recall which.

The experience wouldn't be anything like a hunt for free range elk but then you already know that. There are other places that offer what I suspect is similar pricing on much larger properties further west. You can find them in the ads in the back of most hunting magazines. I think a couple are owned by former professional ball players who have turned their family owned land into elk ranches with upwards of 20,000 acres but I think they still offer hunts with no tag needed and I think no kill no pay options. Rulon Jones is one of them I can't recall the name of the other.

[drdougrx]

Het Mark,
 
I've seen elk on ranches all over TX.....couldn't you get a better deal on a meat hunt closer to home???

[Graybeard]

Rulon Jones has two ranches 25,000 acres in Utah and 35,000 in Idaho. They charge $3900, $4900 or $5900 depending on the trophy size. They are called Broadmouth Canyon Ranch. www.utahelkhunt.com

Pine Mountain Outfitters says they charge $3900 for bulls up to 350 which is a real nice rack but ya best not shoot one bigger there as the price jumps to $5900 if it measures over 350 and to $9900 if it goes over 390. Ouch.

[markc]

Thanks GB.  I might look into those.
 
Doc, yes, probably I could do a meat hunt in Texas for less. Somehow it seems that the experience would be better simply by traveling out of state to land that doesn't look just like what I already own and hunt whitetail and axis on. Maybe I am just fooling myself.
 
I guess I have to determine what I really want, the real experience with a small chance at success, or an almost real hunting experience with a nearly 100% chance of success.
 
Anyone remember the "elk ranch" shown on an episode of Keith Warren's TV show several years back that became quite controversial? Seems that someone here on GB outdoors had gone to the same ranch and reported that it was basically hunting tame, farm raised elk in small enclosures where you could see the high fence all around.   I don't recall the episode, but do recall an episode where he defended himself and the hunt, in a rather heated way during the section where viewer letters are read.   
 
 

[Graybeard]

He claimed they had two places to hunt one free range and one high fenced and rather tiny. I don't recall which GBO member it was who had been there and had the photos but he said they had one area they kept the elk in and fed them and a rather small enclosure all open in which to do the shooting.

Since I can't climb hills much at all and can't walk very far either if I were to ever go on an elk hunt it would likely have to be in a place where they can get me within range without me doing much walking thus a horse maybe (I've never ridden one) or four wheeler perhaps. I'd love a Rocky Mountain elk hunt but realistically I have neither the money nor the physical ability to do such a hunt any longer. I'd have to save a long time to come up with the $3900 minimum they seem to want at these places for a decent bull. I sure couldn't afford to shoot a $4900 or $5900 one by mistake either.

[sidewinder319]

Canned hunts for trophy Elk can cost big bucks. The Deseret Ranch which is owned by the LDS Church is located in Northern Utah. These Big Bulls start at $10,000 per head and up. This does not include tips for guides, packers, cooks etc. That makes a hunt on public lands look pretty good. I think $10,000 dollars would buy a good tent and enough Hormel Chili to last 10 days.

[markc]

Sidewinder, I had no idea that the Mormons had a hunting outfit.  For 10K I can hunt lots of exotic species including red deer.  The Missouri Elk ranch, at that size I guess could be considered canned by some folks, fair chase by others.  Hard to decide.   

[sidewinder319]

They may have more than on on the many ranches they own in the west. The Deseret Ranch is a very big one.  Many parts have to be reached by choppers.  The line fence on I80 north of SLC is over 50 miles long.  These are canned, the guides take the hunters to the Bull. Bang its over and you are a trophy hunter.

[markc]

With such large ranches, are these tame, pen raised bulls, or bulls in small enclosures on the large ranch?

[sidewinder319]

The elk migrate down form the Mtns in the Fall. This year over 2,000 head yarded up on this ranch. They feed on the meadows on open prairie. There are also resident elk that live on these ranches. They are like shooting milk cows in this winter condition. The guides?? take the hunters out to the herds and show them what to shoot bang its done. A tractor with a lift picks up the critter and off to the butcher shop. The cape is taken to be mounted. The hunter?? has his jet waiting at the landing strip and way he goes.  The pilots never shut the jets down and lets them run while all this goes on. These ranches must offer a drawing to resident hunters for a hunt. Ha? This is because they are selling the states game animals. Don't you just love these so called game ranches??? PS they also get a big check from hunting licenses fees to cover the feed they eat on these rackets UPPSS ranches.