Grubbs,
I agree that anyone with enough money can kill a big deer, elk, moose, bear, etc. if they are willing to find a place that will let them shoot a penned deer. However just the fact that a ranch is high fenced DOES not make it a canned hunt.
I saw the stuff on here about BVO last year and if that was true, that's not hunting. I would note that I also almost got into a similar hunt at another place in Canada to hunt elk that was a guaranteed "no kill, no pay" hunt. Basically there are a lot of ranches in Canada that pen or pasture raise elk for their horns, and sell the excess and larger, older animals off as hunts. This particular place asked me what size elk (B&C) did I want and they would make sure that they had several in the hunting pasture, which I believe was about 2500 acres or so. Well, I didn't go because I didn't really think that this was a real hunt as the animals were basically pasture raised and then put into a bigger pasture to be hunted. And by the way I learned about this ranch from one of the hunting shows on the Outdoor Channel.
That's totally different from large high fenced ranchs in Texas (or elsewhere) that are growing/managing native whitetail and/or exotics in a basically free ranging situation. Yes, they may have 'breeder' bucks that they keep in pens, but those are not hunted, or at least on the ranches that I know about they aren't hunted. I know that there are some people, as you term "lard assed rich lawers", that will not hesitate to buy a penned deer and shoot it (as long as the rope burns aren't obvious) and then put it on their wall and brag about it. Well, if that's what they want that's their issue, not mine. If they think that's a trophy, then more power to them for it. But just because some do that there are some "lard assed poor non-lawyers" like me that have had excellent fair chase hunts on high fenced ranches.
Does high fenced ranches make it easier to take a trophy animal? Absolutely it does, but that's not because of the fence, it's because of the management program that's in place on that rance and the fact that the ranch managers/hands/guides spend their time throughout the year spotting the areas the trophy deer are frequenting as this is a part of the ranch's income structure. As well, the poachers are kept out allowing the deer to reach their growth potential instead of being killed early.
Most of us have a real job, not like Bill Jorden and Keith Warren, but there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of this knowledge as we don't have weeks and months to spend in the woods scouting.
A true story. Some years ago I had a friend that had a burning desire to kill a B&C record book whitetail. He procured a lease in Mexico that he hunted for 8 years. He drove 14hrs. one way every weekend after work to his lease, and then back again on Sunday. He built 50ft. tower stands and carried them to Mexico in pieces on top of his suburban. He was probably at that lease at least 1/2 of the weekends in the year. He also went to every state that was supposed to produce quality whitetails at that time and hunted with the best/most expensive outfitters. One year he hunted for 2 straight weeks in Saskawachian and then went for the next 2 weeks in Alberta. Each of these were $6k hunts, total $24k not including expenses. Over the 10 years that he hunted hard, he probably spent $100k, and while he took some nice deer, he never took a B&C buck. And it wasn't for lack of trying or lack of spending money. I would also note that this guy was an excellent hunter and definately not a "lard assed" anything.
Mark,
I am not sure that leaving out that 100yds of fence made the ranch P&Y legal or not. That's just what the ranch owner said. I was just looking for a good deer to harvest and didn't give a care about P&Y. I've taken some pretty good deer but have never had one measured, except by myself. To me, any mature whitetail is a trophy to be proud of. I judge a deer more by its body than its horns, or at least I try to tell myself I do.
