Posted on 10/16/2010 2:31:10 AM PDT by Palter
After hours of scouting the bone-colored badlands at Cedar Ridge Elk Ranch here, hunter David Regal took aim and fired twice from his .300 Winchester Magnum rifle. One shot killed a bull elk that weighed 700 pounds, wore a 12-point set of antlers, and cost the shooter $8,500.
"I like to get the best there is," says Mr. Regal, 72 years old, who owns an excavating business in Michigan. He drove 1,100 miles here with his brother in a motor home, towing his black Hummer behind.
Cedar Ridge is one of North Dakota's dozen or so private hunting ranches, enclosed by high fences and stocked with farm-raised elk and deer. Here, well-to-do hunters like Mr. Regal pay for a guaranteed shot at some of the most majestic prey in the West.
On Nov. 2, North Dakota voters will decide on a ballot initiative that would do away with these ranches. What's surprising is that the battle over Ballot Measure 2 doesn't pit hunters against their natural adversaries, animal-rights activists, who have long opposed the ultimate blood sport. Rather, the debate is dividing hunters themselves.
As private hunting ranches proliferate nationwide, hunters are grappling with what it means to participate in one of the oldest American sports. Fights like the one in North Dakota have broken out elsewhere, and national hunting groups are piling into the debate.
On one side are hunters who say fencing in wildlife for profit is unethical and shifts hunting from its populist American roots. They say the reserves are creating an elitist model reminiscent of "King's hunting" for the European gentry long ago.
Leading the effort to ban the ranches in North Dakota is Roger Kaseman, a lifelong hunter who once lived off the land for two years in a remote Wyoming cabin.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
That might put the sport back into it.
Do these “sportsmen” actually use the meat or do they kill for the antlers?
I plan to hunt again this year. I have several large white oak trees in my front yard. The deer love the acorns. My yard looks like a cattle pen in places with all the tracks. I could open a window and kill several deer from my living room. One is an 8 point buck. He has a nice rack. To me, killing him would be very unsportsman.
shooting the “best there is” is short sighted game mgt & depletes the gene pool - im always amazed with rack hunters - its akin to penis envy.....anyone that eats game knows that does are better eating
No where in the world will you find more feeders both corn and protein than Central and West TX. No where in the world will you find as many hi-fence hunting operations. Hunting is big business in TX and generates much needed revenue to a variety of business's. We have towns that wouldn't even exist if not for hunting and the business it generates. Ranches ain't cheap anymore and trying to pay one off just by running a few cow's won't cut it so most also have a hunting operation and see more profit in that than in cattle.
Spot ON!!
I can't answer that question but I believe that the vast majority of Texas hunters know that killing simply to kill is unethical and frankly a sin that is Purgatory-worthy.
In Texas processors donate unclaimed meat to those in need. We kill one buck per year....We kill no more than we will consume. Waste not....
It’s not the way I hunt, but I wouldnt shut them down.
It’s against the law to take a game animal and not make an attempt to harvest the meat.
After many hours of bow, black powder, rifle, and shotgun hunting (withdogs and without) although I have killed many deer (I can’t remember how many)over many, many years that place of honor on the wall remains bare. I have just never had a good shot at a nice 8 or 10 pointer. Never. Not once. Now as “evening grows closer” and I am hunting less and less it probably will remain so. I sometimes consider “buying a buck”. I haven’t decided yet. I did pay $800 to hunt three days on a farm that was “managed” and exclusive and saw a number of deer but uneven 4 and 6 pointers at best so I never pulled the trigger. That was my last hunt two years ago. Personally, I think I have “put in the time” and I would have no problem shooting a ten pointer that was on a LEASH. LOL. Hell I had a ten pointer in my backyard a few weeks back. Actually, two, they were in a group of 6 bucks and the “third” was a better 6 pointer than I have ever seen hunting. I took pictures and put them on fb. They were still in velvet and hadn’t split up yet. Once they got “angry” I guess they went nocturnal. Haven’t seen ‘em since.
I agree with at least one of your statements, yes does seem to be better eating. Take in mind there are some area’s that don’t allow the shooting of does.
Here in Michigan pheasant hunting is dying out. My bro-in-law keeps trying to get me to go up north to his son-in-law's fathers place and do some hunting on a private pheasant ranch. I refuse to go, that's not hunting, it's an Easter egg hunt.........That's just me tho.
If a guy wants to fork out the bucks to hunt on a private ranch, then so be it.
IIRC, once a buck reaches “best there is” status, his time is almost up anyway and he has done plenty to distribute his genes.
If they enclosed and stocked it and feed the critters, then for all practical purposes the critters are livestock. If they want to sell the rights to 'hunt' that livestock, it's their ranch.
I don't have a problem with that. It isn't like the state is overrun with wild herds of elk to fence off, anyway.
(If I recall correctly, the breeding stock is brought in from elsewhere.)
As for whitetail and Mule deer, there are plenty and if they are breeding on the ranch and eating there, the property owner should have the same right to lease hunting rights there for as long as they want, be it a day or a lifetime, to whomever they want to lease them.
To assert otherwise is to strip the property owner of their control over hunting rights on their land, and their say-so over who can and cannot hunt on their land.
I really don't think property owners or hunters want to go there, or ultimately the State will exert absolute control over all aspects of hunting and property.
As to the 'sporting' nature of a canned hunt, YMMV, but for those who have a little more trouble getting around or a lot less time, it fills the tag and the freezer, whether or not it has 'B'wanna cred'.
Have you thought about getting a few trail-cams to find that elusive trophy?
No where in the world will you find more feeders both corn and protein than Central and West TX.
Way back when I lived in NW Pennsylvania farm country it was common for farmers to set out a salt block and pile of corn a couple months before deer season. Corn was set out every day until the season opened. On opening day there would be no trace of either – it would be illegal. We’d set on the porch with a shotgun on opening day, take a good size buck and stock the freezer.
I am probably too late in this conversation to get many good replies; here goes, though. The question that comes to mind is how do these types of operation effect the conservation efforts in the areas that they are in? By managing the “prey” do the help, or hurt, the local populations which hunters normally help manage?
No effect what so ever, they’re hi-fenced and completly seperated from local populations.
My 13 year old son just got his first deer a couple weeks ago. He was so disappointed that it was as small as it was (antler-less tag) he was hoping for a bit bigger. Dang that was the best meat I have ever tasted, I cut it with a fork and even with having 2 teeth pulled earlier that day I could eat it without trouble.
I am in ND so I will be able to vote on prop 2. There is a reason I pay to have a house and land, if I wanted someone to tell me what to do with it I would move to a condo or an apartment. Personally I find it unsportsmanlike and I would not do it, but not up to me to tell someone else what to do with their land.
With all that being said... it should remain legal for lazy hunters to do this.
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