From the Recordbuck Ranch Facebook page:
Jerry has finally received the official score for his monster buck. It was officially scored at 548″ and takes the record for the largest buck in Texas!!! Way to go Jerry, congratulations. Well deserved for a wonderful man we are glad to call our friend. #monsterbuck #whitetail #500 #texaswhitetail #recordbuckranch
This is obviously a high-fence buck, and it has generated a lot of conversation, with passion on both sides: A man has the right to hunt in a high fence if he so chooses…or, high-fence hunts are not fair chase and do the image of deer hunters no good.
What do you say?
a two year old buck off public land in Michigan or Pennslyvania with a bow is a bigger trophy than a 500″ pet with antlers. P.s. any guys in Va want to take me in on a lease im looking #militaryhusband
Enjoying all the comments. Mike sure knows how to stir the pot, and for that we should all be grateful.
Personally, I cannot envision myself spending the money to hunt for a 200″+ high fence whitetail buck. I have been a guest on high fence ranches in South Texas with captive breeding and AI permits with acreage in excess of 35,000 acres. No drones used, no tracking devices to locate a particular buck at will. Just a lot of time spent sitting in a blind, waiting for the right deer to come along. Being in the right place at the right time. Sitting with a guide who holds a degree in Wildlife Biology and Management, passionate about whitetail deer. Not for everyone, but it sure felt like hunting to me.
The larger issue for me is that we must be one hunting community to withstand the anti-hunting, anti-gun activists out there who will not be happy with anything short of total bans on what we all love. And it takes money to fight the fight. So for me, as long as the hunt is legal and the hunter is comfortable with looking into his face in the mirror every day, I accept that person as a member of a community I am proud to be a part of. I am sure the man who can afford to shoot the deer in question is active in a host of local, regional and national groups dedicated to preserving our shooting and hunting rights.
We cannot and should not allow our larger community to be segmented and divided, sounds corny to quote Abraham Lincoln here but “a house divided against itself cannot stand”.
Just my thoughts on the subject.
Interesting topic guys. Not being critical of anyone’s methods as long as they’re legal. Along the lines of what I think Steve is getting at, it’s up to each of us to decide what’s “hunting” and how challenging we want our practice of the sport to be. We all get our enjoyment from the sport in our own ways. Could be the camaraderie of sharing hunting camp with family and friends, running deer with dogs where that’s a deep-rooted tradition, stalking with primitive weapons, the elbow grease spent prepping food plots or paying big bucks to hunt “Super Deer”. Criticizing another hunter’s ethics (as long as what they’re doing is legal) is a very slippery slope and not real fair without knowing all the facts. Hard to say that shooting a trail-camera and food-plot patterned buck in a sub-urban setting isn’t just as “unethical” as shooting a genetically modified freak if he’s living in a high-fence area the size of an entire county in Rhode Island.
Rick quote “Hard to say that shooting a trail-camera and food-plot patterned buck in a sub-urban setting isn’t just as “unethical” as shooting a genetically modified freak if he’s living in a high-fence area the size of an entire county in Rhode Island.”
Anyone who has frequented this blog knows I’m not a fan of game camera use during the season and I’m completely against using game cameras that contact your phone in “real time” or drones for hunting period. I think we’ve taken the “hunt” out of hunting with things like this and turned it into deer surveillance and/or hunting by email…..
And while some will say that I’m starting down a slippery slope by saying so, @ what point do we draw the line?
At what point do we quit worrying about p*ssing someone off and take a real look @ what is considered “legal” now and say perhaps there are certain methods, equipment, or genetic manipulations of animals (that while legal) have stepped over the line of fair chase or should even be considered hunting?
To me, not considering subjects such as the ones listed above, is the slippery slope….
Nice! Thanks Terry. And, congrats on a great buck.
Dean: Sandy River area, I may hunt all week to see a handful of deer no baiting, etc. but when I do score it is very rewarding. Terry “Big Daddy”
Big Daddy, I’m just curious to know what part of Manitoba you hunt in? Don’t have to give me any super specifics; just wonder what area. Interlake? Thanks in advance.DW
Like I said in a prior post never done doubt I will. Money isn’t the issue as I spend way too much each year to hunt all over whitetail country both in the USA and Canada. Rather for me hunting in Pa where I live is a musty old hunting camp with my family and friends in Potter county, where I’m just as happy to kill a doe for sausage meat as I was with 168″ kill in Manitoba this year.
I was raised in a hunting family that has roots in that musty camp going back 5 generations…to me THAT IS HUNTING!
No Interest in these deer or the story. Not hunting, I don’t care how large the pen. People who hunt behind a fence are not true hunters, just someone who has more money than morals!
To each his own but not for me. I would like to know how long it took to locate and put the deer down? 15 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, in a fence it is just a matter of time and if your willing to spend that kind of money on a deer, you will also make the time. So it is just a matter of time and money, the deer doesn’t have a chance due to the high fence. I also do the same thing when I go hunting, I live in San Diego and I take 30 days off work to go hunting, I spend lots of money on Illinois non-resident tags for bow and shotgun, I drive there and back, I also went to Nebraska for a rifle hunt, drove there also. I too, had lots of money and time to invest in the sport I love. However, I was missing one component, a high fence. I passed up small bucks and even some bucks that were right on the edge of shooting. I spent 30 days in the field observing nature, waking up early, staying out late, freezing, having some cold ones with my friends, hung out at deer camp waiting for the rain to quit, ate some good food, heard some good jokes, visited family, checked the deer camera’s, strategized about deer hunting and came home empty handed. Yep, tag soup. I spent the money and spent the time, the only thing I was missing was that high fence. But if I would have had the high fence, I wouldn’t have had half the fun. So, I’ll take the tag soup and the fun any day before the high fence.
Well, it is a very impressive rack but as far as ranking it with whitetails taken in the wild…..no way. If that’s where you want to put your bucks (no pun intended), it is your money but they raise longhorn cattle with really good horns too so they are impressive also. Apples and oranges to me. Both are fruit but they are in no way the same thing. Not a big fan as you can tell. Nuff preaching for me.
Who cares. Hey… If you got that kind of money to pay between 10,000 and $20,000 to shoot a pen raise dear have at it. Not my style of hunting even if I had the money. Long as guys like this arent trying to claim they shoot them free range. It’s not really that big of an accomplishment to shoot a pen raised here if you ask me.
If it’s legal and the person doing so enjoys it then why not? It’s not being placed in a record book that free range whitetails are so what is it hurting? It’s simply business for the ranch owner and I think I’d much rather be raising giant bucks than sitting behind this desk if I had the option. I personally don’t have any want or need to hunt in a high fence, but I certainly won’t bash another hunter who enjoys being in the outdoors and loves deer for doing it. Remember that they still pour lots of $ into hunting licenses, guns, clothes etc..that are taxed and benefit the state’s wildlife.
I think Danny has it right. Who cares. I’m not interested in shooting a genetically grown deer. But if that’s what somebody else chooses to do, that’s their businesses. Kclap mentioned the money factor. How much do you have wrapped up in the 700 acre lease and food plots? Whether you like it or not you’re paying to play also. Some people might consider that to be not real hunting either.
Just like some people would consider hunting over bait unethical. Or using primitive weapons versus modern. The list goes on and on.
To each their own.
Steve, I dont have $13,00 in it… You compare food plot planting and management to high fence?? We made food plots by hand, used chest mounted seed spreaders that cost $20 at tractor supply.. Bought bags of lime & fertilizer and mannaully spreadit, Worked our land, planted food for all free range animals.. So I guess no one hunting over corn fields, soybean fields etc are hunting eitehr? bad analogy… Makes no difference to me how you wanna spend your money, its just not hunting..
Kclap. I’m not criticizing how you hunt. You did seem to criticize that guys hunting method. I wasn’t comparing food plots with high fence hunting. . My point was people choose to hunt and spend their money how they want. And who are we to judge what’s right and wrong.
As I said, I have no desire to hunt a genetically modified deer high fence or not.
I’d rather pay the big money and hunt free-range giants in W. Canada. To me the actual thrill of the hunt is what most of the enjoyment I get from hunting whitetails comes from. I’ve never understood the whole “trophy” hunting thing. To me a trophy is something you win in a contest. A first place trophy; second place; and so on. Sure, I strive to hunt big, mature whitetail bucks that most often have large antlers. But, I’m not the least bit let down if I don’t get a big buck; nor am I upset if someone’s rack scores higher than the one I get. If I shoot a giant buck, well then that’s great. If it happens to be some kind of record, well I’ll thank the Lord for allowing me the opportunity. Even then, it’s about the buck; not me.
BTW Jim, I enjoyed your analogy. LOL!
Well, at $150 min for up to 200, I bet it cost him 100 grand or more- prob- $200+ grand. Just think what studies all the wildlife schools could perform with the grants to do worthwhile studies. Hope the “Big Un Ranch” shares their studies with research institutions. What might be “Bred Out” in the process of unnatural selection? Did they feed him steroids? Would this buck be more suseptible to EHD, CWD or any other threats to the wild population. Makes ya wonder.?
As long as the guy isn’t trying to pass it off as a fair chase kill, then who cares. So, I say Congrats man. You paid more money than most people make in a year to shoot a Dr Seuss character. If that’s what gets you excited then so be it. But for me personally, I got to spend countless hours on stand with my daughter this year. We had a couple close calls, but she never pulled the trigger. I wouldn’t trade the memories of this season for a 548″ deer or the money he spent on it.
It certainly is not my idea of “Hunting”.. Guess I just can’t relate? I cannot comprehend any individual who would 1 pay that much money and 2 what kind of person would hang that on their wall? 3.. why not just buy the deer alive and take it home as a pet? At least if you bought it alive and took it home you could play with it every day… NOT HUNTING and NOT WORTHY of a forum, in my opinion.. If it’s not fair chase, it’s not hunting to me.. Somewhat similar to the laws here in Virginia where you can use dogs to run deer to “Hunters” standing by waiting for the dogs to run them a deer.. Not much sportsmanship in either to me.. If you can’t go out and HUNT a deer on your own, maybe you should take up fishing to be outdoors? I’d much rather shoot a “REAL” buck that measures 110inches than pay to kill someone’s pet.. KCLAP
With drones and real time cameras running constantly, I find it hard to believe that places that offer “hunts” like this don’t have a pretty good idea of where their livestock is.
Look @ the rates from the above mentioned place….
200 SCI Begins *$13,500
$150.00 per inch up to 299 SCI
300 SCI & Up *ASK
With all due respect, if anyone believes that the owners of places like this can’t put a client (who can afford to kill a deer like the one in the article), on that deer, you are only fooling yourself….
Well Mike this is as good as it gets for a topic to stir up activity on your blog.
I’ve never hunted on a high fenced operation myself but IMHO if the land mass is enough to give the quarry a sporting chance to give the hunter the slip why not?
My neighbor goes to a red deer ranch in NZ every few years that is huge in size but fenced and I know guys that have gone to South Africa to hunt behind fence in excess of 30,000 hectors every year…they sure seem to enjoy themselves.
I wish legitimate sites, such as Big Deer, would just ignore this crap. I used to marvel at the antlers that science can generate. Now, I just kind of shake my head. Maybe, some people think by shining a light on these guys that it shows “real” hunters don’t support it. I say don’t even give these guys any forum for their barnyard trophies.
@jjas,
You mean all this time is was only about the money?
What do you think?
I thought she really loved me. I guess I have to re-evaluate my “relationship” :-)
Big deal….
You write a big fat check to kill a pen raised deer that was genetically manipulated…
Kind of lack handing a hooker a fat wad of cash to pretend she likes you…..
Both leave you with a whole lot less money and accomplishing nothing….
It should read…..
“kind of like”, not “kind of lack”….