acres and high fence questions

[bwool]

Buy the biggest place you can afford, with the largest neighbors you can find!

[Encinal]

If it is HF already and there is a question as to whether it is big enough for 4 hunters it probably is not much of a hunt in my book.

As for the second question, if i found my dream place and it happened to be a HF place i'd cut the fence down to regular height.

No you wouldn't, unless it was 100% your fence.

[trophyhunter]

If you are worried about it being a "hunt" just keep your numbers low.

A HF place is what YOU make of it, not what anyone on the internet thinks of it. You control the water, you control the food, you control the quality, you control the numbers.

This couldn't be MORE true. So much depends on your individual goals and what you hope to get out of the property. Trophy Whitetail? Exotic hunting? Hog hunting? Investment property? When HF is considered, acreage is just a number used to legitimize the "quality" or challenge of the hunt for everyone on the internet!. When considering size and "LF vs. HF"......So much depends on the region where you hope to purchase, terrain, carrying capacity, water, vegetation, native genetics, etc.

If LF, very few areas will produce what you are describing with small acreage. Finding the RIGHT property with the RIGHT neighbors that are the RIGHT size is extremely difficult!

250+ acres HF is plenty big for the type of hunting you described, assuming you have good cover. Contrary to popular belief, the element of suprise is "alive and well". Very few hunters can identify deer from year to year. Even if you are proficient at tracking and aging WTs......witnessing a 40" jump in a single year is INCREDIBLY suprising.


We've owned a few properties and currently have a HF place in the hill country. I'm happy to discuss the "ins and outs" of both if you would like to connect. I'm also in Colleyville.

Good luck, either way! Owning land is a dream come true!

[gonehuntin68]

i was looking at a place that was 170 acres. The neighbors are some small tracts with lots of blinds. If I got it I would probably hi fence it just because of the adjoining pressure.
Is that too small a place?
It actually all or more than I could afford.
Would I get bored on 170 acres?

I don't think it's too small but if it was the only place I could hunt I do think it would get a little old because I like to hunt a lot. The one think you could always do to keep it from getting boring, is also get on a lease to give your place rest and break up the monotony of hunting the same place. As far as would I high fence it, that would depend on the surrounding properties. If it already has a high fence I would leave it. By the way, I have hunted a couple of different places that were under 200 acres high fenced and both places were enjoyable to hunt and the animals were not tame by any means because they both got a lot of pressure. Just remember that if you do get a high fence place it will be a lot more work then a low fence place because the fence will need constant maintenance and you will always have to make sure then animals have food and water. Also with it being high fenced you could always bring in some exotics to hunt in the off season.

[Captain39]

I would buy in a heart beat if u could afford it, the high fence is a huge bonus! Remember, lot of the guys on here who say they wouldn't buy anything unless it's 250 acres or a 1000 acres HF probably never have owned land.

[txtrophy85]

I sold a 160 acre hf ranch that had 55-60 deer on it. Thick brush, I showed the place 6 times before it sold and only saw deer on it twice. You would think with that number of deer per acre you would be tripping on them but that's not the case


My family has 300 acres hf of which 20-60 acres of that is lake depending on how much rain we have gotten. We kill about 10-15 deer a yearr most years with one trophy taken, never have any issues. We have dense cover and although our deer are not pressured hard they are not tame either. We hunt 3-4 people regularly.

IME it depends on the shape of the ranch and density of cover. 200 acres in east Texas or thick brush country is fine, 200 acres in del rio may leave something to be desired.