acres and high fence questions

[tfrye]

Okay so I have come back to the green screen for advice, opinions, and facts.
First question: how many acres is ideal for 3 bow hunters and 1 occasional rifle hunter.
Second question: if you could buy land and found a high fence ranch in your budget would you buy it or stay with low fence? I am faced with both of these questions.. so I just want thoughts, on why I should choose one or the other and to see how many acres I should be lookin at.
Thanks!

[flywise]

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.

[BradBryant1000]

What part of the country are you looking at? That IMO COULD affect how many acres you need per hunter.

[RealTreeHunter]

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.

Agreed with it all, especially the top part^^

If it's your dream place and already high fenced, then play with it for a few years and see what you can do with the current deer on the property. If it gets to be too much work, not fun or just not your thing, all it would take is some wire cutters and you could drive around the place and cut the fence down to 4' at random places on the fenceline.

[jaspermac]

300 would be my minimum.

[Mike Murphey]

for 4 hunters I would be looking at 250 acres each or 1000 acres minimum...as far as high fence or low fence, why remove a high fence? if you own the land and it bothers YOU, not the folks on the green screen, then leave it....it's your land...

[boh347]

400 acres minimum and that's way to small for a high fence.

I think minimum high fence should be 1000 acres.

[DoubleGProstaff]

I have 300 acres in Kerr county and it's high fence. I have 4 bow blinds and 2 rifle stands and are all spaced pretty far apart. The shape of the property has a lot to do with how many stands and how they are spaced.

[BloodSpiller]

It depends on the property. 3 of us hunt 179 acres HF but 160 acres are dense wooded thickets. Every year in terrain like this you will get pictures of deer you have never seen before. As far as high fence that's the only way to manage your hunts. Contrary to popular belief, deer are not any less wild because your fence is taller. It only ensures that your neighbors bad decisions will not affect your personal hunting experiences and allows you to hunt a smaller parcel of land as a result of this.

[BolilloLoco]

It all depends on your goals and expectations. We used to hunt 4-5 on 80acres in East Texas and killed every buck we saw. That lasted about 5 years. Then we didn't see anymore bucks. If I wanted to kill 3-4 mature bucks each year and money wasn't an object I would buy at least 1500acres. If it wasn't HF, I would build it.

[Target-panic]

800-1200 acres is the perfect high fence place depending on the brush and water.

If the land is perfect for hunting then 150-200 acres would work for 4 hunters.

[Antlers86]

400 acres minimum and that's way to small for a high fence.

I think minimum high fence should be 1000 acres.

I think it all depends on lay of the land. Ive hunted a 400 acres HF in East Tx and its not as easy as you think it may be. Add in deep creek draws, 50'-100' tall trees, thick brush, etc and there plenty big enough. Get out in West Tx with no trees, wide open where you see from fence to fence and thats another story.

[Big pig]

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.

Why?

[Sippy]

If you are serious about intensively managing the deer herd, already having a high fence is a blessing. However, remember that you are completely responsible for the health of that herd.

[tfrye]

We want to shoot good deer, but we have never even been to a high fence ranch before. We don't want the hunt to be super easy and hand feed, and pen raise our deer. If we ended up buying the high fence we would let them roam wild. In the past we have been on a 600 acre lease, but we want to get our own land. We have been looking at the 120-300 acre range with a house. We have mixed feelings about buying a high fence ranch and just wanted some good information. Thanks for all the post so far!