All "bought" bucks, on opening day.

I'll take mine one at a time.

This whole private land/game management/outfitter/guided hunt thing has become big business, and the legitimacy of "hunting accomplishment" watered-down as a result.

The Buck Run outfit in Grant County can kiss my a$$. Think about it before any of you stick up for them, or else you may be thought of as a Nancy.

I don't mind hunting on private land, but high fence hunts are ridiculous. Having only one tag makes you think a bit more about your choice for the year.

"Game managers" don't need a high fence to keep trophy animals on-site. Large private parcels with dence cover and huge alfalfa fields are all the refuge these bucks need to avoid getting shot at by the Cabela's cavelcade of cock-in-the-mouth cowboys.

Don't get me wrong, I hunt private property, too. I don't even have a hard-on about paying for the privledge on occation if there are really big bucks present, as long as I can do it myself. Paying someone, on the other hand, to tell you where to sit and when to pull the triger on an animal that qualifys as the size bracket you've paid for is another story.

Agreed.

What about the landowner that has a $20 raffle for 10 tags (unlimited entries allowed) with all proceeds to the landowner. Once selected, landowner tells you what day and where you can go. This info is unavailable until hunting time.

No problem with that. Their land, and presumably fair chase.

Canned hunts are for faggots who are pretending to be butch.

Architects seem to love those kinds of hunts . . .

Canned, high fenced, gang hunted,... not my cuppa tea.

90% plus of all my hunts are DIYers.

I think there are some great guided hunts to be had though.
Some hunting REQUIRES a guide by law (Most all foriegn countries Alaskan Grizz, Dall sheep, Mountain goat, Brown bear ) and certain wilderness areas in lower 48 as well.

I think some of the rippin on guides gets to be a class warfare thing, I know for sure that if I was making a lot more money that I'd be looking at some guided sheep hunts and the like.

Like I said in an earlier post, not all guided hunts are where the guide holds the dudes hand and tells him what & when to shoot.
Though some certainly are that.

I made a post on another site regarding game farmed whitetails & elk.
Though the antlers are spectacular, the end result is very similar to boning your sister and bragging about getting laid.

Do you know that for a fact? ...lol

Just kidding, killer.

Thread hijack, but I gotsta know........any Architects on this board?

I know of at least one who reads it all the time, but is not a member. I hope he reads this. I've told him the one about the engineer and hairdresser already.

Well put... Kind of like fishing in a Rainbow trout farm....

Keith

What's the difference between a "canned" hunt and fishing for recently planted trout, Triploids, and such?

Or, for that matter, fishing for populations of fish that enhanced through hatchery production. Nature can't produce that many harvestable fish.

It is all about fair chase, Carcassman.

I'm not for "canned hunts" at all. I used to live near a game farm in Michigan. Big high fences and plenty of game. You could stop on the highway and look at trophy bucks. To me, it seemed like the zoo and if you schucked out the cash, you could go inside the cage.

The one positive thing I can think of is that it keeps the "canned hunters" in "canned hunting areas". Its the perfect place for people with the ethical standards to shoot pinned up animals. Same thing goes for the canned bird hunting too.

I agree.

How "fair chase" is it to fish around the Rufus Woods nets pens for triplods that leaked out?

There is a continuoum here. Some of the ones I have seen on TV, where the waterholes were concrete, barriers were placed such that an animal had to present a good opportunity, that isn't hunting in my book. Shooting, maybe.

At the other end of the scale is the landowner who controls access, manages crops and minerals to produce big racks, limits kill to the big ones, but makes the hunter go and find the animal themselves.

Unfortunately, the almighty dollar rules. Big game will survive and flourish where they have an economic benefit to the landowner.

As people get more money, and less time, they will spend the money as a replacement for time. As a kid, we used to spend a couple months, every weekend, scouting out deer. Spent quite a bit of time sighting in the rifles and getting ready. The areas we hunted and shot in are now pretty built up. Have to go further. With less available time.

I don't like the trend, it's not how I think it should be done, but I am afraid it is the way of the future.