re: Paid white tail hunts VS really earning a trophy

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If you aren't close friends with them you aren't going to know about it. Guys that are killing deer like that on public land aren't going to share much info. I have a good friend that killed 6 140" or bigger deer in the last 7 years in "Kansas" . In reality they came off of the White River Refuge. The dad of a girl I used to date had (at the time) 12 P&Y bucks (including 4 that grossed in the 170 range) all off of public land.

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I hear lots of tall tales about these super public land hunters every year. Sadly, nobody ever seems to have the photos to back up the stories which leaves me to believe most of the stories are bullshite.

There are some guys in very remote areas that have the benefit of having lightly hunted public access in their backyard. Some of them manage to do very well each year. These people are the exception and not the rule. I just don't believe you sneak Booners out of public land every year without anybody taking notice. Let's also accept that the majority of hunters on public land would more likely be categorized as meat hunters as opposed to trophy hunters. Overall, this impact on the age structure reduces the likelihood of encountering mature trophy bucks. Lets be practical, if public land was consistently killing giants everyone would be hunting there.

There are some public draw permits in areas where success is nearly guaranteed and quality is very high. In most cases a permit is drawn perhaps once every decade or so and some people never draw a permit.

I'm not a fan of high fences but recognize that there has to be a point in terms of acreage within the fence that we're pretty damn close to fair chase conditions. What is that number? I really have no idea.

My issue is with the hunting of what I call deer farms. Generally speaking were talking about very small high fenced tracts where the deer are effectively inventoried and cataloged and sold like a steer. Or similar sized tracts where the farmed deer was literally delivered by trailer the previous day to be shot by a paying customer. To each their own, but I just don't see this as being very sporting.