Posted on 10/19/2017 5:07:53 AM PDT by PreciousLiberty
UVALDE, Tex. — On a ranch at the southwestern edge of the Texas Hill Country, a hunting guide spotted her cooling off in the shade: an African reticulated giraffe. Such is the curious state of modern Texas ranching, that a giraffe among the oak and the mesquite is an everyday sort of thing.
“That’s Buttercup,” said the guide, Buck Watson, 54.
In a place of rare creatures, Buttercup is among the rarest; she is off limits to hunters at the Ox Ranch. Not so the African bongo antelope, one of the world’s heaviest and most striking spiral-horned antelopes, which roams the same countryside as Buttercup. The price to kill a bongo at the Ox Ranch is $35,000.
Himalayan tahrs, wild goats with a bushy lion-style mane, are far cheaper. The trophy fee, or kill fee, to shoot one is $7,500. An Arabian oryx is $9,500; a sitatunga antelope, $12,000; and a black wildebeest, $15,000.
“We don’t hunt giraffes,” Mr. Watson said. “Buttercup will live out her days here, letting people take pictures of her. She can walk around and graze off the trees as if she was in Africa.”
The Ox Ranch near Uvalde, Tex., is not quite a zoo, and not quite an animal shooting range, but something in between.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The bottom line is that these exotic game ranches are good for conservation, and provide an alternative to long-distance travel to see and take these species. A bonus compared to an African safari is the meat ends up in your freezer instead of (mostly) feeding the locals.
BTW, any meat eater that has a problem with this is a hypocrite. These animals have a much better life than domestic animals at a factory farm!
Free enterprise strikes again!
I dont really care for these types of “hunts” A friend of mine took his daughter to get a deer in one of these. they basically had a pasture where the animals would come and they just sat in this prebuilt tower and waited and shot it... i dont really consider that “hunting”...
i wanna say it was like 3k for that... i dont have a problem shooting the animals, but this isnt hunting, its just shooting some animals...
“A friend of mine took his daughter to get a deer in one of these. they basically had a pasture where the animals would come and they just sat in this prebuilt tower and waited and shot it... i dont really consider that “hunting”...”
Well...a lot of deer hunting is pretty much like that. Many hunting clubs plant food plots, and have stands overlooking those plots. Some hunting clubs are also farms, and hunters hunt the planted fields. Here in South Carolina, anyone with private land can put out corn or other feed and hunt over that.
Again, at least the animals have a wild and free life, and in most of the cases above there are no high fences. For the hunter, it’s a chance to get high quality, low fat meat along with some fresh air. Even in those situations, there’s no guarantee you’re going to take an animal.
Personally I mainly hunt public lands, where the only legal attractant is deer urine. There are often feral hogs around as well. To each his own!
I would like to take some hunting vacations in the future. A trip to Africa would be great, and the costs are actually reasonable compared to this exotics ranch if you shop around a bit.
Farming is farming.
A doe? How much for the spike, or the 6 point? How much is bambi?
in the South most definitely, but certainly not back in Wyo... you actually have to know terrain and know where and when the game is going to most likely be.
Here is more like a video game...
Nebraska is a bit harder too.
You can go to where the deer should be (food, water, shelter), and they may choose not to be there. Because there are LOTS of places for them to be.
The most frustrating thing is to see a hundred deer just across the property line, and then have the owner tell you the DAY AFTER SEASON ENDS “Why didn’t you just shoot them?”
My brother was hunting Elk , they were JUST across the fence in a different area from where they were, they tried everything to get them to move into the area they were in, no dice... they just had to watch :)
I don't know if you can hunt does at all. The $750 is a "cull" whitetail, which means malformed or inadequate antlers. You can shoot a "management" eight point for $1,500, which generally means one measuring 125(?) SCI or less - again not a deer they really want in their breeding program. Prices go up pretty steeply from there...
Probably the best deal is actually eight hours of pig hunting for $1,000. I bet it's possible to take one or more pigs every hour if you're good, and eight or more pigs is a good value for $1,000 - although they might not let you process them yourself, and usually it's expensive for staff to do it. Good eating though!
I'd think all deer available are fairly mature, as they have to evaluate quality before deciding which tier they fall into.
They do have pretty large selection of animals available, plus you can hit the tank shooting range and fire a machine gun on a Sherman tank at car wrecks... ;-) For those with money to burn, it seems like a nice resource...and you are helping conserve rare and endangered species.
http://www.oxhuntingranch.com/hunting/hunting-fees/
The other owner is a big of a heal, so we didn’t even think to ask. Turns out no one in the section did either. The owner was sitting at his table, looking out his back window, watching me watch the deer. That old bird said he laughed for two days once he realized I wasn’t going to shoot anything on his land.
We did pop a few the following year though. He wants us to shoot does (keep the numbers down), and we did get three. The looks of jealousy and anger were priceless when we checked them in. Seems there are people who have been charged with trespassing for shooting on his land before. We did have to show written permission.
yeah, its getting a lot worse now I hear, people asking for huge sums just to hunt on their land...
Not being a fauna/climate expert I am probably not qualified to say but from my observations, having visited both Africa and Texas, the climate in Texas, while a little cold in the winter, should support much of the same wild life that the Africa Savannah supports.
“yeah, its getting a lot worse now I hear, people asking for huge sums just to hunt on their land...”
Down home in south GA, good private deer hunting land rents for $7-10/acre.
really?? ive talked several people around here, Atl and its way more than that. The WMA near me is pretty crowded... I tried to hunt it a couple times, but its pretty difficult...back home there is so much open public land to hunt.. not here.
no way im paying a grand or more just get hunt, and thats IF you can find a club that has an opening.
Meanwhile, the critics who are quoted in this article have chosen to completely ignore the fact that this makes the populations of endangered animals get bigger.
It's a lot simpler to live in the exurbs and pick up the roadkill.
You could get an out-of-state license and hunt the west SC WMAs, which have a lot of good opportunities - plenty of pigs as well as deer. It's a long deer season here, from Sept. 15 to Jan 1. It actually starts on Aug. 15 for private land...
It should be around a 3 hour drive from Atlanta to any of the 4 WMAs, near Aiken SC. I've never hunted any of them, but I might check them out now that I read a bit about them.
In particular the Crackerneck WMA (10,000 acres) looks interesting:
• Quality Deer Management AreaYou can download the SCDNR annual book here...
• Antlered deer must have at least 4 points on one side or a minimum 12-inch inside antler spread.
• Harvested deer will be tagged by SCDNR staff, therefore, hunters are not required to use their personal tags.
Deer Gun Hunts
SEASONS
Gun hunts on Fri., Sat. & Thanksgiving Day only during this period. Oct. 20-Dec. 30 buck only.
Oct. 20-21, 27-28, Nov. 3-4, 10-11, 17-18, Dec. 1-2, either sex 2 per day, 5 deer total, not to include more than 3 bucks.
• All individuals must sign in and out at gate.
• No buckshot or dogs allowed.
• Scouting days (no firearms or archery equipment) on Saturdays only during Sept. and Mar. Gate opens at 6:00 AM and closes at 8:00 PM.
• On deer hunt days, gate opens as follows: Oct., 4:30 AM-8:30 PM; Nov.-Dec., 4:30 AM-7:30 PM. For party dog hunts for hogs in Jan. & Feb., gate will be open from 5:30 AM-7:00 PM.
Sure. And and at the same time the ranchers that bring in the exotics aren’t responsible in keeping them in check and on their property. Garner st park was/is overrun with Axis deer. Go up to Big bend country and Aoudad are running around competing with the bighorn. Not cool.
It is hurting the sport.
I will not pay $5,000 for a half acre plot to hunt on. Many will, and that is their choice. But many can’t afford to.
I still have trespass rights on a lot of Nebraska farm fields. Won’t get the big buck, but typically will fill the freezer.
that would be pretty far, im on the west side of Atl... Pauling forest is closest to me, about 45 min...
i noticed the cut the days way down, it seemed like it was open a lot longer last year, now its just a couple days here and there...
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