What is free range?

[EricL]

I have been wondering about the term "free range". Do some of these farms down south have fence all the way around the property? Say, for example, someone has 12,000 acres fenced in, is this not considered free range? Even though I've never hunted anywhere that I felt like I was hunting in a cage, how many acres would be enough to be considered free range? What if you had 20,000 acres with fence on 3 sides and a large river on the 4th side. What would this be considered? I'm sure I'll get alot of different opinions but that is what I'm wanting...Thanks, Eric

 

[FBKShunter]

hmmm

hmmm

I have been wondering about the term "free range". Do some of these farms down south have fence all the way around the property? Say, for example, someone has 12,000 acres fenced in, is this not considered free range? Even though I've never hunted anywhere that I felt like I was hunting in a cage, how many acres would be enough to be considered free range? What if you had 20,000 acres with fence on 3 sides and a large river on the 4th side. What would this be considered? I'm sure I'll get alot of different opinions but that is what I'm wanting...Thanks, Eric

Good question,

But I think you would have to take the type of animal and the terrain into consideration. For instance for a whitetail in a thick oak forest would need less area to be free roaming than say a buffalo on the open grasslands.

 

[theilercabin]

Free Range

Free Range

I believe it has to do with the hindrance and the ability of the game to come and go from a designated area as they please. There are lots of "trophy" game farms all over the country. I've seen them in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin. They make me sick actually. The farms sometimes have exotics brought in and sometimes they simply want to manage their trophy specimens.
This goes on quite a bit with whitetails, there's a relatively big market for trophy whitetail sperm and they will breed their own strains of huge trophy whitetails. The farms will then put up high rising fences to the heights that no animal can cross, in or out.

Needless to say they are disgusting.

 

[Daveinthebush]

Neither

Neither

Pretty sure that it came for the old cattle days. Free range meant that anyone could use the range to graze their cattle on and it was wide open without any fences. Remember the barbed wire wars of the west?

So today if you apply the term to wildlife, they would have the ability to move around the countryside unrestricted. But we all know that there are some limitations to that today. Fences, highways, shopping malls: so free ranging animals are almost a thing of the past except out west where thousands of acres are available and the animal is capable of roaming around its own habitat.

 

[BrownBear]

For me it boils down to the fence, no matter how much acreage within it. If wildlife can pass over or under the fence (as in a barbed wire fence intended for cattle or horses), it's free range. If the fence is designed to keep the wildlife inside, it aint free range. End of story, and I don't care if its 250,000 acres inside the fence.

 

[racinghoss]

I think it would have to mean that the animals are unhindered and able to move where they want. Roads and urban areas dont necessarily restrict an animals movement, but many animals avoid those areas (some happily move into it though - whitetails, coyotes, rodents, etc) Fences and barriers constructed to keep animals in/out prevent free range.

Keep in mind the process of breeding between populations. Free range critters can move from one population to another to mate. Animals restricted by barriers such as fences are limited to what they can find inside the boundaries (even if the boundaries are large, it still limits movement).

 

[H_I_L_L_B_I_L_L_Y]

2nd

2nd

I second what brownbear said. If someone else wants to do it thats there thing, but they wont get my money!!!!!!!!!

 

[Akres]

If you gotta pay to hunt it, it aint free range.

 

[alaskalouie]

I do not Agree

I do not Agree

Say you have put in for a tag all your life and before it ends or you are incappable of continuing on you go to 1 of these out closures to harvest an animal you could never have gotten in the free range. Problem - NO! With so much desease and poaching if you want one go and get it. Free? aint nothin free we all pay one way or another.
Louie

 

[FBKShunter]

akres

akres

If you gotta pay to hunt it, it aint free range.

You haven't been to the lower 48 lately have you. Every farmer is charging big bucks to deer hunt. Why do you think so many come up here caribou hunting. It's cheaper than leasing land for a couple of weeks.

 

[Brian M]

If you gotta pay to hunt it, it aint free range.

Its not just the lower 48, like the previous poster mentioned. In Delta many (most?) hunters pay an access fee to hunt the bison on private land. The animals certainly are free ranging, as they aren't constrained by any fences, etc. They choose to spend their time on private land, and many hunters choose to pay an access fee to hunt that land. Nothing wrong with that, as far as I can see.

As for paying to hunt high-fenced animals, though, I tend to agree.

-Brian

 

[Snyd]

You haven't been to the lower 48 lately have you. Every farmer is charging big bucks to deer hunt. Why do you think so many come up here caribou hunting. It's cheaper than leasing land for a couple of weeks.

Yup, or a group of guys with money get together and lease up the land for the whole season for years at a time. That's what happened in our old duck hunting spots in Montana.

 

[BrownBear]

Yup, and a $100 trespass fee for deer or fishing on major parts of Afognak, more if you want to hunt bear or elk. No wildlife fences there.

But I look at it this way. I'd rather pay the fees to farmers, ranchers, native corps, whoever, if that helps them make a living without subdividing and selling the land for houses. That's a bigger threat to hunting in many L48 states than the fees. If they're having a tough time making it in agriculture, I'm willing to help them out simply to keep the land from growing asphalt and flower beds.

 

[racinghoss]

Good point.

 

[theilercabin]

Yep

Yep

What's really sad is that it pushes a lot of very passionate young people out of their god given natural heritage. And it's happening all over the country.
Everyone and their brother now has their hand out, it's the new American way. Either that or a bunch of surgeons, politicans, dentists or the like go up and buy thousands of acres of land in the south and really push the country boys off the land they've hunted with their familes for years. I've seen it happen all over the south. They form hunt clubs and charge unreal amounts of money for a yearly membership, it's the new American way. It's the nickel and dime you to death philosophy that we now live and abide by. Our government is a beautiful role model for this way of life. Maybe it's greed or maybe people are just getting squeezed to death in order to make a living and enjoy a few days of escape. Either way I don't see it getting any better, not just yet anyway. All we can do is pay our daily tolls and not let it bother us too much.

 

[AlleninAlaska]

High Fence as opposed to Low Fence. Game farms managed for nothing but trophy animals will more than likely have a high fence to keep out the riff raff deer and to keep the good stock in.

 

[AlleninAlaska]

End of story, and I don't care if its 250,000 acres inside the fence.

I guess Akaska doesn't have any Free Range Moose. 250,000 acres is far more territory than any Moose would use.

 

[BrownBear]

For me it's the principal behind the wildlife fences. If they're designed to keep the animals in, it's also possible to herd animals into the corners to ease the hunting for "premier" clients.

Kind of like the story I heard on the radio today about big time operations in Texas breeding whitetail deer for trophy racks, and selling the pregnant does of these "super deer" to other ranches for their own breeding programs. $3000 each!

If that's what hunting and trophies are coming to, I think any pride I've ever taken in a set of horns is past. I'll leave them to the tourist hunters and crotch grabbers while I take pride in a well executed ethical hunt for an animal headed for my table and not my wall. Sign me up for the doe hunts, cuzz I'll question every whitetail rack I see from this day forth.

 

[theilercabin]

Trophy Hunting

Trophy Hunting

Absoutely nothing wrong with trophy hunting, it's the intent behind the hunt that counts. If one enjoys the skill and dedication it takes to hunt mature trophy animals in a fair chase, ethical manner than that's one thing, if the intent is less than admirable and has more leanings toward ego and self-centeredness than that's another side of the coin.


aaaah the power of intent.

 

[BrownBear]

I agree completely.