[T.R.]

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c146/rushmoreman/Maineredstag.jpg

I've been fascinated with hunting "exotics" for several years. That is, animals which are not native to North America. Red stag are European cousins to North American elk.

I enjoyed a hunt for Russian boar in both northern California and Pennsylvania.

Now I'm ready for red stag. Maine has a number of hunting preserves of varying acreage and pricing. But I have zero comprehension of good, bad, or ugly operations. Any helpful insight is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

This photo was copied from a Maine hunting preserve. Truthfully, I've never met this hunter. This stag's "crown" is symmetrical and very appealing to me.

TR

[Bob R]

It's the Hartford Insurance guy.....

The one on the ground, not the one standing!

It could have been worse, it could have been the Montana quarter guy, but we got the Georgia O'Keeffe quarter instead.


I wish I could help you out, but I know nothing of farm hunting. Pronghorns are exotic enough for me.

bob

[phantomak47]

This thread is going to be interesting..........


Anyways, all I can tell you is that in Texas its a big business and there are many opinions about it. Personally I prefer 100% free chase hunting, but there some cases for farmed hunting , such as people with disabilities that want to hunt.

The problem that comes up is people who tend to hunt these types of operations expect that in two days or less they will kill a certain class of animal and expect to have 100% success rate. Here in Texas there are ranches where you pay per class deer, say a 140 class deer will cost you $10,000.00.

Some ranches have rather small "pens" as small as 10 -100 acres and game animals that aren't spooked by humans to the point that they will come up to you.

I dont know the specifics about the place you are interested, but I would HIGHLY recommend doing a search about or call their references about their operation. If you they dont have references................... you might want to look around for somewhere else.

[MCgunner]

Well, I wouldn't "hunt" one of the high fence ranches I've seen 'em on here in Texas. If it's free ranging, sure. But, some of these places are like driving in and shooting cows or pets. They friggin' follow the Jeep 'cause they know the Jeep feeds 'em. You bump into 'em in the woods and they come up to you lookin' for a hand out. LOL, SERIOUS! I've seen it. I was hog hunting there on a place south of San Antonio. The hogs were thick, but not tame. I enjoyed hunting the hogs. The whitetail weren't tame, either, but the exotics were like big pets following the guy's Jeep like the pied piper. I could have killed one of 'em, in the woods while I was blood trailing a hog I'd shot, with a knife or spear. It walked right up to me and this was a few minutes after I'd shot the hog!

Now, I'm not going to sit here and berate anyone that wants to go shoot a stag on such a place. I'm just sayin' if you want to actually HUNT a stag, be careful and check out the ranches on which you wish to "hunt" 'cause it might not be so much hunting as shooting. If all you want is a head on your mantle to brag about, well, I don't see anything wrong with the "stag farming" deal. LOL I mean, we kill and butcher cattle, after all, but only after we lock 'em up for days to fatten 'em up. I figure stag farming is easier on the beast than cattle farming. End result is food in the freezer in either case. It's just that if I wanted to go after a stag, I'd want to HUNT it, not just drive out, spot the one I want, and shoot it.

[MCgunner]

Another thought on the subject. If you look at what one of these stags will cost you, for not much more you could probably book a hunt to New Zealand and actually HUNT free ranging stag. I've seen shows on the outdoor channel on that and looks REALLY fun, like hunting elk out west. They even bugle, strange sounding compared to an elk, but a vocal bugle. The shows I've seen on New Zealand, they were hunting free range animals, wild animals, in the mountains and some beautiful scenery, not south Texas scrub with a 12 ft fence.

[T.R.]

I already checked into red stag hunts in Austria, Romania, Scotland, New Zealand, Argentina, and New Caladonia. I'm not spending that kind of loot on airfare and licenses.

Texas isn't for me. I want a snow-on-the-ground hunt. Ethically, I'm opposed to hunting tame animals. But a large ranch with opportunites for stalking non-tame animals appeals to me very much. I'd hunt with my 30-30 carbine minus the scope to make it more challenging to approach within fairly close range.

Europeans typically hunt red stag at night over bait. No kidding, that's what two international booking agents told me.

Any Maine hunters out there?

TR

[Leadbutt]

Pop over to accuratereloading.com and look into the big game threads or do a search there is a guy whom offers hunts up that way and has posted several times

[phantomak47]

T.R. the biggest thing you want to look out for is that you aren't shooting former pets or tame pen animals. About a year ago while on a whitetail hunt in Miss, an in law took me to this place where this guy was raising red stag.......for what I still dont know, but they were somewhat tame. Personally I see zero sport if its like that.

But it could be thousands of acre type deal................................

[SigfanUSAF]

I've hunted in Maine all my life, however, I've never heard of nor hunted at one of those places. Lots of good land for some nice Maine bucks:)

I don't know if hunting preserves have a season or not, but the color of the grass isn't synonymous with Maines November hunting season:scrutiny:

[gezzer]

IMHO so long as you can say 1000 acre is a lot of area with no bait areas go ahead.

Doubt you will find one in ME.

Buy a Whiteface Hereford from a farmer. Shoot it. The meat will be better and less cost.