Hunting exotics on preserves?

[bigbore442001]

I was wondering about this. I was watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe last night where he was working on a yak ranch. It seems that they are pretty much like cattle except more hairy.

I have seen some advertizements for hunting yaks on exotic preserves. Now I love to hunt but why would one want to hunt such an animal like a yak? It seems they do nothing but stand around. I could see if the thing was wary or dangerous but it just looks at you.

Any comments or thoughts?

 

[Vaino]

Hunting on a "game" farm of any kind would be very distasteful to me but to each person his own. I don't think the word "hunting" applies to game farms...."shooting" would be a more apt description. I've never been to a "game" farm and except for the few TV videos I've watched on some so called hunting programs, probably will never partake of this so called "sport". Yak are domesticated cows in Mongolia and have been so for many centuries.... so the yak that are put up as "targets" on "farms" are suddenly game animals? Perhaps I'm on the wrong page, but just what is accomplished and what degree of satisfaction is gained by shooting animals that aren't truly wild? IMO...there are way too many phony things nowadays so why put the sport of hunting in the "phony category".....Fred

 

[William Joy]

I loved to hunt and still do - however my way's of hunting changed. Where I live there is a guy who offers buffalo hunts in his 2 acre pasture and as I understand it is quite popular..... seems a little bit like the yak/ domestic cow shoot...
On the other side I hunt Africa and was hunting on a 50 000 acre game farm with a smoothbore. Is it the same? Both are farms! I also believe that a lot of hunting is acctually made "easier" because of farming. (Way more game- because of easy feeing for them arround). Went to North Canada ( NWT) a few years back and acctually saw way less game than I expected....

 

[Little Wattsy]

Game farms vary GREATLY in size and opperation. Ranging in size from a very few acres to thousands. Managed to be a "pick and shoot" to a true hunt just with out the oustide interferance of other hunters and the insde benifit of improved nutrition and water = more bigger better....

My opinionis is, its a cheaper "fantasy hunt" (Personally a yak dosnt even rate on my "want to hunt list" ) BUT if you had ever watched the hunts in the far north wand "always wanted to do that" but were $20,000.00 short well then you could go harvest a head for what $3,000.00-ish?
Always wanted to go hunt Aferica but not enough time or money? Some of the S Texas ranches are HUGE and offer a similar experiance (Im told).

Oh well I understand that Yak taste like cat and I didnt like the first cat I ate so count me out on that one but I wouldnt mind having a warthog head on the wall some day...just remind me of my mother in law :grin:

 

[BrownBear]

For me it all boils down to the acreage, the animals and the ethics of the hunter. I've got no probs with large acreage, untamed animals and fair chase hunters. Change any one of those and I got problems.

You can hunt buffalo on two acres for example, or even drive out into a farmer's field in interior Alaska and shoot across the hood of your truck. But there are also places with big acreage and really rank buffalo.

We've got one not too far from me that's 500 animals on 24,000 acres. Hunting is for lone bulls only, and you might work for days to get a shot---- with a scoped rifle, much less an open sighted muzzleloader. The cows and calves are right by the road, but those lone bulls are waaaaaay out yonder and wilder than most animals you're likely to hunt.

I got mixed into the fray on one hunt when the rancher asked for help getting a downed bull out of a nasty spot. I talked to the hunter, who was a winner of the Weatherby trophy, BTW. He said he'd shot everything else in the world and was about to hang up his guns when he realized he hadn't taken an American bison. No prob. Book a hunt on a "farm," shoot one and then retire.

He spent 6 days on horseback in rough terrain going for one particular bull. He'd get in at least a stalk a day, but it always outsmarted them. When he finally connected it was a brilliant (according to the rancher) 350-400 yard single shot on the running bull. A last chance shot on the last day of the hunt.

The hunter told me this about the whole deal: "I've hunted all over the world, but this was the single toughest and most satisfying hunt of all. Hell of a hunt to retire on."

That's hunting, exotics and farms aside.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I am not interested in hunting Yaks, either. But I have to agree with BrownBear about hunting " preserves". The larger they are, the more likely you are going to work your tail off to get a shot. I was at a smaller Hunting preserve for my first wild boar hunt, and we were taken to a fenced in enclosure that was no more than 10 acres across. It was all woods, but I ended up close to one of the corners of two fences, and I did not like it at all. The next such hunt was at a different preserve, and the guy had 80 acres fenced. Some field, and most of it was woods and hills. Finding the boars was not an easy task in those woods. Unfortunately, I was again placed way out back, on top of a high hill, near the fence there. I was not happy. I waited until the second day to take the largest hog I had seen both days. It was at pistol range, and I would not recommend that experience to anyone. Its was " shooting dinner " for all I was concerned, not hunting. Check out the hunting preserve, and talk to the owner about what kind of hunt you are really going to have before you spend your money.

 

[bucktales]

I'll agree with BrownBear too. I have no problem with a large acreage operation with enough land to "free range". It's the canned hunts on small parcels I don't care for. Kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. But that's just :2

 

[54]

i would have funner hunting fair chase

 

[John Wasmuth]

It all depends on how your doing it, where your doing it, and why your doing it. It's still hunting, it's just a different kind of hunting. Think of it this way, if the place is large enough so that whatever your hunting has a chance to leave the area you are in, then whats the difference between that and hunting from a stand over a bean field? Nothing. If it's in some ones back yard and the animal has no place to go but in the freezer and you don't want to do it that way, than don't. How large of a population of free ranging yak is there in New England? How large of a population of free ranging Bison are there in New England? If one wanted to hunt for yak, they more than likely couldnt do it in New England, unless it was on a game preserve. Same with Axis deer, Sika, Fallow, or the like. It's all hunting, it's just a different way of hunting. Much like some places the mystical mourning dove is a game bird, however in other places it magically turns into a song bird and is protected from hunting. Some game farms here in Texas are larger than some states. It just depends on how hard you want to hunt, and how much time you have to do it in. Try not to get caught up in the "That aint huntin" nonsense.

 

[Kentuckywindage]

The only type of preserve/ranch hunting i would do is for American Bison. I know some states offer the "wild" buffalo, but they are still behind a fence and i like the idea of an hour and a half drive to get a buffalo and have the mean in the freezer. Its like $650-750 for a hunt in northern new mexico. Not bad for a big bison.