Monster Bucks of Mass (pen-raised)

I am certain I have never seen such mass as in the top picture. The email I got last week said the buck was shot in a preserve up North last fall. The bottom picture popped up in my inbox just last night; it too was apparently shot in a 100-acre pen. The message with the bottom buck said it would score 200” plus, but no way.

What are they feeding and/or injecting bucks like this with? Protein pellets, super-duper minerals, ‘roids? I cannot decide whether these manufactured racks are pretty, cool or grotesque. I lean toward the latter. You know those wrestlers with the bulging, vein-ripped chests and biceps? In a weird way, I see these racks like that.

Another obvious question: Wonder what the shooters paid for them?

Comments

[Doug In Wisconsin]

Mike, my favorite antler characteristic is mass. I love mass more than height, width, number of points etc. I have to say, I enjoy looking at the pen-raised super racks but all the while realizing they're unnatural in nature. Kinda like looking at a Playboy. Fun to look at but you'll never see it on the street. lol.

[jstreet]

Mike Hanback quote:Another obvious question: Wonder what the shooters paid for them?

I think the real question should be, "How could anyone get any satisfaction from killing a pen raised and captive deer"?

This is "hornography" @ it's worst. It's like having sex with a hooker. Yeah money will buy you just about anything, but what have you accomplished?

Jim

[Big Daddy]

I doubt I would feel much satisfaction in buying a deer like that on the hoof and killing it. But I won't condem someone else for what they want to spend their money on as long as it is legal.Nor do I blame the deer farmer for selling a product
Am the only one whom feels like outdoor media has created this antler envy craze at all costs for little more than money? The very root of issue in the two isn't that much different is it?

[Jeff]

Hey Mike,

The dollar figure on the bottom buck was over $200 per inch. Assuming the buck was 170+" that would be $34,000+.

In yesterday's mail I recieved a brochure from some high fence outfit in Sask. that had 303" buck pictured on the front cover along with several 200"+ bucks.
In the Pennsylvania Outdoor News there is another that advertises "coming soon watch our bucks grow" via their updated web site starting in March, "see your trophy as he grows thruout the summer..."

Not quite the old log cabin, crackling fireplace retreat I dream about 9 months out of the year.

[jstreet]

Big Daddy,

You might not condemn this crap, but legal or not, I will.

This is just morally wrong! Buying a pen raised animal to kill and mount his head isn't something to be proud of. The person didn't accomplish a thing other than writing a check.

If you can't hunt fair chase, then don't hunt. These deer were killed in a 100 acre pen. That's not sport, it's not hunting, it's just slaughter and it's what will kill hunting for all of us if it continues.

Jim

[Hanback]

Just as with my last old blog, we have a great group of thinking deer hunters here--thank you all for your great comments, we will not/should not agree all the time, but we listen, blog and learn--that's the new hunting media at its best.

[JJ]

that top rack in this post is just freak nasty--God knows what they shot that thing up with before the guy blasted it

[Mack]

These are only interesting to see. To me ANY deer killed in the wild would be far and away more deserving trophy ststus then any pen raised deer. Isn't the penned deer/ elk/ etc said to be the root cause of CWD? Dean- do you know?

no one knows for certain where CWD started many think it started in the bovine industry, others in deer/elk farming, still others believe it was a lab experiment gone bad...whom will ever know for certain? Fact is it is here and game farming aids in spreading it.
The outdoor recreational industry, in this case hunting, took up the horn craze just as strongly as they took up the bass fishing craze. IMHO they've done the majority of promoting the " get YOUR trophy for your ego" menality for little more than to make $$. The quick buck (pun intended) capitalizing on hunters whom with money in hand want to boost their egos, could possibly be the start of a downfall to the very industry making the $$ now.

[ian in wisconsin]

i get more satisfaction in managing deer on my familys land in southeastern WIsconsin and watchng em grow up passing em during the rut and watch my younger brothers or other family members benifit form my mine and my dads hard work putting in food plots, trimming shooting lanes,snd putting out mineral licks
i have nothng against free range hunting with guides on other land some people just don't have there own land to hunt let alone manage but its not the same as when you raise em yourself and hunt em on your own property and know bucks by first name basis

[Luke Strommen]

High Fence hunting is not hunting...it is shooting. I thoroughly disagree with it, but I guess who am I to say how a person makes their living. Most of those ego maniacs that pay to hunt those deer are the ones who are really missing out. They don't get it. A lot of them won't even tell people they shot it in a pen...they hang it on their office wall a thump thier chest. Pity them. They have accomplished nothing other than proving that are completely morally bankrupt and lack absolutely no skill what-so-ever to acquire that animal. A lot of those places have to cut the tags off before or after they kill them. Another thing...nearly everything is driven by money, don't you know? Being in the business I meet a lot of people in all areas...The testicles to that buck are probably worth 30,000 if cared for properly after it was killed...the deer itself had to be worth a might more than that I would think. Pretty gut-wrenching disgusting. No respect for the animal, lack of class for the shooter. I hope someone sent thier grandkids to college with that or something.

[Luke Strommen]

Here's another thing that really gets me...the shooters that shoot deer in these pens (I refuse to say hunter) claim that they are just as hard to hunt there as the wild...they are just as wiley, just as smart, blah, blah, blah. Here's my argument: THEY CAN'T GET AWAY!!! No matter how bad you stink, how noisey you are, how many times they run away from you...THEY CAN'T GET AWAY!!! I don't give a rip if it's 10 Billion acres or 1 acre, THEY CAN'T GET AWAY!! You always now where they are...in the pen. They didn't run over the the neighbors, they didn't cross over to public ground...they are in the pen! I drive this point home by this; "Mr. Shooter, lets tape a big red X on your back. I'll give you a day, a week...whatever, to hide. Then I will come after you with...a potatoe gun with big potatoes; would you rather I let you loose in a high fence, or the wide open, free-range. Oh! But I thought they weren't any different!" That's what I thought. Feel free to substitue whatever for the potatoe gun. Ok, I'm done.

I think a few of you have vastly over estimated the cost to purchase a hunt for a buck of such caliber behind highfence. I live in Pa where high fenced hunting remains legal. One can pickup nearly any hunting related publication an find advertisments for preserve hunting for everything from exotics to deer and elk.170" whitetail are frenquently advertised for $7000 with an addtitonal $100 per inch over that.
With that said I have several 150"-185"+ whitetail racks I've taken thruout the USA on free range hunts. A few are shoulder mounted that I'd sell in a heartbeat at the rates some of you are estimating their value at.Just to finance my next couple of hunts.

[MNWA]

I've been trying for years to turn my 95+ Ozark Missouri acres into a better place for deer. Creating a green browse food plot (clover field) in the middle of the woods, making a oak savanna ecosystem with native grasses and wildflowers out of a mess of mainly blackjack oaks, doing hundreds of man hours worth of timber stand improvement efforts to improve the mass production and providing more native browse with controlled woodland burns, all done in hopes of seeing deer of any kind during the year, especially during deer season. Now, through this blog, I find out I can just go out and shoot a scary looking pen raised buck? No thanks. I've got to look in the mirror every day and that's tough enough.

[MNWA]

I've been trying for years to turn my 95+ Ozark Missouri acres into a better place for deer. Creating a green browse food plot (clover field) in the middle of the woods, making a oak savanna ecosystem with native grasses and wildflowers out of a mess of mainly blackjack oaks, doing hundreds of man hours worth of timber stand improvement efforts to improve the mass production and providing more native browse with controlled woodland burns, all done in hopes of seeing deer of any kind during the year, especially during deer season. Now, through this blog, I find out I can just go out and shoot a scary looking pen raised buck? No thanks. I've got to look in the mirror every day and that's tough enough.

[Big daddy]

the last post was mine about costs.

Luke: What do you call hunting on an island, a Military base,most quality ranches in Texas,etc.?

[Big daddy]

Luke: Do you watch hunting videos, the Outdoor Channel,etc. Where do you think a majority of those shows are taped/ Free range..guess again.

[Dirty]

Mike, I love ur blog. Im gonna sit this one out and let these fellas nip at each other. Sick em Luke!!!!!!!

[Cody]

Luke, love your analogy of with the potato gun..cool way to look at it. I don't agree wiht hunting penned deer for the same reason, there is no way that deer ccan get away from the hun..shooter. These people pay thousands of dollars to shoot someones pet and get it mounted. They put in their office or living room and whoever asks about it gets some wild hunting story about how Ego Joe hunted SOOOOO hard to get and he almost got away but Joe was able to put a 3 mile stalk on and stick one him for good. It ain't right. No way you look at it. It is murder is what it is. Sitting in a tree stand in a pen is not hunting, I don't care if its legal or not. Hunters shouldn't even show an interest in the deer people do shoot in these pens becuase like you said Hanback, its grotesque. It's just like lookin at athletes do amazing things and finding out there on steroids. It ain't right. Big Daddy, I think you're probably right about the majority of hunting shows we watch. I just said we shouldn't show any interest in the deer shot in pens but I watch hunting shows on the Outdoor Channel and Versus daily. I love them. It's my source of hunting when there aint nothing to hunt bc there aint nothing in season. Hanback's show Whitetail Revolution and The Drury Bros. stuff are two of the few that actually promote fair chase. All of the Drury's stuff (so they say) is wild fair chase and I believe them. I feel like they are very down to earth God fearing people and I commend them for their hunting ethics and morals. Hanback is the same way, love the show love the blog. I watch a lot of the Team Realtree stuff too and to be honest, I don't whether their fair chasers or leash hunters..I don't know. BUt I have to be honest and say that of my favorite people to watch on the TV is Michael Waddell. His reactions after he shoots a buck are priceless. David Blanton is one I enjoy and I really enjoy watching Tyler Jordan hunt. He is a kid out there hunting on his own( with the exception of a camera man) and gettin it done on big bucks. But I would never condone pen hunting and if I knew anyone that was going to do it or had done it and bragged aobut what they murdered, I think I would sever all hunting ties with them, maybe all ties. I don't know. BUt I strongly disagree with the high-fenced operations and I hope that if anyone who reads this that is a loyal Hanback blog viewer that has hunted or would like to hunt or doesn't see anything wrong with high fences their opinions would be changed by my comments as well as the ones by Luke Strommen and Jstreet. Jim(Jstreet) is usually spot on with the way I feel and Luke is on this topic. Read their comments if you haven't.

[Kyle G]

I would rather spend the money on buying more property, so i could have more fun hunting and scouting.

[ian in wisconsin]

to add even more to the topic on unfair chase i belive any of the mega long range rifle shots aren' t hunting they're an assination!!! how fair is it to set up 600 yards away from a deer and blast it compared to a 5 yard bow kill on the same deer buck or doe its simply not fair to the animal

[jstreet]

Cody,

Thanks for the kind words. I too, like Hanback's show and the drury brothers as well.

Fair chase hunting is they way it's supposed to be. I agree with Luke. Put these "hunters" in a pen and let someone chase them around with a gun (potato, paintball, dart) whatever and let them see how "fair" this is.

If you can't hunt fair chase just go fishing (and leave the dynamite @ home).

Jim

[Dirty]

Rifle? Not fair chase? I love takin deer with my solocam, but if its gun season and i aint filled my tags, my 270 is fixin to go boom. My little boy tells me to put some meat on the table, I break out the Browning.

[Dean Weimer]

Who on this blog would, however, turn around and sell their giant, world-class, free range hunted rack?

It appears that everyone is against fences. And, I agree, it ain't for me. I personally have no desire to hunt behind any type of fence. This is my own personal feelings on this topic. But, I am disgusted when these same "ethical" folks would turn around and sell their hard earned rack for "big bucks"??

Is it not also "hornography" when the person who shoots a giant, world-class rack sells it to the highest bidder?