No doubt comparing wild deer verses high fence deer is not realistic....
Honestly, even high-fencing doesn't do THAT much for bucks, other than the ability to control predators, such as coyotes and free-ranging dogs. But some of the things I've seen or know about when it comes to breeding facilities and penned deer would blow your mind. Back when I was working with a group that was deeply into deer nutrition, my boss visited a breeder who wanted to talk to our group about maximizing nutrition. The breeder was part of a very successful cattle-breeding family. They had 50+ years of detailed records on their highly successful cattle-breeding program, and just for fun, decided to try some of the same techniques on deer to see what would happen. As my boss drove up, the first deer enclosure he encounters has a bunch of bucks in the 140s and 150s. My boss thought, "Oh great, here's someone who is just seeing what many whitetails will grow if they simply remove the stresses of life and provide good nutrition year-round." Imagine his surprise when he found out those were just the
yearling bucks. Yes, yearling bucks growing 140s and 150s. The breeders would remove a buck from the breeding program if he didn't break 200 gross inches as a
2 1/2 year-old. This is no joke. They grew a bunch of 300+ bucks at maturity. Below is a thumbnail picture of one of their 2 1/2 year-old bucks.