Looks like a repeat of last year.

[Captcurt]

I am so glad that I grew up before it was legal to bait deer here in my home state. I had to learn to read sign, find the feeding and bedding areas and pattern the bucks. I bring this up because so many of the youngsters have been raised setting over a bait pile or timed feeder in their popup blinds and snipeing the bambis when they come for the handout.

This year, like last year, the acorn crop is huge in our area. The deer have quit the feeders and are hitting the red oaks and white oaks hard. This is what separates the old timers from the pups. I took a doe with my bow over a feeder opening day of bow season. I was out chasing does this weekend with my rifle. The deer have quit the feeder and I had to sneak around and locate the feeding areas. Staked out a couple oak flats and popped 2 does. While prowling around I found several scrapes and rubs, along with trails and beds. Even saw 2 bucks. One was a decent 8 point chasing a doe. I am really looking forward to Black Powder season in 2 weeks. I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[mooosie]

I hunt in Ohio where it is legal to hunt over bait. ODNR does not believe it makes much difference and I agree. I have a farm in southern Ohio and we have beans corn in alternating years and if the farm is in beans we have corn in the feeders. We do this to grow healthy deer with big racks and we do[emoji2]however before gun season ever comes the Bucks have gone nocturnal and show up at the feeders at 3 or 4 in the morning, so the bait or feed has no effect durning hunting season

 

[BigBore44]

So let me get this straight, you grow beans and feed corn. The Bucks only come to the feeders at night. You're doing this to grow a healthy deer herd. That's why you only mentioned the "bucks" and not how big and healthy the does are. Because a does health is what gives you a good healthy drop in the spring. And a good buck to doe ratio will give you a better herd also.

Just be honest about it. You feed corn to keep the bucks in the area. Because feeding will keep the does in the area. Baiting is legal. Fine. I get it. And if it's the only way you can get a deer, well, that's a testament to your hunting abilities I guess. Now, if you're filling a freezer to feed your family, TOTALLY different story. Then there's the argument about "food plots" aren't any different than deer feeders. It's a legitimate argument. But you already have a good plot. It's called (how many acres?) of beans?

I have planted food plots. Twice. Never again. No need. And I've never hunted over a feeder. Actually, I've never owned a feeder. Almost exclusively hunt public land. Never had any problems putting a little time in the woods and filling my tags.

But in the end my points are all moot. It's legal.

 

[Dr. Sandman]

I'm from Indiana where it is still illeagal to hunt over any type of bait. it is a challenge, and it takes more time to get your deer. I have about a 10 percent success rate, meaning that I need to go hunting ten times for every deer I bag.

My thoughts on baiting are these:
1. Even if it's legal, you don't HAVE to hunt over bait.
2. Bait makes it easier to have success hunting, and this is encouraging to new hunters.
3. The more hunters, the more gun and other weapon owners, and the bigger our lobby. Also, the more hunting land owners, conservationists, and in general people on our side.
4. Every time you go to the woods, you come back a little better hunter. You can give up the bait at any point.



Are you just upset that someone could bag "your" buck when it comes to their salt lick? Is that going to throw a wrench into your careful preparations? Deal with it, Captcurt. It's the deer that's going to die and griping about the rules does not reflect well on sportsmanship.

 

[DeepSouth]

I completely understand the OP, people today seem to lazy to hunt. They just bait and wait, and call it hunting, and it's only sort of legal here. You can bait but you can't hunt within 100 yards of the bait, and it can't be in your line of sight. But honestly, all people seem to know or care about is "don't bait in your greenfield"...... Which I think is a little contradictory.

I know very few people today that take to the woods in the summer or even early fall, to research the land and scout to really hunt in the winter, they just wait till winter, bait and wait.


BTW: mooosie, if you're using corn to grow antlers you might want to put a little more time into research as corn has little protein in it. A club I was in years ago would feed soy hull pellets in the spring after the rut up until they planted peas in the greenfield's for the summer, that's all they ever did and seemed to have pretty good deer but I can't/want say it's connected.

Personally I like a good old fashioned stand of oak trees, I've killed me many a racked buck with an acorn in his mouth, now everyone's planting these useless pine trees and deer are going away, shrinking, and sometimes I think they're Turning into unicorns with those pencil racks. I do despise me a pine tree, not once have enjoyed watching a half dozen squirrels jump from pine tree to pine tree, you just see a few small furry tailed rats that look like they're starving for an acorn. Find you a good stand of red oaks, you'll see fox squirrels that'll break branches and look like you could eat on them for a week. I may go find me a pine tree to cut down now.


Okay, off soap box now, I feel better.

 

[joem1945]

I don't hunt anymore but if I did I could get a deer off my deck. The deer and turkeys feed in my yard.

 

[Captcurt]

I'm from Indiana where it is still illeagal to hunt over any type of bait. it is a challenge, and it takes more time to get your deer. I have about a 10 percent success rate, meaning that I need to go hunting ten times for every deer I bag.

My thoughts on baiting are these:
1. Even if it's legal, you don't HAVE to hunt over bait.
2. Bait makes it easier to have success hunting, and this is encouraging to new hunters.
3. The more hunters, the more gun and other weapon owners, and the bigger our lobby. Also, the more hunting land owners, conservationists, and in general people on our side.
4. Every time you go to the woods, you come back a little better hunter. You can give up the bait at any point.



Are you just upset that someone could bag "your" buck when it comes to their salt lick? Is that going to throw a wrench into your careful preparations? Deal with it, Captcurt. It's the deer that's going to die and griping about the rules does not reflect well on sportsmanship.

Doc,

I have no problem hunting without bait and I am not worried about someone killing my buck because he is not mine. I prefer to hunt them one on one. My favorite way is to scout, find doe feeding areas and look for scrapes and rubs. I can usually pattern a buck within a week or two. However, it doesn't matter how good you are there is always something new to learn. Like what oak trees they prefer in a given week. Where they like to drink or cruise for does. And just when you think you have them dead to rights, they change patterns. I love it.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

how people hunt is there own business. Unless there violating a law its not up to me to judge. If you don't believe in baiting don't, I usually don't, but that doesn't make me a bit more superior then someone who does. bottom line is if your hanging around oak trees your hunting over bait. Only difference is its cheaper for you. I laugh at guys who get upset about someone dumping some corn on the ground and hunting over it but think its ok to kill them out of a farm field or some other place they eat every day or setting up on a trail that leads there. Whats the difference?

 

[jmorris]

I don't hunt deer at our farm but it would be pretty easy even without "baiting". The lack of "hunting pressure" is why it would be no sweat to bag one. If you are in an area where they have gone nocturnal due to pressure a feeder may be one of few options to shoot one legally.

 

[cowpoke]

I second Lloyd Smale

 

[Patocazador]

how people hunt is there own business. Unless there violating a law its not up to me to judge. If you don't believe in baiting don't, I usually don't, but that doesn't make me a bit more superior then someone who does. bottom line is if your hanging around oak trees your hunting over bait. Only difference is its cheaper for you. I laugh at guys who get upset about someone dumping some corn on the ground and hunting over it but think its ok to kill them out of a farm field or some other place they eat every day or setting up on a trail that leads there. Whats the difference?

This is the most sensible response.

I don't bait but know those who do. That's up to them as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Captcurt]

Not a baiting debate.

Guys,

I didn't post this to start a debate about the ethics of baiting, but to point out that we still need to know what to do when the corn feeder doesn't work. We have generations of hunters who have only sat in a blind overlooking a food plot or timed feeder. Some years things change. Maybe your hunting place has been logged or , like the last two years, the acorn crop is heavy. What do you do then? You go back to the basics. You get your boots on and cover ground looking for sign. A line of scrapes plotted on a topo map led me to a bottleneck that produced a nice 8 point. One year the acorns came off and the deer quit the feeder. It was dry and there were only 3 places where they could water. I checked the nearest pond , found tracks and trails, and put up a climber. That afternoon a 6 point came in like he was on a leash. If it wasn't for the basics these two deer would still be wandering through the woods. I don't have a problem with baiting if it is legal, but there are times when you need to change tactics.

 

[jmorris]

didn't post this to start a debate about the ethics of baiting, but to point out that we still need to know what to do when the corn feeder doesn't work.

Go where the deer are is the simple answer. A drive down 16 between Fredericksburg and Kerrville after dark would be a good place, you can pet them as you weave through the ones stuck out on the road due to the high fences on either side.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I don't think the OP was intending to talk down to those who hunt over bait. I don't think that is what he meant at all.

Some people do but I don't really care about "some people". I don't go out to hunt the hardest way possible. I go out to hang around the camp fire (though we didn't get to this weekend because of the dry conditions and burn ban) with people I like, drink cold adult beverages, smoke cigars, tell stories of and go out the next day and put meat in the freezer.

I do hunt over bait. I spend quite a bit of money on persimmon flavored corn and rice bran each year and it does help me fill some tags.

HOWEVER, I will say that I have never shot a big buck over bait. They're generally just too smart for that if you're hunting like most of us hunt (that is fair chase land where a lot of other people are hunting too).

Maybe the reason is that I'm not a trophy hunter and if a mature doe steps out, I'll shoot her in a heartbeat (as I did yesterday evening with my muzzleloader).

It's all good. As long as what folks are doing is legal, I've got no beef with them.

When gun season opens, we'll be putting some dogs out and do it that way.
I've never hunted like that before and I'm excited to get in on a good race or two and see how I like it.

 

[X-Rap]

The interesting thing I've always found with these discussions is how what is legal and thus ethical in one state could earn you a felony charge in another.
We make rationalizations about bait, dogs, hunting hours, weapons and they all are based on how we grew up in the sport.
There are definitely things that turn my stomach that are as mainstream as can be in other places and I freely admit if things were really tough I'd probably throw all of those feelings out the window to feed myself and family.
Interesting how all life needs water first and foremost but I'm not aware of a single prohibition of hunting over it.

 

[jmorris]

There are definitely things that turn my stomach that are as mainstream as can be in other places and I freely admit if things were really tough I'd probably throw all of those feelings out the window to feed myself and family.

That is likely why more house holds buy beef, pork, chicken and fish at the store (or already cooked at a restaurant) vs raising them.

Nothing wrong with that either I suppose. Even though it was many moons ago I remember the parents of FFA members buying other kids animals, so no kid had to eat the animal he/she raised and became attached to.

 

[Captcurt]

Arkansas Paul,

I remember the good ole days when we dogged em up here. We would have 6-10 people in camp, make a half dozen drives and have fun even if we didn't get anything. Now with the 3-point rule is would really be hard to identify a legal buck when he is highballing through the brush. But you can thank Forrest Wood for getting the dog hunting stopped. I guess if you have money you can do that kind of thing.

 

[X-Rap]

jmorris, the things that turn my stomach don't have any bearing on the processing of game but more to the way it was taken in the field.
Over my 50 + years I've been involved in on many hundreds of butchering jobs both wild and domestic as well as a fair amount of fur processing.

 

[jmorris]

jmorris, the things that turn my stomach don't have any bearing on the processing of game but more to the way it was taken in the field.

I have respect for most animals and if I can avoid it I don't like them to suffer. That said I have trapped and poisoned some that have took longer to die than I would have liked.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

That said I have trapped and poisoned some that have took longer to die than I would have liked.

I had something happen to me Friday evening that upset me a bit.
I was walking to my food plot to put out corn and rice bran for the hunt the next couple of days. I took the Marlin model 60 with me because there are usually rabbits and squirrels galore there.

As I was walking in, out hops a young rabbit. I popped it and tossed it in the bed of the truck and put out my feed. I get back to camp and am going to skin the rabbit when out of the hole in it's neck where I shot her, comes an enormous worm. My dad calls them "wolves" and says they're pretty common in the warmer months and to not eat the rabbit.

It killed me to toss that darn thing into the woods and waste it. I'd certainly not have shot it had I known I wasn't going to eat it.

 

[jmorris]

Wolves are a grub or larvae of heel flys. In cattle they will feel like a bit zit on their backs and if you move the hair away you can see the hole that they entered in.

Don't feel too bad, it would likely be a waist of time to set up a rub rope with ivermectin for your rabbit, I guess you could have trapped it and wormed it that way but those cute little bunnies don't like to be held too much.

 

[TimSr]

I really don't think setting up bait diminshes anyones skills. It's just another method of hunting that also requires knowledge, scouting, and reading sign. I too live in Ohio where it is legal, but really not all that much used other than to supplement an area where deer already frequent. Setting up a corn feeder next to a cornfield isn't all the productive. During our deer season, food is still pretty plentiful from aggriculture. It has more of an effect of keeping them around during the off seaons, especially mid-late winter when food becomes scarce.

Lots of people get into hunting without a clue, and bait seems like a logical way for many to start. Once they spend a couple of deer season in the field, they naturally start looking and learning other methods, and learn new skills to improve their odds.

 

[jmorris]

Tim brings up a good point. Stand hunting is just sitting there and waiting for something to be in the wrong (or right) place at a point in time.

I use homemade game radios (only for hogs or other varmints) that let me know when they are in an area.





However, that doesn't kill them. One still has to get close enough to make a shot, without spooking them off.

Do that a few times and you will find out why folks sit still and hunt (if using no other aids) vs moving around.