ArcherandShooter
Member
Hey, y'all, I have a question Springmom and I would like your insight on...
We both got drawn for a spike-and-antlerless hunt (plus all the hogs you can shoot) in a local state park for mid-January. This park is never hunted at any other time of the year, although it adjoins national forest land that is heavily pressured until about a week before the start of this hunt.
It is a 3-day noon-to-noon hunt where each hunter is in an assigned blind - no roaming. They DO allow baiting, though, and that brings me to our question: would you put out some kind of bait or other attractant, and if so, what would you use?
A few relevant (?) facts:
1. This is pine woods, and what acorns there are are long gone
2. Baiting of ANY kind is forbidden all year in the adjacent national forest
3. The rut is over (assumption on my part - if you know different, speak up)
4. There will be hunters scattered over all portions of the state park
We don't know whether, being unaccustomed to man-placed food sources, the deer would avoid it as new-and-therefore-suspicious, or whether, after a couple of freezes and the acorns gone, they'd come flocking to the new cafeteria of ready eats. Also, if we DO decide to put something out for them, we assume something they can smell and be drawn to is the way to go, since otherwise we'd just be depending on them to stumble across it, and if we're depending on that, we don't need the food, we can just shoot 'em when they wander into view.
Please, we're not interested (for this thread, at least) in a discussion of the broader question of baiting. This is a cull hunt, not a trophy hunt, and what we're really asking is for insight on the ** effectiveness ** of various attractant tactics you might suggest.
Also, notice I said "attactant", not "bait". If you think something other than food on the ground would work better in this situation, we'd love to hear about that, too.
Thanks, all. We appreciate the help, since the freezer still has room to fill.
We both got drawn for a spike-and-antlerless hunt (plus all the hogs you can shoot) in a local state park for mid-January. This park is never hunted at any other time of the year, although it adjoins national forest land that is heavily pressured until about a week before the start of this hunt.
It is a 3-day noon-to-noon hunt where each hunter is in an assigned blind - no roaming. They DO allow baiting, though, and that brings me to our question: would you put out some kind of bait or other attractant, and if so, what would you use?
A few relevant (?) facts:
1. This is pine woods, and what acorns there are are long gone
2. Baiting of ANY kind is forbidden all year in the adjacent national forest
3. The rut is over (assumption on my part - if you know different, speak up)
4. There will be hunters scattered over all portions of the state park
We don't know whether, being unaccustomed to man-placed food sources, the deer would avoid it as new-and-therefore-suspicious, or whether, after a couple of freezes and the acorns gone, they'd come flocking to the new cafeteria of ready eats. Also, if we DO decide to put something out for them, we assume something they can smell and be drawn to is the way to go, since otherwise we'd just be depending on them to stumble across it, and if we're depending on that, we don't need the food, we can just shoot 'em when they wander into view.
Please, we're not interested (for this thread, at least) in a discussion of the broader question of baiting. This is a cull hunt, not a trophy hunt, and what we're really asking is for insight on the ** effectiveness ** of various attractant tactics you might suggest.
Also, notice I said "attactant", not "bait". If you think something other than food on the ground would work better in this situation, we'd love to hear about that, too.
Thanks, all. We appreciate the help, since the freezer still has room to fill.
