-------------------- “Here we have a weapon of beauty and romance. He who shoots with a bow, puts his life’s energy into it." -Dr. Saxton Pope Posts: 280 | From: Dundee, MI | Registered: May 2007
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-------------------- Someday you and I will take the Great Hart by our own skill alone, and with an arrow. And then the Little Gods of the Woods will chuckle, and rub their hands and say, "look, brothers. An archer! The Old Times are not altogether gone!" Posts: 582 | From: Grand Rapids, MI | Registered: Sep 2008
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I wish I could be as upset as everyone else about them lifting the ban but I really can not. I hunted my share last year during early bow season and seen no deer at all. Then came Nov 15-30th and I hunted at least 12 of those days and only seen 2 deer that were together and running away across the neighbors property. So in my opinion I will be staking out a 10'x10' area on my 40 acres and keeping 2 gallons of shelled corn or sugar beets in at all times come October first. Bait is the only thing that causes the deer to even come to my property. I am not just making up excuses here either,lol. I "hunt" on state land also but have never hung a stand there. Just still hunting and opportunistic ambush sites. I have not hunted over bait since I was a wheelie hunter. And I don't plan on starting to even now that it will be legal again. I just want to have a "destination" plot for the deer to have a reason to stop by my place and possibly hang out for a while. Not trying to start anything here just want to show the other side of the coin. I have never seen a "trophy" buck while hunting period much less over bait and do not plan on seeing one anytime soon here on my place, but seeing any deer at all would be nice. Thanks for letting a guy vent, Mike.
-------------------- "A road is a dagger placed in the heart of a wilderness." -William O. Douglas
Believe it or not the "HARDWAY" is often the EASIER way(in hindsight)! 2xOIF VET Bear Cub #48@28" Posts: 970 | From: Gladwin Michigan | Registered: Oct 2007
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It was legal before and now legal again. Nothing we can do about it. If someone don't like it, stand your ground and don't bait. I can take it or leave it. I have dropped a 1# coffee can of corn more than once and for the last 4 years I used mother natures bait to hunt over, acorns.
I just enjoy seeing critters of all kinds and corn draws them in. In my area corn, carrots, apples and pears are grown so they are more natural to the area.
Enjoy this coming years hunt the way you want to as long as it is legal.
Posts: 1962 | From: Norton Shores, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2007
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Good call Jon. I agree completely. Good luck everyone. Mike
-------------------- "A road is a dagger placed in the heart of a wilderness." -William O. Douglas
Believe it or not the "HARDWAY" is often the EASIER way(in hindsight)! 2xOIF VET Bear Cub #48@28" Posts: 970 | From: Gladwin Michigan | Registered: Oct 2007
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I am fortunate enough to have some wild apple trees in my little 20 acre woods, Mike, I suggest that you should think about planting a few, put a small fence around them till they get 6 feet or so tall, they grow pretty fast, in 3 to 4 years you should have apples, in fact I have seen apples on the trees at the nursery. The fence keeps the bucks from rubbing on them and chewing off the branches.
Dan
-------------------- Compton member & Michigan Traditional Bowhunter member. Two Tracks & Vintage Bear Bows for me. Posts: 506 | From: Michigan's thumb | Registered: Oct 2009
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I have them growing at my cabin. My son-in-law grafted them and gave me the saplings. They are about 5 1/2 feet tall now. They are fenced in and treated better than most pets! We hunt mostly State land now and the baiters have never quit there although a couple got busted last year. I don't mind tossing a handful of corn out just to keep the birds and squirrels around
-------------------- Advice from The Buck:"Only little girls shoot spikers!" Posts: 6321 | From: Hesperia, Mi | Registered: Dec 2005
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Would anyone mind telling me what "grafting" is? If a green thumb helps grow stuff then mine is definately a red thumb,lol. I do have some apple trees but they are older and have not produced at all for 2 years. Last year the deer around here didn't have to come out during daylight due to there being about 11teen million acorns laying on the ground.
-------------------- "A road is a dagger placed in the heart of a wilderness." -William O. Douglas
Believe it or not the "HARDWAY" is often the EASIER way(in hindsight)! 2xOIF VET Bear Cub #48@28" Posts: 970 | From: Gladwin Michigan | Registered: Oct 2007
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Interesting thread ... I posted this on another site and some might have seen it but I guess I've "evolved" a little on this and at the risk of offending a few of my ol' MTB friends who maybe still peak in here from time to time, like a few others, I thought the ban on feeding and baiting should have been lifted for several reasons (as long as it stays at 2 gallons).
One, because of the way the NRC/DNR handled it. The whole thing is a joke and they know it. If the 2 gallon thing was as big a threat as they say it is, it would have and SHOULD have ended in the UP, especially with CWD right on the border with Wisconsin up there. Why didn't it? Because it boiled down to nothing but politics. I hear a lot about the "tradition" of hunting in the UP but a lot of people in the NLP have had and continue to have "traditions" as well and they are no less important to those in the NLP as they are in the UP.
It also ticked me off the WAY they went about it back 3 years ago. In August of that year it was OVER - just like that because of ONE stinking deer in a fenced in area on a game farm. In August??? What the heck did that do to some of the farmers right here where I live who made a living selling their excess? They pretty much stuck it to them that fall. I get a kick out of those who pooh-pooh'd that whole thing back then and said it wasn't that big of a deal for the farmers. Oh yeah??? Many of those same people who say it wasn't that big of a deal are the VERY SAME people who have no problem asking those very same farmers for permission to hunt over those vegetables as they GROW but when that very same farmer was stuck with it, well, their opinion then was, "I guess that's the way it goes." Many of those farmers right here in my neck of the woods, who grant permission to just about anyone who asks, were hurt by that decision that fall. I am definitely NOT a fan of the NRC, nor of the DNR brass in Lansing. I've watched them take care of their own many times over the years when I was more involved. They'll say one thing and do quite the other. And a number of those currently "serving" and those whom have "served" in the past (serve - a term used loosely) have got QUITE an opinion of themselves. And you're nothing but a "constituent" to and FOR them.
Two, if people are talking ethical reasons, well, I've done a lot of bear hunting over the years and it got to the point for me where I just cannot condemn anyone who sits over 2 gallons of corn while I'm sitting over (literally) barrels of Ho Ho's and Ding Dongs while waiting for a bear to show up. That worn out argument about the differences in hunting bears vs. deer doesn't cut it. The bottom line is, a deer is no different than a bear and you're doing the exact same thing while bear hunting - wafting for an animal to show up at an artificial food source you placed there for one reason - to shoot the animal. So ... I have a hard time saying deer hunting over bait is unethical while I do the very same thing for bears. And I might mention as well that I LOVE bear hunting - far and away it's my favorite thing to do.
And three, if you're talking biological reasons, if people stick to the 2 gallon thing, the whole "threat" thing just doesn't add up. 2 gallons of corn can be scarfed up by a doe and her fawn in about 5 minutes ... I just don't see that as any type of a threat, ESPECIALLY when I watch the hordes of deer that congregate in smaller food plots. I mean c'mon ... if we're really worried about deer congregating, then maybe food plots ought to have minimum size and specific crop restrictions put on them. Again, many of the exact same people whom I've heard and seen condemn the 2 gallon baiting thing are the VERY same people who spend thousands of dollars on their little food plot for seed, chemicals and machinery ... and they are successful at it! They draw deer like crazy - and that's terrific! Yet, SOME of these same people will tell the guy on public land (and private) what's he's doing is unethical and potentially dangerous. Doesn't add up. And along with that, I can show you places on public land in the NLP where we hunt where we have had stands EVERY year underneath huge oaks that have been there and have been "traditional" feeding places for deer for literally decades and decades. Deer haven't and won't continue to flock to and congregate around these trees, white oaks in particular??? Of course they do and will. Some of those stands are better than any pile of corn or beets ever could be. How is that any different than the guy who tosses a coffee can's worth of corn out in front of his stand? It's not. Deer a creatures of habit when it comes to their social needs and to their appetite. It's their nature.
I guess that's kind of it in a nutshell. I could probably elaborate but this was long enough. Besides all that, LOL, I just want to put my feeder back up behind the cabin so the grandkids can watch the deer. I guess that's a little selfish isn't it? Posts: 1114 | From: Hudsonville, MI | Registered: Mar 2003
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Seems I remember hearing something about the difference between corn/grain baits that could be cast or spread and "multiple bite/exposure baits like apples, carrots, and beets." I actually expected them to put a ban on those types of baits. As far as the farmers and their "EXCESS" crops, many of the bait growers around here were growing "bait", not excess crops and they knew that there was always a chance that the NRC/DNR could ban baiting at anytime. Seems they should've had back-up plans for just such an event.
-------------------- Advice from The Buck:"Only little girls shoot spikers!" Posts: 6321 | From: Hesperia, Mi | Registered: Dec 2005
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my personal opinion...I really don't care if anyone chooses to hunt over bait. I don't. Where I hunt and the way I hunt, I actually believe using bait would lessen my chances of getting a deer. My problem with baiting is baiting on public land and the mentality that becuse you dump bait in that chunk of woods in now exclusivly "yours." And how baiting alters the natural movements of the deer, alerts them of your presence and can make them nocturnal. And probably it's not so much the bait or more where it is placed and the baiters movements, that actually disprupts the deer movement.
I get that if you only own ten acres up north that about the only way to see deer consistantly is to bait, but that is another topic.
I scout, I do my homework and get ready for the season...then some guy parks his truck right on the deer trail walks 100 yards in and dumps his bait...then proceeds to hunt only the prime 2 hours of the day and calls that hunting. That's public land hunting I know, and I take my chances and move on.
And as far a bear vs deer, well, like I said I have no problem if you choose to bait either, but bear vs deer is different. There aren't over a million bears walking around the woods. Nor are there over 750,000 bear hunters, bear hunting is more tightly regulated.
So I guess my beef isn't over baiting but how it is done and all the negative aspects it gives hunting and traditional hunting in particular.
Some of the reasons I hear in favor of using bait show a complete lack of knowledge proper use of bait, hunting strategies and woodsmanship. It has become a tradition to bait in Michigan. It's not rocket science people...contrary to what the magazines or tv shows say, killing deer aint THAT hard or impossible, like I have been personally told, to get your deer without bait.
I love bowhunting for deer. Most of the deer I kill are either coming or going to a food source, bedding area, following a doe or crusing for one...or quite possibly heading to your bait pile now.
-------------------- Tell me about your hunt, write an article...send me some pictures...you just might make the cover of Traditional Trails! Posts: 38 | From: Ottawa Lake, MI | Registered: Jul 2007
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"...then some guy parks his truck right on the deer trail walks 100 yards in and dumps his bait...then proceeds to hunt only the prime 2 hours of the day and calls that hunting."
HEY! That was me! Posts: 1114 | From: Hudsonville, MI | Registered: Mar 2003
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