Time for a rant

[Tomas Stieber]

Believe it or not some hunting skill can be taught  over a bait pile. Such as waiting for a good shot opportunity, how important wind direction is and staying still and quiet. Shooting at a live animal can be a rather unnerving experience for the first timer. If they are taught to just watch and study the deer the first time out I think it could help them a lot in making clean kill.

I baited myself for several years but eventually found it not to my liking. But it did help me along  when I first started out.

[GCook]

So if baiting is the wrong way to hunt,  what is the right way?
While I don't disagree it takes some skill and ability to hunt in big woods it doesn't take over bait but the reality is even the native peoples use food sources and water supplies to ambush hunt animals. 
Early on in my adult hunting career here in Texas I said baiting was cheating  and there is no way I'd do it.  I was rifle hunting at the time and soon discovered if you wanted to see, much less shoot, a deer you'd best consider giving deer a reliable food source.  Privately owned land means your a ability to roam is limited and it's getting worse.
I mean if your goal in hunting is to sit in a tree not seeing deer and listening to the leaves rustling and birds chirp then you're good.
Also I learned that just throwing bait on the ground doesn't guarantee a deer.  Especially for a bow hunter. 
Yes, in areas with high deer density the competition for food makes it a lot easier.  There were years that just filling my tags was a great thing.  But 30 years of bowhunting later I've gotten to the place where it's about THE deer.  Sure a few doe for meat is necessary as my family eats deer meat.  Almost exclusively deer meat as red meat.  But I've passed a lot of bucks waiting on the right one.  And getting a smart mature buck to give you a shot over bait can be challenging.  Your approach and scent better be right and if you mess up a couple times then the next door neighbor will shoot your target buck with a rifle as he runs a doe during the rut. 
I'm very blessed to hunt in multiple states using multiple weapons and tactics.  I do take a lot of satisfaction killing an animal spot and stalk, of a trail crossing or creek /ditch crossing vs over feed.  And I do believe the need to teach them more than squeezing a trigger. 
That said it's a start.  And if the kid never goes past that.  If all he gets is it's cool to hunt, deer meat is good and he is positive about hunting vs against it, it's all good.
Honestly the world has changed and land use has changed.  With it hunting has changed.   Not all for the good.  But not all for the bad either.

[buckeyebowhunter]

Gary, I totally get what you're saying. I am not entirely against baiting the critters you hunt. I realize that different situations call call for different tactics and so forth and if one must put meat on the table then maybe the measures should be drastic. The issue here is that central Ohio is broke up enough into farmland and big woods and deer populations high enough that corn piling is not necessary. Easier, absolutely (especially this time of year) necessary, no way.

The problem I have is with the backyard corn pile crossbow culture that the hunting community has seemed to evolve into which once again in my OPINION is not hunting. I think it best not to take the boy into the situation at all, and maybe I'm a jerk for saying this it could quite possibly be the worst thing if he ends up successful. Which if he is how would you convince him or his friends that may now take up the sport that there is any other means of hunting? It just creates a negative image in my opinion. I guess I'm just a jerk lol

[GCook]

Nah.  You're definitely not a jerk.
It's not an easy thing.  No easy questions and no easy answers. 

[Bowguy67]

So if baiting is the wrong way to hunt,  what is the right way?
While I don't disagree it takes some skill and ability to hunt in big woods it doesn't take over bait but the reality is even the native peoples use food sources and water supplies to ambush hunt animals. 
Early on in my adult hunting career here in Texas I said baiting was cheating  and there is no way I'd do it.  I was rifle hunting at the time and soon discovered if you wanted to see, much less shoot, a deer you'd best consider giving deer a reliable food source.  Privately owned land means your a ability to roam is limited and it's getting worse.
I mean if your goal in hunting is to sit in a tree not seeing deer and listening to the leaves rustling and birds chirp then you're good.
Also I learned that just throwing bait on the ground doesn't guarantee a deer.  Especially for a bow hunter. 
Yes, in areas with high deer density the competition for food makes it a lot easier.  There were years that just filling my tags was a great thing.  But 30 years of bowhunting later I've gotten to the place where it's about THE deer.  Sure a few doe for meat is necessary as my family eats deer meat.  Almost exclusively deer meat as red meat.  But I've passed a lot of bucks waiting on the right one.  And getting a smart mature buck to give you a shot over bait can be challenging.  Your approach and scent better be right and if you mess up a couple times then the next door neighbor will shoot your target buck with a rifle as he runs a doe during the rut. 
I'm very blessed to hunt in multiple states using multiple weapons and tactics.  I do take a lot of satisfaction killing an animal spot and stalk, of a trail crossing or creek /ditch crossing vs over feed.  And I do believe the need to teach them more than squeezing a trigger. 
That said it's a start.  And if the kid never goes past that.  If all he gets is it's cool to hunt, deer meat is good and he is positive about hunting vs against it, it's all good.
Honestly the world has changed and land use has changed.  With it hunting has changed.   Not all for the good.  But not all for the bad either.

Who said you can’t use food sources and water? God this mentality of thinking food is food is obviously a problem. If you say over an acorn tree in the woods, next to an wild apple tree in the back of a farm I don’t think that’s an issue. You’d have to hunt. Even hunt for the right trees as year to year things change.  The trees don’t all drop and certainly not the same all year. Same for all crops. Before someone brings up crops, a 1000 yard long cornfield isn’t the same as a 2’ pile in the woods. There’s certainly a concentration. Dumping bait to condition animals unnaturally is nor will it ever be hunting. No way to spin it. Hunting is not supposed to be anything guaranteed. This post is full of the excuses baiters use. Land too small, food is food, bringing up sustenance hunters not that i disagree W what was said here but that’s not an apples to apples conversation so bringing it up at all is pointless. It’s a shame you think someone’s goal would be sitting not seeing deer or the only option to see deer and be successful is to bait.