Thoughts on Baiting

[RC]

For the record I mostly hunt swamp deer on funnels and soft and hard mast. They are 100% wild and you get away with zero mistakes. I am in a lease now that allows baiting and most members do bait. I will put out some corn and if a deer comes in broadside in range I`m gonna gaff it. With a state that has a 4 month season I promise there is nothing canned about the deer I hunt. You have never seen the terrain in the South Ga Pine flats and still judge this as easy hunting bait or not. Visibility is about 10 yards.RC

[Jon Stewart]

I agree RC.  Ok for one animal but not the other. And here in Michigan they use dogs to tree the bear and then shoot it out of a tree. Now there is sport hunting at its best but that's a topic for another day!!

Do whatever is legal and have fun.

[floodman]

Biggie, for President.

[TRADSTYK]

Hunting a crop field is entirely different than an isolated pile of corn! A thousand different places the deer can enter and exit. The one pile of bait in that one spot ... no thanks! I picked up the stickbow for the added challenge and baiting does not qualify. IMHO.

[arrowlauncherdj]

Yeah tradstyk, it is different, it's easier to hunt a natural trail into the corn field than it is to get a shot on a high alert deer near a feeder or "corn pile" as you call it. Hard to find a corn field in FL these days, even harder to get permission to hunt one. These days you hunt where you can when you can as it was stated earlier that access is difficult and sometimes not ideal for hunting like folks did 50-100 yrs ago.

[Jeff Strubberg]

Your ethics are your ethics, and mine are mine.  Not gonna go there.

There are some real downsides to bait.  Bait tends to concentrate animals and make them more likely to spread communicable disease.  If it is widespread enough and common enough, you can also end up with an unhealthy population of animals and boom\\bust population cycles.

There are also places and species that just can't be effectively hunted without bait.  Hogs are great candidates for bait just because of the number of them that need to be taken to keep their population in check. Bears would be another just because of their enormous range.  

I'm a lot more worried about high-fencing and automated shoot setups than I am about baiting in general.  Sure, there are spots where baiting becomes a problem, but I bet you can find that with just about any form or method of hunting.

[Goshawkin]

Originally posted by Biggie Hoffman:
Anyone who says they are fine spending 10 days hunting without seeing a critter is FOS. You may as well just go camping.

Reading that line made me think of this:
 http://people.ucalgary.ca/~powlesla/personal/hunting/text/stages.txt
I know guys that fit that to a T.Others get stuck in one stage,some skip a few and most a combination of a few.
 I know a guy that hunted with a longbow for years(I think 6) until he got a buck and wouldn't shoot a doe.First deer he ever killed,never would switch to a compound or gun to get one. He wanted to get it with a longbow. I also know guys that will give a trad bow a try for the begining of the seaso,then they HAVE to switch to a compound to "get one on the ground".  
Biggie,this post wasn't meant as a dig to you either. But I do know guys that have been fine with not seeing/shooting anything on hunts.Everyone's different. Me,for Javies,I probably would have been dragging a bag of corn right out with you.

[ChuckC]

Gosh, I believe Biggie was thinking and talking about SEEING critters, not necessarily killing one.  I am very laid back about killing one, but I agree with his statement. .  after a little while, it is no longer hunting, just sight seeing.  Taking away the very real potential
for a possible interaction at any moment sorta defeats most of us.
ChuckC

[Goshawkin]

HI Chuck, Yep,I read it as just seeing animals as well.Everyone is different,just knowing that the animals are there,without seeing any is enough to keep some guys going.I understand what you just wrote and kind of feel that way myself.I'd much rather see/get a shot at something,I think everyone would. But I don't think everyone takes having a "bad" hunt,not seeing anything,the same.My friend went on an elk hunt in Oregon,never saw an elk.But he says it's the best hunt he's been on and he's been on more than a few and shot some nice animals.I don't think he's fos when he says that,just how he is.What makes up a great hunt is different for everyone as well.Some guys just want the biggest buck,elk,etc.,doesn't really matter how the hunt went or what they did to get it as long as it's rack is how ever many inches,you can see that on alot of the outdoor tv shows.If that's good enough for them,makes them happy and it was legal,God bless them! I love to hunt and love to be successful at it(shoot the deer,elk,whatever) but my best day out hunting I didn't kill anything. I had a goshawk go right past me and slam into a grouse about 5 yards from my stand.To me,that was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
Sorry to the OP for taking this off topic,I'll bow out now.

[calgarychef]

Bears are different than deer and they behave differently.  They range all over the place and one very rarely sees them unless its at a food source.  In certain areas you can find them on exposed slopes feeding on fresh grass, in timbered areas with no open areas there is very low probability of seeing a bear let alone killing one with bow or gun.  Deer are more easily patterned and hunted than bears. In other words baiting isn't necessary to hunt deer but it is necessary to hunt bears in large enough numbers to keep their population in check.

Bear populations are less dictated by winter feed conditions like deer populations are therefore they can and will become overpopulated.  Bears will kill every moose calf that they find and normal bear predations will kill as many as 60% of the moose calves.  Therefore I believe that baiting bears is essential to hunting success and essential for conservation efforts.  I do think that baited bears is an unskilled form of hunting but like hogs it's essential for population control.   I can easily control deer populations without baiting    

[calgarychef]

One of the best deer hunts I've been on I didn't SEE a deer for a week, they were there but it was a an area I was unfamiliar with.  I don't consider it a failed hunt, I still had a blast.  Baiting would have ensured my success but somehow I don't mind not getting a deer that week, I got one later in another area.

[TRAP]

Originally posted by Kevin Dill:
I don't pass judgment on those who choose to bait, but it's not for me. I know all the arguments and cultural history of baiting, but I'm just not interested in it. I use the analogy of chumming trout with cheese nibbles, so I can catch one on a dry fly and bamboo rod. I wanted to hunt Africa for a few years, but I eventually wrote it off my list due to the baiting (food & water stations). I can't do it.

Again and for the record; I spend no time worrying about who hunts over bait. I'm good with not using it for my hunts.

My sentiments exactly

[Flint Head]

No one knows  deer baiting like a low country SC boy... he gave you the right answer on the first page.

Corn is Ok... you'll have a few shots at jacked up does and small six points,,, also a coon or two. Deer are just a lot more relaxed and easier to hunt on natural food or trails.

Ps. I like shooting does, six points, and a coon or two!  

[LoneWolf73]

More CWD coming to another state. I am pretty sure the committee that pushes laws thru has a major "feeder" manufacturer represented so really more about the money. Corn is expensive and also loaded with GMO which has it's own health ramifications. I do not eat much beef or processed foods because of it. Tons of people feeding/poisoning their kids/family with products deemed safe at the store. Having health problems? Look at what you are really eating, then blow it off saying it will not affect my family.

 Bottom line - Guess it will affect my deer meat and change the nature of hunting in the area/state. Roll with the punches, the world rotates ever faster these days. Mutants will be the survivors down the road. Good mutants or bad mutants to be determined. Just hope they have bows and arrows still. Just another joke, with a third laughing, a third not, and a third not caring.

[Stephengiles]

Well from what I read it's still illegal to do it on public land.I guess I'm lucky that the wma I hunt is 56000 acres so I don't think it will affect me much. I'm not really sure it will even change things too much seems like it rarely gets cold enough to make a short food supply.

[BDann]

I say to each his own.  I've hunted over feeders before, and while it's not my preferred way to hunt, I can understand why in some areas it would be awfully hard to see any game without it.

The animals I've seen at feeders were all kinds of wired, and were ready to bolt at the slightest noise or movement.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because you are hunting near a feeder you will have an easy kill-just ask anyone who has gone on the Solana trip.