On my 350 acres, I have many acres of year round food plots, cell cams, regular cameras, feeders, and hand spread bait/feed. I live on my property and out on it everyday. I am not one who feels I need to stay out of the woods for fear of scaring them off. I bought my land to use it - and live on it - year round. I generally hunt some public ground, largely bow only, and leave my ground for the family. The public ground does not allow baiting, cameras, and driving around on a ranger at all hours of the day or night.
The actions of the deer on the public compared to those on private - are literally, night and day difference. The deer density on the public ground is not as high as on my private - but the deer are much more likely to be out in daytime. If you sit on some feeding sign on the public, you are likely to see deer. If you sit on hand spread feed in a food plot, with three times the deer density on private - you may or may not see a deer.
When I bought my place 20 years ago, we killed a lot of hogs during all hours of the day. Sometimes over 100 a year. I still have lots of hogs. I had to get a thermal scope to kill a hog. I have seen hogs during daylight hours one time this year. They have even quit using my feeders. I have one feeder out 100 yards from a three acre food plot that has been almost completely rooted by hogs. Not one hog has visited that feeder to eat the corn. I used to have to fence every bait site to keep the hogs out. Not anymore - they wont visit a bait site. They have witnessed hundreds of their buddies go down at a feeder. They are now feeder shy and totally nocturnal.
I see the deer in this area slowly doing the same thing. There is a buck we have hunted for two years. He visits every food plot, every feeder - including my neighbor’s a mile away. He eats the hand spread bait. He is on supplemental feed almost everday in the same location from June to mid september - and he quits a week or two before bow season. To add insult to injury, he recently rubbed a tree in my front yard. We have not seen him since Sept. I dont just mean while hunting - I mean period. Same with last year. I have not got a day time picture of him since Sept. I am pretty sure I have not got a picture of him on the same camera two days in a row. If it wasnt for cameras, we would think this deer had been killed.
I think the deer are following the same pattern as the hogs - they are just slower to catch on. Because this deer is around - and another one just about as big - we dont shoot anything else. When I hunt the public - I have no idea what is there - and the bar is definitely lower - thus, I usually end up killing more of my deer without food plots, bait, feeding, cameras, etc. To be honest, not using all those aids are not foreign to most of us with a little age. Most of us in our sixties have killed far more deer before cameras, baiting, food plots, or crossbows - than since those things got popular.
Kind of reminds me of our popular green tree waterfowl management areas in my home state. They are heavily hunted. Our g&f has done almost everything possible to reduce the competition. With each new restriction, the anticipation is that it will be more difficult to hunt or access the area and those looking for an easy hunt will bow out. No, hasnt worked that way. 25 hp limit, cant leave the ramp before 4 am, 15 shell limit, no spinners. Have to quit at noon. And the list goes on. Even with all the restrictions, Folks camp in their trucks at the ramp two weeks before season even opens.
As much as I would like to see baiting stopped. At least in my area, it gives a lot of rural living, hard working lower income folks the chance to kill a deer on their five or ten acres they would not otherwise have. They cant afford to join a lease or buy 350 acres of pure recreational land. I also remember before baiting, down here in the commercial timberland and clearcut areas - there were herds of thirty and forty deer running around and a big 2 yr old buck weighed 120 lbs. Baiting gave hunters the opportunity to bring the deer out of the thickets where they could kill them without a pack of dogs. The deer density is now much more in line with what it should be - maybe even a little low now in some areas - and the deer are much larger. There was a span 25 years ago of five years in a row where me or my wife hit a deer with our vehicle every year. Insurance sent a letter next time they were going to cancel us. That was about the time baiting got going. We have hit one deer in the last 15 years. Our g&f is probably one of the few that did not ban baiting in the cwd zone, basing this on the hope that baiting would aid hunters in harvesting deer.
I supervised quite a few people for quite a few years. I learned a lot of things - but probably the most important thing I learned was there are at least two sides to most stories and the truth usually lies in the middle. When I look at baiting, my very first thought is because of baiting, my neighbors are killing “my” deer that they would otherwise not be killing. And yes, I know that is from a very selfish viewpoint. My 10 acre neighbors are thankful baiting is legal so they have a chance to take a deer or two on their small acreage without having to join a lease or drive for an hour to hunt some public land. It is all about perspective.
I still wish they would ban baiting
