A story of frustration, and a less than awesome solution

[SwampCat]

It might be because I have food plots easily available, but the times I hunt a spot where I can see a bait site, I would guess, on average, about 20% of the deer visit the bait. We have killed three bucks this year - two were in a food plot (chasing does) and one was in the woods. The closest bait to any of them was 300 yards. Two of the three had been semi regular visitors to a bait site. One had never visited a bait site. The biggest buck we have on camera is a regular at a bait site - from midnight to 3 am. Never a pic of him during shooting hours. We do have daytime pics of him on trails - but not in a food plot.

I probably have more consistent use on bait sites than most folks, because I start putting it out in June and I hand spread it. We hardly ever use corn - we use a high protein supplement. Deer seem to accept hand spread feed much more readily at my place.

 

[MJ74]

It might be because I have food plots easily available, but the times I hunt a spot where I can see a bait site, I would guess, on average, about 20% of the deer visit the bait. We have killed three bucks this year - two were in a food plot (chasing does) and one was in the woods. The closest bait to any of them was 300 yards. Two of the three had been semi regular visitors to a bait site. One had never visited a bait site. The biggest buck we have on camera is a regular at a bait site - from midnight to 3 am. Never a pic of him during shooting hours. We do have daytime pics of him on trails - but not in a food plot.

I probably have more consistent use on bait sites than most folks, because I start putting it out in June and I hand spread it. We hardly ever use corn - we use a high protein supplement. Deer seem to accept hand spread feed much more readily at my place.

I dont believe it.....I was told put out corn and the bucks would be on it continuously
Sorry that was the sarcasm in me coming out.

What decent bucks I do get on camera the majority of the time it is at night just like you said.

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[homerj1]

That way of thinking is just silly rationalization. Some thoughts & observations ...

A food plot requires mother natures cooperation (rain, temps, etc) for success, baiting does not.

A food plot requires regular effort, knowledge, and management to support it, baiting does not.

You can't move a food plot without a lot of work and there are limitations to where you can move it, baiting can be dropped pretty much everywhere and even on a daily basis with little or no effort.

A food plot requires some level of good soil quality, baiting does not.

A food plot spreads deer out, often times out of bow range, baiting does not.

A food plot encourages moving and grazing similar to a deer's naturally tendency for browsing & moving, baiting does not.

Food plots more consistently represent a deer's natural diet (green vegetation, fibrous starch based materials, etc.) it fits in more with the natural ecosystem and a deer's diet, while baiting can lead to unnaturally high survival and birth rates, particularly in northern deer.

Food plots are subject to normal feeding patterns, baiting can disrupt feeding patterns with timers for feed distribution.

....and the end result of this altruistic foodplotting is to only feed deer and other woodland critters, right? You'd never shoot a deer coming from/going to/in a plot, correct? Cuz if you did, the end result of plotting and baiting are identical.

 

[Bill Loser]

I get it , food plots are more work. But the end anticipated results are the same weather plots or bait... they are both bait done with the intention of drawing deer close enough to kill.
Gets old hearing the hunters who should be united bashing each other over every different method imaginable. Weather it be xbow, bait, public ,private, it goes on and on. Its all hunting. Nobody's business but yours how you choose to do it.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

They do in western NC. I dumped out a few bags last October. One of the biggest bears I’ve had on camera camped on it for 4 days, never had a single deer picture while he was there. That may be anecdotal but neighbors with feeders have them ripped down by bears often.

Bears are live wrecking balls. If they even sniff something they think is edible - they'll tear everything apart to get to it. A neighboring cabin had the lid of a large chest freezer torn completely off by a bear. The target?? An empty plastic wrapper from a pack of hot dogs from the previous hunting season. It was the only thing in that freezer, which sat on a patio outside the cabin.

And as for deer - they DO NOT like bears around them. I've had bears ruin several archery season hunts over the years, where I had deer approaching my stand. Bears came lumbering through and scared every deer away - not by attacking the deer - just by their presence.

 

[Telemark]

What are the ethics of baiting with corn I grew myself?

Say I grew an acre of corn, harvested half of it, and put it out in a pile the following year. I did all the work a food plotter does and then some. But it's a pile of corn.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

When I first bought my property, which was a camp owned by people that lived 2 hours from there and was historically unposted, I had a lot of trespassers. Most notably from the farm to the north of me. I never caught anyone but I got plenty of trail camera pictures. I ended up getting videos of them carrying AR's, which is illegal here. I debated turning them in but ultimately decided not to because I didn't want to face any retribution from them. Our trespassing laws are pretty weak, the state police are spread so thin they don't want to be bothered with hunting trespassers. Not sure how the Game Commission would've handled it but I didn't really want to make enemies in my first year there. So I went a different route. Put up a bunch of dummy cameras in obvious locations where they accessed my property and have been planting the access areas with the thorniest shit I can find. Raspberries, blackberries, black locust. So far it's worked out. I haven't gotten any pictures of trespassers since.

Obvious cams make people think before entering. Briars & thorny stuff makes entering painful for overland trespassers. In our camp area, road shooting poachers have always been a problem. A double row of Norway spruce creates a living WALL that road-shooters can't see through. Several neighboring camps have employed the same spruce "walls." Road-shooting has been cut way down.

 

[roymunson]

Haha I know. I just got back from a week in WV hunting private ground over bait and I saw 1 deer. It may be easy some places but certainly not all.

Lol

I was supposed to go to WV monday and tuesday. But the guy who we usually hunt with failed to tell us his grand kids were going to hunt too. I don't wanna be sniping in on their deer, so we ate tags.

 

[roymunson]

What are the ethics of baiting with corn I grew myself?

Say I grew an acre of corn, harvested half of it, and put it out in a pile the following year. I did all the work a food plotter does and then some. But it's a pile of corn.

This is exactly the thing we've been contemplating. THe old farmer next door would probably do the planting, spraying, and picking by the hour if we had a place to store the harvested stuff. That'd be my "in" to cheaper corn.

But then I need an elevator and a crib.

 

[weekender21]

Bears are live wrecking balls. If they even sniff something they think is edible - they'll tear everything apart to get to it. A neighboring cabin had the lid of a large chest freezer torn completely off by a bear. The target?? An empty plastic wrapper from a pack of hot dogs from the previous hunting season. It was the only thing in that freezer, which sat on a patio outside the cabin.

And as for deer - they DO NOT like bears around them. I've had bears ruin several archery season hunts over the years, where I had deer approaching my stand. Bears came lumbering through and scared every deer away - not by attacking the deer - just by their presence.

Yeah, had one rip down an exclusion cage this fall. WTF. I’m assuming it’s the same bear that damaged three of my apple trees.

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[Tree Spud]

....and the end result of this altruistic foodplotting is to only feed deer and other woodland critters, right? You'd never shoot a deer coming from/going to/in a plot, correct? Cuz if you did, the end result of plotting and baiting are identical.

So is the end result of ....
- Hunting ag fields
- Planting thermal cover
- Planting fruit trees
- Planting oaks, chesnuts, etc.
- Planting shrubs
- Putting in a water hole
- Putting in mock scrapes
- Hinge cutting
- Putting a post in the ground and tying a stick to it for a licking branch

All of the above are manipulations of the natural landscape yet different. 100% of what we do as habitat dudes is to increase our advantage in hunting deer.

We have 1,000s of acres of ag land surrounding our property which hunters swarm over. Are they baiting?

My wife and I eat turnips & radishes out of our food, share them with others also, plots so i guess I can rationalize that I am now a farmer and not "plotter".

As I said, silly rationalization ... food plots & baiting are apples vs oranges ...

 

[BenAllgood]

My little baiting/feeder experiment on my Kentucky farm is pretty much over I believe. We saw more deer on plots than at the feeder. Lots of night pictures at the feeder, but for daytime deer, the plots and early succession fields were extremely more productive.

 

[MadMadHoosier]

My little baiting/feeder experiment on my Kentucky farm is pretty much over I believe. We saw more deer on plots than at the feeder. Lots of night pictures at the feeder, but for daytime deer, the plots and early succession fields were extremely more productive.

I now have just one feeder in the middle of 550 acres. but I still throw corn on the ground in a few spots. The feeder seemed abandoned about the time the rut started, but the corn on the ground was very busy. New experiment?

 

[BenAllgood]

I now have just one feeder in the middle of 550 acres. but I still throw corn on the ground in a few spots. The feeder seemed abandoned about the time the rut started, but the corn on the ground was very busy. New experiment?

If it's anything baiting oriented, I'll plant the new 6 acre field I picked up into corn and leave some standing and mow some. One big bait pile.

 

[Mortenson]

I don't really have a dog in this fight. No legal baiting in my state, but I have a feeling certain neighbors gamble, and the govt snipers across the fence bait. I honestly think 3 or 4 month long hunting seasons could be construed as too much. Give the damn deer a break. Any guys here who disagree with certain legal activities such as baiting willing to opt out of the 1st or 2nd half of their season? Winter turns into fly and tick season then more flies and heat and drought then bring on the hunters and a brutal rutting season plus toss in a little ehd and cwd. I see a lot of arguments saying it should all be pure or close to it, to use a long bow like the indians. I think the indians were pretty savage for a reason and used every method possible to kill their animals. They would beat them and break legs or chase them off cliffs. Not hard to think they'd stash a bushel of berries below the canyon and toss some husafell stones at the deer. I see a lot of good comments here on both sides.

 

[Bill Loser]

So is the end result of ....
- Hunting ag fields
- Planting thermal cover
- Planting fruit trees
- Planting oaks, chesnuts, etc.
- Planting shrubs
- Putting in a water hole
- Putting in mock scrapes
- Hinge cutting
- Putting a post in the ground and tying a stick to it for a licking branch

All of the above are manipulations of the natural landscape yet different. 100% of what we do as habitat dudes is to increase our advantage in hunting deer.

We have 1,000s of acres of ag land surrounding our property which hunters swarm over. Are they baiting?

My wife and I eat turnips & radishes out of our food, share them with others also, plots so i guess I can rationalize that I am now a farmer and not "plotter".

As I said, silly rationalization ... food plots & baiting are apples vs oranges ...

No , no they aren't.
Different but the same at best

 

[homerj1]

silly rationalization

...absolutely

 

[SwampCat]

I now do supplemental feeding and baiting, along with pretty much every other habitat management I can. Our state defines baiting and supplemental feeding differently. Baiting is allowed during season, including cwd areas, and is defined as a food source placed for the purpose of hunting over. Supplemental feeding is a food source placed outside hunting season and is done primarily to benefit/assist the deer. Supplemental feeding is not allowed in cwd zones.

Baiting can be cheap and easy or labor intensive and difficult. I have neighbors who fill a single 250 lb spin feeder with corn the week before season and maybe once again midway through season. Cheap and easy - $100 for the entire season. The gamut runs from that to folks who supply tons of high protein feed year round - and dont ever hunt near the feed location.

I feed a high protein food source beginning mid June. I hand spread it twice a week in four different locations - with one of the locations 8 miles away. My feed locations are all fenced with 32” field fence to keep the hogs out. A complete feed run takes me about three hours - and I do that twice a week for approximately 26 weeks. I spend a little over $100 per week for feed. That is 156 hours and almost $3000 per year, not including fuel and travel too and from the feed store.

Supplemental feeding is one of my more expensive, labor intensive management activities. But to be honest, most hunters probably fall somewhere in between and tend toward the less intensive side.

While I have spent the last 45 years involved with some type wildlife management activity, I am fairly new to baiting/feeding. We first put out a little corn about six or seven years ago to help position deer so the grand daughters could get a better shot on them. It was three of four years before an adult, who had never killed a deer, ever hunted one of the bait piles. We gradually graduated to a six month feeding program - with the intent of improving fawn recruitment numbers, improve buck health, and potentially keep the deer on our property for longer periods of time. With the exception of improving fawn recruitment numbers, I believe we have accomplished those goals.

I have killed one deer on a feed location - my personal best. I will admit, I believe I would not have killed this deer without bait. While most of locals are mostly ML and MG hunters, My experience is the one time I really see a big advantage to hunting over bait is early bow season - Sept, first week or two of Oct. Before bachelor herds break up and bucks are still fairly diurnal. My experience is an early season bow hunter will be benefitted actually hunting a bait site more than anyone.

 

[Catscratch]

I now do supplemental feeding and baiting, along with pretty much every other habitat management I can. Our state defines baiting and supplemental feeding differently. Baiting is allowed during season, including cwd areas, and is defined as a food source placed for the purpose of hunting over. Supplemental feeding is a food source placed outside hunting season and is done primarily to benefit/assist the deer. Supplemental feeding is not allowed in cwd zones.

Baiting can be cheap and easy or labor intensive and difficult. I have neighbors who fill a single 250 lb spin feeder with corn the week before season and maybe once again midway through season. Cheap and easy - $100 for the entire season. The gamut runs from that to folks who supply tons of high protein feed year round - and dont ever hunt near the feed location.

I feed a high protein food source beginning mid June. I hand spread it twice a week in four different locations - with one of the locations 8 miles away. My feed locations are all fenced with 32” field fence to keep the hogs out. A complete feed run takes me about three hours - and I do that twice a week for approximately 26 weeks. I spend a little over $100 per week for feed. That is 156 hours and almost $3000 per year, not including fuel and travel too and from the feed store.

Supplemental feeding is one of my more expensive, labor intensive management activities. But to be honest, most hunters probably fall somewhere in between and tend toward the less intensive side.

While I have spent the last 45 years involved with some type wildlife management activity, I am fairly new to baiting/feeding. We first put out a little corn about six or seven years ago to help position deer so the grand daughters could get a better shot on them. It was three of four years before an adult, who had never killed a deer, ever hunted one of the bait piles. We gradually graduated to a six month feeding program - with the intent of improving fawn recruitment numbers, improve buck health, and potentially keep the deer on our property for longer periods of time. With the exception of improving fawn recruitment numbers, I believe we have accomplished those goals.

I have killed one deer on a feed location - my personal best. I will admit, I believe I would not have killed this deer without bait. While most of locals are mostly ML and MG hunters, My experience is the one time I really see a big advantage to hunting over bait is early bow season - Sept, first week or two of Oct. Before bachelor herds break up and bucks are still fairly diurnal. My experience is an early season bow hunter will be benefitted actually hunting a bait site more than anyone.

Have your efforts to supplement feed shown increases in antler size?

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[SwampCat]

Have your efforts to supplement feed shown increases in antler size?

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I cant really say the supplemental feeding has increased antler size. We are seeing bigger bucks than we ever have - but we have only been really entrenched in this program for three years now. Everything I read indicates antler quality will really not be affected very much until the second generation of bucks make their appearance. I am not sure I have enough land under my control to make a difference. I will say this - in the 20 years I have owned my place, the biggest buck we have every killed weighed 185 lbs on the hoof. We killed three last year that weighed 200 plus lbs.

I believe my fawn recruitment problems are specifically related to predation. We see a lot more fawns in July than we do September. I dont believe the loss of fawns during the summer to be a nutrition or disease problem because we are not losing adult deer. In addition to plenty of coyotes, our bobcat population has really increased.