Five acres of corn at 100 bushels per acre equals 500 bushels of corn at 56 lbs per bushel equal 28,000 lbs of corn. I feed about half that much corn through a combined four feeders spread over 350 acres - IN A YEAR. I am pretty sure 28,000 lbs of corn on five acres is not immune from disease transmission
even all my baiting neighbors would take offense if I spread 3500 lbs of corn on 5 acres every week of our eight week deer season
I think most of us involved with some type of baiting are probably one of many in the area. I know of a dozen different bait sites on seven different properties within no more than a few hundred yards of my property line. I have no false illusions that if I dont bait, all the deer on my 350 acres are going to stay put and not walk 20 to 200 yards off my property to feed at a neighbor’s bait site. In fact, I know “my” deer use the neighbor’s bait sites because they show me pictures of “my” deer.
Knowing for fact that the deer that are prone to hitting bait sites are already doing it on the neighbors’ ground - If I add six bait sites myself to the existing 12 bait sites on the neighbors - for a total of 18 sites - is that not spreading the deer out as opposed to concentrating them as much? I have always read where the more the deer are concentrated, the more likely disease transmission will occur. Spreading them out is a good thing - right!
In my case, my records show we kill five times as many of the mounted deer on my wall in food plots as bait. I have probably 60 hunts on bait over the past four years for one particular deer and have never seen him. Our deer must be a different sub species than KY deer.
I know bait is effective. For my five and ten acre neighbors, it is the most effective way they can hunt. For me, my foodplots are - but my neighbors dont have the luxury of having thirty acres of food plots to hunt - so they hunt the most effective way they can. My bait sites are employed to decrease the effectiveness of their bait piles. If I never killed a deer we would never miss a meal. Some of my neighbors depend heavily on deer meat to eat, and I am out there blowing money like a high school girl with her daddy’s credit card - planting food plots, baiting, cultivating native plants, tsi - trying to keep them from killing deer. I could probably spend my annual deer management budget and buy most of them all the meat they could eat in year.
Do I feel good if I shoot a five year old 140” deer over a bait pile - yes I did - the one time I have done it. I have a lot time sitting on a bait pile and a lot of time sitting on a food plot. I dont see one being more better or worse than the other as as to how I feel when we kill a deer. I dont care if I kill it with a compound, crossbow, ML, or modern gun - I am proud of it no matter. Those big deer are hard to kill here - with anything.
Do I wish baiting was illegal - 100%. It costs me a lot of money and effort - and the deer hunting on my land was a lot better before all the neighbors started baiting - my food plots were the only artificial attractant for miles.
Do I wish forward facing sonar was illegal - yes I do - but I will use it until then. I know big game fishermen who think omni directional sonar is cheating. I wish our G&F would put a very small quota on non resident duck hunters on public land - but they dont and they swarm like maggots. I know a trapper who wishes AR did not allow year round trapping - a waste of fur he says. I know dyed in the wool predator hunters who think it should be illegal to use a thermal for coyotes.
If you only want to bow hunt (been there) - dont cuss the rifle hunters - that is your choice to restrict yourself.
even all my baiting neighbors would take offense if I spread 3500 lbs of corn on 5 acres every week of our eight week deer season
I think most of us involved with some type of baiting are probably one of many in the area. I know of a dozen different bait sites on seven different properties within no more than a few hundred yards of my property line. I have no false illusions that if I dont bait, all the deer on my 350 acres are going to stay put and not walk 20 to 200 yards off my property to feed at a neighbor’s bait site. In fact, I know “my” deer use the neighbor’s bait sites because they show me pictures of “my” deer.
Knowing for fact that the deer that are prone to hitting bait sites are already doing it on the neighbors’ ground - If I add six bait sites myself to the existing 12 bait sites on the neighbors - for a total of 18 sites - is that not spreading the deer out as opposed to concentrating them as much? I have always read where the more the deer are concentrated, the more likely disease transmission will occur. Spreading them out is a good thing - right!
In my case, my records show we kill five times as many of the mounted deer on my wall in food plots as bait. I have probably 60 hunts on bait over the past four years for one particular deer and have never seen him. Our deer must be a different sub species than KY deer.
I know bait is effective. For my five and ten acre neighbors, it is the most effective way they can hunt. For me, my foodplots are - but my neighbors dont have the luxury of having thirty acres of food plots to hunt - so they hunt the most effective way they can. My bait sites are employed to decrease the effectiveness of their bait piles. If I never killed a deer we would never miss a meal. Some of my neighbors depend heavily on deer meat to eat, and I am out there blowing money like a high school girl with her daddy’s credit card - planting food plots, baiting, cultivating native plants, tsi - trying to keep them from killing deer. I could probably spend my annual deer management budget and buy most of them all the meat they could eat in year.
Do I feel good if I shoot a five year old 140” deer over a bait pile - yes I did - the one time I have done it. I have a lot time sitting on a bait pile and a lot of time sitting on a food plot. I dont see one being more better or worse than the other as as to how I feel when we kill a deer. I dont care if I kill it with a compound, crossbow, ML, or modern gun - I am proud of it no matter. Those big deer are hard to kill here - with anything.
Do I wish baiting was illegal - 100%. It costs me a lot of money and effort - and the deer hunting on my land was a lot better before all the neighbors started baiting - my food plots were the only artificial attractant for miles.
Do I wish forward facing sonar was illegal - yes I do - but I will use it until then. I know big game fishermen who think omni directional sonar is cheating. I wish our G&F would put a very small quota on non resident duck hunters on public land - but they dont and they swarm like maggots. I know a trapper who wishes AR did not allow year round trapping - a waste of fur he says. I know dyed in the wool predator hunters who think it should be illegal to use a thermal for coyotes.
If you only want to bow hunt (been there) - dont cuss the rifle hunters - that is your choice to restrict yourself.
