Baiting, I know this has been discussed and discussed this is just my rant....LOL

[Howboutthemdawgs]

How do you know it didn't? Would you have killed those bucks if does hadn't concentrated activity around those, or the bucks wouldn't have them on their core ranges?

I’ve killed one buck there so I’d do it hasn’t been super effective. I’ll find out this year cause I’m not going through the effort. I’ll put some out for inventory but not run it all season long.

 

[Mortenson]

I’ve killed one buck there so I’d do it hasn’t been super effective. I’ll find out this year cause I’m not going through the effort. I’ll put some out for inventory but not run it all season long.

Don't forget you passed up a stud shooter this past season!

 

[BenA]

I’ve killed one buck there so I’d do it hasn’t been super effective. I’ll find out this year cause I’m not going through the effort. I’ll put some out for inventory but not run it all season long.

I'm going in the reverse direction. Well, maybe. Yet to be determined. I've run bait for cameras in Kentucky, but not all season, and neither of the bucks we've killed have been close to bait. I'm going to have, most probably, a lot of summer food planted this year. If cameras show bachelor groups of mature bucks, regularly using my property, I won't bait, and try to kill one early season. If not, I'm going to bait all season.

 

[Ikeman]

Zero chance to ever verify this but what percent of mature bucks shot in a bait state would you think are over bait? I don’t mean head down in a corn pile but they are in the stand and there’s bait view.
My guess is 80%. Not to say some of those bucks wouldn’t get killed otherwise obviously but I truly believe it’s a huge crutch where legal (and not). I just don’t know or hardly anyone in my sphere of friends, acquaintances, second hand stories who didn’t have bait in the picture. I know of one single person in ky that doesn’t bait besides me. ONE
So I’m not arguing the ethics of it; I’ll die on my hill that a mature buck is much more likely to be killed over bait than not.

I grew up hunting west Texas in mesquite tree country. Tallest tree you could find was maybe 20 feet to the tops. (other than narrow strips (2-3 trees wide) of cottonwoods in the river bottom)

We had brushed in archery boxes at the best feeders, and rifle boxes 150 or so yards away. In some boxes, you could see 300 yards in all directions.

Most mature bucks killed on the property were using the bait like you would expect them to use a community scrape or heavy doe bedding area…. Getting where they could see/smell the area, checking for does, maybe pick a fight with a rival… and then move on. It was just part of their circuit, rather than a food destination for them.

The only two times of year the mature bucks were consistently on the feeders in daylight were beginning of archery season and late winter.

I hunt almost exclusively public land now, and if I locate a feeder nearby on public, I assume the deer use it the same way. It has given me some good encounters over the years to hunt well away from someone else’s feeder knowing bucks will swing downwind to scent check it.


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[SwampCat]

Zero chance to ever verify this but what percent of mature bucks shot in a bait state would you think are over bait? I don’t mean head down in a corn pile but they are in the stand and there’s bait view.
My guess is 80%. Not to say some of those bucks wouldn’t get killed otherwise obviously but I truly believe it’s a huge crutch where legal (and not). I just don’t know or hardly anyone in my sphere of friends, acquaintances, second hand stories who didn’t have bait in the picture. I know of one single person in ky that doesn’t bait besides me. ONE
So I’m not arguing the ethics of it; I’ll die on my hill that a mature buck is much more likely to be killed over bait than not.

From our experience - I would say about 30% bait killed and 70% non bait killed for mature bucks. We killed the majority of ours either during rut or in a food plot - but we hunt with rifles a fair bit. This year was an odd year - we did not kill a mature buck early over bait, even though we hunted pretty hard early. We killed four mature bucks chasing does in food plots this year and that is all we killed

Now, a lot of the southern third of the state where the leases are predominately commercial timberland piney woods with very little oak timber, the numbers would be somewhat higher. West and north possibly somewhat lower because of almost four million acres of heavily hunted public land where baiting is not allowed

I have eleven mature bucks mounted and one came from a bait pile. The majority of the rest of them came from a food plot during rut and a couple bow kills on public under an oak tree.

My half dozen small landowning baiting neighbors have killed two mature bucks that I know of in the last two years. Typically, these folks using spin feeders are not killing mature bucks. We have never killed a mature buck off a spin feeder.

My buddy who hunts the 1100 acres kills a mature buck with his bow every year over bait. First year this year in 20 years he did not

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Don't forget you passed up a stud shooter this past season!

For sure. Would have shot it in hindsight if I’d have known it would have been shot over a feeder later in the year. Was hoping he would make it and be a giant next year

 

[SwampCat]

For sure. Would have shot it in hindsight if I’d have known it would have been shot over a feeder later in the year. Was hoping he would make it and be a giant next year

Would you have shot it if you had known it would be killed in a food plot later in the year?

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Would you have shot it if you had known it would be killed in a food plot later in the year?

Obviously. I’m just saying had I known it would have been killed I would have shot. I just had an unrealistic hope he would make it