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

[Howboutthemdawgs]

That’s not really a pressured area though. Throw Louisiana seasons in there, and you wouldn't see that. I've hunted several Louisiana places with mature bucks that rarely come to bait in daylight.

How’s the age structure? Do they have mature bucks outside of a random one every several hundred acres? And I feel like that’s not true about pressure. Sit on my porch for every gun season and you will hear shots every single day. Hell I have an f’ing low budget outfitter next me!! Can’t get more pressure than that.
Also isn’t Louisiana a lot big leases? like hunting clubs? I’m dealing with a thousand locals who can hunt during the week cause they roll over to farmer Johnson place and let her rip. I’d argue it’s probably more pressure than a lot of those big timber company leases.

 

[BenA]

How’s the age structure? Do they have mature bucks outside of a random one every several hundred acres? And I feel like that’s not true about pressure. Sit on my porch for every gun season and you will hear shots every single day. Hell I have an f’ing low budget outfitter next me!! Can’t get more pressure than that.

Yes, good age structure in the places I'm talking about. Very rare to see mature bucks on camera even during the daylight. Plenty of mature bucks on camera at night though. Kentucky's gun season is a fraction of what Louisiana has. As you know, I own land in Kentucky and live and have hunted in Louisiana all my life. The pressure is not remotely comparable.

 

[Telemark]

I could literally keep going on but these are just a couple from this year. My real world experience over several properties says a mature buck has zero problem going to bait in daylight in the middle of the season. I also think it’s a bit of self defeating prophecy, if you have an area with a ton of pressure you probably don’t have a lot of mature bucks to even come to bait so therefore it’s a confirmation bias that they don’t.

The deer I watched on camera, I checked almost every day for two months. There were 4 mature bucks in the photos, and all of them visited after dark. The biggest one was seen only once, around midnight.

I have no problem believing what Baker said about pressure. These deer were hunted by a dozen or so hunters, based on what I could see. It's a relatively small area, and the deer were under pressure from archery hunters who had limited access points.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I’ve hunted all across Georgia for 25 years, Kentucky for 8. Georgia has double the deer hunters as Louisiana. Pressure is just as bad here as there if not worse when you breakdown available cover.

 

[BenA]

And

I’ve hunted all across Georgia for 25 years, Kentucky for 8. Georgia has double the deer hunters as Louisiana. Pressure is just as bad here as there if not worse when you breakdown available cover.

And, mature bucks spend very little time during daylight hours at feeders in Georgia as well. It's been documented.

https://academic.oup.com/cz/article/65/2/139/5050031

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Forgive me if I don’t put all my faith in one study when I’m watching the opposite happen around me and from my lifetime of connections back in Georgia it’s the same there.
On the topic of pressure. Obviously these are estimates but it shows it’s pretty close per square mile and then once you takeaway how open ky is I’d put the edge to ky on pressure.

 

[BenA]

Forgive me if I don’t put all my faith in one study when I’m watching the opposite happen around me and from my lifetime of connections back in Georgia it’s the same there.
On the topic of pressure. Obviously these are estimates but it shows it’s pretty close per square mile and then once you takeaway how open ky is I’d put the edge to ky on pressure.
View attachment 88939

Yeah, but rifle season in Kentucky is a fraction of Georgia's.

 

[H20fwler]

Can’t say about other states but in January when it’s cold..really cold with snow. Every single deer here in Ohio will come to feed old or young day and night.

 

[BenA]

Can’t say about other states but in January when it’s cold..really cold with snow. Every single deer here in Ohio will come to feed old or young day and night.

A few days ago, I had a friend message me he just saw over 50 deer with 17 bucks coming to his feed plot. There was lots of ice and snow. It was a standing soybean feed plot. One of his target mature bucks came out, and he passed it because his rack was broken up.

 

[SwampCat]

Man I wish I had yalls deer or maybe the deer in my county are morons! This is just a random clip from a guy I know on the other end of my county. Deer wasn’t big but he was old, likely over 5. Broad daylight, last weekend of rifle just munching down on a mound of corn cobs. Killed him 30 seconds later. Small property, if it’s like everywhere else in my area it’s all hunted. I completely disagree about the corn and mature buck thing.

View attachment 88936

This deer, opening weekend of rifle on a food plot with 3 feeders, how do I know, cause it’s on my property line. 100 acre property where I know they bowhunted
View attachment 88937

This deer, last weekend of the rifle season in the middle of a field with a feeder next to a giant box blind…also a neighbor
View attachment 88938

I could literally keep going on but these are just a couple from this year. My real world experience over several properties says a mature buck has zero problem going to bait in daylight in the middle of the season. I also think it’s a bit of self defeating prophecy, if you have an area with a ton of pressure you probably don’t have a lot of mature bucks to even come to bait so therefore it’s a confirmation bias that they don’t.

I believe even the wariest buck will slip up now and then. The buck I have been hunting for four years now has been on one of my cameras in shooting light four times in four years. My buddy who hunts the next property over has him three of four times during daylight in the past two years. The cattle rancher who owns the property and is out everyday year round - has never seen the deer.

But that said, my buddy who bow hunts that 1100 acres by himself - commonly gets pictures of daytime bucks that I only get at night. But that property gets very little hunting pressure compared to mine. He has 9 adjacent property owners - most who allow hunting. I have 14 adjacent property to my 350 acres - all who allow hunting. No gun hunting on my neighbors property. A lot of gun hunting on my property.



The deer are like night and day depending on if they are on his property or mine. But that should not be new to anyone. A duck wont hardly land on my waterholes with duck food in them. He has ducks on all his farm ponds. Same ducks flying over his land that fly over mine - and my duck habitat is much better than his - as is my deer habitat.

People on the time on this forum are worried about being on their land when its not deer season - or even a chain rattling on a gate. That tells me folks at least think human activity affects deer behavior. We have a well used 400 yard rifle range on our property and probably shoot a 1000 or more clay pigeons n the course of the year. My neighbors live on their property, they all have dogs, cats, kids running wild and screaming. They are shooting possums and coons out of their yards every other night. My cattle ranching neighbor has no dogs, no kids, no rifle hunting - in fact, my buddy who hunts that place hunts three, five day periods in a year - and keeps bait out all fall. If a chain rattling on a gate worries a deer, then my family hunting every other week, with guns, dogs barking, kids screaming, guns shooting - I figure the deer can tell the difference.

If I have learned one thing in the world by owning two pieces of property 8 miles apart - game does not act the same everywhere