Theories abound.
One is that TV hunting shows often depict deer hunters in other states hunting -- legally -- over deer feeders, thus inspiring some Minnesotans.
Another is that deer hunting's increased popularity, attracting some 500,000 Minnesotans a year, has attracted people to the sport who otherwise spend little time in the woods or fields -- people who believe the point of hunting is to shoot a deer (or multiple deer) as quickly as possible, then return home.
These types of deer hunters, the belief goes, are less drawn to the pastime by tradition than by recreational opportunity. They treat hunting in the same terms they consider going to a ballgame, concert or other attraction: something to be done occasionally, while hoping for the greatest visceral return in the shortest possible time.
The above is from the article that a link was provided to in the post that started this thread. I personally don't bait, I don't think it's legal in NE, nor do I know of anybody that does bait, so I'm not going to get into this very heated thread on that matter! What prompted me to jump in this thread was what I highlighted in red in the above quote. I so totally agree with those statement. There is an abundance of people who I believe are into what I term "speed hunting". Saturday Nov. 12th was NE's firearm season opener, and I was hunting some farmground of my neighbor's. About 1:30 or so here are 2 guys with 3 kids with them who have just walked a draw on this land. On the 1st day of the season! Now, I'm not saying this is bad, because I've also been on hunts where we have walked draws...but usually towards the end of the season when the deer just aren't moving and people still want to fill their tags so they can have some meat in the freezer. The thing that kind of irked me about this is that here it was, the 1st day of the season and they've just announced to all the deer that humans have invaded their territory, which is going to cause the deer to move OFF the property more than likely, depending on how much scent was left & where in this draw. Needless to say, I did not hunt the area near that draw Sat. afternoon-evening. I hunted a different draw with what I call success even though I never pulled the trigger. I had a large-bodied, small-racked 4x4 bed downhill from me at about 150 yards for over an hour, and about 45 min. after he left, I had 2 doe in the cornfield surrounding this draw as close as 30 yards for probably and hour & a half. I ended up watching these doe until dark, which is when they left the field, in hopes a nice buck would show up (none did). Now here's where the "speed hunting" really came into play that just ticked me off. A couple of guys stopped in & asked the landowner if they could hunt the field. The owner told them that I was probably on the land somewhere. Did they drive around the field to see if a vehicle was there? NO. They proceeded to drive their LOUD, muffler-falling off truck around the land & all the draws. They started by driving around the draw where I had the buck bedded down the previous night and kicked this same buck out, shot 2 or 3 times, and then I see the buck run over the hill (not shot) and into the draw I was hunting. So here come these 2 guys in their loud truck over the hill. One of them gets out & stands towards the top of the hill, the driver turns around & drives back down the side of a different draw, back to the road, and then all the way around that side of the property so he could drive the draw the buck ran into from the property line to the top of the draw. While this guy is waiting on the hill, he's standing there yapping his jaw on his cell phone, and the deer is probably 75 yards away from him hiding in the draw. Finally the pickup guy shows up, the cell phone yapper walks into the draw & proceeds to harvest the deer after about 3 shots when the buck moved because the pickup spooked him. Now, I don't mind that this guy got deer, or even on that property, I just don't agree with their method of harvesting the buck. Did they do ANY scouting? Nope, they just showed up & drove around the property until something got spooked out of the draw that they could shoot at. In my opinion, this does not a good hunter make. A good shot perhaps, but in my book not a good hunter. I guess at least I can say that the4 deer I have shot did not even know I was there. I shot them in their natural habitat going about their normal business. The 1st one was at a range of about 225 yards in full rut after a hot doe. The 2nd one was walking down a well-used trail. The 3rd one was cruising for doe, and the 4th one I was priveliged enough to watch sparring with another buck for about 20 minutes. To me it is as much fun to see deer going about their business without knowing I'm there as it is to shoot one. It's sad to think that there are a majority of hunters out there that don't take the time to scout a property and pick a place to sit and wait for the deer to appear, as they probably will if you've done your research.