ORIGINAL: Gr8ful Deer

To me, it seems like it is simply "SELECTIVE INDIGNATION."

Putting food out for an animal and then killing that animal when it comes to eat that foodis BAITING.

I don't care if it is a 60 acre food plot or a pile of apples/corn/salt. You are using the animals need to get food as the means to increase your likelihood of a kill. You are not going into that animals natural environment and trying to outwit its natural survival instincts.

It also creates a situation where a post rut buck (one that is extremely hungry and needs to put on weight quickly) will over-ride its natural instincts and its tendency to hole up in the thickest patch of cover he can find until the cover of darkness (Hence, the reason my friend was able to score on such a big buck late in the season -in the middle of an open area in the middle of the day!) Good luck trying to score that buck in the same manner in the middle of an open area surrounded bystate forest with no food to lure him in.

Hunting around a stand ofoak mast, or beech, or natural forage is completely different than positioning food in a specific location so you can get them exactly where you want them.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but to me, food plots seem to me to simply to be a way for the wealthy to justify doing what baiting laws make illegal forpersons that don't own a piece of their own land to seed with deer food. ... And just becasue it takes alot of work to plant a field of deer food doesn't make it any less despicable in my book.

For me, I would much rather harvest a big, mature buck in its natural environment than harvest that same animal in an environment that I created. However, some guys could care less as all they want is a set of horns on the wall, and they will justify that harvest any way they can.

I told my buddy, he should put an empty bag from the seed they used on the wall next to his mount, so he can truly relive the experience of how he got his "trophy."

- Gr8ful