Well here’s my take on the whole ordeal. I would not find any interest in hunting a place where baiting was a widespread practice and the primary means of getting a deer. (ie, texas ranch hunting) It doesn’t interest me, I prefer to hunt deer in other ways.

HOWEVER, I do understand baiting has a time and place in several situations. Vast areas of unbroken woods might be next to impossible to hunt without baiting? I could fully understand it there. (much how bear hunting in Canada is done)

One area where I think baiting could be a huge tool, is to control populations in suburban areas. Some of my hunting is done on little tiny slices of the pie. Yes there may be “deer everywhere” but if my slice, has nothing they want, I’m not going to shoot many (reduce the population that is greatly needed). So, if I could bait, and draw a few deer that otherwise wouldn’t come there and reduce the pops, it’s a win-win in my book. Why should I be handicapped, sitting in my stand and watch 4 yards down, 8-10 deer go over to Joe tree huggers corn pile so he can watch the pretty deer? The Wildlife agency (and everyone else) complain about the over abundance of deer, yet don’t provide hunters with the tools necessary to reduce them. Lengthening seasons, allotting more tags have already shown to be futile where access is highly restricted. So if I can’t get to the deer, why not bring the deer to me?

So, in general I wouldn’t really care to hunt over bait for deer as a test of my hunting skills, BUT if they made baiting legal in special regs areas that I live in, I would do so as a means of population control in highly inaccessible areas. (my back yard) I have another property in an SRA that I wouldn’t bait on, because the existing mast/bedding areas etc, are enough to provide a draw for the deer where I can hunt them under natural conditions.