Bunting... Or Bait hunting is no more than shooting at animals that have been some what domesticated. That said I sure do like my hamburgers, steaks, fried chicken and bacon. If it's meat hunting there is no better way to fatten one up than put a little bait down and wait until the come by to scarf it up. Deer, bear, turkey, elk and pretty much any animal are opportunistic foragers. They will gladly come to the bait piles for food. In my state (NC) it became legal to hunt deer with the aid of bait about the late 80's early 90's. I believe it was in an effort to curtail the rapidly growing deer population and they gave in to the portion of hunters who were in favor of it. I use to tag out before baiting was legal. I learned how to hunt. HHunting requires one to learn the characteristics of the quarry they are after. Food choices, bedding locations, signs of movement to and from these sitesare all hunting tools we can utilize toput the odds in our favor.

When allowed to use bait I found it a lot easier to take an animal, I had made it a lot easier to become successful. I hunted with the use of bait spread out for several years. It has only been recently that I have found a complete distaste for the practice, for myself. I remember how it "use to be". I would put my time in the woods scouting, reading the signs and devising strategies that might make me successful. I have made a conscious effort to avoid bunting. That is my personal stance.

I have decided for myself that if I put food out that is designed to attract them in and hunt over it, it's bunting. If it's naturally planted or crop land that it's intended purpose is to provide a harvest of a crop its not bunting.

I have also found I hold no wow factor for anyonewho shoots a deer over bait. Meaning, "Hey man I shot a nice (8, 10 you fill in the blank) buck as he came into my bait setup". You know the way someone who hunts the traditional ways, the long bow, no sights, no bait, from the ground. The ones who can pull that off and be successful against a mature animal, my respect is indeed granted to their efforts.

I as many hunters do watch numerous hunting videos. I note the ones who use bait and either turn away when they are on, or won't watch their stuff. It's easy to spot them, the deer just stand there eating in the same place for a pretty long time. No more than shooting a cow in a pasture in my opinion. Cows are good eating as we all could agree so are corn fed deer.

The original poster dude (forgot your screen name) mentioned what do the non hunters think about it? Some one else may say who cares. Well, we live in a democratic society and if those 80% (the numbers are not exact but, 10% of the pop are antihunters, 10% are hunters that leaves 80% as nonhunters) of the people decide you shouldn't hunt, then it can be outlawed. We should care what the non hunters think, note this is different than the anti hunters opinion, they want it stopped anyway. I have heard many times as a person walks out of Walmart with 1/2 a dozen bags of 50# bags of corn, you mean you put that stuff down and wait for them to come by and eat it? That's hunting to you?

Our sport of hunting and it's future is indeed something we had better be mindful of what others think.