ORIGINAL: GMMAT
I read an interesting article in 'NC Sportsman' magazinea week or so ago. The author is a local Gander Mtn. archery dept. manager and an accomplished bowhunter.
Here's his take on baiting....
1. he only baits an area a few days before he plans to hunt it. His contention is that the bucks will find the bait before the does will. He puts a trail cam on the area when he spreads his bait....and years of experience have shown this to be true.
2. He only baits 15-20#'s at a time. This creates competition.
3. When he begins to get too many does on the trail cam.....he switches spots. he says the does will run the bucks out of the area....once they find it and begin frequenting the site. When they show up.....he moves.
His success is hard to argue against. Though I don't bait....I find his methods intriguing.....and thought some of you baiters might think so, too.
What are your opinions of his methods/approaches to baiting?
Some of his findingsI agree with, some Im not sure about. These pics are fromover a50 daysof baiting at one location, Im still getting all the same bucks, and occassionaly news ones coming in all hours of the daylight up until a few days ago anyway when I last checked my cameras. I do agree that when the Does are on the corn, the bucks arent there very often at the same time, but not always. You can definately notice Does posturing up and pushing bucks out, and competition does get fierce at times, but I notice more Does visibly fighting more with each other. I get about 1200 - 1500pics a week from several locations and its normally the same. If there is corn down, the bucks are on it, if the pile goes dry I get zero pics except for a few passing shots where they are checking for food. Here is the important part for me anyway.
I start to see less and less bucks in daylight right around now (1st week of Sept)regardless of what I have down, more so I think because they are shedding and life changes after that especially for the older bucks as the bacheloer groups start to break up, and this pattern is repetetive every year for me at all my hunting spots.Even at spots where I just put corn out for the first time for about a week, if I did it around the beggining ofSept the bucks start to show up less and less during daylight,and sometimes notat all. These pics are just an example of one morning from 7AM to 10AM at the same location, after 50 days ofbaiting it stays fairly active mornings and afternoons as long as I have corn down but this will all start to change in the next days or week as I mentioned. I drop 50 lbs down every 5 days or so and it goes dry after 3 days usually. I obviously have good Doe to buck ratios lol.
