Now that I am at lunch.....On the baiting. I have hunted in states where you can and where you can't bait. I really think the difference is in the habitat. Where I am hunting the area is very thick. You do not have bedding areas, feeding areas, travel corridors. They just don't exist very much down here. Also I would love to grow a food plot. When I hunt in East Texas I do, but in the hill country it is not really possible. This new lease is 800 acres, per the land owner (who's family has owned the land for way over a hundred years) there is a total of 2 acres that you can grow stuff on. I know you can't tell from the pictures but the hill country is basically one big rock. To grow nice deer in this area you have to do the following...let the young bucks walk, kill plenty of does, and feed the hell out of them. On this 800 acres we will be feeding somewhere between 12,000 and 16,000 pounds of protein a year depending on the amount of rain received. We will not be killing bucks under 4 1/2 years of age. If you are just easing though the woods you can kill a deer but it becomes real easy to kill a really good 3 1/2 buck that should have been left. Down here hunting can be expensive. The lease is costing me $1750.00 per year + feed. I will probably have at least $2500 per year in it and maybe as high as $3000. It is 800 acres and there are 8 hunters on it. The total cost is $14,000 and it is a bargain at that price.
-john