RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Actually, I think Rob's point was a food plot, not ag. field.

As I stated, it could happen both ways and that is why I don't even bother fussing about this subject anymore. I just like to make things clearer on both sides so both sides can "fight" honestly on facts, not opinions.

Rob..have you thought about some of the supplimental feeds that are considered "bait" can contain a lot more protien and nutrients than food plots?

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

i know i spent a lot more for corn then i could have for seed
which i planed to put out a fooplto but moved to soon

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Agree 100%

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Is the glass half empty or half full? I didn't vote either. Both are tools...a means to an end.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

In all do respect Tim you need equipment to put out these food plots! There's other cost's like gas, diesel, equipment, your own time, the up keep on it- Your time is worth something too! I can't tell you for sure what a food plot cost but I know for a fact that the corn you buy all fall will not add up to the 4 wheeler or the tractor you purchace and the other equipment needed to put a food plot in.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I find Ag fields and food plots are one and the same, planted for different reasons but still the same, a bean field is a bean field, a clover field is a clover field.

I haven't thought about suppliment feeds that are considered baits. I'm not debating nutrirional aspects of either. Althought I may use supplimental feeds in offseasons, it's illegal to bait within 30 days of a season or during. It's not illegal to plant food plots of any size. I don't find baiting and food plots in the same catagory in reference to the poll and question at hand.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I tihnk one of the biggest differences not yet stated is that when you grow a food plot you put a lot of work into it and if no deer decide to come visit then tough luck you picked the wrong spot for your food plot. You throw out some bait and no deer show in a few days... oh well you can go bait some where else. I am by no means condemning baiting but just stating a difference.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I chuckle at the bias that is displayed when these references are made to baiting. The last time I looked I didn't see corn or apples attached to a hook and line with a hunter at the other end sitting in a tree. I think the proper term is "feeding" not baiting. Now maybe there will be less prejudice in the argument.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Good point.

I'm not saying one is right and the other is wrong either. As I said, I just like to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges and in this case you can't do either.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Another good post.

I find it quite amusing how some people think that all you have to do is put out some bait and the deer just flock to it.

I've used "feed", I've hunted w/o it. I've planted food plots. I've hunted w/o them. So I have experince with ALL of the above. Thats why I like to compare apples to apples.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Now that's what I'm talking about.....

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Food plots are a part of deer management. Any redneck can throw down a pile of corn and shoot the first dumb fawn that walks up. Hunting food plots are intended to not only draw deer in but to help with their nutrition, growth, and health. I have a food plotwhere I hunt and have never hunted over it, I prefer to be out in the woods not on a field waiting for a deer to get hungry.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

So is supplimental feeding not part of deer management? May I remind you that these feeds can provide (in one dinner) the nutrition that certain food plot plants take pounds to provide?

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

talk about drama

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

The easiest way to differentiate between the two ,baiting & food plots is coming up,it will be when the hunting season is over and our world is covered by 18 inches of snow,then throw in the butt cold. Thats when the deer are in my plots all night eating corn,turnips & winter wheat that I PLANTED THIS SUMMER.And I'll bet your bait bucket is doing no more than filling the bird feeder,if that.;)

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I don't much care one way or the other.The food plot argument about the effort expended and the expense and the over all benefit to the herd is sound.I am sure the intent was to draw deer,to keep them on the food plot owners property,to grow bigger bucks to provide better nutrition for the entire herd.
I would guess that most food plots are created with the intention and hope of killing deer off of them or in the surrounding land next to them.With proper food plot design the deers entrance in to them and exit from them can be very predictable.Even without design consideration a couple of evenings in an elevated stand with a pair of binoculars or walking inside the edge of the entire food plot should make stand positioning fairly simple.
The benefit of food plots fars exceeds hunting season baiting,but Idon't hold all food plotters to be virtuous.They do it to make their hunting properties better,they draw deer for miles and then the food plotters get angry when other hunters hunt near the edges of their property.
Food plots are in most instances far better for the deer than baiting but they are not without their flaws as it relates to the every day hunter.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I dont think baiting and food plots are the same at all inmost situations. Hunting a bait pile on willing deer is more like an ambush, where hunting a food plot is just that, its hunting a food plot. When deer that are willing to come in during daylight and feed on piles you can easily ambush deer. Where hunting food plots you have to set up where you think they may enter which could be anywhere in that plot which you could hunt for weeks and never get a shot.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I know guys who hunt over bait piles and haven't killed a deer in years! The deer come to the Bait on a daily basis, or should I say a nightly basis! Trail camers show pics of nice bucks and countless Does, but never when he is sitting over it, he hunts a lot! He didn't get his deer this year!

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

My thoughts ...... deer are there for us to KILL (not harvest), and eat ...... I am for whatever LEGAL method there is to accomplish that end.

That being said ... I'm with Rob ... food plots and baiting are like night and day IMO .... now before anyone jumps on me, put a farmers field in your equation .....

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Do it anyway you can as long as it's legal. If you can't relive the hunt to yourself and tell the story to others than somethings not right.

If we as a forum put as much time into recruiting new hunters and supporters to our causes as we do hashing out the ethics of legal hunting methods our future would be far brighter.

That being said... A nice little 10ft X 30ft food plot with a late season mix in a sparse area with tough browse and mastworks as slick as a pile of apples..So what!!

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

It's going to be a long off season!! :D

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I agree with you on this part, some deer wont hit bait piles in daylight. I have corn outmost of the season in bait piles for trail camera pictures. In my situation after around September 1st, the deer start to hit the piles after dark with an occassional visit in broad daylight by Does and small bucks, but never by bigger bucks. Hunting over my bait piles will be a wasted hunt on the properties I hunt even for Does and fawns.We never hunt over piles even though its legal, regardless of your ethics on right or wrong you'd come up empty handed 95% of the time. Maybe if we had more snow on the ground during Maryland winters, and it was much colder the deer would be crushing piles in daylight to help them survive??

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

The issue with most folks who bait is they put to much out.

Less=More with baiting.
One needs to create compition for the bait. So the deer think they need to get there first or it will be gone. IF we have a huge pile then the deer "know" there will be plenty.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

IMO there is very little difference in a food plot or a "bait pile" which in my case is a corn feeder. The idea behind both is to "hold" deer on your property all year, provide food all year and provide a place to kill deer during season. Sure the corn feeder will put them within range once the get there, but how hard is it really to find the right trail coming into the food plot?

Some hunters use feeders because they do not have the resources to plant a food plot. I personally use both. Maintaing2 corn feededs 12 months out of the year is not a easy as dumping out a pile of cornas some have suggested. It's not cheap either. That being said, there is a lot of work and $$ that goes into the food plots in the off season too.

IMO the reason forfood plots and corn feedersis the same and I see them as the same thing.
[ul][*]Provides food year round for the deer and other critters[*]Holds deer on your property[*]Provides a place to kill them.[*]Gives me something to do when I can't hunt...............hobby.[*]Allows you to see more animals while hunting.[/ul]

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

yeah i am with you on that for sure

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

If your plots are for no more than just you killing a deer you are really missing the boat,why not put forth enough effort to make a difference in area?

All wildlife is being forced onto smaller and smaller parcels of ground,mast producing trees are being lost at alarming rates & farmers are trying to squeeze every dollar they can from their land.

If you want to make a difference then save your bait for fishing and put in a plot that will sustain wildlife thru the winter months. the winter wheat you put inlast September will feed this years turkey poult's this May.
This is a purple top turnip plot that was put in last July this one acre planting has provided forage all fall and now the deer are pulling the sugar filled turnips up and eating them.Also notice they are planted away from the woods line ,as to prevent an unscrupulous hunter from unfairly targeting them.;)

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Exactly the same difficulty as it is finding a trail to a agricultural corn field, alphalpha, soybean, clover field, apple orchard, watering hole, oak flat or natural funnel. I don't see the reasoning there Gus.

I'm not saying right or wrong, bait piles/feeders put deer exactly right where you want them when they come in, IN RANGE. Food plots just like the areas I mentioned above do not.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Bait piles, food plots, Ag fields, Oak stands, Apple orchards- If you only hunt the trails leading to any of these is there a difference then? You are placing yourself on a trail leading to some kind of food. I don't see a difference in hunting like that.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I may be wrong but I believe the unscrupulous comment may have been directed at me. Where do you hunt? I hunt where I legally can as close as I can to where the deerare.
No different then positioning yourself between any bedding and feeding area. If I can unravel that pattern and legally hunt it I will! I don't understand how that is unscroupous? Last I knew the deer were not privately owned.
I do see the obvious benefit of food plots and respect most of the intentions behind them.But and this is a very big but,when a food plotter has altered the holding and travel patterns of deer how can they not accept that other hunters will not look to capitalize to the degree they legally can on those altered patterns? Is a food plotter due agreater right to the herd? Should they be given a certain buffer from their property line?How could anyone possibly resent a hunter hunting where they are legally entitled to?

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

No difference, trail hunting is trail hunting although I feel bait piles/feeders have more pull than do food plots. But no, trails are what they are.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

.

Correct, but if you have 200 acres and a 1.5 acre food plot in the middle of it, are you not hunting the area because it concentrates deer? Don't it take some, not all of the guess work out of it. You have now narrowed you hunting area to a food source and finding a trail coming to it is not that difficult at this point IMO.

Food plots do put them right where you want them. In range. I agree to that.

I quess I just see a food plot doing the same thing..........Concentrating deer to a certainarea. Unlike a ridgeline or a draw or a creek bottom, where the deer pass through and browse...... they are coming to the plot to eat. A destination if you will not unlike the feeder.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

there are many ways deer will access a large area and many places in the area that they will feed ...... in my area, access routes aren't always easy to see, or even specific ....... bruce, I picked you as the one I would like to iron cage match! :D

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I see what you are saying Rob and I don't completely disagree.I will say though that when you have an ice cream food source in the country that I hunt in where there is no agriculture to speak of you will literally draw deer for miles.It is not at all difficult to determine how deer are using that food source.Much easier than the food sources that we would consider traditional or naturally occurring.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

I don't want this to turn into a battle of ethics, but if you see food plots differently than feeders because of the IN RANGE aspect, what are your thoughts on decoy's. Isn't that the point of using them?

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Would it be fair to say that bait, food plots, ag fields, etc. tend to make the deer more predictable and that makes them all the "same" in that they make the deer more predictable. All of us hunt food sources andtrails to food sources at certain times of the year becausethey make the deer predictable. The only real difference is man-made(bait food plots etc.)predictability or natural(oak stands and other mast bearing trees etc.)predictablility

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Isn't that why they call it hunting and not shooting :D:D?

Iron cage match LOL

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

You are wrong ,;)I didn't mean anyone in person.Unless you are one ofmy neighbors that have a reading disability.Trespassing seems to be a word they have trouble with.

IfI were to address you I would quote your very words.And then debate them with you.:eek:

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Calls
Funnel Hunting
Food plots
Bait
Bait Plots
Scents
Camo
Tree Stands
Blinds
Scent Control Products

The list goes on and on.

The object is to get the deer close and kill them. How any of us choose to do so is up to us as hunters. One way is no better or macho than the other. In the end we hope to have a dead deer.

I used the river to get closer, some might think that is cheating[&:] I really don't care;)

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Just one Question,:eek:

If its all about nothing more than simplykilling the deer why do we use bows? [:o]


Yeap, I said that out loud.

RE: "Baiting Vs. Food Plots"
 

Why the need for the sarcasm?Winks and eyeglass's whats up with that?