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I'd say that would be true in just about ANY aspect of introducing artificial means to attract deer.....wouldn't you?

You think everyone who hunts ag fields has the same hunting savvy? People who use scents? People who use decoys? Calling to deer?

Let's just remember, too, that we're talking about a legal method of taking game, here.

Jimbo if you knew my buddy you hit on the head pal.

Cheers

My turn to jump in. I bait. I have a feeder on my new lease. It throws corn for five seconds every morning at 7:10. The feeder sits on a logging road half way down a secondary ridge. Thereare a lot of deer tracks under and around the feeder. I don't own a trail camera as I feel they give hunters an unfair advantage and should be illegal,( see tongue in cheek), so the tracks are the only way I know something is feeding there besides hunting there. I watched that feeder out of a pop-up blind several times this season. I saw does, does, fawns, and does. Altough some of the tracks are obviously those of a buck or more than one buck, I have never seen one at the feeder. I don't often hunt at the feeder although I do hunt the area around it. I have several stands in an area that encompasses about 30 acres around the feeder. I see mature buck sign in the area. There are large rubs and scrapes around on various trails. I have seen a couple of mature bucks in the area, however, again, never have I seen one at the feeder.
The woods I hunt are 2000 acres of a mix of hardwoods and pines. I have no earthly idea where the nearest ag field may be. My guess would be that it is measured in miles not yards. Those of you in the midwest that condemn baiting have ag fields that concentrate deer populations. They may not concentrate them to the same pinpoint location that a feeder does but it does concentrate the deer. THATS WHY YOU HUNT THERE NOW ISN'T IT? I don't have a natural food source to concentrate the deer population. There are oaks all over the property. ALL over the property. The deer can and do feed all over the place. I am using a feeder to concentrate the population into a smaller area. In my case the 30 or so acres of woods on the ridge where my feeder is located. How is that different than the hunter sitting at a 30 acre ag field? I hunt trails leading to bedding areas and other travel routes hoping to catch one of the bucks moving around looking for a doe. I know I won't see one of the bucks at the feeder.
So, those of you that have the luxury of hunting ag fields tell me what I can do to stop being a "slob" hunter in your eyes while still giving me the same odds as you to see and kill a mature whitetail buck.
BTW, I also have foodplots planted so I bait in more ways than one. I am also eating tag soup so far this year.

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I don't often hunt at the feeder although I do hunt the area around it.

THIS is aprime exampleof baiting smart. People against baiting don't wanna hear of this, though. They wonder why you just don't set up 15yds from the feeder and slay every deer within square miles of it.

GMMAT,

I assure you that baiting isn't always "lazy". Try carrying a 100lb bag of corn in the swamps and sand hills of SC. Then tell me thats lazy.

On the flip side, I do know guys who just back up their trucks and unload a pile of corn on the road then go climb in a boxed in tree stand and wait for the does and younger deer to appear. They often wonder why they don't see any mature bucks on the corn.

If baiting made killing mature bucks so much easier every hunter in SC would have multiple record book bucks on their walls.

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ORIGINAL: HoytSpeed

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ORIGINAL: RockinChair

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ORIGINAL: TEmbry

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ORIGINAL: wahoohunter

it absolutely hurts your chances;)

Ok then?[&:] If you say so. Just find it comical with the number of deer killed over bait in my area, knowing these guys knowledge of deer...you're saying take away their corn pile and they have better odds?

Over an extended period of time yes. Baiting a is a quick fix for harvesting a deer. Year round baiting is one of the worst things you can do in regards to your deer herd because it increases disease transimission, deer are feeding in their own defecation and urine, it usually negatively affects their digestive system (their have been dead deer found that have a full stomach of corn that starved to death. Why? Because they were conditioned to a certain food source that was not natural) and it detrimental to your habitiat as well. Some forms of deer browse, that are able withstand heavy browsing, rely on browse for regeneration and growth and if they do not receive any browse it can take some species up to 100 years to 'fix themselves.'

I've read alot of posts you've written. You're like a deer Wickipedia.:D

Haha- Thanks man. I appreciate that.:)

I don't recall using the term "lazy". I know guys who work really hard at what they do who don't maximize their efforts. I'm sure you know people who take 50 hrs to accomplish the same thing the next guy gets done in 30hrs. I'd say the latter guy has found a way to maximize his efforts......and that he's probably more successful.

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ORIGINAL: GMMAT

Most people who actally bait are as dumb and lazy (the people I know who do it) as you give them credit for. Their results reflect this. That's why I profess that it isn't an advantage for the "average" guy baiting.

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Most people who actally bait are as dumb and lazy (the people I know who do it) as you give them credit for.

Fair enough.....and I stand by that (with my explanation) 100%.

As I stated.....You are more than welcome to come hunt with me on my land and I will let you carry the bag of corn.:)