RE: Hunting over corn?
 

Define baiting....I have always considered hunting over, under, around or near a feeder/ pile of corn as hunting deer coming to feed. I feed deer all year and include in this menu corn, protein pellets, molasses, alfalfa, carrots etc. To me the term baiting has come from those hunters that don' t feed deer. We hunters that feed deer know the difference between baiting an animal and feeding an animal. All we have to do is check our thin wallets.

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

You could argue that we hunt over bait everytime we hunt near a white oak that is dropping, or crabapples, or persimmons, or smilac, or crop fields, etc. But we had to go find these hot spots, hunt them, hope we are not detected.

The difference is in baiting, we are trying to create a predictable pattern that eliminates the guessing game of finding the hot spots. This in my view is where hunting becomes ' shooting' and is not hunting at all! If deer are in your area and you are a hunter, you don' t need bait to help you out.

Scents, well, I don' t use them other than an occasional natural cover scent (like a cut pine limb) or a scent gland taken from a rutting buck.

Calls, I do use sometimes, but their effectiveness is usually limited

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

I do like a couple of the others and hunt over corn sometimes on private land. It doesn' t guarantee success, that is for sure. You may see more deer, but they know that corn is not natural and are usually on high alert. It makes it much more difficult to get the draw on them. I' ve had nice bucks and older does hang up fifty or sixty yards out and won' t come in until after dark.

I also hunt public woods and baiting is not allowed at all there. Most years my success rate is about equal in either setting so I wouldn' t say a bait pile increases your odds of success a great deal with a bow. Now a rifle is an entirely different story.

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

I have no problem with people hunting over bait. You certainlly will see more deer. IF you are into seeing lots of deer and maybe getting a shot at a nice buck then, if it' s not against any rules, go ahead and do it. In WI it is now outlawed and the deer kill was down last year. It is still up in the air as to wether CWD is linked to baiting and feeding. (I think it is but JMO) It is FACT that CWD is linked to high fence game farms and domestically raised elk and deer. There is no way that CWD traveld from CO to WI without someone transporting in a live animal to a game farm or meat/antler farm.

On Bear though good F' n luck shooting one of them with a bow without baiting! In WI if you are out picking berries in july you will probably never see a single bear. but if you put a tree stand and a pile of bait out you would prabably see 10 - 15 per night. They are thick yet soooooo elusive!

Personally I don' t bait because I can' t. I would probably do some baiting with minerals and salt if I could.

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

Personally, I wouldn' t hunt over a pile of bait if you paid me. That' s just me. I' m not against it...(we need to support all forms of legal hunting, there' s enough against us already)...I just don' t care for it. If it' s legal and you want to do it...go for it.

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

i think if you live in an area with alot of standing corn or left over picked corn,
like I do, it would not be very effective, but have at it, I support anyone' s method
except poaching[:o]:D

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

Just for the record and since I did not make this clear in my original post, I don' t care if it' s legal or not. Perhaps it should be legal and if you want to shoot deer that way, that' s fine by me. I would not do it, because it would diminish my skills as a hunter.

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

Baiting and deer hunting over bait is legal here in florida. I do throw out about a ton of corn each year to keep the deer frequenting the property. The surrounding landowners bait year round so its hard to keep the deer around without it. The bait keeps the does around which in turn draws the bucks during the rut. I have yet to see a buck feeding on the corn during daylight hours. Our hunting has gone downhill every year since baiting was legalized a few years ago. The first year it was legalized we didnt throw any out and hardly saw a deer all season. The next year we scattered corn in the food plots and had much better luck. If someone wants to pour out some corn and hunt over it, thats their right. Its just not the way I prefer to hunt.

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

No I wouldn' t.

bait does not IMO really increase your odds for mature bucks.

Just not my thing

RE: Hunting over corn?
 

In my experience .......corn is good for a doe hunter. Big bucks don' t go down that easily .