RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I love hunting over bait its a great way to see what your land has to offer its also a great way to start kids out. many people quit hunting because they just dont see any deer! baiting is a great way to get people hooked on bowhunting

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

Yes and no. Habitat improvment don't fall into a traditional bait catagory IMHO. They will alter deer movement but it is a natural benifical dietary supplement where as bait is placed out for the sole purpose to attract deer. Food plots will attract deer and other wildlife because it offres quality forage that may not already be available in the area but the deer will benefit from the plots.

I will clearly state that I do not condone hunting over a plot. But a plot is a great tool in an overall managment plan to increase deer populations and herd quality.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

[quote]

This is dumbest argument of all time. Ok, so you mean your bait pile is the equivalent of me hunting over my 7 acre food plot? Are you kidding me? Do you spread you bait pile over 7 acres? I doubt it.

Baiting is the same as hunting over oaks?...... What!? ......My land has hundreds if not thousands of oaks on it. Do you have hundreds of baitpiles? I doubt it......

That's the exact problem; there aren't thousands of oaks around here, mainly pine trees. For the 7 acre food plot I have one question. Say one guy out there puts out a bag of corn on the ground, one bag three days before he hunts. Another guy planted an acre of corn on his property. Both these hunters kill a doe, one eating on corn that was thrown on the ground, and the other deer was eating corn in the one acre plot. Both deer were eating corn that wouldn't naturally be there and both hunters used the corn to harvest the deer. If there are any acorns dropping around where I am at the deer will not touch the corn. The land that I lease is owned by a logging company, and I can't cut down any trees (pine trees) without losing my lease. I have been going out to this lease on a regular basis to fertilize all the natural browse, and any oak trees that may be located on my lease. I have had a biologist from the state walk out there with me to help with suggestions on what I need to do to help the herd to become stronger and healthier. I cut down brush and weeds that the deer don't eat and fertilize the honey suckle, greenbrier, dewberry, blackberry, wild lettuce, jasmine, and oak trees. I also add supplemental feeding i.e. corn for when the deer may need it which isn't normally till late season for it my freeze only a few times a year until late January/February. So if anyone out there thinks I am lazy, or I am ashamed of ANY deer I harvest let them think again. Pride shouldn't be a factor when it comes to baiting. If baiting was harmful or unnecessary in a state the state will dictate that. In Louisiana it is legal to bait with the exception of the wild life management areas, which I hunt on three of them in addition to my lease. Anyway it is an interesting argument, and I hope that no one out there gets too upset with all the opinions out there. It’s our opinions and the freedom to express them that makes us great.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

And many guys around here leave their feeders set up year round, using feed mixed with vitamin/mineral supplements for the same purpose.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

If you have your bait spread out over the same amount of acres as a plot, then there is not a difference, if you don't, the difference is astronomical.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

\

Scent won't change deers pattern??????????? Since when??????

I don't have a problem with bait being legal or the ethical issues involved with baiting. I just wish they would out law it becasue it makes the deer so much harder to hunt. They become almost completely nocturnal and begin passing thsoe genes alone until we have a genetic strain of deer that is almost completely nocturnal. That's the main problem that I have with it. It makes hunting so much more difficult.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I don't know if the picture is going to come out alright, but this is what I am working with. Can't clear out anything, the deer are all through out this cutover. If you throw out corn over an acre in here you will never even know where the deer were coming in or leaving out. The big thing now is these hunting plots, which are only so big so you can get a deer within bow range at any point in the plot. These things aren’t 7 acres, and they aren’t big enough to make an important impact on the health of a herd. They are simply a tool used to draw in deer within bow range for the purpose of harvesting the animal. Baiting in my book…

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

MAKE IT LEGAL

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

Boy I just love my bowhunting brotherhood. I’ve been in it for over 25 year’s now. Let’s see what I’ve heard in those 25 plus year’s real bowhunter don’t us compound bow’s or aluminum arrow’s, tree stand (in Michigan couldn’t use tree stand until 1976), and release. This list could go on and on. The baiting debate has been go on for that long too.
In state where it legal it used as a tool just as tree stand, scents and calls are used.
Now to those who say at any deer taken with the use of bait is not taken by a real bowhunter, let’s go back 30 years and become real bowhunter.

As for myself do I use bait, yes I do. Unlike a lot of the real bowhunter here who are against the use of bait, I do not have use of privet land to hunt where I could improve the deer habitat. I live in Southeastern Michigan, I get one week to bowhunt so time is a factor here. I hunt in the Western end of the U.P. a little over 600 miles from my home so do I get a chance to do a lot of pre season scouting, I don’t think so. Do I just go out and dump bags and bags of bait in the middle of the woods hang a stand and start hunting. So I guess that I don’t have to rely on my woodsman ship to figure out that the deer have change their pattern from the year before, and the mile walk off the 2 track to be in area that the deer are using, dose not make me a real bowhunter because I use bait. By the way I take a 50-pound bag of corn and a couple bags of apples for myself for a week of hunting and by the end of the week I still have bait left over. Like I said before baiting is a tool to be use, baiting is not a cure all for poor hunting skill. OK if I shoot a Pope & Young buck I can’t put it the book because I’m not a real bowhunter. If I’m correct in the by-laws of Pope & Young there’s nothing in there about the use of bait.

All I'm trying to say we in the bowhunting brotherhood should not point fingers and say you’re not a real bowhunter if you don’t hunt like I do. If we all follow the hunting laws in the state we are hunting in then every one is a real bowhunter

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

It is immoral and should be illegal for anyone to hunt within 100 yds of any edible deer food item, whether it is placed there as a bait pile, grown by a farmer, planted as a food plot or grown wild naturally. :D[8D];););):D[8D]

That should make for some challenge to the real bowhunters to take deer in the middle of parking lots;)[8D]

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

SA, Feeding deer changes their gene structure? You can't be serious.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

Couldn't we simplify this by just saying " Hunting over a food source"? Who cares how it got there? All it is, is hunting over a food source. No worse or no better. :D

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I hunt in NJ and it's legal to bait and hunt over bait for deer in almost all areas (except certain zones). I believe it's OK and I have no problems. I go both ways. Certain areas of the state where I hunt it's mostly residential and I am there to thin the herd. Only a small number of hunters in my town are permitted to do so within town bounderies. Bait is crucial to get the deer right where you want them and consistently getting them to come in for a feeding. I have never taken a buck with my bow over bait and have passed up a few. I mostly shoot the does in this situation.

Other areas I hunt I don't use bait and it's more fun/challenging.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I don't have a problem with it.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

EDIT - I should also add that I feel if you're going to legalize one form of baiting, you should legalize it all. Here in Washington it's legal to bait deer and elk, but illegal to bait bears. I find this to be a rather stupid restriction, but I can see where the game department is coming from. Deer and Elk won't generally attack you if you come across a bait pile where as a bear might. Either legalize it all or none.


Washington Hunter... It's kind of ironic how things differ from state to state. In Maine, it is legal to bait bear but not deer or turkeys. (The HSUS is trying to prohibit bear baiting by citizen's referendum this year as well).

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I am ok with it if its allowed by law in your state, in Iowa we cant hunt over bait but the whole state is a baitpile.LOL:D

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I just don't see how calling dumping corn on the ground and growing plants are the same thing. To me a pile of corn dumped from a bucket is not a natural food source. A corn field although planted by a farmer or as a food plot is a growing plant. Also oak trees and even apple trees are growing and there for part of nature. They grow there and they drop their fruit there.

That being said I do NOT have a problem with those who hunt over bait piles. I do hunt in the CWD areas of WI and it is not legal to do any baiting of any kind anymore. I have one area where I used to put out mineral blocks (before it was banned). I have a trail camera set there but I do not (and have not ever) hunt anywhere withing 100 yards of it. I also have noticed that I get lots of pics in April and May of deer at the spot. As the summer goes on most of the pictures are of deer just walking by not stopping.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I use bait piles and i actualy spred them out i use a quite a few piles some we do not hunt over. i keep it out year long.

the bait piles that are the most efictive were our first and they were not intended as bait.

we feed our cows there during the winter the deer came to the food.

food plots to me are the same as bating here for every 3 acer plot there are about 100 1/4 or less plots.

we and other hunters i know have planted trees "apple,pear,cherry,and persomion,and oaks.
to hunt over we fitrlise the natural oaks and persiomins to help them produce more.

one of the most efictive baits i have sean to use is a grape vine deer around here will run rihght over corn piles to get to a grape vine.

And no i dont see a differince one food scorice is the same as another in my eyes.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

i personally dont like it, i guess im an old fashion hunter, if im not out in the woods with the weather etc then it just dont seem like hunting to me,
i know some people hunt out of big treestands just like small houses, out of the weather and pick there buck out and shoot and still love it... and thats ok if you like that, i wouldnt hunt if that was the only hunting i could do, i just wouldnt enjoy it..
i like hunting the big woods and the element of suprise...but thats me...

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

I more thing I want to add to this thread. In a state where baiting is legal and the surrounding properties bait, and you don't I hope that you have a plan "B". I leased some property here in Louisiana, and I talked to the neighboring leases and the one lease next to me told me that I would be just wasting my time putting out feeders, that the deer won't even hit them. So I told them that I was going to establish some food plots too, and they said the soil was no good to plant in that they tried it and it was just a waste of time and money. Having a suspicion on his intents I took a walk over to that lease just before the season, and wouldn't you know it every box stand that I saw had all the trails planted in rye grass, and they each had a 55 gallon drum feeder full of corn. Down here a good rule of thumb is who ever has the most corn has the most deer. This is disheartening but true. The problem with down here is that it stays so green for so long (good for the deer, but hard for the hunter in more ways than one). I would bet that most on this board would agree that it is difficult to pattern deer to their natural browse to in the attempt to gain a successful harvest on a mature animal. I am not talking about oak trees when they are dropping their fruit, or any kind of crops, which unless the deer eat sugar cane, we don't have many. In each state population densities are different, and terrain is different, and available food sources are different, so of course opinions are different, as well as hunting strategies. I have been to Michigan and have seen Turkey and deer all over the place, I also went to Tennessee, and saw the same thing. We don't have that kind of luxury over here. So there are different strategies for different types of hunting over a wide range of places, and it doesn't mean one is right or wrong. As long as you harvest an animal for the purposing of supplying meat for you and your family in a LEGAL manor the means are very insignificant, it's the end result that counts.

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

Very well put!

RE: Should Baiting be Legal or Illegal
 

i've been bowhunting for 25yrs. For the first 10yrs. i baited all the time, killed a lot of deer. Never seen a big buck! Started killing bigger bucks when i hunted natural food sources close to thick cover, but you see less deer.Ilove to scout for these areas. Its hard scout a corn pile. But from a legal stand point, I thing it should be legal. To each his own!!!