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

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.

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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.

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

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.

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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.

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…

MAKE IT LEGAL

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

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. [8D][8D]

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