Charlie P

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

mammasboy

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.

NorthernHunter

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.

ldial1973

I don't have a problem with it.

bakerwonderhound

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).

Oneball61

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

wihunter402

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.

BT

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.

wilk

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...

Tepidus

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.