stretchhunts

don`t lower your level to baiting just keep it at the high level of food plots. More land , more money, more time so your way is right. PLus there is no skills in shooting a deer next to a bait pile. I mean once the deer gets there it just rolls over and dies? Don`t evan have to know how to shoot or hit the deer in the right spot. It`ll just gut it`s self and evan skin and buthcher it`s selfall over the bait pile. Your right bait piles take no skill what so ever.My opinion

G-Daddy

My little piece of property has 13 acres of formerly agricultural fields that are now in CREP. Of the 13 acres, about 9 are in the last grasses from haying - mostly timothy. The other 4 are planted in clover, wheat, sorghum and turnips. The CREP contract states that food plots are ok but nothing can be harvested. The fields can only be mowed every three years in July or August. I have been hunting from an elevated blind for the past three years and have yet to shoot anything from the food plots. I have shot one doe crossing a saddle from one patch of woods to the other and missed several deer with my flinchlock. My point is that food plots are no way to alter a deer's natural habits. If you think hunting over a food plot is a magic ticket to punching your tag, try it sometime.

patrkyhntr

Sorry you saw fit not to accept my apology, Jim. Perhaps you didn't notice that I edited the post. You will have to deal with that, not me.

Just for the record. I don't hunt over bait, or even feed plots, here in PA., but where it is legal, it is no more unethical than hunting along a cornfield. Those who have a major problem with doing what is legal in other states should not do it. They should not try to impose their values on others though. I have not tried to convince any of you that you personally should hunt over bait, next to a feed plot, or for that matter next to a white oak tree. All of my hunting for deer and turkeys is done in the mountains on state gamelands. You must do what you feel is ethical within your values system. Please refrain from thinking that because you think hunting over bait is unethical that that makes it so for everyone everywhere.

I am going on a black bear hunt in May in Alberta where baiting is legal. It makes absolutely no difference to me what some on this message board might think of that. In my ethical framework, it is OK, since without baiting, there would be precious few bears taken in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, in all of which provinces it is legal. If you choose not to hunt this way, you should not go. I am going and will have a great time. By the way, the last time I checked, the outfitter had one opening for that week. Anyone want to join me in sin?

bawanajim

Why the blocked PM??????

patrkyhntr

Try again.

mlo3135127

Good post buck magnet. I plant clover and corn in my food plot,farmers all around me have clover and corn. Sometimes I see deer in my plots and sometimes I see them in the farmers field. Around here there is no difference. A good oak or apple tree is a better spot to shoot a deer because there is so much clover and corn.

farm hunter

Ditto for me.

One other note I'd mention - is I hunt 90% of the time off the crops. Too often only does and fawns make it to the field before legal hunting hours end.

I'd rather be in a good funnel or staging area several hundred yards off the fields.

I cannot seriously compare baiting to planting crops and/or food plots. Our standing corn plots this year will provide 15,000 to 20,000 lbs of corn Kernalsfor yarding deer this winter. This on top of 30,000 lbs - 35,000 lbsof managed green forage (soybeans and clover) during the summer months. Our stated goal is to support a local deer herd of 30-40 deer per square mile. In some years - the weather makes it easy - in other years - we lose deer anyhow.

Guys like me - We are supporting a deer herd - not baiting it.We aren't hunting over a 100ft x 100ft plot.

This statement reminded me of what someone said earlier in the post about the PGC planting food plots - being "a wrong practice" - I don't think alot of you understand - that a deer herd of 30-40 deer per square mile - eatstons and tons and tons of food per year. - I'm not an expert on the PGC - but my guess is that without food plots - the PGC would have to LOWER the deer population even more -because there would not be enough food to go around (not without destoying the natural regeneration of forestland). - I doubt that would be a popular move in PA.

FH

vtbuckrulrss

ok, my turn. first let's get this straight:whether you hunt over a food plot that sweated your tail off, or a pile of food, it's all still baiting, in my opinion. i have done both, and consider it no different. second, i can tell you from personal experience, over many years of being able to legally bait here in Vermont, just because there is food out, doesn't mean you will get to place your tag on a deer. in some areas, like mine where there is a much lower deer population than say, pa, this may bethe only way you get to see a deer, and then it may not be the right sex. the woods are too big, thick, and hold lower deer populations than other areas. we have baited for perhaps 15 years, and in that time have only harvested four bucks, and a few doe. if this is such a gimme way to hunt, shouldn't those numbers be much higher? deer are nocturnal animals, and as such, for us anyway, most of the time they didn't come in until after dark. you still have to be at the right place at the right time. and we would put out literally tons of food for them to eat: four p-ups of pumpkins, at least that many of apple pumice, plus we had barrels of apples filled from the truckloads that we got from the local orchards. those were put out from october through april, and letsnot forget the grain that was put out also during that time period. now, as for food plots being beneficial year round, at least up hear our deer travel to yarding areas, sometimes as far as five miles. what good is that plot doing for those deer? food plots in the north(and to most of us, PA is in the SOUTH!) should be considered an equal to baiting because it too is seasonal. they don't grow year round, the intended animals may not even be in the area to take advantage of it. so what's the difference? and also this, having hunted bear over baits, i can say the same thing : it ain't a gimme! one guy that i hunted with this year sat for four nights in a row on a hot stand, never saw a thing.

farm hunter

Hunting over a food plot isn't a gimme either - but just becasueneither method is an absolute for taking a der - doesn't mean that they are theSAME.

Again, I cannot even see a comparison between the two methods of hunting. I'm not bashing baiting - I just don't think a bait pile is anything at all like a decent food plot.

FH

mlo3135127

Maybe the difference between baiting and a food plot is that baiting will put a deer in an exact spot while a large food plot will not. Is a wild apple tree baiting? We all love to sit near these. Actually I think they would be better than baiting.