peakrut

Well after thinking about this issue for 20 years I dont think it matters here in
Wi. My area of the CWD area it is currently illegal but the surrounding properties continue to do this. It has severly affected the property that I am currently hunting and not baiting. The word I get from some in the area states that they keep the deer on the property and if the others are still doing this they will. In the legal area up north I still think dont think it matters because a heck of them do not follow the 2 gallon rule of thumb. So my own opinion is just as well be legal or illegal it wont matter.
(Side not) Budget cuts in WI have affected the number of DNR we have in the woods so enforcement will be down forever.

Peak

Live and Learn

tschaef

I wonder how many of the guys who claim its cheating are in overpopulated areas, I always chuckle when I read that you southerners will see 15+ deer in a morning sit. I can go a week of all day hunts and not see that many (saw 5 on my rifle hunt this year).
That being said it is legal in Ontario, but I don't know anyone that does bait, even for archery. I voted keep it legal because I don't think it matters much either way.

gregholland

Most of us baiters do too, we just elect to put a feeder within 25 yards of the deer sign!!!!!

GobblerTX

In my area? No, we've never had a problem with disease being spread, and I feel it brings no greater advantage than buying the doe-in-heat stuff, buying stuff to cover up your scent, using binoculars, using fancy bows and arrows, using scopes on guns, hunting a field that's planted, using range-finders to figure out the yardage you are from a deer, buying special camo, rattling and the list goes onnnn and onnnnnnnn and onnnnnnnnnnnn...

All of these give you about as much of an advantage to killing deer than just putting out corn, esspecially since a lot of people use a ton of them at the same time...

Is it cheating? Uh, no, not when you don't have much land to hunt and you know there are deer in the area, if you're gunna kill 'em, you have to bring 'em on your property, right?... hunters were doing this ages ago (they didn't have batteries and feeders, of course, and were most-likely not using corn), it's how they gained their advantage on the species they hunted, they made sure they brought 'em in to an area they could kill 'em, their lives depending on them killing that animal...

Unless you make your cammo out of natures best (leaves, limbs etc...), have a bow that could be mistaken for one dating back to the iron-age, arrows made out of stick and stone, don't use binoculars, don't buy doe-in-heat stuff, don't buy scent stuff etc... you are in no position to look down on those who feed with corn...

PS. I'd much rather stalk, myself...

GobblerTX

Plus a lot of the folks with crops of corn around here use the deer-corn industry to profit from their crops... not a bad deal for them, I'd say...

Shane G

I agree with Gobbler, I mean should rattling horns be also made illegal? A lot of videos ive seen u just rattle the horns and a monster buck comes running, without the horns would that buck still have come and stood by the stand? All these guys that are against baiting perhaps take a long look at the list of items that are available in order to attract a deer such as gobbler mentioned. The longer that i look at all the hunting forums out there the more i see guys that dont want to talk or discuss hunting they wanna piss and moan about something and give PETA members more ammunition to stop all hunting.And then you got the people that everytime a monster is taken somewhere they automatically claim the hunter is a poacher or anything to discredit the sport. Now hunting behind a fence is nothing I would do or be part of but I I am not going to try and stop it and draw attention to it. Every year there are new products on the market and the sport is evolving, but I for one am sick of this baiting issue. If you wanna hunt like the cave man did fine all the power ta ya , no ones stopping ya. But the next time you wanna post a negative comment on other hunters ways maybe look in ur own closet and see what hangs there that helps you in your own hunt.

hillbilly17

Because we can kill 3 doe a day all season long, tat is 253 doe per person per season. Over population is a serious problem in our area. I think it would increase the take in our unit and we would be able to go back to growing much bigger deer.

wis_bow_huntr

Ok for all you people that say baiting shoudl be illegal, throw out your cover scent, throw out your deer estrus, buck urine, doe urine, buck seman, etc, that is baiting as well. Your using something to LURE deer in. Lure=baiting. Let see how good you do now.

BOWFANATIC

Bullsh**!!!

I bet there are a ton of older hunters who've hunted in that area for years who strongly disagree with you. Same goes for Texas!

I learned how to hunt in northern Wisconsin in areas where there are no crops of any kind , nothing but thick forest. We learned how to scout for deer sign , acknowlege the difference between beddingand feeding areas , travel routes , etc. , etc..
There's tons of food in the natural forest , all you have to do is spend some time learning what they actually eat and at what times of the year they actually eat the different plants , shrubs , acorns , etc. etc.

Baiting is legal in Wisconsinbut 30 years ago you never heard of anyone baiting. Now you can't take a scouting trip without running into a fricken pile of corn. I'm not sure if todays "hunters" are just too lazy that they feel they can just bait and take the easy route , or if they're just too damn spoiled that they feel they have to see a dozen deer or so on every trip.

How many bait hunters here have said to someone at one time or another that "I hunt for the challenge"? Any bowhunters here that have said "they use a bow for the challenge" and yet still hunt over bait? Kind of amusing isn't it?

BOWFANATIC

No problem there bud!! I spent many years hunting without any of the above mentioned items and harvested many deer relying only on my scouting efforts and wind direction.

The last ten years I've used scent lures (drag trails mainly) to attract deer during the rut. I could easily go back to using nothing , but I had to try something to pull deer away from the neighbors land where they can go hit the corn piles every night.