bigcountry

Yea, it should be illegal. I could care less how people hunts as long as it doesn't bother me. I could care less if they dress up like Danial boone with a ML or use a 460 weatherby to take deer as long as it doesn't bother me. Sure, it definately teaches Children the wrong way to go about it. But baiting does have the potential to bother me. I see first hand how it can make deer nocturnal and definately believes it spreads disease easily. If you could take those two things out of the equation, I could care less.

It also makes it a much more flatter playing field for us all to enjoy hunting.

usajag

To each suit their own. In PA I am glad we don't have baiting. There are to many novice hunters and to few deer and soon to be bear from all the cubs being shot. But other states it might be better suited. I lived in Washington at the time they stopped allowing hounds for cougars and it became very difficult to find a cougar. On a recent visit to texas, I would think it would be beneficial to allow baiting.

Mountain Cur

While I would still prefer that it be illegal, if baiting caused the spread of disease there wouldn't hardly be any deer left in the state of Louisiana. Sorry, but the disease argument just don't hold water. Maybe up north but not down here. It's been going on for so long down here that something bad would have already happened, and obviously it hasn't with a limit of 6 per season and most of the state has 18 either sex days not counting archery and ml season.

kshunter

I think it really depends a lot on the area. I don't agree with using bait when used in a type of situation where a deer will visit the site 3-4 or moretimes a week, and depends on the bait. But here in my area, food is very abundant, and is literally around every corner. This is the first year I've tried baiting deer here in Kansas. And the deer never got in a defined "Routine" to the feeder. Even though I never hunted over the feeder, I did set up a game camera next to it to see the traffic I had. I had lots of lots of turkeys (1-2 times a day), and occasional deer, who used the feeder maybe 1 time a week. I beleive the feeder helped ton "passing deer" to pass just a little closer to the feeder than they normally wood. Kind of like a mock scrape would.

I believe everyone has their own ethics on these types of situations. And my ethics depend on a lot of common sense. I beleive that actual deer "hunting", is only in fair chase. And by using the feeder and receiving my own results, I was able to come up with an option which I most likely wouldn't have come to.

Browning_1

It's called being proactive....common sense would tell you that congregating deer to smallconfined areas would promote the passing of disease between animals in that area. I'm not sayinga baitpile CAUSES disease it just helps spread it, IF a disease is present among a herd using the same bait and feed locations.

Does this not make sense???

BJR224

Illegal here in NY, and it should stay that way IMHO. Not my style.

CamoCop

scores almost even!

StrutnBPS

Can I ask all of you something?

you think its wrongto bait deer? Well, when the timber industires come in and clear cut all of the hard woods and plant nothing but pines, which deer do not eat. What do you do then? Move to another state? Or in our case, a new region? Just about the whole southeast has been cleared of its hardwoods and replanted in pine plantations. So, is it fair that us humans clear the deer's natural foods for our profit?

I don't think many people take this in mind when they are complaining about baiting. And as said above, I bet the ones who are against it have never done it. They think that corn is magic and all you have to do is put it out and the little deer fairy drops deer out of the sky. And as for the biologists....the biggest thing that sets the harvest quotas here in SC is the deer accident ratio....my point..numbers don't lie, but you can always set the stats to favor YOUR side.

And how is hunting over a food plot any different than baiting? You plant the food plot for the sole purpose of killing a deer, so how is it any different?

Baiting doesn't make deer nacturnal...people make deer nacturnal. Diease...how is baiting drawing deer any closer than five bucks fighting over one hot doe? I have never killed a mountable buck over bait, but I have killed them coming behind a doe that was going to the corn. Is that bad? Whats the difference than you laying down a fake deer scent trail?

Its like this....you do what you want to do, but don't put down other hunters that don't agree with you.

As for the grain belt...why in the world would you want to bait? Expect in the winter when everything else is under the snow.

I like to think that even if i may not ever see the deer eating my corn or food plots that at least they are getting some food and nutrition that would otherwise not have been there due to logging.

From what I have read about most deer is that they eat so many different things in one given day that there is really no advantages of hunting over bait or not hunting over bait.

I have sat and watched many deer this season alone walk right through the corn pile, right through the Green Patch Plus i planted, to stop at a white oak and scrounge under it for acorns. So, until you have personally seen it, don't knock it and stop talking **** about other hunters that you know nothing about. WHy don't we just give PETA our phone numbers?[:@]

StrutnBPS

And one more thing....for those of you who think baiting steals deer off of your land. God gave deer legs so they can walk.I've gotten pictures from my cam of deer that were killed 5 miles away from the spot of the pic, chasing a hot doe....I have an idea, lets blame all the does for "stealing" our bucks off our land.[&:]
You want to fuss about stealing deer off your land. I will give you a better argument. What about the doctor or lawyer in your area buying up 1,000's of acres of land for his personal use ONLY......give that a ponder..

there are way too many problems facing hunters today than to fuss over baiting.

Mountain Cur

Sure, the argument you bring makes sense, but the numbers still don't lie, and like strutnbps said, down here where you havemore cutover, and pine thickets than anything else the deer really don't have much of a pattern, maybe that's why the states allow it, to help control doe #'s. Here's something to think about, we all know that deer will most always hit their prefered food sources first, like when the white oaks are dropping they will travel right past loads of acorns to feed under one or two certain trees, disease could just as easily be spread under these circumstances. It's a complex issue with not a lot of evidence to back up either side, a catch22 I guess. I still wish it were illegal for entirely different reasons, but I don't think it will ever happen. Also, like strut said, if I lived up in Mo., Ks., Ill. Oh. Montana, etc etc etc the thought of baiting wouldn't even cross my mind.