RE: Foods Plots vs Baiting
 

apparently you didn't read all my post. if you are baiting or have food plots (insert your stock tanks here aswell) year around, it benefits the overall deer herd. if you throw up a feeder right before hunting season and hunt over it, in my book your lazy. i know you texans believe it is impossible to kill a deer without a feeder but trust me, it can be done....i do it every year.

RE: Foods Plots vs Baiting
 

Is someone who leases land from a farmer so they can hunt over the crops any less lazy? How about the landowner who leases his land to a farmer and then hunts over the fields. To many who spend a few hours a month on an ATV dragging or discing an acre or two or riding around spraying fertilizer want to act like they're out from sunup to sundown raising crops. Also why are food plots considered "agricutural practices"? I don't know anyone who "harvests" any of the Biologic they sow. As far as providing nutrition for antler growth IMO thats a distance second to drawing deer. Deer can also be killed without using food plots!
I believe those who hunt over food plots and don't belive it's bait have a little holier than thou attitude. They look down thier noses at those who bait and since they are "better hunters" than them, there is no way they would use a similar practice. So, that MUST mean food plots aren't bait. WRONG. Hunting over a food source YOU provided is still baiting. Food plots come from seed bags just the same as corn poured on the ground.

For the record I also live in MO and don't bait because it's illegal. If it was legal I would.

RE: Foods Plots vs Baiting
 

i don't bait or hunt over food plots. if it's legal in your area, go for it. i don't feel i need that kind of advantage so i wouldn't do it. however, atleast food plots or crop fields benefit the overall health of the herd by giving the added nutrition all year long. if someone is throwing out a salt block or corn a couple weeks before hunting season, they are doing it for one purpose...to draw deer to that area, not for improving the herd health.

RE: Foods Plots vs Baiting
 

i'm not sure, but i think i would consider a food plot that exists all year long or a feeder that feeds all year long to be a far more effective baiting system than just baiting during the hunting season. if the deer are used to having food available in a particular spot all the time, it would seem reasonable that they would expect that the food would be there during the hunting season and go to it the entire season (perhaps even letting their guard down slightly while there?). baiting only during hunting season would seem to me to be less effective until later in the season after the deer have found it and gotten used to the food being there.

RE: Foods Plots vs Baiting
 

I can use bait or food plots here in LA, but prefer food plots. You don't have to haul food plots in to refill. If you pick the right plants, it will even reseed by itself. The only feeder I use is in my backyard. Not so much a hassle to fill that one.

RE: Foods Plots vs Baiting
 

i think both r very good oppertunity to take a good buck but u got to remember tho its wat u feed them to make a good mature whitetail!