i bait and am not ashamed about it
#51
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Stoneham Massachusetts USA
Posts: 11
RE: i bait and am not ashamed about it
ORIGINAL: Ridge Runner
the main thing wrong with hunting over bait, is the fact that once baiting is legalized, the hunting part is slowly forgotten, today here in wv, there isn't a handful of hunters under 40 who can go out and hunt deer and kill one without the aid of a bait pile.
another reason, a guy buys 10 acres, he puts a 10 wheeler load of corn in the middle of it, he's holding the does, so the bucks are there also, his neighbor figures out whats happening so he puts corn and apples in the middle of his 10 acres, and another neighbor figures he needs a better bait pile so he uses corn, apples, and mineral salt, etc, etc.
whats lost here is, those who know deer, and they're habits, who spend time afield to pattern them, all is lost the day someone puts corn out, everything changes.
and a corn pile is the same as a 1000 acre cornfield? not hardly, in a agricultural area, the deer pics the when where, and how he goes to the field on a cornpile its the electical timer that calls the shots.
I don't like baiting or even hunting around it, its made hunters lazy, and opens alot of doors for what I view as not in line with what ought to be considered fair chase.
I get flamed alot cause if given the chance I'll shoot a deer at 700 yards, I'm told its not hunting, but is setting a treestand up within 100 yards downwindof a corn pile considered hunting?
don't be ashamed of hunting over bait if thats the best you can do, but don't swell up with pride to much, doesn't take much effort to hunt like that.
RR
the main thing wrong with hunting over bait, is the fact that once baiting is legalized, the hunting part is slowly forgotten, today here in wv, there isn't a handful of hunters under 40 who can go out and hunt deer and kill one without the aid of a bait pile.
another reason, a guy buys 10 acres, he puts a 10 wheeler load of corn in the middle of it, he's holding the does, so the bucks are there also, his neighbor figures out whats happening so he puts corn and apples in the middle of his 10 acres, and another neighbor figures he needs a better bait pile so he uses corn, apples, and mineral salt, etc, etc.
whats lost here is, those who know deer, and they're habits, who spend time afield to pattern them, all is lost the day someone puts corn out, everything changes.
and a corn pile is the same as a 1000 acre cornfield? not hardly, in a agricultural area, the deer pics the when where, and how he goes to the field on a cornpile its the electical timer that calls the shots.
I don't like baiting or even hunting around it, its made hunters lazy, and opens alot of doors for what I view as not in line with what ought to be considered fair chase.
I get flamed alot cause if given the chance I'll shoot a deer at 700 yards, I'm told its not hunting, but is setting a treestand up within 100 yards downwindof a corn pile considered hunting?
don't be ashamed of hunting over bait if thats the best you can do, but don't swell up with pride to much, doesn't take much effort to hunt like that.
RR
Excellent post.
#56
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: south Ark
Posts: 371
RE: i bait and am not ashamed about it
But it's a whole lot easier to find them coming to corn than over a bait-pile down here in these honeysuckle thickets.
Seriously, that would be like me criticizing folks in the midwest for hunting on farmland. I go to the midwest every year to hunt--and let me tell you---it's easier to kill a 160 class buck there than any kind of buck here---and our deer densities are three time what you have there. The woodlots and fields in the midwest make it easy to pattern deer and predict their travel routes. We don't have that advantage here. We have miles and miles of honeysuckle thickets and pine plantation.
My point is, every situation is different and my piling up some rice bran on a stump is not nearly as effective as watching a pinch -point in the mountains or alfalfa field in the midwest.
Seriously, that would be like me criticizing folks in the midwest for hunting on farmland. I go to the midwest every year to hunt--and let me tell you---it's easier to kill a 160 class buck there than any kind of buck here---and our deer densities are three time what you have there. The woodlots and fields in the midwest make it easy to pattern deer and predict their travel routes. We don't have that advantage here. We have miles and miles of honeysuckle thickets and pine plantation.
My point is, every situation is different and my piling up some rice bran on a stump is not nearly as effective as watching a pinch -point in the mountains or alfalfa field in the midwest.
#57
Spike
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location:
Posts: 11
RE: i bait and am not ashamed about it
IMO, baiting is fine and dandy for those that choose to do so. However, i find it more self-rewarding to hit the woods and do my scouting and patterning and adjust to the deer rather than throwin up a feeder 30 yds from my stand...