I am only 15 years old and this will be my 3rd year hunting. Last year there were a few deer in WI that had Chronic Wasting Disease in a remote location, and the DNR decided to completely ban baiting for 3 years! Until last year i had hunted over bait piles and they made hunting much easier. I hunt with about 6 other people and we spread out over about 175 acres. you can immagine how hard it is to get the deer to come to us. you have to understand, we aren' t the kind of people who dump an entire truckload of bait in one spot. we throw maybe one or two five gallon pails of apples at each stand. last year without baiting we only saw like 4 deer all season. we usually see more like 20 or so. this year we are planting food plots and hoping the ban on baiting we be repealed. i think baiting in moderation is fine, but the guys that dump a five foot high pile of corn don' t give anyone else a chance.

What do you think about baiting?

Thanks for taking the time to hear my troubles.
(p.s. you can get a free sample of food plot seed at www.whitetailinstitute.com you only have to pay the s & h)

Don' t think of it as a trouble. You have a great opportunity to learn a diff. and challenging way to hunt. There is a lifetime of knowledge to be had about hunting these great animals. There is soooooo much more to learn than just throwing some apples out and waiting.

Take this as a chance to better yourself as a deer hunter and if you put in the work I am sure you will see many deer - even without the apple piles

Good Luck

If it is legal and you have no personal problems with baiting I have no problem with it. I can understand the idea about the CWD being possibly more prone to spreading with bait piles and will defer to the game biologist on any way they can try and curtail the problem. The part of your post I don' t understand is the scarcity of deer in your area. I thought Wi. was one of the most heavily populated states for deer.
By the way, welcome to the board.

Theres nothing wrong by baiting. Since I am self employed, I dont have time to and sit in the woods for hour and hours at a time. I find the right spot ie. crossing, rublines, bedding areas, transisition zones etc.. and set up.

When I was guideing at a local ranch we hand fed our favorite hunting spots - now that my favortite spot is 110 miles away- I use a feeder. I dont like feeders but right now I dont have much of a choice. Although our lease is 8,000 acres - muchof it is open with scattered oak motts. Our habitat is the same for the whole 300,000 acre ranch. you gotta bring' em in.

I might use a feeder but thats no different than others setting up on food plots or sections of corn feild.

My 2cents

I may have stated that wrongly, Timbercruiser. There isn' t a scarcity of deer, it is just that i have trouble bringing the deer to me. my stand is about 150 yards from a ridge of about 8 ft. the lower part is marsh and the higher part is hardwoods. I can hear the deer walking down there, but cant see them and cant get them to come up. any ideas?

? Is where the deer are walking off your property? As a general rule, you don' t make the deer come to you, you go to the deer.

An alternative to baiting is food plots - give it a look.

I agree. When I used to hunt in Oklahoma where baiting is illegal, we always used food plots. Now that I hunt in Texas I use a feeder on my lease which is located 419 miles from my front door here in Houston. I really don' t see any difference in the methods, and I doubt I could grow much of a food plot on my lease; it is 6,000 acres and the only water on the place is from 3 windmills.

If it' s legal, have at it.

On another note, I think dumping a 5 foot high pile of corn in one spot would scare deer off, not attract them. It' s not the amount of bait you put out but the way you present it.

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I live in canada and baiting is illegal period!We cant hunt qwithin 800 yrds of a hay bale for that matter.That said I don' t need bait but I don' t care if others choose to do so,as long as the law allows.Thats my opinion.