Baiting, Wrong or Right?
 

What are your thoughts? Is baiting a legitimate tool for today’s hunters? Do we need to hunt over food to shoot the number of deer biologists are asking us to? What’s the difference between a food plot and a corn pile? Does baiting give hunters a black eye to the non-hunting public? Are there areas where baiting is legitimate and others where it is not?Does it affect deer? I’d like to hear your thoughts….and see your shed pics! :fighting0007:

ught oh....lol!

Many guys can't put in food plots or may not have a big white oak to hunt around. Baiting is no big deal to me. It's an attractant. Bear hunters do it all the time. No big deal. If it's legal and you want to do it then do it.

I don't see the thrill of having dogs run a cougar up a tree and then stand there and shoot it out. Just nothing I want to do. I don't like deer drives. I don't like high fence hunts. I don't like these things but I'll defend others who do. We have enough hate going on for hunters as it is without other hunters joining in on the attack. Hunt legal and have fun....and defend other hunters even if they do things a little different from you.

We have feeders and game plots at our places. We do not shoot deer in those plots or near the feeders. Hogs are another matter; they are pests here and we shoot them wher we find them.

I never bought into the QDMA rhetoric.

I think if you choose to bait, then so be it! Not to mention, it really helps out your local economy!

If it is legal, and the hunter and landowner have no problem with it, then I say go for it. IMHO it is no different from food plots, sex lures, ag fields, trails to ag fields, a water hole, attractants such as Deer Cain or C'mere Deer or anything similar. To bait is to lure.

If it is legal and you want to do it, go ahead. It gets expensive and it's a lot of extra work. I hunt several farms and usually setup one camera and stand near a corn pile. The other stands are without bait. I get my biggest deer well away from the bait pile, it seems that the bigger bucks stay away from the corn until well after dark. When the acorns drop the deer stop hitting the corn, so you have a month around here when baiting is not very effective as well. Baiting for deer around here is not all it is cracked up to be it's not the "Magic" end all. It is good for getting pictures on your trail cam and taking inventory.

if it is illegal in your area, then yeah you shouldnt be doing it..thats for sure..but if its legal, so be it..i think its harder for guys who cant do it legally but that is the laws set down by your/our government.to each his own..i agree with what was posted earlier, shouldnt be going after our own, hunters need to stick together :party0007:

This is always a hotly debated topic....

Its legal here in Texas to the extent that for most people I know, that's pretty much the way you hunt. I got one buck a few years back with rattling and I've had chances at deer away from stands and feeders but I've always hunted with a corn feeder for the most part.

The only times i think it is necessary is when its for varmints like ferral hogs coyotes ect.
And yes baiting kinda does give hunters a black eye to the public.

Food plots can be different from baiting. Up here in the north, planting turnips, winter rye, or leaving corn standing can all help deer survive the winter, or help a doe carry fawn(s) with better birth weight. Clovers, winter rye, and other crops that are quick to green up help too. They can help deer and other wildlife with a valuable food source at a scarce time, even in farm country. You can also provide habitat for numerous animals and birds besides deer. There is no secret recipe that will draw every deer away from a neighboring farmer's corn, soybeans, or alfalfa. Deer are free to move, and will move off small food plots with too much human traffic. I gun hunt in WI farm country, and don't expect to kill a deer over any small food plot. I plant it for the enjoyment of growing plants, and in hope I can help a deer or two make it through a tough winter. Those deer are free to travel to a neighbors property or to public land. I do think bow hunters, or hunters with large tracts of woods and little farm ground would have more success killing a deer over/near a food plot. I do not think food plots are morally superior to corn piles, since not everyone is fortunate enough to have a place they can grow food plots. I have no problems with baiting if it is done legally, but pointing out there are differences.

i think that where it is illegal to bait, hunters there are against baitin...and where it is legal to bait the hunters tend to use that to their advantage and know there is nothing wrong with it.

I support baiting under a game management program and will supplement feed during the legal times of the year and will start feeding again as soon as I am finished hunting my property for the year.

I am against baiting when it's only purpose is to lure deer for a kill and then the baiting is stopped because the person baiting accomplished their short-term objective. We feed all through the winter and have found this greatly helps the deer- the does during their pregnancy-resulting in healthier fawns as well as enabling the bucks to regain weight they lost during the rut allowing them to produce larger racks the following spring because the nutrition goes to antler development rather than trying to rebuild their bodies after months of lack of food. Baiting for the sole purpose of killing a deer is worse because of falsely raising the carrying capacity and then abruptly shutting off the supplemented feed when the deer become dependant on the feed and need it the most. Starvation during the winter becomes more likely due to this form of baiting.