Poll for baiting deer.

[Mark from MA]

Not sure how much "hunting" is required to shoot a deer that for the past 8 months had been traveling daily back and forth between it's bedding area and an apple orchard.

Deer don't eat the same foods for 8 months out of the year. They change habits a lot and don't stay in the same areas for that long. They do go back several times thoughout the year but do not feed in one spot for 8 months. Mother Nature has them programmed to move for survival and to replenish feeding areas.

I've baited in south ct. Where the deer population is high. You need to change baits throughout the season and even then nothing guarantees they are feeding during hunting times. Gotten skunked plenty of times in areas with 40-60 deer per square mile.

Up north. Baiting is a joke. Deer are mostly nocturnal up here and they eat it at night
The low deer density lets them chose what time to eat. Where in places with more density they are a little more protective of it because of the competition.

Now in years like this last one with high apple and acorn yields baiting is a joke because the deer can feed anywhere .

 

[Mark from MA]

+1

Did I make it in before the "ethical bow hunters"?

All I can do down where I bait is Bowhunting. I consider it very ethical because if I'm hunting on a 2 -5 acre lots where the landowner who gives me permission is telling me to shoot every deer I see. I need to try and get the deer in a correct and safe position for a slam dunk broadside relaxed double lung shot. I'm not taking shots over 20 yards, or quartering, or questionable shots because tracking can be a bitch if a deer is poorly hit and can lead to negative views about hunting. I want the deer dead in 50 yards or less.

I'm still one of those guys that won't take your deer if you mortally wound it. Even if I get to it first. If that's what you mean by ethical bow hunters. It's just what my father told me is the right thing to do.

 

[joseph]

I don't agree with that. You can't just climb a random tree and expect to be successful. There is still a lot of work/skill put into locating the correct area, determining correct wind, conditions to hunt there, etc... Is being in a tree an advantage... Sometimes. Not always. It depends. But it's an acceptable tactic.

You sure can especially if you dump a bag of corn out in front of your tree. HAHAHA.

 

[BakerBingo]

I hunted bear over bait a few years in Maine. 20 years in the woods, I've seen two bears away from a bait. Both times it was a random encounter on a backwoods logging road. I don't think people realize the amount of effort that goes into baiting them. Countless hours in the woods scouting locations, setting up the location and actually attracting a bear to it. Even sitting in a tree stand over a bait requires a lot of noise and scent discipline.

Baiting deer on the other hand seems a little ridiculous and lazy. Put your time in the woods and you'll be rewarded.

 

[economist]

Baiting deer on the other hand seems a little ridiculous and lazy. Put your time in the woods and you'll be rewarded.

Why should killing a deer be more work? This isn't a fair fight, baited or not. It's just a guy going out to kill some wildlife for meat or something to hang on the wall. Given the choice to do it, I can't see why anyone would want to up the challenge, especially if you can increase the chance for a cleaner kill with minimal effort. People romanticize hunting, as if it's somehow hard to do or indicative of a manly challenge. Delicate city boys can come out to my area in rural America -- terrible shooters, half drunk, fat guys just looking for a big rack to hang on the wall. They get that rack, and fairly reliably despite themselves. Anyone could do it. Pretending that this is some sort of balanced or noble exercise is ridiculous. We might as well pretend that yanking bluegill out of a farm pond is some great achievement. This is not to denigrate hunting, but let's put this in some proper perspective. It's not hard and it's not fair.

 

[Fixxah]

They are like rats. Way too many. Get them any way you can.

 

[71montess]

If it's brown it's down, any way you want, ethics has Nothing to do with it, you Commies.

 

[That Guy]

"Not sure how much "hunting" is required to shoot a deer that for the past 8 months had been traveling daily back and forth between it's bedding area and an apple orchard."

None at all but that's what puts venison in the freezer. "Hunting" apparently would be tippy toeing in your moccasins and breechcloth around a gravel pit hoping to line up a shot with your stone tipped arrow.

Not much "hunting" required when using dogs to flush birds, or when using decoys to bring in ducks, or when chumming to attract big game fish. We should all go back to REAL hunting with nets and spears.

Agreed. I'd like to know where, exactly, it is that all you arbiters of high hunting morals and ethics draw the line at what is and isn't hunting. Can I use a scope on my rifle in Maine? Am I allowed to wear a cover scent or is that cheating too?

How about rattling or calling? Why is calling them in that way super manly and awesome, but calling them in with food is lazy and not hunting?

 

[71montess]

Agreed. I'd like to know where, exactly, it is that all you arbiters of high hunting morals and ethics draw the line at what is and isn't hunting. Can I use a scope on my rifle in Maine? Am I allowed to wear a cover scent or is that cheating too?

How about rattling or calling? Why is calling them in that way super manly and awesome, but calling them in with food is lazy and not hunting?

Thank god these guys aren't in positions of power, or are they ?

 

[Retired-LEO]

I guess I am not allowed to post a poll:

These are the only options I am allowed.

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You may edit your posts

You can do so much more if you just "GO GREEN"

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

I spend roughly $1000.00 dollars a year feeding the deer herd on my property. Shell corn @$6/50lbs, wheat @ $10 /50lbs, mineral blocks and powder for rack growth, @ $27/ 2gal pail and blocks (I forget their cost).

They are fat and happy, having healthy young, and know where to come to get food when its single digits and snowing.
So, when I go hunting, I guess I should go on the other side of my property where the deer AREN'T to hunt them.....ya, that'll work.

 

[alphawolf]

I spend roughly $1000.00 dollars a year feeding the deer herd on my property. Shell corn @$6/50lbs, wheat @ $10 /50lbs, mineral blocks and powder for rack growth, @ $27/ 2gal pail and blocks (I forget their cost).

They are fat and happy, having healthy young, and know where to come to get food when its single digits and snowing.
So, when I go hunting, I guess I should go on the other side of my property where the deer AREN'T to hunt them.....ya, that'll work.

Where do you buy your stuff?

 

[Mark from MA]

I spend roughly $1000.00 dollars a year feeding the deer herd on my property. Shell corn @$6/50lbs, wheat @ $10 /50lbs, mineral blocks and powder for rack growth, @ $27/ 2gal pail and blocks (I forget their cost).

They are fat and happy, having healthy young, and know where to come to get food when its single digits and snowing.
So, when I go hunting, I guess I should go on the other side of my property where the deer AREN'T to hunt them.....ya, that'll work.

And here's what many that don't like baiting forget. You are helping ALL the deer on your property but only taking a few. Overall heard health is better and winter kill is lessened.

 

[joseph]

Try putting a few bails of alfalfa out for them. They go for it as much as corn.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

Where do you buy your stuff?

Grains are bought at Southern States Co-op, mineral blocks and supplements, where ever they are on sale usually. Oh, I also plant food plots in three different places around the property so there is always something available to them when the piles of corn and grain are depleted.

The birds, raccoons, mice and anything else that eats them get fed too. Got a couple of very large owls, a few hawks and a kestrel that stay around.

Also, have coyotes, foxes, turkeys, rabbits and squirrels and a few large black snakes. The entire food chain is represented here and all are healthy.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

Try putting a few bails of alfalfa out for them. They go for it as much as corn.

Yes, I'm sure they like the alfalfa......it would be more practical for me to just plant an acre or two of it as a food plot. I put in a lot of medium clover and its doing well, the rabbits and deer love it.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

And here's what many that don't like baiting forget. You are helping ALL the deer on your property but only taking a few. Overall heard health is better and winter kill is lessened.

Yep, I only take two per year and haven't taken a doe yet. Winters aren't as bad here as up north but when its cold for a long period, the game cam pics show the fat stores wear off after a few days.

 

[BattleSnail]

Agreed. I'd like to know where, exactly, it is that all you arbiters of high hunting morals and ethics draw the line at what is and isn't hunting. Can I use a scope on my rifle in Maine? Am I allowed to wear a cover scent or is that cheating too?

How about rattling or calling? Why is calling them in that way super manly and awesome, but calling them in with food is lazy and not hunting?

Gotta draw a line somewhere. Is shooting an elephant out of a helicopter hunting?

I'm not judging but everyone can draw their own lines for how they like to hunt. Shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport to me, but if it packs your freezer then by all means go for it.

 

[Finalygotabeltfed]

Gotta draw a line somewhere. Is shooting an elephant out of a helicopter hunting?

I'm not judging but everyone can draw their own lines for how they like to hunt. Shooting fish in a barrel isn't sport to me, but if it packs your freezer then by all means go for it.

Shooting a deer isn't sport for me, its food on my table and a very meager return on my investment in the land I own and animals I care for year round.

I don't need a license as a land owner(woopie, I save $20....that leaves the other $980 as payment for the one or two deer taken off the property), but I still have to follow the state hunting regs. Orange, shooting times, type(buck or doe) bag limit etc.

I could shoot them right out my window if I really wanted to and nobody would be the wiser, but I don't. I go out and sit on a hillside in the cold and rain just like everyone else and with any luck, put one in the freezer.

Sounds like you need a good Colorado mountain elk hunt......where you can go and really work for your animal, trudging up and down some 60 degree mountain slopes for a few days.

 

[71montess]

If you don't hunt STFU. Go push your morality on other folks. Again thank god use people aren't in the legislature to put your "feelings" into law.

 

[Bonesinium]

 

[MisterHappy]

the law is the law.

Ethics are different. If you don't want to do something that is lawful, because you don't believe it's "right"....don't do it.

My kid wanted to go out after Bambi last year. Fine, says I. BP rifle only. He's lawful to use a bow, but is not a bowman, much less a bow hunter. Ethical call. With the T/C the holes are where he wants them to be.

Read the laws. Follow the laws. Impose upon yourself whatever ethical constraints that you see fit. But don't extend those to anyone else. That's what Anti-hunter people do: "I don't like that, so YOU can't do it."

This is exactly the problem with Cecil the carpet...err....lion. It appears that the dentist was acting lawfully (he's not been convicted, outside of the court of public opinion), but it was seen as "terrible". Though the locals that have to look out the door before leaving the house to make sure that they'll not end up on the menu may differ.

More locally, this article::

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20151023/NEWS/151027217

Got all kinds of hatin' - how could you print that picture? Kids that love Bambi might see it! Hunting is wrong! Letters like that.

Persons that say, "this type of lawful hunting is wrong" are the same.

 

[FreeWillie]

but most guys that use plain bait on deer are just lazy.

OR they need garanteed kill(s) to fill the freezer. When I was in the UP, a large number of families relied on venison to get through the Winter. When you get 350 inches of snow/year and the nearest store is 22 miles away, running out to pick up a "few things" can be a real challenge.

I don't mind people hunting over bait one bit. I preffer not to, as I don't depend on the meat to last the Winter, but if the venison is what gets you through the Winter, I see nothing wrong with it.

 

[MAGA99]

I really enjoy when people that have never cut a deer open tell me what is or is not the right way to harvest one. I don't tell you how to parallel park your prius....