You guys need to come out here to AZ and hunt deer. It's all open country and the deer are few and far between. I've chased them for 20 years using bows and firearms. There is no baiting and your best friend here is a $1000 dollar pair of binoculars and a good spotting scope. If you have the patients you can sit a waterhole which I guess would be like your food plots back East, but for me the challenge is finding a nice buck a mile or so away and stocking. That's hard hunting. We have the little Coues white tail which can be patterned, but mostly Mule deer. If your able to successfully hunt deer here in AZ you'll be a better hunter everywhere else. No deer overpopulation here!

 

All I need do is keep filling my feeder going once the season closes ( which I always do by the way) to follow the same logic as those who make the claim that food plots should not be viewed as baiting. In both cases, a food source is being made available after hunting season.

 

I agree with SpringDRL

I dont know why people get so hung up on baiting or feeding. Most people hunt around food/water source if it is man made or not. I read a post that some one was a little angry that another hunter illegaly baited and it may have caused your normal deer to go over to there direction. Ever think that maybe deer that you normaly dont see will be passing your direction to get to the feed. I think maybe you got the benefit of baiting with doing the crime.

I can tspeak for other places but here in Texas the big bucks are very smart and do not care if you have feed or not. The only thing here that makes them stupid is FULL RUT. Also people from other places that think the deer popultion is becoming a problem. Maybe think of having a out of state hunter program. I will be happy to come up there and thin the heard a little. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I have to agree with Bigbear and springdrl....it is LEGAL here in Oklahoma. The people that bait by FAR out number the people that dont. It MUST happen all over the country because Bass Pro and Cabelas have 2 full pages devoted to feed and seed. Its not the minority down here in the south that are baiting, must happen everywhere. Please dont tell me that because I have a corn feeder that I dont "truely" hunt. You have your opinions and I have mine. Just this morning, my 10 yr old and I watched a 5 pt lick a block of salt that we put out. We also video'd 3 other bucks today.We enjoyed ourselves. We are spending quality time in the woods together. If my son calls this hunting.....then let 'em!!!!!! At least he is getting his values from the woods and his dad....not a video game or the streets.

 

on my hunt this past weekend, i got an elk in Alipine Arizona(unit 27) we cleaned it out, then sat on the guts hoping a bear would come to it. none did, would this be considered baiting? might i add i live 5 hours away from where i hunted

 

Rem,

Congrats on the elk. Do you hunt the Blue?

As you know baiting bear is not legal in AZ. If a G&F officer saw you sitting a "known" gut pile they would have probably cited you.

 

I've deer hunted for many years, but just started baiting a few years ago. It's just another way of hunting, but more fun because you see more deer. The first year, I bought a block of something that smelled like apples. I'd see deer walk right by it, and it was still there the following year. What a joke! I think it finally disintegrated without a deer touching it. I set out some blocks this year consisiting of a corn and molasses mixture. Something was chewing on them after less than a week. Hunting season starts in a couple of weeks, so I'll probably get to see what it is then. I'm betting it's deer. I hope it works, because setting out those blocks is a lot easier than having to spread corn every couple of days.