I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. In North Dakota they don't allow it, but we have so many deer now that they are starving in the winter. i wonder if allowing people to bait the deer it minght increase the success rate.
I've found a couple illeagle deer bait stations and they draw a lot of deer in. It pissed me off because they were drawing the deer that normaly would be in the area of my stand.
I think I would bait if it were leagle but I think it is more challenging and sporting not to use bait.
What do ya think?

 

One of the issues why wisconsin banned baiting was because of CWD. They don't want a bunch of deer eating out of the same feed because the saliva from an infected animal can infect the feed and spread to other animals. I have never had to bait any deer, But when we had severe winters here back in the 90's we went out of our way to go up north and feed them. We went though more than 2 tons of corn because my dad said we owe it to the deer. The DNR frowns on it , But I would do it again if we had a winter like those. I don't agree with or disagree with baiting deer<I personally have no desire to. Bear is another story, If you couldn't bait bair(at least here in Minnesota) you would never get one.

 

I never thought about the CWD issue. That's a very good point.

Your right, if you couldn't bait for bear your chances of seeing one would be almost zero.

 

Baiting for widlife is illegal in Missouri also! Although you can use salt,mineral blocks, and grow food plots. I've found that a food plot consisting of clover, wheat, or the bio-logic stuff works really well. I had deer eat almost all of one plot before it got gowing really good. It came up to about 3 inches and then bam! They started to demolish it. The thing about using a "bait" is that the deer become even more predictable. They come to it every day and evening. It takes somthing away from the actual hunt. I have seen people use 50lb bags of corn for "bait" (which is illegal)! While this seems to work really well, it is not legal, and is almost the same as spot-lighting! I would try the food-plots. This not only brings deer in, it gives them the vitamins and minerals they need to stay heathly threw winter, and grow bigger racks. Not to mention it is legal!

 

I dont know if you want to call it baiting on not but we have food plots for the deer to eat out of. I do not hunt over or around the food plots.

 

Baiting any kind of animal in Ca. is illegal. I agree, seeing a bear without baiting, is slim[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] But, you can see them. Saw 4 last year. Too bad, we didn't have a bear tag[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

Anyways, if you have to many deer, I don't think feeding them is a natural way to thin the herd out. Let Mother Nature. Hunting is just a tool to help thin out the herd. With a large number of deer, there needs to be a harsh winter, to thin out the old and weak. It's called balance by nature. When man gets involved, he throws nature off balance.

 

What amazes me is how hunters pick and choose what they feel is baiting. For example, there are those who use a different term to describe food plots- supplemental feeding.

In my opinion, if you plant, place or position any food source for the purpose of attracting and harvesting wild game, it's bait. The only way to call it "supplemental feeding" is to never hunt over it.

I'm just glad I live in Texas where all forms of baiting are seen for what they are and permitted for non-migratory game. After all, why should those who own or have access to farm equipment be the only ones who can legally bait deer?

And don't try to give me that junk about feeders not providing a long-term benefit like food plots. I know a lot of hunter like myself who keep their feeders running throughout the year. And the CWD scare is baseless as well. Texas hunters have been pouring out tons of corn and high-protein feed for many years and all we end up with is more and better deer. Granted, placing any food source near your stand isn't hunting at all. Just don't try to tell me that sitting in a box stand overlooking a lush patch of Biologic is any different. As I once heard someone say, "poor men bait and rich men supplemental feed."

The only true hunters are those who take their harvest without any form of man-made food source.

 

I use my food plots or supplemental feeding to grow big bucks something I dont have on my land.

 

In most places where it is ileagle to bait, food plots are legal. What is the differance between hunting over a food plot and hunting on the edge of a corn field. I consider baiting as having a concentrated amount of food in one place which draws deer to your stand. A food plot may draw them to an area, but not necessarily to your stand.

If I plant a pumpkin patch 20 yards from my stand, is that baiting? I guess that's a question for the lawyers.

What about hunting over or near water holes. Seems like the same thing to me.

 

I read a story about a guy that made a bet that he would get a big buck within the first hour of hunting. A lot of guys took the bet because season opened at noon and the deer were usually bed down during the day.
What he did is set up a feeder 2 months before season started. The feeder was the barrel type on a tripod and was set on a timer to go off at 12:30 every day. The feeder made quite a racket when it went off. It was not ileagle to feed deer before season, but it was during season. The guy recorded the sound the feeder made.
The day before deer season opened the guy took down the feeder just as the law requires. On opening day this guy took one of the other guys that placed a bet with him to his stand as a witness. At 12:30, he played the recording of the feeder and the deer started comming in just as usual. At 12:45 he had a nice 5 x 5 buck. Of course the other guy claimed that he took the buck ileagely, but he didn't use bait, he just used a tape recorder which there was no law against.

I don't know if this is a true story, but it does make you wonder.