<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Wenty

This isn't about being "nonsporting", thats not the issue here... </end quote></div>

Well said and I couldn't agree more.

I was with my dad when he fed some deer once but it sure wasn't wasn't baiting. It was an especially harsh winter in Michigan's upper pennisula decades ago and the number of deer up there was small. The deer that survived hunting season were starving because they couldn't get to any food. He got out his chainsaw and cut down some cedar trees so they could eat the leaves. They ate it but I don't know if it helped in the long run. The the area where the TB problem started out is completely different. My brothers-in-law in Glennie would hit deer by accident and throw them in the truck. In that part of the state you need a pickup with a bull guard, not a rifle and a bait pile. Their freezers always had meat in them. When there are that many deer and they gather around a bait pile they get spit and snot and I don't know what else all over the place. They're all going to catch everything that any one of them has.

 

I think baiting is baiting, whether you plant it in the ground and grow it or put it in a bin. Either way food has been placed in a certain area to attract deer. Yes, the bin will force the deer into a more confined area, but to me it is no less sporting than a food plot.

 

i now under stand there is going to be a meeting and the ban may be lifted

 

they can ban baiting all they like it wont stop people from doing it.... plus i can look out my windows at dusk under any of the 5 apple trees within view of my yard and see a dozen deer or elk standing nose to nose eating the fallen apples.

I have 0 issues with people planting food plots rather than baiting deer. 1 it improves the overall health of the herd 2 it gives them a place to forage for food rather than going into farms...... but the food plot if you decide to plant one should be done logically rather than just planted to harvest deer for yourself. they should be well thought out makin sure that your food plot is large enough to support more deer than you know to be in your direct area so that they can spread out and forage thru it rather than being all cramped together. Deer arent really social creatures and tend to prefer their own space especially when feeding. Yes you normally see them travelling in herds but even within the heard their is typically rivalries. You should also have some way to section off parts of the food plot so they dont get over foraged and destroy the whole field (an expensive option but what i feel a necessary option)

Another problem with baiting is that the deer become accustomed to the bait piles and when people bait deer from september till january the deer wont leave the area and travel usually many miles to a safe winter spot where they will bed down and limit their movements thus putting a further strain on the herd of deer that you would typically see in the area.

since im off on a rant might as well keep going with it.... Wanna know what really pisses me off... the yahoos from southern michigan that come up a week before rifle season with a bunch of buddies get loaded and fire off their guns right where they are hunting..... they have gun ranges down state USE THEM!!! I hate having to move my tree stand mid season cuz some tard comes up and start rattling off 100 rounds cuz he doesnt know how to sight in his gun and gives all the deer ive spent months tracking and timing which trails he uses and times he usually travels them a BIG F"N ALARM CLOCK WARNING! plus it is no fun walking swamps in a ton of clothing. Now that michigan in some counties is having an early antlerless fire arm season in 2 weeks ive already started hearing guns being sighted in, and have noticed that the deer i would normally see at certain times have changed patterns already. I do realize that this isnt all down staters we have idiots up here as well.

Oh well.... Happy hunting guys!

not sure any of that makes any sense but i dont feel like rereading it to make sure LOL

 

My dad use to talk about a place near Glennie where it sounds like WWIII when 1 deer walks by and a bunch of yahoos from Detroit all open fire at once. That's why he hunted in the U.P.

Another thing that pisses me off is "hunters" who cut down live decades-old trees with high powered rifles where I camp. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img] Fricken azzholes. Not to mention all the cigarette butts and trash, and a potty pit dug 10 feet uphill of the creek I drink out of. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img] I don't even hunt anymore because it's not safe for me to be around people like that when I have a loaded gun in my hands. I do my shooting then go home before the slob hunters show up.

 

We have the second largest deer herd in the states.Baiting is illegal.But it goes on next to our private lease(2400acres)We plant corn,soy beans,and wheat fields.Our herd is very healthy.I have taken more bucks by watching crossings,than ever looking over a pile of corn.I have hunted west Texas for over ten years,and the ranches supplement the ranch with feeders.They have a lot of deer,aqnd most seem to be healthy.The single most thing that is a bother in my state is dog deer hunting.Those hunters do not know where the land lines are.

 

My biggest gripe is lease hunters and outfitters. They lease ground next door to me and get over $2500 a gun for deer season. The ground is essentially all farm field with a few fence rows of timber. As soon as these out of state beasterds get here over the fence they come to hunt on my ground. Plainly marked with purple paint and posted both physically and in the newspaper. They do the same thing in turkey season and they get something on the order of 1500 per gun.

Half the time I can't enjoy hunting season because I'm spending all my time running people off my property. A couple of years ago one came extremely close to being killed because he was a half a mile into my property where no one should have been. He came within microseconds of being accidentally shot and killed.

It's getting stopped this year. I've already arranged for the sheriff and DNR officer to come down to their camp as soon as they show up and read them the riot act. Sheriff says if I catch one on my land this years he's hauling all of them into jail and the DNR guy is going to charge them as well.

I have had it. The guy who owns the property is making a ton of money. The outfitter is making a ton of money. They're not making it off of their property, they're making it off of mine and I don't see one thin dime. All I get is aggravation. It is gonna stop this year one way or another.

 

CaptainQuint: it seems that we have the same problem, a guy that boarders the rear of my mothers property is a total *****. about 12 years ago a church group came to our property in the winter time (not hunting season) and a little girl and her mother happened to cross onto his property. they never realized it untill the county sheriff shows up and both of them were arrested for tresspassing.

now the same guy "leases" his land to city hunters who seem to sit right on the property fence line. you can tell when these guys are shooting at deer because there are 4 shots one right after another, they don't look for there game for more that 5 min. and if they don't find it they quit looking. i can tell you that we find about 3 deer a season in the thick brush where they exipred. there is no use for meat because they have bullet holes riddled throughout them (i mean if they were any good we would donate the meat).

last year the group of the hunters took a deer the night before season opened, we called the DEC (Environmental Conservation) and they got slammed hard. next morning the guys packed up camp and head home.

now it seems that the asswipe property owner looses a box of roofing nails in our driveway / road every spring. the police also have record of this.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: GunnSmoke

now it seems that the asswipe property owner looses a box of roofing nails in our driveway / road every spring. the police also have record of this.</end quote></div>









What goes around comes around....

I also have had some of the same problems on my property w/ people destroying my trails, deer stands, etc... Some intentional and some not.

 

Ok ...I have read all the post related to this topic.now I have to give my 2 cents worth.
I'm an avid deer hunter as well as a Sportsman, to me baiting is for the F ' tards that know how to hunt...and yes it DOES play a huge role in the TB. and in the CWD. We had CWD...in 2 counties over last year here in NewYork. And baiting is ILLEAGAL, also no salt blocks,piles of corn or anything that may attract the deer. Also dogs are a huge no no here, we did untill like 3 yrs ago for Bear ONLY... as far as Big game hunting goes any how.
Then like a few other posts I've read we too get them damn azzholes out from the city that shoot on site.They don't care where they are or even who is around or who's property they are shooting on.
Well enough is enough, The NYSDEC (encon officers) had a robot deer made up from a road kill. Really they do... and They had set it up in my orchard one early evening with permission of course.And I can't belive that they arrested 13 retards that come out with their guns just a blazing at it, and that was from the 1st night. One of the officers had stopped by the following evening to let me know that they are going to be back out there.(I gave them Full permission the night before) and can you belive it shortly before dark...BANG..... then bang,bang,bang,bang WW III all over from the nite before.
If you can't hit what your shooting @ please find a new hobby. MY poor Apples!!! DAMN YOU
I was trying to load a pic of my wife and 4 yr. son feeding a nice doe from his hand...standing in the barns driveway. but for some odd reason I can't get it to load...oh well
Ok now that I've given you all one more post to read... I bid you Happy Hunting



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2001 Polaris Sportsman 500 H.O.
2000 Polaris TrailBoss 350 4x4
1998 Polaris Indy Lite Deluxe (Kids sled)