Since Your state is going to allow baiting you should put out a feeder and you will see it's not as easy as you think to kill a mature buck over a feeder.
Georgia Baiting
- Thread starter THE LLC
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MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
Yes! A debate!
Food plotting is not baiting.
It's as much baiting as putting a little pee in a scrape dripper or man made improvements to a bedding area, both also attractants.
Unless you have an 8' fence around your plot and can keep the gate closed until you want to hunt, it's not baiting. You can replenish a bait pile, you cannot replenish a food plot or time and regulate consumption. In a food plot, you have to put your "bait" out months in advance, you have no idea how much you'll have come season, and there are no do-overs or add-ons.
Food plotting is not baiting.
It's as much baiting as putting a little pee in a scrape dripper or man made improvements to a bedding area, both also attractants.
Unless you have an 8' fence around your plot and can keep the gate closed until you want to hunt, it's not baiting. You can replenish a bait pile, you cannot replenish a food plot or time and regulate consumption. In a food plot, you have to put your "bait" out months in advance, you have no idea how much you'll have come season, and there are no do-overs or add-ons.
THE LLC
Well-Known Member
Can't justify the expense just to kill a deer.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Aren't we all baiting, or taking advantage of a primal drive of some sort? I certainly do! I hunt a deer's drive for food and security by trying to be between their nightly food source and bedding area's every morning and evening. I take advantage of their sex drive by hunting travel corridors during the rut. I keep track of scrape liines and try to take advantage of their social drive. I use decoys to illicit territorial behaviors to my advantage. I do all sorts of baiting! But I'm like that... I even fish ponds where the fish can't get away, and I'll even use live bait sometimes! 
I don't post a lot of pics of what I shoot but I've been somewhat successful in hunting (by my standards). Guess you could say I'm a masturbater.
I don't post a lot of pics of what I shoot but I've been somewhat successful in hunting (by my standards). Guess you could say I'm a masturbater.
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
Whack on brother!Aren't we all baiting, or taking advantage of a primal drive of some sort? I certainly do! I hunt a deer's drive for food and security by trying to be between their nightly food source and bedding area's every morning and evening. I take advantage of their sex drive by hunting travel corridors during the rut. I keep track of scrape liines and try to take advantage of their social drive. I use decoys to illicit territorial behaviors to my advantage. I do all sorts of baiting! But I'm like that... I even fish ponds where the fish can't get away, and I'll even use live bait sometimes!
I don't post a lot of pics of what I shoot but I've been somewhat successful in hunting (by my standards). Guess you could say I'm a masturbater.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
whacken and stacken!I have a cure for when your plots run out of food before season is over; throw-n-mow some corn into that plot!
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Semisane
Active Member
Having mature bucks come to a feeder during daylight hours is not the norm for me. But here's the thing - the does hit the spin feeders almost as soon as they go off, and the bucks occasionally peek out of the brush around the perimeter of the plots to check out the does (almost always down wind from the feeder).
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150# of corn in a timed feeder set for 8 seconds your choice morning or evenings should last a month or more at $5.00 for 50# bag not a to big of a expense.
Yep, I have two feeders and put 200-250lbs in each and it lasts me the whole season. It’s not there to feed the deer, just to attract them.
I spend a whole lot more on putting in food plots each year than I do on corn, way more.
Everyone has their own opinions and I’m sure none of us are going to change our minds about it due to this thread. My 2 cents - one way or the other, we’re trying to attract deer or put ourselves in the path of what the deer are attracted to...I personally don’t believe one person’s method is any better than another’s, just as long as it is legal...
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Drycreek
Well-Known Member
It's the same in Texas in lots of places. Deer leases are the norm here, and in ETexas much of it is on timber company property. Pine timber is sacrosanct so most places food plots can't be done. I'm on one such place, but we were lucky enough to have a few places where the seedlings didn't take so that's where we planted the last couple years. After two years of doing almost all of it myself, I said to hell with it and if deer don't show at their feeders, I guess they won't kill any. I will plant my plot in wheat as usual.
In the other parts of the state, rocky ground, cow pastures, etc. keep lots of guys from plotting. That, and most of them have no equipment, knowledge, or desire to plant deer groceries. Some guys lease hundreds of miles from where they live, so that's a problem too. A trip every couple months to fill the corn slingers and the protein feeders and they're good to go. Different strokes.........
Well I'll jump in here. When VT allowed baiting, I used to work diligently from the time apples ripened to keep a schedule of X number of buckets of apples every other day up to and thru bow season. I started bowhunting as it was the only time does were legal and wanted the venison. The apples spread out at a known distance from my stand took out the guesswork involved for picking a pin on my bow. When VT outlawed baiting, I started looking into food plotting and habitat management. I enjoy it alot and seeing deer and other wildlife come to my plots that I created is alot of satisfaction. Would I start with the apples if it were allowed again? Maybe, dont know. I guess my main feeling is if its legal, I wont bash anyone for doing it. Its all about the experience and if sitting over corn or apples or a plot makes it a more enjoyable experience for you, go for it.
Then why do so many want to bait and defend it so fiercely?
And the equating food plots to baiting is the biggest lot of BS I’ve ever heard. A recent podcast framed it perfectly. The host told the story of climbing a mountain. They started early in the morning, exhausting hike. They get to the summit to enjoy the view and the accomplishment — along with dozens of others that had driven their cars to the same location, via a road on the other side of the mountain. Who enjoyed the view better, the plotter or the baiter? There’s no question.
With that said I do not oppose baiting because I begrudge the deer that baiters kill. I don’t really have a problem with people taking animals that way, although it seems a bit cheap. I oppose it because I believe it changes the behavior of the deer herd in general, and makes the hunting experience less enjoyable for everyone. I also believe it promotes the spread of disease like CWD.
Liberalization of baiting regs is the hunting world’s version of caving to the entitled.
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MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
What's crazy, is that MN is dead certain baiting is spreading CWD and will lead to the destruction of the resource (which they want anyway). Personally, I don't care what anyone does as long as it's not in my back yard. I think environment plays a huge part in it. Up where I'm at, baiting would completely change the hunt because our natural food goes to near zero once the snow flies.
I have listened to land managers talk about hunting the brush country of texas, and what i heard is if they don't have feeders out, they'd never get a deer to come out of the brush, and the populations would explode higher.
That's how I feel anyway.
I have listened to land managers talk about hunting the brush country of texas, and what i heard is if they don't have feeders out, they'd never get a deer to come out of the brush, and the populations would explode higher.
That's how I feel anyway.
possum
Active Member
I’ve deer hunted in north GA (where baiting just became legal) for going on 22 years.
I’ve seen many changes in those years. Here’s a few...
The length of season has been increase at least 3 times I can remember. It’s about a month longer now than it was in the 90s.
A muzzle loader season was created. First it was open sights only then at some point scopes were allowed.
Crossbows were once only allowed for handicapped hunters, I think about 15 years ago they became legal for all.
The limit on deer was 5 in a season in the 90s. It’s increaed several times and now stands at twelve. 2 bucks, 10 does.
And now most recent change is baiting deer is allowed.
The thing is, Back in the late 90s early 2000s everyone shot everything up here. Deer where everywhere and hunting was pretty easy.
Since then the deer population has been falling year after year.
Most hunters that don’t have really good quality land complain about low deer numbers.
I think the state wants to keep the deer numbers low as possible and they compensate by giving hunters more advantages and making the sport so easy any moron can be sucsessful and kill deer.
The hunters in this state will gladly take any tool allowed to make themselves more sucsessful at killing a deer so they can pat each other’s backs at think they are great hunters.
In a few years there will be a new topic and change being considered.
Sometimes I wish it would go back to how it used to be. More deer but more skill required to hunt them.
Luckily for me I hunt public land mostly where baiting isn’t allowed and I can hunt deer the same way I did 20+ years ago. I feel bad for all the little huntclubs where everyone is going to be competing with each other on how much bait they can put out. And I feel bad for the kids that are entering the sport and learning less about the ways of nature and just learning how to hunt like they do on tv.
I’ve seen many changes in those years. Here’s a few...
The length of season has been increase at least 3 times I can remember. It’s about a month longer now than it was in the 90s.
A muzzle loader season was created. First it was open sights only then at some point scopes were allowed.
Crossbows were once only allowed for handicapped hunters, I think about 15 years ago they became legal for all.
The limit on deer was 5 in a season in the 90s. It’s increaed several times and now stands at twelve. 2 bucks, 10 does.
And now most recent change is baiting deer is allowed.
The thing is, Back in the late 90s early 2000s everyone shot everything up here. Deer where everywhere and hunting was pretty easy.
Since then the deer population has been falling year after year.
Most hunters that don’t have really good quality land complain about low deer numbers.
I think the state wants to keep the deer numbers low as possible and they compensate by giving hunters more advantages and making the sport so easy any moron can be sucsessful and kill deer.
The hunters in this state will gladly take any tool allowed to make themselves more sucsessful at killing a deer so they can pat each other’s backs at think they are great hunters.
In a few years there will be a new topic and change being considered.
Sometimes I wish it would go back to how it used to be. More deer but more skill required to hunt them.
Luckily for me I hunt public land mostly where baiting isn’t allowed and I can hunt deer the same way I did 20+ years ago. I feel bad for all the little huntclubs where everyone is going to be competing with each other on how much bait they can put out. And I feel bad for the kids that are entering the sport and learning less about the ways of nature and just learning how to hunt like they do on tv.
This pretty much sums up how I feel about it. If anything bothers me about baiting, it’s the attempts to justify it by equating it to a food plot. I’ve run feeders legally and done non-tractor food plots for years, and they aren’t close to being the same in terms of effort....or gratification (in my opinion).
I have a two acre foodplot - wheat and durana clover. It is my wife’s foodplot. She hunts it during bow, ml, and modern gun season. I have two granddaughters who will come down for a few days to hunt with a crossbow. We put corn out in the edge of that foodplot in front of a ground blind for them to hunt out of. My property is about 1.5 miles long and that food plot is in the middle. Every buck I have on camera visited that foodplot. Almost everyone of them visited during daylight when my wife was there. We had a texting camera on the corn pile. More than once, my wife would text me and ask if she should shoot a deer that was in front of the texting camera. Now, to my point - i would guess less than half the deer that visited that foodplot came to the corn pile. More did visit at night - including does and small bucks - but it is odd that they would be feeding on clover and wheat, in the daytime, in the broad open, and not walk over to the corn pile. I have a small clover foodplot of about 3/4 acre and a hanging feeder 20 yards inside the woods that I use primarily for striking squirrels and coons when I hunt with my Mt Cur. I have a camera on the feeder and a camera on the foodplot. I easily average five times as many deer in the clover as on the corn. My point being - on MY ground - we see MANY more deer in foodplots than on a corn pile. The only Hunters on my ground we would put on a corn pile are young kids needing a deer positioned close to them for a good shot with a crossbow. When they graduate to a rifle - they hunt the foodplots because we see so many more deer there.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
I think that is a very situational question. Stated they way you did... absolutely yes. Known yardage, predictable times, predictable body placement, etc. Hunting pressure and goals make it different though. I've run the gauntlet in trying stuff. At one time I was dumping a pile of corn that weighed 600lbs and hunting over it for a month. Those seasons usually resulted in tag soup. Not because I didn't have shots at "deer", but because I didn't have shots at the deer I "wanted". Now I don't use corn but I do plant plots (I consider it parallel to corn but much more enjoyable for me) and try to hunt 1/2 to 1 mile away from them. Success for me is much easier this way. But remember... I'm after antlers and not just "deer".
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