Baiting yes or no

[dave n]

No , I wouldn't . Just doesn't seem right . Even if your state gives you their permission . It's like your out to harvest meat not hunt for your meat .
If this was a couple hundred yrs ago and it meant surviving , no problem .
I personally have a lot of respect for the animals I hunt and to sit over bait for the kill just doesn't seem right .
Don't mean to offend any one its just that I have a strong opinion on that topic . :v

 

[Rat Trapper]

The problem with this thread is it puts hunters against each other. If you do not care for this method of hunting you are free to do it your way, but lets not fight with each other. There are plenty of anti hunting types to fight with if that's what you guys want. The anti hunting people just love it when we go at each other. If it is legal, leave it at that.

 

[roundball]

The problem with this thread is it puts hunters against each other. If you do not care for this method of hunting you are free to do it your way, but lets not fight with each other. There are plenty of anti hunting types to fight with if that's what you guys want. The anti hunting people just love it when we go at each other. If it is legal, leave it at that.

Amen...

Yes, a very controversial subject that usually starts sliding into the ditch because of different POVs on some issues:

What actually constitutes baiting?
Is it legal or not?
Does it contribute to CWD or not?
Is it really hunting or not?
Aren't food plots really baiting too?
Aren't agricultural fields baiting too?
If leases on both sides of you bait you'll never see a deer unless you also bait;
And on and on and on.....

Some additional thoughts...
It's really nobody elses business if anyone sits over a picked cornfield that already has residual kernels of corn scattered on it...or buys and scatters some kernels of corn on that field...or sits over an apple orchard...or a soybean field, etc. If they're on their own property / lease and what they do is legal, that's it.

No different than the debate about folks hunting with modern MLs. We get a certain number of deer tags...Hunter-A can use a modern ML on his land/lease to fill his tags, Hunter-B can use a Flintlock on his land/lease to fill his tags.
Neither knows what the other guy is using and it makes zero difference to either one.

Or...how about when someone gets on in years to the point where eyesight starts to go and their only choices are to give up hunting or stick an 'Aimpoint' or a 'scope' on a sidelock?
We would hope nobody would claim that unethical...

 

[Flintlock58]

Amen to all that too!!!

 

No , I wouldn't . Just doesn't seem right . Even if your state gives you their permission . It's like your out to harvest meat not hunt for your meat.

No matter how we kill it, it's harvesting. All the other "hunting procedures" we make up are just games in our head. Killing is killing. We like to think we're giving the animal a "sporting chance". IMO

 

[dave n]

Holy moly , trust me when I say that I for one am not pitting myself against someone elses way of hunting . We have enough of a battle against the antis and politics . I read.the original question to be for our opinions and thoughts . And I for one always have an opinion :grin:
Living would be pretty boaring if we all were the same In our thoughts and actions .
Sorry , can't leave this one alone :wink: but harvesting is for crops , animals are culled or killed :v

 

[roundball]

:grin: ...this is what always happens...semantics.

< snip > WEBSTER

har·vest [hahr-vist] Show IPA

1. Also, har·vest·ing. the gathering of crops.

2. the season when ripened crops are gathered.

3. a crop or yield of one growing season.

4. a supply of anything gathered at maturity and stored: a harvest of wheat.

5. the result or consequence of any act, process, or event

6. to gather (a crop or the like); reap.

7. to gather the crop from: to harvest the fields.

8. to gain, win, acquire, or use (a prize, product, or result of any past act, process, plan, etc.).

9. to catch, take, or remove for use: Fishermen harvested hundreds of salmon from the river.

 

[No Deer]

As long as it is legal (it wasn't for a couple of recent years here in Michigan, but last year they made it legal again) I see nothing wrong with it. When I go fishing, I use a worm, or fly. Don't see any difference.

 

[garandman]

Lemme start by saying I'm not a hunter...yet. Just never got a roundtuit. Not opposed to it.

That said...

I don't get the "baiting is not sportsmanlike" thing.

First off, the goal is to KILL the animal. Secondly, the animal is unarmed, so its not like "fairness" plays in, anyway.

And if baiting gets the animal to set still for a moment longer, so a clean kill shot is more likely, then its unsportsmanlike NOT to bait.

As long as animal populations are maintained, and the kills are clean without unnecessary sufferring, then bait away.

 

Lemme start by saying I'm not a hunter...yet. Just never got a roundtuit. Not opposed to it.

That said...

I don't get the "baiting is not sportsmanlike" thing.

First off, the goal is to KILL the animal. Secondly, the animal is unarmed, so its not like "fairness" plays in, anyway.

And if baiting gets the animal to set still for a moment longer, so a clean kill shot is more likely, then its unsportsmanlike NOT to bait.

As long as animal populations are maintained, and the kills are clean without unnecessary sufferring, then bait away.

Ah, the truth, very well stated. :thumbsup:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

If you are going to bait, why not just mix the bait with a sedative and check the bait pile during TV commercial breaks. No need to shoot it, or sit out in the cold, just slit the unconscious animal's throat.

No need to worry about shooting to close to your neighbor's house, or the warden hearing the shot. Use TranqBait!

 

[fyrfyter43]

In larger woodlots where I have plenty of room to hunt, I don't bait.

However, I hunt several TINY properties where I really have no choice but to bait. In 2 different cases, there is only about an acre, maybe 2, of huntable woods (that I can get permission for). On one of those properties, I literally have about a 20 yard circle where I can set up because of safety concerns and property lines.

These are situations where the landowner wants a couple deer taken each year just to help keep their numbers in check, but they don't own enough land to hunt effectively. In both of these cases, there are spots within 100-200 yards where I could readily take deer without using bait, but those spots are off-limits to me. So, I use a small amount of bait to draw the deer far enough off their normal travel route to allow a shot. I don't bait heavily. I'm not dumping a bag of corn on the ground and sitting over it. I may use a full bag at each of those spots over the course of the entire 2 1/2 month season.

 

[garandman]

If you are going to bait, why not just mix the bait with a sedative and check the bait pile during TV commercial breaks. No need to shoot it, or sit out in the cold, just slit the unconscious animal's throat.

No need to worry about shooting to close to your neighbor's house, or the warden hearing the shot. Use TranqBait!

I say use exploding bait. It'll field dress the sucker for ya, too.

"Boomer Bait"... hunting without the hassle. :stir:

 

[Rat Trapper]

The price of corn is going to go up! If you use it you had better lay in a good supply real soon or expect to pay through the nose later on. No rain in the midwest has really hurt the corn crop.

 

[Sperit de bois]

If you and others kill 5-6 deer a year ,,I have to wonder how long it will be before you look around asking.,"Where have all the deer gone,why I use to kill 5-6 deer a year."
Was a time when we had Passenger Pidgons,Bison, by the estimated millions,,,,,,,,,,,
Not judging,,, just asking a retorical question.
If it's legal and you want to ,,,go for it.. It's all about choices just like what you hunt with as far as weapons,dress,state.
When I lived in GA they hunt/run deer with dogs,it's legal there,where I live now it isnt.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

When I was a kid, Lancaster County PA was the world's hot spot for ring neck pheasants. If you went pheasant hunting at 7 am and weren't back home with your limit by 8:30, you must have driven more than 45 minutes each way to your spot. I often shot two in the morning with a 22 before the school bus arrived.

Now just seeing one a year is amazing

 

[roundball]

If you and others kill 5-6 deer a year ,,I have to wonder how long it will be before you look around asking.,"Where have all the deer gone,why I use to kill 5-6 deer a year."
Was a time when we had Passenger Pidgons,Bison, by the estimated millions,,,,,,,,,,,
Not judging,,, just asking a retorical question.
If it's legal and you want to ,,,go for it.. It's all about choices just like what you hunt with as far as weapons,dress,state.
When I lived in GA they hunt/run deer with dogs,it's legal there,where I live now it isnt.

But to be fair and give some balance to the comparison, there was zero knowledge of or involvement by states with any sort of seasons or wildlife management as we know it today. Not saying Wildlife Departments are flawless but at least here in NC...and I think many states...the whitetail herds just continue to get bigger and bigger, continuing to be a problem for farmers, insurance companies, etc.

Our tag limits here have crept all the way up to 6 tags over the past 10-15 years but the herd size keeps expanding anyway.
So they added unlimited bonus Doe tags in hopes hunters would help keep it in check, but the herd size just keeps expanding.
They've added Sunday bow hunting, but that hasn't increased the overall take.
They've implemented crossbows but that hasn't increased the overall take.

Subdivisions are getting more and more deer living in the wooded sections...we routinely see Does and Bucks wandering through our back yard any time of day/night...last week a group of 9 were out there...one a dandy 10 pointer in velvet I posted here a week ago. So they implemented "Urban Archery Programs" making it legal for people to bow hunt inside of sub-divisions...but the herd size keeps expanding.

With hunter numbers steadily declining, adding extra tags, even adding bonus doe tags, adding extra days in the season, etc, there are still not enough deer being taken out to check the herd growth...after you've killed 6-8 deer you run out of people you know to give them away to.

So they rejuvenated programs like "Hunters for the Hungry" to help but that hasn't been a solution...still a lot of time and work to deliver a dressed, skinned deer usually late at night after dark for busy working folks to bother with.

A typical hunter might get out and take a deer or two on average...but the few for whom hunting is a real big part of their lives and hunt as long as the season / tags allow just don't exist in large enough numbers to take enough deer to check the growth of the herd.

I may be wrong but I think today's State Wildlife Management Departments...generally speaking...have a pretty reasonable grip on things and I don't believe the results of the 'market hunter' days will happen again.

 

[buttonbuck]

Illinois has a lot of deer but they have revised the liberal hunting seasons in some counties. I agree that despite cutting the DNR by 1/2 they still do a good job. My family eats a lot of deer. I do not bait and agree with Jethro. Here I think that a lot of deer are being driven to subdivisions because of hunting pressure. If I take 4 or 5 with my kids a year we eat the 4 or 5 deer. If we get a good amount we make more jerky and sausage.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

OK well for the folks who don't think baiting can be a part of hunting, or who don't think that such was done by real hunters who used what we now call traditional firearms, here's some tradition for you...,

As I was returning home, I found that a haystack in the glades, which had been strongly salted, and had stood over winter, was resorted to by the deer for the sake of the salt, and it seemed as if they were at it every evening and morning. Browning p. 323

The way to make a deer-lick with common salt, is to select a place where the deer have found a crossing, and near which is a tree, on which a convenient seat can be arranged at considerable elevation. Then take a small stake, drive it into the ground to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, and fill the hole made with it with clean alum-salt. Make three or four such holes, fill them all, and sprinkle a little salt over the ground around them. The deer will soon find the place, and come often to lick the salt, while the hunter, sitting high up in the tree, has every chance of obtaining fair shot at them. Browning pp. 393 - 394.

From Forty-Four Years of The Life of a Hunter: Being the reminiscences of Meshach Browning, a Maryland Hunter. published in 1859

The book covers the author's life from 1795 - 1839. He not only notes two ways deer were bated, but also the use of the tree stand. Now I don't use bait nor tree stands at this time, but I would not suggest that it isn't an authentic nor traditional method.

LD

 

Way back when, when people had to kill their own food, I suspect that they killed it any way they could, including bait or running it off a cliff. But today, we have the morally guided "Sportsman", who wants to give the animal a "sporting chance".

If you want to bait - do it. If you don't - don't. I don't even understand why this question keeps coming up?