Baiting yes or no

[dave n]

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.


Well said . :thumbsup: . Not all , but a lot of states have gotten this way . From what little I know and or read , a lot of southern states are that way .

 

[roundball]

Well said . :thumbsup: . Not all , but a lot of states have gotten this way . From what little I know and or read , a lot of southern states are that way.

Southern states have extremely long crop growing seasons due to the climate and rainfall..."food on the table" for a long time every year. And no "winter kill" like the colder northern states have.
NC's current deer herd is sized at 1.35 million.

 

[George]

Baiting is legal for deer in Kentucky, and it's commonly done. I don't do it, but that's a personal decision and not intended as a reflection on what anyone else should or shouldn't do. I also don't hunt with long distance CF guns, scopes, tree stands, tree houses, don't use modern chemical scent controls, etc., etc. None of these things fit into my scheme of things when it comes to hunting, because by far the most important thing to me is the challenge of getting down amongst 'em, where they can see me, hear me, smell me, and then fooling them. Level playing field is a quaint and old fashioned concept, these days, but it suits me just fine. I have never been all wrapped up in killing a deer. That's what I'm there for, of course, and I certainly want to do it, but how I do it is more important to me than if I do it. That's why I get such a kick out of taking them with a flintlock smoothbore with no rear sight and loaded using cedar bark wadding, for instance.

The personal challenge is the main reason I took up BP hunting in the first place. There are much easier, more efficient ways to do it, large game or small, but there is no more satisfying way, for me. I learned to hunt when the world was very different, and hunting was then and is now a very special and personal thing, for me. Doing it with black powder and on their turf makes it more so. All the tricks used to cancel out the deer's natural defenses would only tend to defeat the central purpose of my hunt.

But that's just me.

Spence

 

[rabjr]

The personal challenge is the main reason I took up BP hunting in the first place. There are much easier, more efficient ways to do it, large game or small, but there is no more satisfying way, for me. I learned to hunt when the world was very different, and hunting was then and is now a very special and personal thing, for me. Doing it with black powder and on their turf makes it more so. All the tricks used to cancel out the deer's natural defenses would only tend to defeat the central purpose of my hunt.

Right on Spence. :thumbsup:

 

[garandman]

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.

.

Here in SC, the herd is so large, the deer are committing suicide by car.

 

[cynthialee]

4 years ago here in Stevens county the deer were so thick the highways were littered with deer corpses every mile or so. When you go from my house to the local post office you will likely spot 20-30 along the way. If you wait till dusk or dawn and watch the alfalfa fields there will be hundreds of them in each field. There is one particular field I have counted about 200 before I gave up and stoped counting. (right next to the field that wild toms turkeys gather, I would love to hunt that property)
Yet the hunting regulations seem very tight to me. You'd think that we had too few deer around here which is patently untrue. In the two larger towns nearby they have deer right in the city itself, grazing grand ma's flower beds and craping up the yards. Yet the regulations still read like they think that the deer are just a step away from extinction....

 

[Okie Hog]

Baiting is legal on private property in OK. i don't call it baiting rather supplemental feeding. We run feeders on two properties year round, depending on the weather. Last summer was the hottest and driest on record here in SW OK. Because of our feeding some fawns survived that would otherwise have died of starvation.

We do not shoot deer under feeders; we do shoot hogs under feeders or anywhere else they are found.

 

[armymedic.2]

the pheasants dissapearing has much more to do with "clean farming" than overharvesting.

picking a field of corn now, vs then, the amount of waste is so much less now there is not all that much to eat for the wildlife. we also used to harvest field by field, not ten fields in one day....and way slower.....and leave the hedgerows as a windblock, not clear them to gain the 2 acres around the edge of the field.

just sayin' -from a farmer- farmers are a terrible thing for wildlife when yield clouds judgement on sustainability. the two rarely go together.

 

[luieb45]

There's some new techniques that may be catching on that may be able to reclaim some of the upland habitat but it'll never be like it once was. What they're trying to get started is for people grass buffers between their fields and timber because what some guys are toying with they are finding out that by not planting that close to the timber that they have improved yields a bit and save some money so if this would get started as a trend and catch on it could really be good.

 

[mfim]

Legal in Michigan, We use food plots and a no hunt area to keep does in our 120 acres,We do not hunt on the plots. The main aspect I do not like about baiting, is every gas station has pallet loads of everything from apples to sugarbeets piled around the gas pumps. This makes for a lot of anti-hunter sentiment. Which we can do with out as we have plenty.

 

[mfim]

Keep a sharp eye on the car insurance lobbiests. They want e v e r y deer in Michigan gone.

 

[William O.]

Keep a sharp eye on the car insurance lobbiests. They want e v e r y deer in Michigan gone.

Sad but true, and insurance companies pretty much dictate to the legislators here in Texas.

 

[Jblk]

I dont believe in baiting, electronic calls,trail cameras or four wheelers.If you need all of these props to get your game youre not much of a hunter.

 

[cynthialee]

I dont believe in baiting, electronic calls,trail cameras or four wheelers.If you need all of these props to get your game youre not much of a hunter.

I am not strong like a man. If I need to borrow the neighbors 4 wheeler to help me get a deer out of the brush, I am going to do so. And for baiting, with the rest of the hunters in the area baiting, how is a person suppossed to compete and get a tag filled?

 

[roundball]

STATEMENT #1
I dont believe in baiting, electronic calls,trail cameras or four wheelers.
STATEMENT #2
If you need all of these props to get your game youre not much of a hunter.

I am not strong like a man. If I need to borrow the neighbors 4 wheeler to help me get a deer out of the brush, I am going to do so. And for baiting, with the rest of the hunters in the area baiting, how is a person suppossed to compete and get a tag filled?

Agree...and it's not just limited to women...various limitations apply equally to men depending on possible medical situations from age / strength / heart conditions / wheelchairs, etc.

The first half of his comment (STATEMENT #1) is fine...talks about HIS personal choice.
The second half of his comment (STATEMENT #2) is completely out of line.

And predictably common from a tiny majority of posters on hunting forums who try to thump their chest by making demeaning comments about others.

Just ignore...go legally do whatever you decide YOU want to do, and enjoy!
:thumbsup:

 

[ryanhogg]

Not all baiting is equal. I don't see a big issue with putting a few apples out in a shooting lane to stop a deer for a good shot , or get him in a better position or something. When you have an auto corn feeder with a Pavlovian rattle and a trail camera i think it gets a little more like shopping.