Baiting, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Rusty]

Over the past 20 years I’ve been a part of the taking of over 1,000 deer by dozens of hunters on both public and private properties. I've spent several hundred hours watching hunters on stand during management hunts, and during that time I’ve been able to draw some conclusions about baiting.

 

Under certain circumstances baiting can greatly improve the chances of seeing and taking deer, including mature bucks.  But under other circumstances baiting reduces the chances of seeing and harvesting deer.

 

On private and lightly hunted public property where the amount of bait that's put out can be strictly controlled baiting can be very effective.  Timed feeders are an effective way to do this; they release a small amount of feed each day that is cleaned up before dark.

 

But on more heavily hunted land, baiting causes a decrease in both the number of deer seen and the number of deer harvested. When numerous people dump piles of corn throughout the woods the deer quickly learn to feed at night.

 

Baiting can be a great tool when it's used properly, but unfortunately unlimited baiting on public lands has seriously lowered the quality of the hunting experience on our public lands.

[Rusty]

Matt said he wants to get some posts going in the Wildlife Management forum, so I will recycle some of my old posts form "the site that shall not be named".    

Edited January 4, 2014 by Rusty

[Hatchet]

I haven't baited in years . Was baiting on state land but that just lead to others cutting it off. I hunt a small private piece in z19 n I wouldn't bait there just cause it's mostly oaks n realy no need to. Well I would see a few doe here n there, a few nice buck but they seemed to like walk'n just on the other side of the property line. This year a realy nice 8 , had me so mad that I went against that thought of not bait'n. I put out a small amount of apples , sweet taters , n some corn a week before 6day, n through out the same amount the Saturday before.I had more deer in front of me than I had seen since hunting that spot. Had a 5 point n a bunch of spikes bout 10 different doe. But no sign of the 8 . So does it help ? yea in that I saw more deer than previous years but not the one I wanted.

[BHC]

I hunt on public land no baiting allowed, I do have access to 40 acres that boarders this public land, the owner will not allow hunting cause of past hunters causing problems so with that said I can do anything but hunt, even track game if need be. I have my cams on his land cause over the years it's a known bedding area. Matty remember where you found my deer near those thick pines? Those pines and beyond is the private land. Now I do bait with my cams over them and use it for seeing whats coming thru. But as a whole I would like baiting to stop, but that is just my opinion and I wouldn't tell anyone how to hunt.......Just go out and enjoy your time

[Palawman30]

Personally Id like to see an end to baiting especially with CWD spreading eastward and northward. No reason to try and congregate deer to shoot them. What did guys do before bait?

They hunted!

[Rusty]

Personally Id like to see an end to baiting.  No reason to try and congregate deer to shoot them. What did guys do before bait?  They hunted!

 

Things have changed drastically in the past 20 years.  Bow hunting in residential areas to control deer herds is huge now.  And on these hunts you can't scout out the best spots to hunt and set up wherever you want.  Deer have to be brought in to the few areas where it is safe and legal to shoot them.  Without baiting many of these hunts could not succeed. 

Edited January 4, 2014 by Rusty

[Palawman30]

Things have changed drastically in the past 20 years.  Bow hunting in residential areas to control deer herds is huge now.  And on these hunts you can't scout out the best spots to hunt and set up wherever you want.  Deer have to be brought in to the few areas where it is safe and legal to shoot them.  Without baiting many of these hunts could not succeed. 

 

I understand completely but what about the effects of artificially congregating deer in high numbers? Doesn't anyone worry about disease spreading like wildfire?

Didn't jersey have an issue the last few years with the midge fly causing blue tongue?

CWD was just found in Bedford county Pa. We now have 3 or 4 counties with positive results for cwd. Maryland also has had some positives.

What happens when not if it hits jersey?

[_X7]

Baiting is hypocritical at best. You need it to draw deer in to harvest them while at the same time you are encouraging their numbers. Especially, when the deer turn nocturnal and nothing but cars present a danger. It is my belief that baiting actually keeps more deer alive than it kills..

[BHC]

it's a fact baiting can help the spread of CWD

[Palawman30]

Baiting is hypocritical at best. You need it to draw deer in to harvest them while at the same time you are encouraging their numbers. Especially, when the deer turn nocturnal and nothing but cars present a danger. It is my belief that baiting actually keeps more deer alive than it kills..

 

Mike there is no doubt the deer know its there and when the safest time is to go get it.

[BHC]

Mike there is no doubt the deer know its there and when the safest time is to go get it.

same can be said about bears

[Axiom]

You guys can say what you want about baiting.. Bottom line is this.. Hunters bait for a veriety of reasons but mostly because it works.. however, i've pretty much come to the conclusion its pretty much useless for bagging big bucks... 

[Palawman30]

You guys can say what you want about baiting.. Bottom line is this.. Hunters bait for a veriety of reasons but mostly because it works.. however, i've pretty much come to the conclusion its pretty much useless for bagging big bucks... 

 

 

So is frontal shots with a bow BUT we still have those out there attempting them...............Just saying......    

[Matty]

Many of you stated a lot of good reasons for why I kind of "hate" baiting. I also hate that it seems to have become a huge crutch for so many hunters. And sadly it's often not done in a way to effectively help them, but actually makes hunting harder as Rusty stated. I also "hate" that it can cause social issues among hunters on public lands.

 

All that being said, I do see it's benefits.

 

For at least a few years I participated in one of the management hunts that Rusty runs, so I saw everything that he's talking about.

 

Without going into a lot of detail on the location, I will say that it was very "tight" in a pretty affluent residential area and without feeders, killing enough deer on this hunt to make an impact wouldn't have been possible.

 

As most know, most deer will follow the same trails and feed in the same spots. So if those spots are not accessible to the hunters, it makes for extremely slow management. With baiting we were able to make huge impacts on the resident herd and eventually they stopped the hunt. I guess they didn't know that deer could breed. LOL

 

So without a maintenance harvest taking place, the population started to explode again, didn't take long before they invited Rusty back to manage again.  

 

 

So yes, I'm not really a fan of baiting, but I recognize that it certainly does have it's place. I would like to simply see ways to curb it's use to an extent, but wouldn't want to handcuff proper management by banning it.  

[thefirstndsecond]

How about the elder who hunt? I think baiting on private property for them is cool.

 

On public land it is useless. You can't stop other from hunting your pile. And then there are others who bait near your pile. What's the point?

 

I have an automated feeder I haven't used in 5 years.