To hunters, do you bait your game??

[Senior Citizen]

Originally posted by VonFatman:
No baiting in Missouri either. I only use bait/corn off-season to draw in the bucks to take their picture.

The use of mineral/salt blocks is approved.

Bob

XXXXXXXXXX

BEAUTIFUL.

A deer that size down here would still be in velvet in the middle of Sept. Very nice deer though. Is that the only pic you got of him. He appears to be a main frame 12 point. Is he? Dang that is a fine animal.

SC

 

[JOERM]

He seems a little thin to me. Are you sure he's the one getting the corn?

 

[bobcat]

No baiting allowed in Montana, unless you count cappuccino for the out of staters,

, but that is not in the Fish & Wildlife regs.

When I did a tour in Alberta you could bait bears up there, I don't have a problem with that, the bush is so thick you'd never see one other wise, but the automated deer feeders that have them standing around like a drunk at opening time while you sit in your heated, elevated blind, I can't cotton to that.

All of mine are taken with shoe leather and sweat, and times I've pulled the trigger before I really thought about the distance back to the truck, but I catch 'em, I clean.

Take care...

 

[Rancher]

Yes, we bait here in Texas. Yes, we feed year round with both corn feeders and food plots. I just planted 5 acres of sunflowers and try to never let the corn feeder run dry. My bride and I get a lot of enjoyment out of the game cam pics and the wild hog and occasional deer meat. And finally, yes, we should all support each other, baiters, houndsmen, handgun hunters, bowhunters, WHAT EVER. Assume that if it's legal,it's ethical. The alternative to NOT supporting each other is that the anti's WILL divide and conquer us. Rant off...

 

[cmort666]

The only place I hunt is in rural Missouri, once a year.

Baiting is against game laws. However, the friend on whose land we hunt plants crops which the deer like to eat. Not baiting, but it makes his land attractive to them.

 

[guntownuncle]

Another question is whether or not there is a difference between hunting and just shooting? Hunting would seem to be more along the lines of knowing how an animal behaves, then using that knowledge and other hunting skills to put yourself in a good position to make a kill. Waiting in a stand for an animal previously trained to come to a particular spot for handouts would be more along the lines of shooting.

That being said, I don't really have a problem with either. In fact, sitting in a stand near a feeder is the only way I've ever done it. But I've never called it hunting. Corn fed deer probably taste a little better anyway.

 

[dennis40x]

All I know they're selling deer apples and corn around here. We're up to our --- in deer. Maybe I should but I simply don't care how the hunters take the deer out. Turkeys can be problematic also, so we let hunters do their thing.

 

[Leonard]

WHAT EVER. Assume that if it's legal,it's ethical. The alternative to NOT supporting each other is that the anti's WILL divide and conquer us. Rant off...


This is a good point we have to stand up for each other.

 

[lcdrdanr]

Grew up in South Texas, hunted out of stands with feeders most of my life. Don't consider it "Unethical" any more than I do going to the grocery store to "hunt" up ribeye steaks.

I hunt for meat, can't eat the horns they taste terrible. Harvesting deer from a blind over a feeder is the most efficient, effective method I've found to take an animal quickly, cleanly, and humanely. I've never lost a deer and only had to trail one twice, maximum of 150 yards in the brush.

I don't worry about being "sporting". If I want to hunt deer and give them a sporting chance, I will arrange for them to be equipped with AR-15's and scope sights.

I think taking deer with a center fire rifle from a stand over a feeder is far more humane then shooting at a running deer in front of a pack of dogs (Georgia, Alabama)or using some sort of smoothbore slug gun that might, might hit a dinner plate at 50 yards (Indiana.

But, that's not where I live and I don't have a dog in that hunt!!

Dan R

 

[cass]

Until last year we fed year-round. Corn got tooo expensive, so most of our hunters fed only from August thru Jan. I have no problem with shooting over a feeder, because far more coyotes and hogs are taken than deer. The two best bucks I've taken were from the cab of my tractor, far away from any feeders.

 

[Leonard]

So your a tractor hunter!

 

[ladder13]

It's called killing, not hunting.

 

[Andy Griffith]

You mean harvesting, don't you?

I like deer meat, but I don't care for deer- especially when they become acquainted with a grill. (The type that comes on cars.)

I would be in support of a 75% decrease in deer population in Georgia tomorrow- of course, I don't deer hunt anymore.

I honestly don't think that there is a necessity for a deer season any longer, just open it all year- as the number of sales of hunting licenses have decreased and the population of deer has exploded- I see the need for year round harvesting- so long as they are eaten.

However, I am not a state biologist, and can make no policies- only suggestions.
It is so easy to say anything on the internet.

 

[lcdrdanr]

It's called killing, not hunting.

Could be, it's hard to get the deer to stay still up on the grill if they're still alive. Most hunters I'm acquainted with kill their game before cooking it. And, all that adrenaline pumped into their bloodstream before they die tends to give the meat an unpleasant flavor.

Some pride themselves on being Hunters and stalking the wily, ferocious whitetail but all they take home is the head and the horns and leave the meat to rot. Last time I checked, whitetail deer can't live without their heads so I guess that's killing also.

To each his own, I guess.

Dan R

 

[thelostguide]

Baiting. Dogs, ground sluicing?

Baiting/Dogs- (Very hard to harvest DEER/BEAR in far northern Wisconsin, without either) unless hunting over natural food.

ANOTHER ETHICAL QUESTION....I've always been told when shooting at four legged game, wait for a good stationary, or at most, trotting opportunity in order not to wound the animal but make a good clean kill shot. Okay, but what about game birds? Unsportsmanlike to shoot at without flushing, (no matter how many fly away with some lead pellets in their system) versus a good clean shot ground sluicing them (no sufferring).

I've been wrestling with this for years.

 

[windjammer]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think here in Tennessee, any type of bait must be removed two weeks before the season opens..

 

[pps]

Forbidden here in Cali, but hunting dove in recently harvested corn or wheat fields...can't help but have doves come in for the left overs.