My experience with baiting

I'm originally from SC,where it is legal to bait in the lowcountry section of the state.I have hunted over bait,I have killed deer over bait,I have friends who hunt over bait at home now. I prefer not to hunt over bait,so the way it is in Ga now is fine with me.
Here is some info from someone who has hunted over the magical corn pile:
If your club allows baiting you will end up baiting just to see a few deer.
The deer will become almost nocturnal, you will see them very early or very late.
They will be wound up tighter than dick's hat band,so you bowhunters aim very low for the string jumpers.
You will spend all your time keeping your bait site up.Deer do not like sour corn,so rain is not good.
Your raccoon population will skyrocket and they eat alot of corn.
If you have hogs around now,when the corn starts flowing freely watch out,the deer will get out of their way.
Big bucks can be killed at corn piles but don't expect that to raise your trophy collection.
If baiting is your thing that is fine but just remember once it starts, it's here to stay.
Most of the people I know from home wish it never started.
One other thing I have witnessed first hand is that people become dependent on it.I know grown men who will not hunt unless there is corn out and could not hunt deer any other way as they never have.I went to Illinois with a buddy from home last year,when he was packing the truck,his 7 yr old son said " Daddy aren't you gonna take any corn,you can't see deer without corn?He did'nt think that was very funny,but it comes with the territory.Once again,I'm not against baiting,but don't think it's some magic potion to help your success rate,there is a price to pay and everyone is affected whether you bait or not.I love deer hunting and it is a way of life with me not a hobby,so let's all enjoy it equally no matter how we do it.

I DID NOT PAY HIM TO POST THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally found a reason to use the bannana.

Sounds as though he has experience and some good thought as well thanks.

THe nocturnal thing is right I've seen that first hand. The funny thing is how right you are about people becoming so dependant on it. I've seen grown men come in to camp(While i was hunting in Florida) and talk about this great spot they found with scrapes and rubs and everything and then start loading the four wheeler with corn and a feeder

Bravo !!!!!!!!!! Scoutman (standing ovation)

Good information!Sounds about right...Thanks for sharing!

I can tell you first hand about the hogs. I hunt a little spot down south for one week out of the year. The first 2 or 3 years i saw deer like crazy. I killed a nice buck and saw 2 other big deer. I only saw or heard a couple of hogs. Last year i saw 6 deer the whole week! Me and my partner saw 85 hogs in 4 days. I asked what was going on. My partner had his stand 50 yards from the property line said he could hear a feeder going off in the clear cut that is the property line. The club next door is baiting and the hog population has went thru the roof.

I have had some experiance with feeding corn to get pictures on my trail cam. Of the thousands of pictures I have taken over corn, 95% are taken at night, 4% right at daylight and dark and maybe 1% during the daylight hours. If for no other reason, this is enough info to make me against baiting.

Scoutman,
That's about the best breakdown of the reasons to oppose baiting that I've heard.

Especially the nocturnal part and the hog & racoon part.

When i got a gamecam started feeding on a unhunted 100 acre tract, it was late dec. when i hung the cam.

I shot two rolls of film to get two bucks on film, both came between 3-4 AM, these were un hunted,unpressured deer.

Greg Miller wrote an article a few years back about baiting in wisconsin that outlined the nocturnal habits baiting creates.

The deer that have a food source waiting on them will rise from the bed in the to feed later and go to the bed quicker in the AM.

The same thing can happen with plots if they are over hunted.

If baiting is made legal where i hunt i still won't hunt over it, ethics and fairchase cast aside the shear fact is mature deer of both sexes don't come to feed sites with any regularity in legal shooting times.

Scoutman........

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!

Somebody that has some sense and made a "GREAT POST"!!!!!!

Great post! Also great points. However let me ask you this question. I'm just asking because I don't know. I have friends that go to Canada every year and hunt over bait! They hunt over Alfalfa hay that is put out fresh every day. Anyway I have seen camera footage where they sit there all day and watch many many big deer. Also when you watch these hunting videos in Texas they are hunting over bait. Why will it work there and not here? I really don't know so I'm asking for information!

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Phillip Thurmond said:

Great post! Also great points. However let me ask you this question. I'm just asking because I don't know. I have friends that go to Canada every year and hunt over bait! They hunt over Alfalfa hay that is put out fresh every day. Anyway I have seen camera footage where they sit there all day and watch many many big deer. Also when you watch these hunting videos in Texas they are hunting over bait. Why will it work there and not here? I really don't know so I'm asking for information!

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Phil..........it works in Canada (actually, Saskatchewan is the ONLY Canadian province where it is still legal), because of low hunting pressure, and the need the deer have to put on weight for the upcoming harsh winter............the last week of the season is better than the rut, if it gets brutally cold.

I have watched those same shows and I guess it has to do with hunting pressure and years the deer have been exposed to the food source.Let me restate for the record,I'm not against baiting, just be careful what you wish for. It's kinda like the good looking woman that you and your buddies see at the store,etc and say "Boy, I wish I had her at home", when her husband at home is wishing someone else would take over payments. The grass is always greener on the other side.

In Canada, the bait is put out in the morning just before daylight. Daytime is the only time the feed is available.

In Texas, corn is the main stay for the deer and the population is artifically maintained well above the carring capacity with feed programs. The feeders are timed to go off at certain times in the early morning and late in the evening. The feed doesn't last long and when the feeder is cleaned up, the deer bed back down and wait for the next feeding period. How do I know this? I bowhunted there a couple of times years ago and yes, I hunted over bait. Am I proud of it? No. Would I go back? No. Bowhunting, it was a tough hunt due to the sheer numbers of deer. There was very little natural food for the deer unless it was one of the rare years when the live oaks made acorns. Corn was their food in the winter. The deer would start gathering around 100 yards or so out 30 minutes before the feeder went off and when it went off, they came running. Within a matter of minutes, there would be 20+ deer gathered around the feeder. And some of them would be shooter bucks. I didn't ever let loose an arrow. It was almost impossable to draw on a deer without being busted. If I had been gun hunting, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel. I could have killed a good buck almost everyday I hunted. This was your typical ranch hunt in Texas. I can't say it wasn't fun because it was. Anytime I can see 50+ deer a day, I am having fun but it just never felt right to be hunting like that and that is the reason I haven't been back for 8 years. On the videos, they are a little more descrete about it. The feeder is out of sight (but close) of the camera and bait is scattered around the stand.

I hunt in Barnwell County SC. I have not done any baiting so far, but have planted some small food plots. Folks on the neighboring property bait and have food plots. The immediate neighbors hunt from stands, although dog hunting is popular in the county, and some days I can hear the hounds off in the distance.

I will try and describe my experiences hunting there.

I believe there to be a fair number of deer in the area, although not as many as in other parts of SC and GA. There are always a few tracks to be seen. In the fall, it is not hard to find scrapes and rubs. When walking around the place, I occasionally jump a deer and catch a glimpse of it before it disappears into the cover.

Most of the land in the area is in planted pines with an occasional agricultural field and clump of hardwood trees. It seems that the most popular crops up there are corn and cotton. Our land is in pines with a decent size patch of oaks and hickory trees, and I usually hunt in the hardwoods. Visibility is limited, especially in the early season. I try to set up adjacent to some scrapes or trails.

Compared to hunting in Ga, (Jefferson and Effingham countys)I have found the hunting to be very difficult. I have hunted off and on there for years, and I don't see a whole lot of deer, and if I take one there, I consider it an accomplishment. Deer do seem to be nocturnal (or either very smart). Most of the deer I see have been nervous, wired is more like it. I always blamed this on hunting pressure, both from tree standers and doggers, because people DO hunt there. However, I don't believe the pressure is any more than in Ga, except for the fact that the season is longer.

I never thought a whole lot about the baiting, because in this area it does not seem to be overly effective. I have seen where folks throw corn out and it rots. I know that the deer are aware that it is there because tracks are nearby, and sometimes they walk right through the pile. You would think that if deer were so hungry for corn, the bait sights would be all tracked up and every little grain would have been scarfed. For this reason, my experience tells me that baiting is not a "magic bullet" that will enable anyone and everyone to see or kill all the deer they want. I could be wrong.

A lot of varibles could be at work here. There could be fewer deer there than I think. When I hunted in Ga, it was usually with friends who were more experienced and better hunters than myself, so my hunting ability may be at fault, as I am no great hunter. Another thing to consider is that deer season opens on August 15th, and by the time of the rut, deer have been hunted for a long time, instead of the season opening very close to the start of the rut like in Ga.

Just throwing a few ideas out there. I am not pro or anti baiting. Everyone speaks from there own experience, and mine is admitedly limited.

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Arrow Flinger said:

In Canada, the bait is put out in the morning just before daylight. Daytime is the only time the feed is available.

In Texas, corn is the main stay for the deer and the population is artifically maintained well above the carring capacity with feed programs. The feeders are timed to go off at certain times in the early morning and late in the evening. The feed doesn't last long and when the feeder is cleaned up, the deer bed back down and wait for the next feeding period. How do I know this? I bowhunted there a couple of times years ago and yes, I hunted over bait. Am I proud of it? No. Would I go back? No. Bowhunting, it was a tough hunt due to the sheer numbers of deer. There was very little natural food for the deer unless it was one of the rare years when the live oaks made acorns. Corn was their food in the winter. The deer would start gathering around 100 yards or so out 30 minutes before the feeder went off and when it went off, they came running. Within a matter of minutes, there would be 20+ deer gathered around the feeder. And some of them would be shooter bucks. I didn't ever let loose an arrow. It was almost impossable to draw on a deer without being busted. If I had been gun hunting, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel. I could have killed a good buck almost everyday I hunted. This was your typical ranch hunt in Texas. I can't say it wasn't fun because it was. Anytime I can see 50+ deer a day, I am having fun but it just never felt right to be hunting like that and that is the reason I haven't been back for 8 years. On the videos, they are a little more descrete about it. The feeder is out of sight (but close) of the camera and bait is scattered around the stand.

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(Saskatchewan) at least where I hunt, that is not true.............they start feeding the deer in early October, and continue it through March..........feed (alfalfa/oats) is available to them 24-7..........

I have a couple of buddy's that hunt with an outfitter in Saskatchewan every year and where they hunt, sme alfalfa hay is available all the time but oats and other bait is put out by the outfitter every morning when they drop off the hunter. They do however feed all winter and this is just what they do when hunters are in camp. I was wrong with my statement that feed is only available in the daylight but the "candy" is put out every morning.

I hunted in the SC low country for four days nine years ago. I hunted almost exclusively with a bow then (exception being when we dog hunted there and I used a shot gun ). I had no interest in hunting over bait and my host was willing to let me bow hunt in hardwood draw near the lodge. The way they hunted was surprising to me. They never stayed in a stand for more than an hour or two. If no deer showed up within 30 minutes to an hour of the feeder going off, they got down and went back to the cabin. However, for the most part, those that I hunted with saw deer about the time the feeder went off and only then.

I on the other hand saw anywhere from 3 to 7 deer everytime I hunted in the woods and managed to take a very large doe I had seen four different times the last evening I hunted there with a bow.

I personally do not want to see baiting legalized in GA; however, I will not quit hunting if it does. Furthermore, I believe I can still effectively hunt without baiting if it is legalized.

George

Great post! Somebody please write these points down to debate with. Thanks for honestly sharing your experiences with baiting.

A very good point is made. "Simple, if baiting is legalized, I will not bait." Not so easy if your neighbors are baiting.