Done on the corn debate

[Gaswamp]

Done got worn out on these threads. Don't believe its possible to have anyone take an honest look at their position. Folks just hard-headed and stubborn on both sides of the issue. So here are my last thoughts from a guy that lives in South Georgia.

At one time when this was the original Woodys board we had these "feeding debates". Having a mostly Libertarian outlook at things, I sided with the legalizing of feeding. I didn't personally care to hunt over pile of corn. Yet, I couldn't reconcile the difference of the 200 yd rule and or hunting in food plots, and or or using scent devices and or hunting a persimmon or oak tree. SOUND FAMILIAR PRO BAITERS.

However, there was a guy on the forum that was more actively involved in those days. His name was John Bowers, an Auburn alum. Being from Alabama originally and a roll-Tider, I guess I should have never listened to the guy. Yet I was open-minded enough to hear his arguments against feeding. I also took the time to read some books that he recommended....Meditations on Hunting Jose Ortega Gasset and Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leupold.

After studying the issue I realized that I didn't know everything I thought I did. Yes, some elitist writers and an elitist Auburn biologist influenced my thinking. I started to look around and question my thinking on hunting ethics in regards to fair chase. So, I changed positions.

I think it has been a mistake for the Anti-baiting crowd to argue that CWD is the main reason not to allow lawfully hunting over bait. I can understand why the Pro-baiters would feel this is a mute point when supplemental feeding is already allowed past two hundred yds. The hunting ethics argument should have been the lynchpin for the Anti folks.

Since Baiting deer became legal in South Ga. I have personally seen the increase in the hog population. I've seen that folks become over reliant on feed as their main tool to 'hunt'. I have seen deer become more nocturnal as well as change their movement patterns

Anyway I'm done with these threads. Congrats to the Pro-feeding crowd. I think it will be a reality throughout the whole state real soon.

 

[Jester896]

I don't believe the increase in the hog population you have witnessed is a result of peoples over reliance on baiting.

 

[kmckinnie]

hogs breed no mater what.

 

[kmckinnie]

I think the timber company’s cutting swamps bottoms oaks so that it grows back so thick gave them cover to stay in. Can’t get to them to kill them.

 

[MFOSTER]

I think the timber company’s cutting swamps bottoms oaks so that it grows back so thick gave them cover to stay in. Can’t get to them to kill them.

Yep they like a bunch of rats

 

[shdw633]

I don't believe the increase in the hog population you have witnessed is a result of peoples over reliance on baiting.

I was on a club that had a year round feeding program and you would go around those feeding areas and it would look like a pig farm was being run in those areas and hogs were everywhere; however, when times got tough in the US and money got tight, they abandoned the feeding program and within six months you hardly seen any hogs on that property. Though I do agree that it doesn't stop them from breeding, it doesn't help the situation regarding eradicating them either. If you want hogs off your property you have to stop feeding them first in my opinion.

I don't 100% agree with the nocturnal statement as well that the OP made. Some of the biggest deer I have shot in Georgia have been after baiting was allowed in the southern half of the state and of course they have been in the daylight hours. Many of our members have enjoyed more success in seeing more and bigger deer and as a result I have seen those same members take on bigger roles in feeding and creating foodplots since that has happened which, in turn, has allowed for a higher carrying capacity on the property and more deer!!

I do agree that CWD has never been a good argument for the anti-baiting crowd, as the OP as stated, and I stated why on another thread so I won't rehash that over here. I personally never cared whether baiting was allowed or disallowed in the state, I just didn't like the 200 yard rule and wanted that abolished. I don't hunt bait when I go to Illinois and Michigan and have had great success in both of those states; however, I do believe in supplemental feeding to improve the health of your deer but with the 200 yard rule there was always a chance you could end up with a ticket just because it was at the discretion of the game warden and that's what I didn't like.

I have seen great results from baiting being allowed and we will continue to do what we have been doing on our property and that is managing it as we see fit. To date that has been working and I can only hope that it works for those in the North, once the smoke clears. Good luck to all this upcoming season!!

 

[XIronheadX]

There's no such thing as an anti baiter. Only hunters and baiters. One doesn't create issues with nature. It's always been ethics. You are in it either for the challenge, or the notoriety. A baiter lies somewhere between a hunter and a farmer. As much as hogs get fed, so do coons. You can feed a desire, or feed an ego. Figure the rest out yourself. The end.

 

[king killer delete]

I don't believe the increase in the hog population you have witnessed is a result of peoples over reliance on baiting.

Your right. Long before bait we had hogs in south east Georgia

 

[Nicodemus]

Your right. Long before bait we had hogs in south east Georgia

We`ve had em here for 476 years.

 

[delacroix]

Your comment on libertarianism and baiting seems a little confused. Government should have no say in whether someone baits. For government to create a crime out of something that hurts no one is evil.

Whether or not to bait is a cultural issue. Cultural shifts happen when people speak their minds and lead by example. I think you get closer to the root of the problem when you consider the time when woodsmanship was prized above commercialized trophy lust. If you tell a fella who wants to learn deer hunting he should start stalking squirrels he looks at you sideways. He is a wage slave with one morning a week to himself. Learning woodsmanship is a long difficult process. He has not got the time for it. So, he slings corn to get antlers because he never learned any better.

If corn slingers and antler addicts are speaking loudest and leading the way, that is how hunting will go. It is neither right nor wrong. It certainly should never have anything to do with government. If government is a factor in cultural development, then government must be reduced and limited so that it is not a limiting factor.

 

[Joe Brandon]

Your done but yet you started ANOTHER thread on it. Boy you sure know how to beat dead horse.

 

[NugeForPres]

If you want to use bait and it is legal where you are, go for it. If you don't, then don't. Pretty simple.

 

[kmckinnie]

 

[kmckinnie]

Ack yard and feeder is off. He spins the feeder and gets the corn.

 

[kmckinnie]

Took pic with phone.

 

[leejohn]

Well said Swamp. I too think that the biggest mistake the anti baiters made was conflating supplemental feeding with baiting and hitching their wagons to the CWD stance. It worked for a while but ultimately folks saw through the smoke screen and got tired of organizations like QDMA and GWF promoting feeding deer but saying that if we were allowed to hunt over the feed, that same feed station became a disease magnet. The only danger to the deer is actually contracting lead poisoning lol. I said years ago that if you say you oppose baiting because of personal morals and ethics, I will tip my cap to you and respect your stance.I do take offense though if you try to insult my intelligence with all of these other fake news items to make your point. How many had even heard of CWD until this whole issue arose? Bottom line is, as of next Wednesday, folks in the Northern Zone will be able to legally hunt as our brothers and sisters in the Southern Zone have for the past 7 years.

 

[across the river]

There's no such thing as an anti baiter. Only hunters and baiters. One doesn't create issues with nature. It's always been ethics. You are in it either for the challenge, or the notoriety. A baiter lies somewhere between a hunter and a farmer. As much as hogs get fed, so do coons. You can feed a desire, or feed an ego. Figure the rest out yourself. The end.

Let me start by saying I have never killed a deer over corn. I hunted for years in both Georgia and low country of South Carolina long before baiting was legal in GA, so I have seen both sides of it for years. Honestly, I think like anything else there are pros and cons to both sides, but in the grand scheme of things it really isn't going to make a big difference one way or the other. From a side standpoint, I don't really have one, although I would problem lean more toward not baiting than baiting. With that being said, there are plenty of people who don't hunt over corn (for legal or preference reason) that aren't "hunters." Riding you four wheeler to a box standing on a power line and sitting in the same stand every weekend doesn't make you a hunter. There a ton of those guys, and I myself know a pile of them. Any deer they kill is pretty much luck of the draw, and that isn't hunting. I also know plenty of guys who are really good "hunters" that on occasion hunt over corn. It doesn't mean they hunt over it all the time. Some only do with the kids, some may hunt over bag corn in Georgia, but hunt over a corn field in the midwest. I know a couple of those guys that I would put up against anybody. They don't need corn to kill a deer, but there are times they use here in Georgia. That doesn't mean they aren't a "hunter," not by any stretch of the imagination. Blindly grouping and labeling people like that is ignorant. I don't care what side you are on.

 

[XIronheadX]

Let me start by saying I have never killed a deer over corn. I hunted for years in both Georgia and low country of South Carolina long before baiting was legal in GA, so I have seen both sides of it for years. Honestly, I think like anything else there are pros and cons to both sides, but in the grand scheme of things it really isn't going to make a big difference one way or the other. From a side standpoint, I don't really have one, although I would problem lean more toward not baiting than baiting. With that being said, there are plenty of people who don't hunt over corn (for legal or preference reason) that aren't "hunters." Riding you four wheeler to a box standing on a power line and sitting in the same stand every weekend doesn't make you a hunter. There a ton of those guys, and I myself know a pile of them. Any deer they kill is pretty much luck of the draw, and that isn't hunting. I also know plenty of guys who are really good "hunters" that on occasion hunt over corn. It doesn't mean they hunt over it all the time. Some only do with the kids, some may hunt over bag corn in Georgia, but hunt over a corn field in the midwest. I know a couple of those guys that I would put up against anybody. They don't need corn to kill a deer, but there are times they use here in Georgia. That doesn't mean they aren't a "hunter," not by any stretch of the imagination. Blindly grouping and labeling people like that is ignorant. I don't care what side you are on.

There's no judgement to be made. One wasn't made. One end of the spectrum is the hunter, who just hunts. The other end is the farmer. The baiter lies somewhere along the line in the middle. You can place that where you like. Ignorance is trying to read more into something than is there, and throwing an insult. The labeling didn't come from me. I'm not here to argue. I'm tired of arguing. Tired of reading it.

I didn't claim a skill level, how long or where I hunted, how I hunted, or know a guy, or judge a guy in a box stand, how he teaches his kids to hunt. My ego was nonexistent, as well as my ignorance. I'm actually ticked off at myself for commenting on another thread that mentions bait.

 

[Throwback]

What if a person puts a feeder in their food plot?

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

Bait is an incurable disease in itself.
Ethics drifts away in the wind when you open the bag.
I remember the first time I witnessed a guy baiting.
I had so much respect for him as a mighty hunter running on a little bad luck until he came back to camp saying he had shot two does. I asked him where are they? He said ahh they are still laying in the field. I said ok let’s go get them. He said no no no you can’t come I’ll be right back and show you. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t help. So we waited and waited then finally he pulls into camp with two hideless and headless deer carcasses. My dad said they were two bucks and pointed out to me the corn kernels loose in the bed of his truck.
This was back when we only had three tags and corn wasn’t legal. He had already taken a 1” buck that year. Well he went straight back to the woods for another hunt. I was shocked as a kid and didn’t understand his ways.
My respect for that guy went to zero in an instant and we left the club for good. If he would have just brought the bucks back whole and been honest with the club members I wouldn’t have cared one bit.
Now I see it as he stole mine and my dad’s chance at a buck.
So baiting still leaves a sour taste to me. Sure they were not my deer but, they definitely were not all his. Especially whatever he shot on the evening hunt.