How many Don't hunt over bait, or food plots?

[rstallings1979]

I feed corn and plant plots...mainly just to compete with the neighbors. I have one blind back on a creek and I like to hunt it if the conditions are right because its thick but visibility is pretty good once you get there. I can hear the neighbors feeder spinning at 5pm everyday during the season. The deer will bed on our property, cross the creek at a shallow crossing, and head to their clear-cut towards the feeder right at dark. So I am catching their movement about 15 minutes before shooting light ends.

I now watch my kids hunt for the most part so its much easier to sneak into a plot stand than a creek bottom stand with two kids in tow. The one or two occasions a year when I hunt alone I usually do creep into the thick stuff unless I am getting some serious camera action at one of our plots from a regular visitor. My 10 or so days in the midwest are pretty much finger hunting and travel corridors and I may attack a doe bedding area here and there. There's usually so much corn on the ground post harvest up there that corn would be useless if it were even legal in my opinion. Personally if I lived up there and ag was around the only reason I would plant a food plot is Dec/Jan late season hunting. I am not sure why they would touch your clover or beans etc with thousands of acres around. Maybe if they were just traveling through or the food plot was secluded and added comfort.

 

[DAVE]

Well I guess with that Theory even if u have no feeders or plots. The trail may come from your neighbor who has a feeder and plot. So the deer maybe coming from it or 2 it.

Exactly.

 

[elfiii]

You don't need a tractor to have nice food plots. That's a myth.

Yep because working harder not smarter is the manly, menly, manly thing to do!

I'll keep riding my tractor thank you very much and "she" thinks it's sexy.

 

[NCMTNHunter]

I hunt deer wherever they are. If that’s over food I really don’t care how it got there.

 

[kmckinnie]

You don't need a tractor to have nice food plots. That's a myth.

We use both. Tractor and 4 wheeler at some. That bucket carries a lot

 

[roscoe54]

What ever is legal

 

[specialk]

I set my feeder under 4 giant oak trees growing in the middle of my foodplot....i dont take any chances!

 

[HIGH COUNTRY]

I prob said this in another post, I only bowhunt and only shoot mature bucks - not easy on even the best property. I have tag soup to enjoy this year.

I def have had some success hunting a couple hundred yards from feeders, but def have learned and I keep learning - that does are very nervous around feeders and thats on lightly hunted land, ditto with small and medium bucks./

I have hunted closer to feeders at times but next year will cut down on number of feeders and will def hunt most season in thicker spots for more big buck daytime movement, less spooky behavior, and better chance to get bow drawn back unseen - all "hopefully".

Just thinking about how many big bucks are on hunters cameras each year, mostly at night and very occasionally during daylight hours at best - so then the question is how many of these bucks are actually gotten each year. I think the answer is most survive at least avoid getting shot around the feeder area.

There are exceptions, really cold weather late season and does in heat are on the feeder seem to improve my odds of hunting around a feeder.

We all have limited number of days we can hunt (most of us anyway and I hunt more than most, but still work full time); I think statistically the odds are better hunting away from the feeders most of the time if you are very selective for big bucks. Most of the posts on this thread seem to back up that theory...

 

[sprewett]

When I go to family land in Jeff Davis County my uncle has corn and minerals. I usually only get down there once maybe twice a year. My dad's (Paulding County) property is small but I hunt a funnel with acorns and a pine edge at the top of the hardwoods. I do not have any bait there. The property I can hunt in Monroe county has feeders but I haven't been there yet. The majority of my time is spent on public land where it is illegal. I really enjoy trying to study the woods although I have been hunting my entire life ( I am 42) but I have just began to learn. Guess that makes me a rookie with 35 years of experience. I was always with someone else which had a wealth of wisdom. Now, I am basically solo and having the time of my life studying the woods.

 

[sea trout]

I hunt em all ways.
Food is food weather I put it there, plant it there or go find it.
A trail is a trail whether it leads to food I found or food I put somewhere.
I get the whole "if one can find natural food, funnels and trail then thats's great woodsmanship". I get it and I leaned that a long time ago. Also teach it to the kids, it's important.
Our lease is pine management with very little natural food for deer, in fact not enough food in my opinion for the size deer herd I want to watch.
So we plant every old loading dock we can in foodplots. Bout 14 of em. 1/4 acre ta 3 acres rangin in size. We also feed em with broadcast feeders, and when the state said it's legal to keep em out in the fall by golly we kept em out in the fall. I get the "workin hard, many countless hours at the lease. and spending a big budget to compliment the deer herd", I get it and we do it.
I find mature bucks did not come to feeder at first. And they'd only use food plots after dark. Now that the young bucks who ate at feeders when they were young are now 3 n 4 years old we are startin ta see them at feeders, (most our feeders are in or next to a food plot).
I enjoy huntin anyway ah can! I love it all!!

 

[DynamicDennis]

Quit using feeders this season, but we usually dump some corn somewhere around a stand if we are planning to hunt it(10-20pds). Mostly just for pics of what is around. All of our stands are in good areas that we have been working for years. Usually overlooking a thicket, or on an edge. We have club plots, but usually only sit them if its raining(box stands). Taking the feeders down has increased the amount of good bucks we saw this year, by a lot. Most of our land is planted pines, but this year, maybe there are some big enough oaks to produce acorns. Lots of natural browse almost year round.

 

[Throwback]

If I put bait in travel corridors is that ok ?

 

[kmckinnie]

If I put bait in travel corridors is that ok ?

Is it on your place ?

 

[Waddams]

I'll hunt both. This season:
-During archery - missed two decent shot opportunities on two doe that came in from an awkward angle after scouting out an an active feed tree at the club. Happened on consecutive evenings - figures, you set up for one trail, and they come from another!

-At the club for rifle - killed two on food plots from box blinds.

-At a WMA quota hunt - killed one after scouting out sign and staking out what turned out to be the right spot.

I enjoy both - it's nice to have the club where I can scout and still hunt, or hit a club stand if I'm feeling that instead. I also do enjoy the scouting part of hunting, reading the land and sign, and setting up for what you think the sign is telling you. I'll admit, though, sometimes my energy level is lower and just sitting going to the box blind is easier and satisfies the urge to sit outside, take in nature, get away from life for a bit, and maybe be blessed with an addition to the freezer.

 

[HermanMerman]

No food plots, and no feeders. Walking the woods and scouting for sign, food, bedding, and travel funnels is half the fun for me. There is a supreme satisfaction in putting that puzzle together. I don’t care for trail cameras either… I don’t like the idea of knowing every deer in the woods. To each his own, though. Play the game how you see fit.

 

[bfriendly]

I'm not against baiting or food plots but, I just don't like to hunt over them. I hunt travel corridors and edges of bedding areas. I've never seen a "big" buck over a bait pile or food plot unless it was on a trail cam pic after dark.

I prefer not, but will in a heartbeat. Love a lush plot of beat turnips etc to watch when everything around it is brown. In Kentucky we have bait piles and I am usually well up the trails to and from them. I’d still be in the yes camp sometimes though.

 

[FMC]

I spend the first half of the season in the woods. The 2nd half I will hunt plots when we are trying to thin does. I do not hunt over feeders or bait piles.

 

[fireman32]

When my boys were young I ran a feeder for several reasons. More deer sightings and calm deer make a good shot much easier for a new hunter. I still have one trough feeder that I put corn in during season. It’s our freezer filling stand.
I’ve been planting 3 food plots on my 40 acres for years, it’s hard not to hunt them or by them on that small of a place. Although the two deer killed there this year were feeding on acorns. The other 3 we killed were in hardwoods on another plot of land.
A stand in the hardwoods with acorns falling is my preferred place to be.

 

[elfiii]

If I put bait in travel corridors is that ok ?

You can on my place as long as you tell me where you put it.

 

[davidhelmly]

I’ve never hunted over bait but I do enjoy hunting a good plot.