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baiting in Tennessee

RUGER77MAN said:
I think the twra should make it legal in the form of a "corn stamp". That would give them more money to invest back into the wildlife. It could be like $20. And if thats your jam buy it if not carry on hunting without it. At the end of the day an illegal hunter is going to hunt illegal whether there is a law in place or not. ( spot lighting, baiting, not tagging game in)
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TWRA "invest back into wildlife" is the knee slapper i was looking for bright and early this morning. It would almost certainly NEVER be reinvested into the quality of hunting.
 
megalomaniac said:
Buddy is still hunting the feeder. Didn't see a deer today, but the big boy.came to eat again after dark tonight.

Again, I think hunting over bait is a wast of time, at least in south MS. I've told my buddy where he needs to go to intercept this buck coming from his bed, but he's bought into the whole hunting over feeders thing... 4 more days till season end.
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Similar tales where i hunt. Several will plop down in their ladder stands that have been there for a decade with a feeder 25 yards from it. Sit them day after day after day with no shot at a mature buck. But if you check my camera thats about 150 yards downwind of one of their feeders, you will see bucks daylight frequently scent checking the does that like to congregate around them. But they "got a picture of him last night".
 
Hillbilly Hunter said:
You are most certainly entitled to your opinion and yours means as much as the next person. As far as the overall deer herd, CWD will not kill the entire herd either, but i certainly do not want it. I cant control CWD, but i can protect the deer on my property from another possible threat, which is tainted corn.

Baiting is a real wildlife violation for the reasons we are discussing and others.
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In TN .................... for now yes it is illegal

I will say this I am firmly against gravity feeders and corn on ground. I really think corn or any feed need to be in a trough with a roof over it ..JMHO

also if legal no one will force you to put out corn and endanger the deer on your property
 
Ski said:
Unrelated to the topic, but does anybody know how to use the ignore feature? Does such a thing exist? Seems we got a troll in our midst and I seem to have stepped right over his bridge.
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Hover your mouse over his user name for a few seconds, there will be a window slide up, and the ignore user button is in that window. After you do it, you'll see a green stripe in place of their posts when they post something.
 
There are always "exceptions" to any "generality", but noting a few "exceptions" doesn't negate something that's generally true.

Feeding corn will generally decrease daytime deer movement in a area within a certain radius of said feeder. This seems to be even more true of older aged deer.

In other words, feeding corn may actually decrease your chances of seeing a mature buck during daylight.

Also "generally speaking", a feeder will generally cause an increase in predation on whatever is using the feeder regularly, in particular deer fawns and turkeys. A predatory increase of 5 to 10% may be hardly noticeable, but that alone could negate the benefits of feeding?

Never mind the aflatoxin issues.
 
Ski said:
Unrelated to the topic, but does anybody know how to use the ignore feature? Does such a thing exist? Seems we got a troll in our midst and I seem to have stepped right over his bridge.
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Click their name and then ignore button.
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Studies have been done which show that deer get all the nutrition they need to grow and thrive in their natural habitat. If you agree with that conclusion, the only reason for supplemental feeding either through food plots or feeders is to gather the deer for easier harvest. The deer are always a step ahead and the older deer will avoid these places during daylight once they perceive danger. These crutches do change the deer's patterns often not to hunters' advantage however. If you want to hold more deer, create cover sanctuaries. They are legal and actually help deer.

My fear is that deer maybe seen as pests to be exterminated rather than game to be harvested and then the sport changes along with the rules to kill them.
 
Ski said:
I know you weren't specifically directing this to me, but I think you'd be surprised how many pictures get taken on travel corridors, plots, and scrapes. I get tens of thousands of pictures every year from two dozen cameras spread over 3-5 properties and zero corn or bait piles. This past season I ran cams on 4 properties. My favorite places are scrapes and pinch points along travel corridors.

First one's in Coffee Co., a waterway crossing pinch point. I get thousands of pics per year on that camera. Almost no deer move through the property without crossing in front of that camera. Year round daily pics.

Second one is a broken strand fence crossing. I get thousands of pics from that camera alone.

Third one is the bottom flat of a ravine where 4 different finger ridge tips converge where a hollow ends in a bowl.

Fourth is a buck bedding area on the edge of a point where a long hogback ridge drops in elevation into a 200yd long saddle before rising back up to level again. From mid Oct through mid Dec I catch a variety of big bucks regularly using this bedding zone.

Aside from a few scrapes inside food plots, I don't hang cameras at food. I don't hunt over food so I find no value in putting a camera to watch deer eat. Whatever the food source is that deer eat, there are multiple paralleling trails leading to it, and chances are better than not that there's a spot where those trails get funneled into a convergence such as shown. By default, any deer you catch at the food can also be caught at that pinch point, and since the deer only briefly pass through that spot, it can be hunted over & over without fear of blowing out the food source. You can hang & check a camera without fear of spooking the deer away. You can access stands without spooking deer away. These aren't spots deer hang out, except the bedding. But even this specific bedding area isn't typical. There's no cover. It's just a spot with a view overlooking a thick doe bedding area 150yds below. Bucks stay for a few minutes to a couple hours, only in middle of day, then move along. They don't stay all day long like a core bed, so chances of busting a buck out is possible but not likely.

My point isn't to argue, only to offer a different perspective. Food isn't a requirement for good trail cam action. It's not even the best. Scouting pinch points isn't as easy or "instant gratification" as pouring out corn, but it's well worth the effort. You're not attracting deer to a spot. You're seeing them in their natural routine. For hunting purposes I find that to be infinitely more valuable.
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The buck in that night-time photo had some long beams. Nice!

Everything you wrote makes perfect sense. While I've never taken what most would call a "monster buck", when I finally started using bottlenecks, pinch points, edges and other key terrain features between bedding and feeding areas, the sightings of what I call "quality bucks" increased significantly.
 
Ill just take two fields and let them grow up and learn to hunt. If everyone is deadset that baiting just hurts you Ill follow suit. Its just disappointing when that "range shift" is the deer leaving you year after year.From september 1 thru late october I rarely even go on my property unless its on a tractor.Everyones situaation is different. You can believe that Ill have a feeder thats well known 500 yards away from my nearest hunting location though.
 

utvolsfan77 said:
The buck in that night-time photo had some long beams. Nice!

Everything you wrote makes perfect sense. While I've never taken what most would call a "monster buck", when I finally started using bottlenecks, pinch points, edges and other key terrain features between bedding and feeding areas, the sightings of what I call "quality bucks" increased significantly.
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Yessir he's a tank! Very tough deer to hunt, though. He's reclusive and sporadic.

For me, the hardest part about "breaking through" on finally getting on bigger deer was relearning what I thought I knew about buck behavior. I grew up hearing that if I want to kill a big buck, I gotta hunt the does. Well that's exactly what I did for a long time and I saw lots of does, but rarely a good buck. Eventually it clicked. Hunt does if you want to kill does. If you want to kill big bucks, hunt big bucks. I know that is overly vague, but its really that simple.

When your family gathers for a reunion or holiday, where do you find grandpa? He's almost never in the thick of it, never with the gossiping women, never with the wild kids. He stays quietly off in the periphery hoping nobody notices him. If socializes much at all it's with other men, and limted. Those big boy older bucks seem to be a lot like grandpa.
 
TNGunsmoke said:
Hover your mouse over his user name for a few seconds, there will be a window slide up, and the ignore user button is in that window. After you do it, you'll see a green stripe in place of their posts when they post something.
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Good info to know. Thanks! I've been here about 8 years but just read threads and wasn't that active until about a year ago. I had no idea what the "green stripe" references were all about.
 
Ski said:
When your family gathers for a reunion or holiday, where do you find grandpa? He's almost never in the thick of it, never with the gossiping women, never with the wild kids. He stays quietly off in the periphery hoping nobody notices him. If socializes much at all it's with other men, and limted. Those big boy older bucks seem to be a lot like grandpa.
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Never thought about it like that before, but your analogy is spot on. Here in upper East Tennessee where I am, going back as far as I can remember, the older men have always much preferred peace and quiet at family reunions and holiday celebrations rather than those with diarrhea of the mouth or the hyper-active kids playing loudly nearby.
 
Buzzard Breath said:
One starts to learn woodsmanship by spending less time reading magazines and books or watching Youtube, and spending more time observing animal behavior in the woods.
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Your exactly right! When I got old enough to drive and wanted to hunt I drove myself down the road to the forestry property and walked my butt off until I found something I thought was worth hunting and through trial and error figured it out. I didn't have anyone to show me but I wanted to do it so I did.
 
One thing to keep in mind is if it ever became legal. It most likely wouldn't be legal on WMA's or public land. So it would be a private land deal. So that being said if it becomes legal it's your land. I'm sure most will try it. But I think it'll be 50/50. Killer in some areas and waste of money to feed raccoons in others.we all enjoy our time in the woods.so really no need to argue. Do we need to bring up man made brush piles. Just joking fellas can't we all just get along. Lol
 

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