True or False?

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scn said:
That would be a big T for me. There isn't much hunting ability exposed when sitting over a bait pile.
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For me, true as well. Or should I say, no need for hunting skill. Doesn't mean the hunter doesn't have skills. And that goes for sitting over a 1/4-acre food plot. Chip-shot for anywhere in the plot. I have such plots, but I don't hunt over them, unless I'm trying to get a young person their first deer.
 
Never mind "baiting" for certain game animals in certain states can be "legal".
"Legal" doesn't necessarily mean "good idea".
Prostitution is also legal in some places.
Good idea or bad idea, depends on who you ask.

But "Baiting" for deer & turkey seems to be prostituting one's hunting ethics?

Where illegal, baiting is most certainly "stealing".
Those who kill game over illegal bait are stealing from those who play by the rules.

I will not say baiting for deer is "cheating" when it's "legal",
but if you kill a deer over a bait pile, it was more about shooting than hunting,
and ironically, very little shooting skill needed either.

And best I can tell, those who routinely bait, never develop or simply lose what most might consider real hunting skills.
 
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It CAN be one of those "value" issues as to just where one will draw his lines.

"Food plots" are in most situations considered "legal".
So are big fields.
In my experiences, the larger the field, the bigger it's draw to deer.
A 1/4-acre "food plot" commonly has less attraction to deer than a 4-acre mowed field.

I do not consider sitting over a 1/4-acre food plot a compromise of hunting ethics anything like as much as sitting over a poured on the ground pile of corn. Personally, I look at most small food plots as fool plots. Routinely hunting them can be as counter-productive as productive, and usually very counterproductive in terms of harvesting older deer.

By contrast, sitting over a continuously re-filled corn feeder continuously brings deer to the same spot. This does not happen when sitting over a field, and we can actually state "any" field is to some degree a "food plot". The smaller that field, the more akin to a bait pile.

At what point is the outing more about shooting than hunting?

Is hunting a large hay field (without any "food plots"), where you can shoot deer 400 yds any direction, more about shooting or hunting?

And with some species of hunting, the very nature of the sport may in fact be more about shooting?
Think of dove hunting.
"Baiting" in the doves, whether legal or illegal, may contribute to shooting skills more than hunting skills?

Just saying, the lines can get really blurry really fast.

This is why many state game agencies allow "legal" baiting via "cultivated" fields (or even 1/4-acre food plots), but draw the line at any "food" item POURED from a bag, and/or simply thrown on the ground or into a "feeder" (to be "fed" rather than "grown").
 
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Spotlighting is real challenge of hunting … I mean there is no hiding the fact you are there, shining my 100 million candlepower spotlight when everyone else is worried their 10 lumen light will spook the deer when they are going to the stand,. Not to mention the straight piped v8 and the natural ice cans falling from the floorboard when I jump out and take aim
 
I have hunted in a lot of areas and have a different perspective. Should it be illegal like it is in TN? Yes. Should baiting be legal for deer in places like Florida, Georgia coast, etc, like it is? Yes. The only other effective tactic in much of that palmetto infested area is to use dogs. This is simply my opinion.
 
I've only hunted over bait one time. It was legal where I did it. It was also one of the easiest hunts I've been on. It's not for me. All that said, there was a science to how my buddy baits and when he hunts his baits. There is a certain skill involved. It doesn't meet my implied definition of hunting, but it does his. So, my final answer is "false".
 
To me, as long as it is legal it's fine. Skills come in different forms, there are many here that require dogs to follow a blood trail and others that can do it in the dark. Some make extensive use of cameras, and others just go in "blind", while others go on guided hunts.
 
Rabbitkil said:
Spotlighting is real challenge of hunting … I mean there is no hiding the fact you are there, shining my 100 million candlepower spotlight when everyone else is worried their 10 lumen light will spook the deer when they are going to the stand,. Not to mention the straight piped v8 and the natural ice cans falling from the floorboard when I jump out and take aim
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Jump out and take aim? I just put the sandbag on the door and squeeze the trigger all the while having my Luke Bryan music going and the heat on 🤣. You're roughing it if you get outside the truck to shoot
 
I have hunted KY all my life where baiting was legal up until 2 years ago. I'm in one of the 5 counties of the high risk CWD BS. I have used corn in the past but can honestly say I've never killed a buck over corn whether it's a young buck or mature buck. I would put corn out mostly July through Sept to just get an inventory of what might be around. Once acorns start falling in Oct they will pass up 1,000 lbs of corn to find acorns. I can take it or leave it as it's never been an issue for me whether I, or someone else is baiting or not.
 
BSK said:
For me, true as well. Or should I say, no need for hunting skill. Doesn't mean the hunter doesn't have skills. And that goes for sitting over a 1/4-acre food plot. Chip-shot for anywhere in the plot. I have such plots, but I don't hunt over them, unless I'm trying to get a young person their first deer.
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Thanks for mentioning the Food Plots. Heck it can be a whole acre and you can cover it with a rifle and maybe a ML or shotgun, depending on design.

We discuss this every year sometimes 2x in a year and I will continue to say the same thing every time, which is there is no difference in a corn pile and a SMALL food plot, or really an AG field with food on it IMO. This goes back to my land managers vs. hunters thread, where I asked are we now more land managers (manipulating habitat to draw deer) than actual hunters.
TheLBLman said:
I will not say baiting for deer is "cheating" when it's "legal",
but if you kill a deer over a bait pile, it was more about shooting than hunting,
and ironically, very little shooting skill needed either.
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Again same applies to planting food plots and sitting in a shooting house then shooting a deer. As an FYI I plant food plots and sometimes sit over them and kill deer. Everyone I know who hunts generally does or has ag farms that they sit on cut corn fields etc. There is not really any true hunting skill in any those methods (bait, ag, or food plot) IMO. Marksmanship skills... sure, but not any real hunting skill.
 
knightrider said:
I really see it as no different than hunting over any other food source , still just waiting there to shoot something coming to eat whatever fiod source your "hunting" over
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To a point, this can be correct.
But it often isn't.

As to any "baiting" controversy, "baiting" seems to be more productive & more unethical for killing turkeys than killing deer.

When deer have certain wild-growing plants growing just about everywhere, they will often be cued in to simply roam around "browsing" for those plants. This could be honeysuckle, ragweed, greenbrier, even acorns, whatever. But if you have a steadily replenished corn feeder, that turns deer into habitually feeding at a specific "spot", instead of their normal roaming around "browsing" over a much larger area.

Sure, someone can argue a productive oak tree (when acorns are scarce) is someone akin to hunting over a corn feeder. I would argue you place & replenish the corn feeder, while you have to hunt to find that productive oak tree, which likely isn't the only one around.

I sometimes hunt near some big fields. I have at times positioned myself to have a 400-yd shot in 3 directions, yet never know where within that 400 yds a deer may step out. But more typically for me, the older bucks have a tendency to just suddenly be seen running full gallop never offering me a high probability shot.

For that reason, I usually pick a trail leading to the big field, and just hope what I'm after will choose the trail I'm watching instead of another. This is very different than hunting over a corn feeder.
 
TheLBLman said:
To a point, this can be correct.
But it often isn't.

As to any "baiting" controversy, "baiting" seems to be more productive & more unethical for killing turkeys than killing deer.

When deer have certain wild-growing plants growing just about everywhere, they will often be cued in to simply roam around "browsing" for those plants. This could be honeysuckle, ragweed, greenbrier, even acorns, whatever. But if you have a steadily replenished corn feeder, that turns deer into habitually feeding at a specific "spot", instead of their normal roaming around "browsing" over a much larger area.

Sure, someone can argue a productive oak tree (when acorns are scarce) is someone akin to hunting over a corn feeder. I would argue you place & replenish the corn feeder, while you have to hunt to find that productive oak tree, which likely isn't the only one around.

I sometimes hunt near some big fields. I have at times positioned myself to have a 400-yd shot in 3 directions, yet never know where within that 400 yds a deer may step out. But more typically for me, the older bucks have a tendency to just suddenly be seen running full gallop never offering me a high probability shot.

For that reason, I usually pick a trail leading to the big field, and just hope what I'm after will choose the trail I'm watching instead of another. This is very different than hunting over a corn feeder.
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Ive never hunted over a corn pile, but as easy as deer are to kill out of a producing oak, wheat plot, hay field, saddle between ridges, or even a ditch line funnel between wood lots i cant imagine a bag of corn on the ground would be any easier than what i already do, now i can see where it would be easier for folks who dont know how to hunt or who target turkeys with corn.
 
waterman said:
ive hunted one time in south carolina where its legal. not really my thing, but the people i know there see no problem with it. to each is their own
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. . . . . "to each their own" if legal?
That would be more in line with my thoughts, if legal.

In South Carolina (or parts of it) hunting deer with dogs is legal.
I've never done it, but do understand it's a "tradition" for that area,
and sounds like it could be very exciting at times.

As a child, I did quite a bit of rabbit hunting with beagles.
It was legal, fun & exciting, just very different than say, duck hunting.
I guess a deer could be looked at somewhat as just a big rabbit?

Hunting deer over bait in KY is legal,
so nothing legally wrong with doing it, there.

But turkey hunting over bait is legal no where,
yet I honestly believe somewhere around 20% of the turkeys killed over the past few years
in TN have been killed over a bait pile.

I do have a big problem with that, in part because it's illegal, in a bigger part because it's stealing from the majority of hunters trying to follow the law & be ethical in their hunting (actual "hunting").
 
I'm sure I will regret chiming in on this 😁but
I'm old enough to clearly remember hunting before cameras and or baiting were even a thing as are some of you guys. Seems to me like the satisfaction rate was/is higher when you outsmart your animal naturally using skills you learned by putting hard work and time in to.
If you go back several years and think about it from that perspective, baiting for deer and Turkey was only done by poachers and criminals…..just saying.
 
Hymie3 said:
Seems to me like the satisfaction rate was/is higher when you outsmart your animal naturally using skills you learned by putting hard work and time in to.
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Totally agree.
However, the typical trail cam user is utilizing trail cams as a scouting tool.
Just more "intel", that can be another aspect to your "scouting".

Hymie3 said:
If you go back several years and think about it from that perspective, baiting for deer and Turkey was only done by poachers and criminals…..just saying.
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Still the case today . . . . . just saying.
 
TheLBLman said:
I do have a big problem with that, in part because it's illegal, in a bigger part because it's stealing from the majority of hunters trying to follow the law & be ethical in their hunting (actual "hunting").
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This is my biggest issue. It is cheating. When I target a specific deer and have that deer regularly using my property, only to have it disappear likely to have fallen to one of the baiters nearby, it is extremely frustrating and disheartening. Thing is I know about baiting going on bordering properties, but can't do a thing about it. I did clue in the last game warden, but don't think he ever checked into it. I have actually seen them ride in on our dead end road with bagged corn in the beds of their side by sides during season. On another bordering property, the boy on the other side of me told me his cows were getting out and getting into the corn at .....'s feeder. That was also during season.

Is what it is and I won't get into a baiting war, I have to look at myself in the mirror.
 
Hunting close to an acorn producing tree certainly isn't like hunting over a bag of corn you bought and poured out. In the exact spot that deer travel. And with a perfect tree to climb with unobstructed shot and view of the bait. To kill a deer out of an acorn dropping tree takes way more skill. For one you have to memorize your oaks. You have to know which ones are whites and which are reds. And which ones have the least tannin. Making them much more desired by deer first. You have to find trails from bed to food. And how much sign is under the acorn producing trees. You have finally found walking 5 miles. And then have to pic the one that you think gives you the best chance. That also offers you a tree close enough to even have a shot. All that to finally sit in the tree to find out. The deer have found a better tree elsewhere.
 
Dean Parisian said:
Baiting is a signficant condemnation of a shooters ability to hunt.
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If anyone condemns one with that thought in mind then hunting over a food plot could be called the same . Isn't one hunting in a shooting house overlooking a food plot basically the same except its legal ? I wouldn't condemn either except baiting is illegal, maybe say it's a lazy man's way of hunting ..... wish I had a couple shooting houses overlooking nice plush food plots 😂
 
Hduke86 said:
Jump out and take aim? I just put the sandbag on the door and squeeze the trigger all the while having my Luke Bryan music going and the heat on 🤣. You're roughing it if you get outside the truck to shoot
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You know how to keep deer from winding you while spotlighting ? Roll up the window ☺
 
TheLBLman said:
. . . . . "to each their own" if legal?
That would be more in line with my thoughts, if legal.

In South Carolina (or parts of it) hunting deer with dogs is legal.
I've never done it, but do understand it's a "tradition" for that area,
and sounds like it could be very exciting at times.

As a child, I did quite a bit of rabbit hunting with beagles.
It was legal, fun & exciting, just very different than say, duck hunting.
I guess a deer could be looked at somewhat as just a big rabbit?

Hunting deer over bait in KY is legal,
so nothing legally wrong with doing it, there.

But turkey hunting over bait is legal no where,
yet I honestly believe somewhere around 20% of the turkeys killed over the past few years
in TN have been killed over a bait pile.

I do have a big problem with that, in part because it's illegal, in a bigger part because it's stealing from the majority of hunters trying to follow the law & be ethical in their hunting (actual "hunting").
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agreed.... "if legal"
 

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