Baiting blacktail for late archery

[whack em]

I'm new to the deer baiting game, and was curious as to the right way to go about setting up bait for blacktail here in the west side for the archery late season.  What I have seen is they can be real picky, and I had very little luck last year baiting them.  I have about 50 lbs of apples in the freezer, and I planned on dumping 10 lbs a week a few weeks before the opener.  Am I off the mark there?  And, what else could I do to get some blackies into the visiting my bait/stand site? :dunno:Thanks in advance...

[blacktailcody]

Apples+wet cob= deer dynamite.

[Highcountry360]

 I think your on the right path, I've had good luck with apples and alfalfa, also took all the leftover corn stalks from our garden and chopped it up like silage. They seemed to like it. Had fresh tracks in every day.

[spin05]

all of the above plus i throw out a deer block from the feed store this is the one. http://wildlife.purinamills.com/products/ECMD2-0017376.aspx there about $16 last 2-4 weeks

[mtbeav]

apples an sweet cob 

[D-Rock425]

Make sure you dont have bait set up in an are with bear.  They will eat all your apples before the deer get a chance.

[BULLBLASTER]

50 lb of apples isn't a lot. If that's all you have I would drop it all within a week of opening day. One deer can come in and wipe out 10 lbs of apples at one sitting. I agree on sweet cob. Might try pumpkins too. The Whitetail over here love them!

[coastie hunter]

 The later the better December is really good for baiting.

[Jonathan_S]

Make sure you dont have bait set up in an are with bear.  They will eat all your apples before the deer get a chance.

When are the last of the bears gone to hibernate over there?  Usually by late season, over here anyway, they're hardly moving if they're not asleep yet.

[xring1983]

I would go with apples only, I have been baiting all my life for deer, i found they wont touch anything better then apples, the area I late season hunt, they wont touch anything else, alphalfa, cob, corn.. you name it.. nothing but apples. The farther east you go, grains work well also. I use about 15 buckets a week min for my 2 spots.. thats about 400 lbs a week.. apples are all over, just drive around and when you see a ton on the ground, ask  the people if you can gather them, I have yet to be told no. You need a cam also, it is pointless to not know what is coming to your bait and at what times. As far as bears, its not a big deal, yes they will eat a ton of apples, but it does not hurt the deer any, I had a huge bear on my cam for a week last year and deer within a hour of the bear being there. My gf got a huge doe last night over apples, I shot a nice 4x4 last year over apples, it works awesome, and for late season hunting, the apples bring in the girls, and if your lucky enough to be in the stand when a hot doe wants to eat.. her BF is never far behind!!

[spin05]

all of the above plus i throw out a deer block from the feed store this is the one. http://wildlife.purinamills.com/products/ECMD2-0017376.aspx there about $16 last 2-4 weeks

Well finally got a buck to come in.  A nice little 3x3

[PolarBear]

Right now I have 12 deer coming into my place every day.  I have a pile of sweet cob, ground corn and a trace block left over from my steer and horse.  The deer just walk by it without a sniff and head straight to my apple and oak trees.  In 16 years I have never had a blacktail eat cob, alfalfa or deer blocks, only apples, berries and acorns.

[BlacktailBowhunter]

I started using apples 3 years ago and it definately has a bit of a learing curve. At least for me anyway. I had dillusions that it was going to be easy to get the deer to eat the apples. Some deer eat them and some do not. I plan to try alfalfa this year as well. I know guys that have started them on apples and when the bears came in they swithced to alfalfa with good luck.

I hunt primarily public land that gets pressure during rifle and bow seasons. I noticed the private that I have access to in Oregon, the deer are fairly easy to bait up and come to the apples regularly, but on private where they don't see apples, it takes a bit of work for them to accept them.

This is what I do.

Scout areas with trail cams and glass cuts in the summer months. Go back to the areas where you found deer and look for rubs and solid trails.

Late October (like right now) I place hundreds of pounds of apples in different locations. I try and leave about a 5 gal bucket full or 25lbs in each spot. Trickle them out every couple of feet down trails that intersect. I check them every week to see if they have been hit.

I give the spot at least 2 wks. to get a strike on the bait. The deer have to find them and they have to accept them as a food source. This takes a bit of time and conditioning hence the saturation method.

I have noticed that the deer really start hammering the apples when the temps. drop into the 20's and/or stay in the 30's for days at a time.

The first week of December is when I really start getting a lot of activity on my bait piles in the lower lands and 3 years ago we got snow around Thanks Giving in a spot a little higher in elevation and the deer were on them daily.

Don't expect instant gratification. If you get deer coming in regular in a short period of time, that is awesome, but don't get discouraged if they don't. It does work, but not every deer will eat the apples and that is why it is a good idea to try mulitiple locations. It only takes 1 deer that likes them a lot.

As an example, I have placed 10 piles out this week and boxed up another 200 pounds to put out over the next couple of days in 10 more locations.. I don't expect every spot to get hit by the deer. I plan to have about 30 sites baited up in various locations with the hopes of getting 5 solid bait sites going. The sites that don't produce, I simply pick the apples up off of the ground and take them to the sites that are producing.

They have to feed in an area that they feel comfortable. Don't be afraid to get into that thick older reprod. Look on Google maps for openings in the reprod. Ground blinds work very well and you can also use ladder stands or strap on stands in the older reprod.

Once you get a buck coming in on a regular basis, you can almost set your watch by him. I am also learning that I don't want a trail cam directly over the bait. I am not puting the cams out until the deer hit the apples and once they do, I am placing the cams ten yards or so from the apples. I don't want to spook them off, I just want to start patterning them and get their daily routine figured out. Black flash or infrared would be okay, but I only have the white flash cams right now.

Also, if you are only getting nocturnal photos, try to back trail and get closer to the bedding area. I also found that one of the bucks I had coming in was doing so just after dark, but when the temps. dropped he started coming in during the last half hour of shooting light. I think had I moved the bait pile back on the trail, he would have been in earlier as he had to cross a small opening to get to the apples. I realized this when he approached my stand.

It is uber fun once you start getting them coming in on a regular basis. I no longer sit in the tree wondering, I sit in the tree expecting to see them.

I killed my buck this year in Oregon's early season and will be hunting WA late archery near Toledo, WA. Good luck and let us know how you do.

[lokidog]

Apples definitely work, though frozen seems like they'd be mushy.  We also put out Del's Allstock which they seem to like though I sometimes have to apple it up a bit before they start eating it.  But, once started they come right to it.

As mentioned deer will eat a lot of apples if given the chance.  I do not put out a huge amount at any one time after they have started hitting them, but then I am about five minutes away from the three or four places I bait.   

If you have the ability to bait frequently, I would suggest only baiting in the morning, that way the deer get used to looking for the apples/bait in daylight.

[whack em]

Thanks for imparting some wisdom, and sharing your lessons learned.  Sounds like I need to score some more apples!  I've tried the craiglsit thing, and so far there it looks like I'm a day late and dollar short.  I'll keep at it, and try the cob thing as well.  I'll post anything I may have the luck of getting into!