Free: Contests & Raffles.
LR338: I'm no baiting expert by any means and I came from a state where no baiting is allowed. I think like many who do not bait I was initially of the opinion that it is wrong and not fair chase. I completely understand those who are not familiar with baiting and who are quick to dismiss it as a slam dunk hunt...I was one of those people up until a few years ago.While some of those youtube videos are interesting, I would say unless you have pretty much an entire community that feeds and habituates animals, baiting for the purpose of hunting never conditions animals to behavior like that. Also, if the perception is that baiting can be effective if you pull over to the side of the road and dump a box of apples out...it isn't. I would agree guys that do stuff like that are slobs...regulation that restricted that kind of behavior I would 100% support.For most hunters though, baiting requires a lot of work and a lot of skill to be effective. You still have to bait where animals are at, you have to place it where they are comfortable feeding, and have a pretty good understanding of how they seasonally use the habitat where you might bait. Once you figure that out, now you must determine how you will position a stand or blind using existing cover, wind direction, game trails, etc. When you start baiting it must be a food the animals will eat, you usually have to be pretty consistent in providing feed as well. This sounds simple but takes a lot of work and trial and error. Now, once you've done all the homework and setup your blind and applied feed you may start to see some results. What you will find is that deer are very, very cautious at bate sites. They do not approach anything like the youtube videos...they are very cautious, probably far more alert than if there were no bait site. Once they come into the bait you still have all of the challenges any hunter would...get you bow drawn, or gun up or whatever without the animal detecting you, make a good shot etc. Winds change, they see you move, they are gone. Nothing about baiting reduces the senses or ability of game to escape. You are still hunting very intelligent, wild animals.A lot of guys, myself included, get pictures of nice bucks and sometimes post them. I think it gives folks a false sense of how "easy" or "fair" baiting is. A ton of work and skill goes into getting those pictures and many times you will notice that the pictures are either at night or during a part of the year when season is closed...this gets back to my point about animals being intelligent and baiting not reducing their ability to elude hunters! This is not to say baiting doesn't work sometimes...my experience has been every once in a while you can get a decent buck to show in the last few minutes of waning light. Guys that can hunt during the rut have the advantage that does (which are typically always more visible and easy to find...bait or not) will have bucks accompanying them.I hope this gives you a little more perspective on baiting. Overall, it is nothing like what is depicted in the youtube videos IMO. I'm sure many others can give you some different perspectives on this subject as well.
Quote from: idahohuntr on December 08, 2014, 08:19:04 AMLR338: I'm no baiting expert by any means and I came from a state where no baiting is allowed. I think like many who do not bait I was initially of the opinion that it is wrong and not fair chase. I completely understand those who are not familiar with baiting and who are quick to dismiss it as a slam dunk hunt...I was one of those people up until a few years ago.While some of those youtube videos are interesting, I would say unless you have pretty much an entire community that feeds and habituates animals, baiting for the purpose of hunting never conditions animals to behavior like that. Also, if the perception is that baiting can be effective if you pull over to the side of the road and dump a box of apples out...it isn't. I would agree guys that do stuff like that are slobs...regulation that restricted that kind of behavior I would 100% support.For most hunters though, baiting requires a lot of work and a lot of skill to be effective. You still have to bait where animals are at, you have to place it where they are comfortable feeding, and have a pretty good understanding of how they seasonally use the habitat where you might bait. Once you figure that out, now you must determine how you will position a stand or blind using existing cover, wind direction, game trails, etc. When you start baiting it must be a food the animals will eat, you usually have to be pretty consistent in providing feed as well. This sounds simple but takes a lot of work and trial and error. Now, once you've done all the homework and setup your blind and applied feed you may start to see some results. What you will find is that deer are very, very cautious at bate sites. They do not approach anything like the youtube videos...they are very cautious, probably far more alert than if there were no bait site. Once they come into the bait you still have all of the challenges any hunter would...get you bow drawn, or gun up or whatever without the animal detecting you, make a good shot etc. Winds change, they see you move, they are gone. Nothing about baiting reduces the senses or ability of game to escape. You are still hunting very intelligent, wild animals.A lot of guys, myself included, get pictures of nice bucks and sometimes post them. I think it gives folks a false sense of how "easy" or "fair" baiting is. A ton of work and skill goes into getting those pictures and many times you will notice that the pictures are either at night or during a part of the year when season is closed...this gets back to my point about animals being intelligent and baiting not reducing their ability to elude hunters! This is not to say baiting doesn't work sometimes...my experience has been every once in a while you can get a decent buck to show in the last few minutes of waning light. Guys that can hunt during the rut have the advantage that does (which are typically always more visible and easy to find...bait or not) will have bucks accompanying them.I hope this gives you a little more perspective on baiting. Overall, it is nothing like what is depicted in the youtube videos IMO. I'm sure many others can give you some different perspectives on this subject as well. Should make this a sticky so that whenever this topic comes up, we could refer it to this explanation.
My concept of baiting is this- guy dumps corn, apples, hay, salt lick, molasses, buck jam, peanut butter on the ground near ground blind or tree stand and waits for the deer.
Quote from: BULLBLASTER on December 08, 2014, 11:47:31 AMOne reason that i use bait at a fw of my whitetail spots is that they are relatively small to very small parvels of land and the bait gives me a chance to bring the deer the extra 20 yards onto the correct property. Instead of me watching them just past the line. So i guess you could say i am altering (or trying to alter) their travel paterns to make them huntable. I agree there are bigger issues like garbage. I see no possible way that 2 points being shot and left to waste has anything at all to do with bait. I will add that most people tha i know that baitdeer will pass on many legal animals in search of a older age class deer.I mentioned the two 2 pts being shot as a response to the possible response that someone might have brought up that baiting deer would bring them in close which would allow positive identification.
One reason that i use bait at a fw of my whitetail spots is that they are relatively small to very small parvels of land and the bait gives me a chance to bring the deer the extra 20 yards onto the correct property. Instead of me watching them just past the line. So i guess you could say i am altering (or trying to alter) their travel paterns to make them huntable. I agree there are bigger issues like garbage. I see no possible way that 2 points being shot and left to waste has anything at all to do with bait. I will add that most people tha i know that baitdeer will pass on many legal animals in search of a older age class deer.
It is not that I agree or disagree with baiting. I was originally ticked off from the thread that was calling all hunters to write the wdfw and tell them you disagree with the legislation banning baiting and if you are not against that legislation you are an anti-hunter.
Agree to disagree on this issue.
Quote from: longrangehunter338 on December 09, 2014, 12:23:32 PMAgree to disagree on this issue. Agreeing to disagree on whether to agree or disagree?Or not..........
Quote from: jasnt on December 09, 2014, 10:59:03 AMWhat about the guy that owns just a little chunk of land and surrounded by huge farms and large timbered private land. a food plot/creating cover/ providing water / minrels/salt is not enough when your surrounded by un huntable alfalfa fields and no access timber plots. See, your too smart for your own good. They should just pay the high access fee for the timber land or trespass on the private farmland.Actually this is a point that I have been wanting to make.These small parcels of huntable land are often surrounded by private land or areas that may not always be safe to shoot, BUT with proper positioning of a bait pile and stand, a shot can be taken in a safe direction. This is something that everyone should encourage in the name of safety.
What about the guy that owns just a little chunk of land and surrounded by huge farms and large timbered private land. a food plot/creating cover/ providing water / minrels/salt is not enough when your surrounded by un huntable alfalfa fields and no access timber plots.
Agree to disagree about baiting. I have spent a lot of time in the woods and have watched deer and elk just stand around with more than enough time to shoot any of them without any bait. This argument will go on forever without any change of opinion. I will never use bait and those that wish to use bait have at it. Topics like this just seem to breed discontent with few offering pros and cons on the issue and lead to just people getting ugly with each other.
I agree with everything that idahohntr said. I have tens of thousands of trail cam pictures from a couple of baited camera sites, most of which are at night. Constant upkeep of the site is required. Lots of hours in the stand or the blind, which by the way, if you think that's "easy" you've got it all wrong. Maybe it's not physically as difficult as backpack hunting, but it kills me mentally. I can't stand to sit in 1 place for that long. With all that said, I've never hunted over bait. I sat in a blind with a friend a few weeks ago(unarmed). I lasted 2 hours then I had to quit. I was all out of patience. I've got a lot of respect for the guy who has the mental capacity and commitment to sit in a blind or tree stand for that long to make it happen. I do hunt out of my backpack and I put a bunch of miles in on foot every year. I just really enjoy the trail cam pictures I get and if they help someone get a great animal, then I'm all the more pleased. We've got a few of the animals killed that I've had on camera, but never while hunting over the bait site. It's not that I'm against it. It's just not my preferred style of hunting.
Topics like this just seem to breed discontent with few offering pros and cons on the issue and lead to just people getting ugly with each other.
If you use the bad apples to represent the entire group...no collection of people will ever look good: baiters, hunters, anglers, police officers, priests, lawyers, doctors, no one group is immune from a few ruining the image of many.
Quote from: jackelope on December 09, 2014, 08:41:15 PMQuote from: longrangehunter338 on December 09, 2014, 12:57:45 PMTopics like this just seem to breed discontent with few offering pros and cons on the issue and lead to just people getting ugly with each other.You've started 2 of them in 2 days. You are fueling the unnecessary fire at this point. Don't promote taking away from fellow hunters based on your own preferences. I couldn't care less how you hunt as long as it's legal. Rather than starting more threads to "set the record straight", let it go and support your fellow hunters before there is nothing left to support.With all due respect, I started discussions, asking for an explanation for why baiting is so important. The ugliness i refer to are the comments telling me to shut up, im an idiot for talking about this, since I have not lived in this state my entire life I have no say in this issue. Emotion deals with every issue like it or not, emotion is the very reason an issue becomes an issue. Not one person bothered to quibble with words and tell me there is a difference between baiting deer and feeding deer. Bait is something you place on the ground right before season to bring in the deer. feeding is what is taking place from the sound of it with all these trail cams and limited hunting areas and scouting and the emplacement of stands and blinds in the right way to get the best shooting angle.Everything that is voted on is based on emotion, how else do you think 594 passed since those that voted for it obviously did not think about it. Maybe just maybe I starred up (pissed off) enough emotion on here that more hunters will get involved and let the wdfw know that banning baiting of deer and elk is a bad idea.
Quote from: longrangehunter338 on December 09, 2014, 12:57:45 PMTopics like this just seem to breed discontent with few offering pros and cons on the issue and lead to just people getting ugly with each other.You've started 2 of them in 2 days. You are fueling the unnecessary fire at this point. Don't promote taking away from fellow hunters based on your own preferences. I couldn't care less how you hunt as long as it's legal. Rather than starting more threads to "set the record straight", let it go and support your fellow hunters before there is nothing left to support.
It pisses me off that the wdfw would even consider banning anything based on the squeaky wheels emotions.
Quote from: vandeman17 on December 10, 2014, 11:31:09 AMWhat is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results.Some people just don't get the underlying argument here and keep talking about it when it is obvious they have their mind made up and have NO CLUE what it is everyone else is trying to get across to them. Might as well cut the losses and lock this thread because it will go nowhere Oh gosh, hey guy I just said I understand it is important to keep this method of hunting. I'm indifferent as to this method.
What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results.Some people just don't get the underlying argument here and keep talking about it when it is obvious they have their mind made up and have NO CLUE what it is everyone else is trying to get across to them. Might as well cut the losses and lock this thread because it will go nowhere