I used to be against it personally, but over the years I have mellowed.
Good luck, Robb
Here is the rules for our state: According to Alabama law, it is illegal to hunt game in any area where baiting/feeding serves as a lure or attractant to game. However, when hunting deer or feral swine on private lands only, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that any bait or feed located beyond 100 yards and not within the line of sight of the hunter, is not a lure or attractant on the area where the hunter is attempting to take deer or feral swine. “Not within the line of sight” means being hidden from view by natural vegetation or terrain features.
I rifle hunt over corn in Wisconsin. I hate it. There is no hunting, no scouting, no research, no skill. It is just sitting there watching a corn pile.
In Kansas, I have worked very hard. I have scouted like crazy. I hung or set up about 20 stands/blinds. I have multiple trail cameras out and have studied those pictures in detail. I have researched like crazy using google earth. If I am able to connect with a decent deer, I will be very happy and very proud.
I cant imagine feeling much satisfaction if I just show up and set 30 yards from my buddies corn feeder.
Think of bait piles like guacamole. If it's distasteful to you, don't partake. It's your hunt and your experience that counts.
Seems to work pretty well in Saskatchewan and Kansas.
Most hunters that I know of from Sask start baiting late summer and bait through fall and into winter. These deer spend almost half their lives feeding from a bait. It's a lot different than throwing out a corn pile for two months of the year. The hunters/acres ratio is completely different than anywhere in the US. Throughout most of the US whitetails are going to have run-ins with hunters, and react to human scent like I do to a skunk with it's tail in the air. Nothing good can become of it. In Sask, there is so little human scent out in the bush in comparison, that if a hunter carefully baits a spot every few weeks there is minimal human scent, and the deer come into very little contact with hunters in general so it also doesn't elicit the same reaction.
That being said, I dabbled in baiting in Saskatchewan when drawn there, and it isn't as simple as throwing food in the bush and the booners come to feed. We actually had a few good bucks hit the baits, (130's to 140's) but they left for the time-frame we came to hunt (the rut) as does are more important, and they were elsewhere. This was right after some bad winters, and we didn't see any bucks anywhere bigger than what hit the baits.
I imagine proper deer hunting over bait to be similar to bear hunting over bait. Just anywhere doesn't cut it - you need to find the right spots to use. You need to be careful in how you bait, what you bait with, and how often you visit the site. Killing a giant bear on a bait is no slam dunk either, and baiting for deer in Sask is a whole different way of hunting that has it's own efforts put in. By no way am I saying it is the most challenging, or the easiest way to hunt either. It is simply different, and it sure works to a degree over there.
Jim Shockey has a video where he kills the buck he is after after 21 straight days I believe it is of sitting the same bait. (100 yards away) He saw the buck once on like day 11 or something at 180 yards and wasn't comfortable with the shot. What if he took those 21 days and sat somewhere else? Would it have been less productive for that deer? More productive? Some kind of funnel? A scrape/rub line? Baiting is one style of hunting, and it isn't for everyone.
I got drawn for Sask this year and most likely will not bait. Simply doesn't make sense for the 7 day season I get as a Canadian resident. The bucks are usually running does hard at the end of Nov, so the bait hunting is tough. You can kill one there, but you can kill one just as easily elsewhere in my opinion. Will it be as controlled of a situation somewhere else? Not likely.
Hardly ever would be more accurate. These are certainly not bruiser midwest bucks, but they are about as mature as they get in East Texas.
Maybe they do in those places midwest, Link, and drycreek. They sure don't in WV. And, these were feeders running in the largest bow hunting only area in the lower 48. Been that way for 35 plus years. There is no shortage of mature deer. For better reference, I think Apauls hit on it. When it is around every corner, deer learn to associate bait with hunters.
Just food for thought. I wander how many mature deer, guys in these places don't see because of bait? No one thinks about that. Also, big horns doesn't necessarily mean mature either in a couple of those areas. God Bless
I mostly shoot freezer fodder around feeders, or pigs. ( I shoot lots of pigs !)
Well that settles that I guess.
And it is impossible to kill a mountain goat. I know because I've tried it.
It's also impossible to win the lottery. I know because I've tried it.
If you don't want to hunt over bait that's cool but some of us do and love it. I hunt all different ways and they all have their pros/cons.
BTW...I'd be a blind man if I didn't think there weren't BIG deer killed over bait sites.
In NW Oklahoma I use corn/food plots to pull deer closer to a tree as there isn't an abundance to pick from. I wish Oklahoma would outlaw baiting but until they do I will. On the small 160 acre parcels I hunt, if you don't have corn out you can sit and see all the deer at the neighbors feeder 700 yards away. It's that simple. I can't hunt my neighbors properties so if I want deer to travel through and stay on the properties I can hunt, a food source is a must. Landowners don't usually want me farming up tgeir grass. You guys can argue over whether I should plant the corn or scatter it.
Never said I wasn't hunting a food source. I said hunting over a pile of bait/feeder wasn't my thing... nor waiting over a pile of bait. To be clear... I wouldn't hunt over it if I hunted in NW Oklahoma either.
Hound hunters aren't real hunters. They give us a bad name.
Trail cam and Ozonics users also give us a bad name.
Ditto for food plotter's, sighted/lighted compound shooters, range finder users, scent free camo wearers, multi treestand hangers. You're all giving us real hunters a bad name. Surely there can not be too much scorned heaped on those that check wind and weather conditions, ON-LINE, from their warm kitchen, before they pick their stand. Are you so disconnected from nature that you can't just hold up a wet finger and let Mother Earth speak to you. WE real hunters can feel Her messages through our damp moccasin soles.
And there is a special hate reserved for are all you that have private land or free access to it or worse yet, lease it.
The rest of us real hunters better stick together to save the cherished passion of the pure hunt. WE should all have a copy of the local bus schedule so we can throw those wannabe's under the next one. All six or seven of us.
Had to replace the sphagnum moss on the finger I cut napping a flint to cut the turkey feathers to go on the hand shaved cedar shafts I gathered while out practicing real woodsmanship.
This is the average hunting spot in the county I live in. Notice the lone tree just beyond the well location. Some spend a few hundred dollars on corn and some spend a few thousand on a lease. Personally I refuse to lease land yet still have as many deer on the wall as the guys that do. Different strokes for different folks.
MAD_ANGLER... my sentiments as well.
He just answered the OP question ( Just wondering if legal where you hunt do you use bait piles? )
Kevin simply said NO
And it is impossible to kill a mountain goat. I know because I've tried it.
It's also impossible to win the lottery. I know because I've tried it."
I guess I made that easy for you 'bou. However, I did clarify the point my second post.
'bou; king of the one liners got me on that one. BTW, you did a good job getting right to the point but, missing the important variables that would make your post a valid, indisputable contribution. Just like I did the first post. Let's pat each other on the back. :^)
God Bless men
