No baiting state

[Short Track]

I grew up in a non-baiting state. Just go out and scout on state land. Since have moved to a red state.
Now I'm getting into food plots, water troughs, mineral sites, etc.

How far do you go?
anyone can throw out a corn pile, like in Texas.
Food plot is extensive work.
I started with mock scrapes, and considering moving forward. Maybe mineral sites, Maybe a 2 acre plot.
Definitely won't do a feeder. That's too easy.

Where do you draw the line??

 

[Maverick1]

Since have moved to a red state.

I am not sure what a “red state” is. If that is a political angle, I am not certain how it relates to the topic of this thread. And, last time I checked the rules, politics are not allowed on Rokslide.

 

[WCB]

I've done all of the above...food plots, mock scrapes, dug ponds, mineral sites. I've killed deer with some of those and I've killed deer without them. None of those methods are "harder" than baiting. They are just different.

I have put way more effort into setting up a bait site 1.5+miles back, in knee deep or deeper snow, well below zero conditions and wind...hauling a blind, chair, and 85-90 lbs of corn at a time, than I have most of the up to 2.5 acre food plots I've put in 200 yards off the road with a box blind over it.

Also, yes, to just kill a deer dumping 50lb of corn out below a box blind isnt difficult. I've killed more big and more mature deer away from any bait pile or food plot, pond, etc than I have over them.

 

[noKnees]

I have done some hunting in NC where baiting is a thing. Its easy to kill a doe or a young buck at a feeder but its not where your going to see big bucks most of the time. The food is useful because it holds the does and if you have the does the bucks will be in the area even if they don't often come into a feeder.

 

[Chris in TN]

We've been doing habitat management for ~30 years now. I ended up with a degree in wildlife management. We do pretty much 'all the things' here, and our hunting tends to be a bit better on our little farm, than you'd expect for this amount of land in this area. My dad used to have a larger farm in an area with more deer and it was much, much better yet.

It really becomes a lifestyle. I sprayed some weedy spots today. Knocked back an encroaching hedgerow with some glyphosate and imazapyr. Last week I sprayed a pasture with 2,4-db to help the grass and clover flourish. Sprayed a different area with imazamox to encourage the clover and get rid of most everything else. That area is really a food plot, but we do graze it (just not during deer season).

Our farm is NOT intended to be perfect deer habitat - first and foremost, *WE* live here. It's our home. We have a fish pond and fenced pastures and chickens and goats and cows and we've had 3 crops of pigs in the past (skipping them this year - pigs can be a lot of work). We have a few dozen fruit trees - peaches, pears, one big fig tree, a lot of plums. We've planted tons of hardwood trees for mast (sawtooth and nuttall oaks, hybrid chestnuts, plums, persimmons) and I allow wild-sprouted persimmons to grow all over, and some of the first ones I mowed around ~14 years ago, now bear fruit reliably. We have PawPaws. We have native plums.

We have an absolutely staggering amount of bird life here ranging from 'house birds' like house finches and barn swallows and eastern Phoebes, to turkeys and woodcock that nest here in the spring. We've had quail in years past. Tons of neotropical migrants in season. Several herons and sometimes we'll see a least bittern. Every songbird imaginable. We trap predators, especially smaller nest predators. I have a small sunflower patch in the yard - the wife loves the flowers. Also, two smaller zinnia patches in other parts of the yard - maybe 2/3 of an acre total in zinnias and sunflowers. And today a doe and her fawn were munching on those sunflowers.

We have a smaller pond for watering our goats. Two small watering holes that are excellent hunting spots during our dry fall weather. Salt licks (legal to hunt here) in different areas. Mourning doves and killdeer and chuck-wills-widows and yellow-billed cuckoos and scarlet tanagers and squirrels and rabbits and I know where there's a hen turkey sitting on her nest about 200 yards from the house right now.

We do not bait. We do feed after deer season.

 

[Long Cut]

I grew up in a non-baiting state. Just go out and scout on state land. Since have moved to a red state.
Now I'm getting into food plots, water troughs, mineral sites, etc.

How far do you go?
anyone can throw out a corn pile, like in Texas.
Food plot is extensive work.
I started with mock scrapes, and considering moving forward. Maybe mineral sites, Maybe a 2 acre plot.
Definitely won't do a feeder. That's too easy.

Where do you draw the line??

“Since have moved to a Red State” - Are you overwhelmed because of the Freedom of Choice that you have without Government dictating how you’re supposed to hunt?

How is a feeder “too easy”? If you’ve never hunted over bait before?

“Where do you draw the line?” - Typically somewhere between where the Laws, my Morals & Ethics come together.

 

[WhoGarrDen]

I don't own land, but I'm fortunate enough to have a family friend that does. He has feeders, and it may be "easier" to sit and wait over the feeders (to some), but not a guarantee. Its not as exhilarating as still hunting in mixed timber/grasslands for 2 days for my last one, but it is still joy.

However...

The joy and reward also come from management (like Chris said above). We feed from Aug - March (or first green up), create bedding and cover, thin canopy for better browse, try to run a sad-looking 0.5-acre clover plot, check cameras early season to get a feel for local deer health and determine how many older class bucks may be in the area and don't shoot forkies/spikes, do a little predator hunting around fawn drop, etc.

Is it less work than someone who escouts, drives 5hours and hikes for a week? Maybe, maybe not. It's just another type of hunting and I really enjoy it. We aren't proud that we finally get a shot on one in daylight after sitting for 3-5 days, we're proud of the fruits of our labors and to see them thriving and knowing they'll be there for years to come (trigger-happy neighbors and roaming dogs be damned).

 

[Long Cut]

We’re Conservationists first and Hunters second.

As Urban development chips away at what remaining natural habitat that we have left, it’s imperative that we are efficient stewards of the landscape and manage every acre that we’re able to.

It’s way more than just feeders & food plots.