Thoughts on baiting

[A207X2]

To me that’s more HARVESTING than HUNTING.

Baiting is fine if you’re nuisance shooting.

 

[jlmatthew]

It’s just another method in my opinion.
Is a 60X spotting scope fair chase? Rifles & scopes capable of 1000+ yard shots? Rangefinders to fine tune the shot?

everyone has an opinion on what’s fair chase. Here in Colorado people bellyache about the lack of big bucks and I roll my eyes when I look at all the gear and equipment they have that takes away the animals natural defenses.

 

[rwc101]

Is a 60X spotting scope fair chase? Rifles & scopes capable of 1000+ yard shots? Rangefinders to fine tune the shot?

Just my two cents, but none of those fundamentally change the animal's natural behavior like ringing a dinner bell for some corn. To each their own so long as it's legal though.

 

[longbow51]

Not legal in Montana, and never did it when I lived in Texas either. If I wanted to shoot a bear, which I don't, in dense woods I agree with an above poster that baiting might allow for some selectivity. Just talking with a friend of mine down south and they bait hogs. So, as with most things, there are shades of gray.

 

[EYJONAS!]

It's not my cup of tea to actually sprinkle some cmere deer out on the way into my tree stand that's guarded by 15 game cameras but, there's hunts or areas where bait sites may be one of the only effective ways to hunt as well. I.e. late season Saskatchewan or Texas brush country.

I would absolutely love to try a Saskatchewan deer hunt.....

This same topic goes for bears as well.... which I'm a spot and stalk guy for both deer and bears but I bet it is just as difficult to keep up with sites too.

Interesting topic because you can cut it 1000 ways.

 

[A207X2]

Not legal in Montana, and never did it when I lived in Texas either. If I wanted to shoot a bear, which I don't, in dense woods I agree with an above poster that baiting might allow for some selectivity. Just talking with a friend of mine down south and they bait hogs. So, as with most things, there are shades of gray.

Hogs are a nuisance down here and throughout the South. They breed faster than they can be controlled. The damage that hogs do to a farm field is horrendous. Baiting helps move the group away from the field, as well as to make a group kill easier.

This article is nearly 10 years old - and it's gotten much worse.

A Plague of Pigs in Texas

 

[Bigjay73]

Hogs are a nuisance down here and throughout the South. They breed faster than they can be controlled. The damage that hogs do to a farm field is horrendous. Baiting helps move the group away from the field, as well as to make a group kill easier.

This article is nearly 10 years old - and it's gotten much worse.

A Plague of Pigs in Texas

I'll shed a tear for people with hogs on their property when they stop charging people to kill them

 

[SAJ-99]

No thanks. I would rather buy my meat at the store. Most of us hunt for the experience. That is an experience I can live without.

 

[belshawelk]

I wont hunt a bear or deer over bait. Just not my type of hunting.

I do bait fish though lol.

 

[jbseamus83]

This is a very difficult topic. I was born and raised in TX and lived there for 36 years before moving to UT. I primarily hunted over bait while living in TX. I never hunted a high fence ranch. You would be surprised at how many Texans hate the fact that big money folks come in and buy up the land for high fence operations. I also have always had a big problem with the folks that would just go and pay thousands of dollars for a "hunt" on one of these properties.

I only shot 2 bucks over my 36 years of hunting over bait. It's far from a sure thing. However, there is no doubt that feeders change deer behavior considerably. That cannot be argued. However, I think that the primary reasons I am ok with this type of hunting is 2 fold:

1. The lack of opportunity for hunting would be close to nil in the state of TX for most folks if you couldn't own or use tracks of land from other people that were only 20-100 acres. Spot and stalk hunting is not going to happen in this type of a circumstance. Getting young hunters into "the field" in TX would be much more difficult.

2. The most important reason in my opinion for baiting in TX is for conservation (as funny as this sounds). The number of deer in TX makes the total number of deer (mule and whitetail) and elk in any western state look comical. The population of people in the state of TX and the number of roads also dwarf anything in the west outside of CA (if you count that as western hunting). The damage and danger that deer present on TX roads and on TX yards/gardens/ag is unbelievable and you can't really comprehend it unless you have been there for an extended period of time. I would see more dead deer on the side of the road driving to work each day than I have seen in the 6 months I have lived in UT (and driving throughout this state and WY).

I would not agree with baiting in most states that do not have this same deer population issues. I don't want to do it here or anywhere else that I am hunting. I want to learn the western way of glassing, stalking, etc. However, when I go back to TX in December, I will sit in our blind on out little 56 acres and try to shoot a doe or pig.

I know that this is not conventional belief or ethics for most people on this forum and that is totally fine. You were raised in a different place with different geography, deer populations, and land management strategies. Not everyone has to agree. And just because something may be beneficial in one area does not, in any way make it beneficial in all areas or states, nor should it be implemented in all areas or states.

Just my 2 cents (if it's worth even that).

 

[longbow51]

Hogs are a nuisance down here and throughout the South. They breed faster than they can be controlled. The damage that hogs do to a farm field is horrendous. Baiting helps move the group away from the field, as well as to make a group kill easier.

This article is nearly 10 years old - and it's gotten much worse.

A Plague of Pigs in Texas

I didn't mean to imply that baiting hogs was bad, and sorry if it came across that way. Just talked with an old friend of mine this morning and they baited a bunch. Got off 8 shots with his AR before 3 hogs dropped. Gotta love a former Marine.

 

[undercover]

I baited deer in Michigan for several seasons, I guess I did because the neighbors were doing it. I always saw does and fawns, in fact I had a group patterned to minute day in and day out when they would come to the pile of beats and corn and carrots. I gave up baiting and learned to hunt natural funnels, bedding area edges, natural feed, crossed nasty wetlands to find high ground in a swamp. I have harvested bigger bucks this way, learned whitetail behavior, learned “the wind”, etc etc. it’s now illegal in Michigan and still it goes on. If you want to see deer and it’s legal go ahead and bait, it’s fun for a bit But I got bored. Plus the biologist says it assists in spreading disease, CWD in core area especially.

 

[Gr8bawana]

To me that’s more HARVESTING than HUNTING.

Baiting is fine if you’re nuisance shooting.

^^This 100%^^
There is no actual hunting going on. It is simply shooting an animal.
It's not something I would do unless it was the only way my family could eat.

 

[2rocky]

There are a lot of things that happen in Texas that should stay in Texas. Whether it is wrong or right isn't the issue, it's just that there seem to be a fair number of people who get a charge out of telling folks "This is the way we do it it Texas". That by itself has probably turned more people against the Texas attitude than anything.

If I ever get the urge to hunt a 100 acre high fence deer lease I know where to look. Don't wait up.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Lotta BS flying around the ether about methods of take, hunting styles, etc.

I can't decide which irritates me more justifications for baiting, or purity tests bandied around.

@jbseamus83... no, there are a shit load of places where people are hunting 40 acre properties sans fences, that are flat and densely vegetated and they do just fine without baiting. There is no necessity to baiting deer in Texas, that's just hog wash. So you need bait because otherwise it would be too hard to hunt deer, but at the same time there are so many deer you need to bait? Also there are several states with higher deer densities than Texas, though hill country may have the highest density locally, I'm not sure.

At the same time CWD notwithstanding, you wanna bait knock yourselves out.

This entire conversation is a discussion of Type 1 fun, with folks contrasting it with Type 2 or getting on some ethical high horse that hunting has to be Type 2.

 

[A207X2]

Lotta BS flying around the ether about methods of take, hunting styles, etc.

I can't decide which irritates me more justifications for baiting, or purity tests bandied around.

@jbseamus83... no, there are a shit load of places where people are hunting 40 acre properties sans fences, that are flat and densely vegetated and they do just fine without baiting. There is no necessity to baiting deer in Texas, that's just hog wash. So you need bait because otherwise it would be too hard to hunt deer, but at the same time there are so many deer you need to bait? Also there are several states with higher deer densities than Texas, though hill country may have the highest density locally, I'm not sure.

At the same time CWD notwithstanding, you wanna bait knock yourselves out.

This entire conversation is a discussion of Type 1 fun, with folks contrasting it with Type 2 or getting on some ethical high horse that hunting has to be Type 2.

I certainly didn't want to come across that way - and hope I didn't. I've always looked at hunting as a test against yourself - very similar to golf. Do you play the ball where it lies, or do you improve you lie on each shot?

I also believe that the expression "It ain't the kill, it's the hunt" is one of the truest statements ever made.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I certainly didn't want to come across that way - and hope I didn't. I've always looked at hunting as a test against yourself - very similar to golf. Do you play the ball where it lies, or do you improve you lie on each shot?

I also believe that the expression "It ain't the kill, it's the hunt" is one of the truest statements ever made.

My point is that why judge the test someone poses against themselves.

But like also enough lipstick on this pig.

 

[N2TRKYS]

Been hunting over bait for years. I’ve hunted over bait in the form of acorns, standing corn, soybeans, peanuts, green fields, and kudzu patches in the South and the midwest. I also hunt over bait in Wyoming in the form of open grassy meadows for elk and deer.

 

[katmandew]

I grew up in Texas where it is legal to bait. This is all I know when hunting whitetail in Tx. I know a lot of states don’t allow baiting. I know a lot of people in Tx don’t agree with it either. But as a young kid I feel it gave me the best chance and ultimately get hooked on hunting. What are your thoughts on baiting?

Here are 2 deer that I took at a corn feeder in my lifetime.

not legal where I hunt, but i have strong opinion either way.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I want to bait a mountain lion