Baiting Deer

[burmjohn]

Bait for the most part is a dump and its consumed in a few hours or days.  A plot can as you guys said benefit everything in the woods, and lasts for months if not years.  The same thing goes for apple tree's...  Is planting oaks considered the same as dumping corn BPB?.

[nyslowhand]

Smeone get a rope please!  LOL

One member mentioned the benifits of food plots for wildlife.

Every one else referenced food plots in conjunction with hunting.

Assuming you are for food plots because they are defined as legal, regardless of their intended use, location, etc?

[Doc]

Bait for the most part is a dump and its consumed in a few hours or days.  A plot can as you guys said benefit everything in the woods, and lasts for months if not years.  The same thing goes for apple tree's...  Is planting oaks considered the same as dumping corn BPB?.

Actually, if you want to get real high tech, you can get one of these feeders with a timer that can last until the first bear decides he has to get inside.

The beauty of timed feeders is that the deer can be programmed to respond when the feeder goes off, so you not only can train the deer to come to an exact spot (let's say exactly a taped 20 yards from your stand), but they can be conditioned like Pavlov's dogs to come to the sound of the feeder going off and then know exactly what time they'll be there. Slick ..... huh? That's some good hunting technique!!

Doc

[wellsley]

I don't bait and I don't believe in baiting. But there is baiting going on all over the place. Many of the neighbors brag about the deer and bear that they've got pic's of on there trail camera's at there bait piles. Yet come hunting season maybe only 10% score on a nice buck. Like I said I don't bait and I have shot a 2 1/2 year old buck 9 out of last 10 years. Just by spending the time in the field and not on the couch.

[Geno C]

eitherway the intentions of a food plot are equal to that of baiting and by intentions i mean most guys make food plots with the intentions of hanging a stand off the fringe and hunting that food plot come deer season in hopes to bag game and or se more deer activity.

the difference i dont see is that there are plenty of hunters constructing food plots in sizes no bigger then a 1/4 acre or less or even strip plots... now when you have smaller FP's and a high concentraition of deer in that paticualr area, please tell me how that differes from bait piles and the exchange of salivas or any other transmitions the DEC speaks of??? small food plots and high activity, i personally see no difference, im sorry and you wont change my mind. if you have an acre plus food plot, ok maybe there is a difference in that of which the DEC has concerns for.

i have not heard one person on here state they made a food plot souly for the deer herd and have no intentions of hunting that plot. im not knocking the guys who make food plots to hunt becasue i do and i would be a hipocrite. Its the ones who are stating theres a difference between baiting and small food plots that i think is quite comical. the motives and intentions are there and the the same as that of baiting. you can not tell me a small strip plot has the up most concern for the deer heard and it has NOTING to do with drawing deer in closer. C'Mon... im not supporting any theory on bait piles i just think its funny that some are actually trying to defend the difference. Admit it and move on.

[Larry]

Sorry I didn’t mean to start a full scale war here.

This is what I believe and why; I think there is little difference between food plots and baiting and I’m not the only one some of the biologists I’ve talk to at the DEC call food plots legal baiting.

I see little difference in planting 5 acres of corn with no intentions of harvesting it for human or domesticated live stock consumption then the guy who puts out a 100lb. of corn in the back 40. The only differences I see are one cost more and takes more time and are consider to beacause agriculture so it’s legal. So with food plots being legal that’s that.

[burmjohn]

Yeah there is no different between the 5 acre habitat you just created with the corn field and dumping 100lb of corn... Hahaha, thats laughable at best.

[Doewhacker]

Yeah there is no different between the 5 acre habitat you just created with the corn field and dumping 100lb of corn... Hahaha, thats laughable at best.

Well as far as the part where the animals eat it.. they are the same. Straight up baiting is not the same as a food plot but the end goals may be shared. Thats what I gather from this discussion any way.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

My plots are in the middle area of the property we lease and while we have no stands directly over them....I sure the hell hope they walk by my stands on their way there....how is that for honest...lmao

[WNYBuckHunter]

What I find funny is that people think deer dont swap saliva or feed directly over other deer and animal's feces and urine on a normal, daily basis without supplemental feeding (bait pile or food plot). I have seen a deer eat half of an apple, drop the other half (covered in saliva) and watched a separate deer eat the other half. I see them sniff, lick and dig around in each others urine and feces at scrapes licking branches, etc. I also see them with their noses in each others' rears and cleaning each other.

Also, down in Texas and other places down south, you dont hear of CWD or other diseases occurring while baiting and supplemental feeding goes on constantly. I wonder why....hmmmmm.

Just some food for thought. 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

WNY....I think they view those activities as natural behavior and know they are not going to change it. I think their position on baiting is the activity introduces more contact that would normally occur and increases the chance of contamination above what occurs naturally.

On the CWD....I hope it doesn't travel very far and petters out but if id did get there....I would bet money they would have to change their view on baiting. It would be too risky not to.

[Larry]

I would never tell anyone they can’t put in a food plot because it’s legal to do so. Just don’t call it habitat improvement. What you created was a 5 acre feed troth.  I just don’t see any real difference between food plots and baiting.

Real habitat improvement to me would something like selective harvest of trees or like what we have done we had a small x-mass tree farm on the property; we just let it go now there is 1.5 acre tangled mess that is a real deer magnet. But that took about 7 years to let nature to take its course.

[burmjohn]

It is habitat improvement, along with the other things we did / are going to do such as selective harvesting of tree's.  Down the road we will do another field, which will result in more habitat improvements.

[Geno C]

What I find funny is that people think deer dont swap saliva or feed directly over other deer and animal's feces and urine on a normal, daily basis without supplemental feeding (bait pile or food plot). I have seen a deer eat half of an apple, drop the other half (covered in saliva) and watched a separate deer eat the other half. I see them sniff, lick and dig around in each others urine and feces at scrapes licking branches, etc. I also see them with their noses in each others' rears and cleaning each other.

Also, down in Texas and other places down south, you dont hear of CWD or other diseases occurring while baiting and supplemental feeding goes on constantly. I wonder why....hmmmmm.

Just some food for thought. 

that is prettymuch what i was saying in other words, well put... natural or not where do you draw the line??

[Culvercreek hunt club]

this sure is starting to mirror the Nuge thread.....ethical VS opinion. legal VS ethical. It is another topic without a clear defined answer

[nyslowhand]

Also, down in Texas and other places down south, you dont hear of CWD or other diseases occurring while baiting and supplemental feeding goes on constantly. I wonder why....hmmmmm.

Never thought about that!!!

Great question/observation!!

Sub-species tolerance---have no clue!

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Areas that have confirmed cases by CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cwd/

[Geno C]

this sure is starting to mirror the Nuge thread.....ethical VS opinion. legal VS ethical. It is another topic without a clear defined answer

id say legal vs opinion...

but some of the statements made, irrelevant to some make sense tho... the question in post 1 was quite simple tho. tangents were broken out and went off into comparisons, comparisons which make some sense if you think about it.

Food plot vs baiting, although its the NOT the real question of the thread it does make one wonder...

[Geno C]

Areas that have confirmed cases by CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cwd/

started out as a disease on captive deer, thats funny... could have been neglect on the raisers behalf. But none the less baiting on LI atleast has been going on for quite sometime. i see bait piles everywhere. out of a percentage of LI deer taken howmany have an "infected" diagnose  of CWD? i would just like to know. or any deer in the state for that matter, because we all know bainting is state wide...

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I think in order to answer the poll it is important to have the question (in your own head) answered....is a food plot baiting. That answer really effects teh outcome of the poll. I voted no on baiting because I do not beleive food plots are baiting. If I believed food plots were baiting I would have answered differently.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

If the map is correct Geno....as of march 2010 no confirmed cases on LI

[Geno C]

i personally think food plots are a level not necessarily equal too baiting but a level of baiting none the less...

i make food plots every year, main focus to grow bigger antlers supply adequate food for the herd and also draw deer in and keep them around. and i will call BS if anyone says they do it simply for the deer, while hanging a stand right on the plot....

i do believe there are guys who do it for the herd and i do believe they do not set stands up on them. But id like to see a poll strictly for if  any hunters make food plots to strictly feed deer and have no intentions on hunting that food plot or if its the opposite.

[Geno C]

If the map is correct Geno....as of march 2010 no confirmed cases on LI

well, that is VERY interesting....

thanks for looking that up

[nyslowhand]

"CWD was first discovered in New York in two captive white-tailed deer herds in Oneida County during routine testing in March 2005. CWD has since been discovered in wild deer in Oneida County."

[Stretchhunts]

my 2 cents is it's all about the taxes. To do a food plot you need a good amount of land, Machinery, Seeds, Lime, gas etc. NYS gets taxes off all of that. If you stop by your local farmer and get some corn etc NYS gets no taxes from you.  Either way you are bringing food to the area you hunt to bring deer in.  Food plot/Bait pile the purpose is to hunt that area for the animal you want. Either way attracts them in.