Baiting

teej89 · Aug 22, 2013

This will be my first fall being able to legally bait deer to hunt. Back in PA we never baited, would put mineral sites up in the spring and stop refreshing them in mid summer. I guess my question is how many of you actually hunt over/near your bait piles/mineral lick? I get it that a bait pile isn't a shoe in for getting a deer. I'm going to keep a camera up all fall to see when they're using it and if they start using it at dawn and dusk I'll be switching my patterns to finding their route back to the bedding area. But for opener I was gonna hunt relatively close to where I have my bait piles/mineral sites. Whatcha guys think bout hunting bait piles?

bigten05 · Aug 22, 2013

i do have bait piles mostly for camera use, i usually do not hunt over them but try to get on the path they use too get to them. i have hunted over them in the winter with snow on the ground it can pay off big. good luck this fall

Hortontoter · Aug 22, 2013

I think that mineral licks and bait are two different situations. I always have a Trophy Rock in front of my main stand. The mineral sites are not used much come hunting season. But, I feel that by having the TR in front of my stand for many months prior to the season it has conditioned the deer to use certain travel routes. It also gets the deer used to going near my stand and feeling safe around the stand.

My experience with baiting, both from a tube type gravity feeder and a timed feeder is that it makes the deer more nocturnal. I have a timed feeder on my property, but I don't intend to use it for hunting. I probably will fill it in late January when I'm through hunting. I'll use it to feed the critters to help them through Feb. and March.

I'm using the less is more approach this season. No baiting, no trail cameras near my stand, no Scent Dripper above existing scrapes, just spending time hunting deer without all the gimmicks.

bowhunter1023 · Aug 22, 2013

Deer can be killed over bait, but it is FAR more difficult than most people think it is. As for minerals, you are wasting your time hunting over them as deer more or less stop using them here in the next couple of weeks. The best strategy for using bait to help you kill deer is to maintain a consistent feed site and hunt 100-200 yards off that feed site on trails leading to it. You'll find that you can kill young deer directly at the feed, but it is rare to get chances to kill mature deer directly over it. I choose my feed site such that it gives me easy access to replenish the feed and check the cameras, and also to observe them from long distance, but I do not hunt over them. I really don't hunt the trails leading to them either as the main reason I feed is to inventory deer with the cameras. In nearly a decade of running cams over corn, I have only ever patterned two mature bucks to the corn. One was the last week of the season and the other was the first week of the season. So for certain, killing mature bucks thanks to a corn pile is far from a sure thing...

Gordo · Aug 22, 2013

What jesse said is spot on

teej89 · Aug 22, 2013

Yeah I'm actually just looking at using it to get a couple does in the freezer for the year. The property I have now isn't showing much potential with bigger bucks, I'm gonna harvest a doe or two there early season and take my brother in law whos never hunted before there to get his first deer. Then I'll hunt it a couple times in the rut and probably hit it in the late season. But I've seen plenty of big bucks on the public land I hunt so when the rut hits I'll most likely be on public.

bigten05 · Aug 22, 2013

dont count out a place even if your not seeing any bucks, ive got a place that is close too town that is loaded with does you wont see a buck in there til the rut then look out you will have bucks from all over coming thru checking it out.

teej89 · Aug 22, 2013

bigten05 said:
dont count out a place even if your not seeing any bucks, ive got a place that is close too town that is loaded with does you wont see a buck in there til the rut then look out you will have bucks from all over coming thru checking it out.

yeah that's what mine is. I have a small 8 on cam that keeps showing up. And tons of does. In 4 weeks I've gotten over 2000 pics of does and hundreds of this little 8. It's a 150 acre parcel that is god awful thick except an area where they cleared out to put a home but the homeowner pulled out of the deal. As well as like 4 acres of pines. Then around it is all houses and ag fields and golf courses.

hickslawns · Aug 22, 2013

Have you explored the property much Teejay? I don't know your level of experience or how many years you have hunted. I don't know if you are a newbie or seasoned veteran, so I am not making any judgement here. However, the description you just gave sounds amazing. lol

Is there a place they enter/exit to the ag fields regularly? I think I would be keying in on travel routes to food. Sounds like you have a killer bedding area there. Maybe they are feeding on some fruit trees or a cluster of oak trees? You just have me drooling. 150acres is a serious chunk of land. Hard to believe there are some big boys in there somewhere if it is as thick as you say with ag fields around. Maybe I am envisioning this wrong? Are the houses like a development or just single houses here and there?

teej89 · Aug 22, 2013

hickslawns said:
Have you explored the property much Teejay? I don't know your level of experience or how many years you have hunted. I don't know if you are a newbie or seasoned veteran, so I am not making any judgement here. However, the description you just gave sounds amazing. lol

Is there a place they enter/exit to the ag fields regularly? I think I would be keying in on travel routes to food. Sounds like you have a killer bedding area there. Maybe they are feeding on some fruit trees or a cluster of oak trees? You just have me drooling. 150acres is a serious chunk of land. Hard to believe there are some big boys in there somewhere if it is as thick as you say with ag fields around. Maybe I am envisioning this wrong? Are the houses like a development or just single houses here and there?

Well I'll say I'm a seasoned vet of hunting the mountains of PA so there's acorns everywhere and the deer don't have isolated feeding areas since it'd be a couple miles till you found ag fields and that was on private land. So i grew up hunting the terrain not the food source (although I'd definetly go where I could find some white oaks) so I can go into a property with just a topo and do fairly well in PA as well as eastern south east ohio. However hunting flat western Ohio..... other than creek bottoms(which I'll be hunting) it is very much different lol! not too many saddles,hollers, and benches over here. I don't have permission to hunt the ag fields, I'm like an acre away from the edge of it, I did sneak up to it tho and found some trails going in and out but the owner is apparently not one you wanna mess with so I was basically jogging to get back outta there haha and I'd say I've combed thru the area, found plenty of trails and relatively large rubs but no bruisers on the cam yet.

brock ratcliff · Aug 22, 2013

I wouldn't worry about lack of big deer on the cams at this time of year, especially in ag country. If you have a large chunk of woods in the middle of that ag, wait until the crops come off. Your property will change dramatically. I firmly believe deer spend very little time in the woods in ag country this time of year. Why would they? The bugs are worse, there is little to no breeze in there...its just a miserable environment for them. They have all the cover they need in the fields now. Cornfields are more important as a bedding area than they are for feeding currently. When they crops come off, you will have it made. You will find those subtle changes in the woods that funnel deer exactly as a saddle does in hill country. Enjoy the learning curve, that's what keeps it fun.

Bigslam51 · Aug 22, 2013

I usually only use corn for trail cam inventory, I use the big corn and bean fields for my bait but I do keep a few trophy rocks around all year

ickle:

hickslawns · Aug 22, 2013

I would add I have never tried to hunt over bait. I will throw apples out which we pick up off the ground in front of a camera. More for inventory and the fact I like all deer pictures. I wouldn't be opposed to throwing some bait out in efforts to get my kids on a deer or simply for freezer meat. Wont knock anyone who does hunt over it. Just not my thing. One: doesn't feel like hunting to me. Two: I am a tightwad who doesn't want to feed deer and coon all year just to put some meat in the freezer. Doesn't seem like I would be saving any money. Lol

I have heard mixed opinions over whether it is effective or not in regards to big mature bucks.

teej89 · Aug 22, 2013

hickslawns said:
I would add I have never tried to hunt over bait. I will throw apples out which we pick up off the ground in front of a camera. More for inventory and the fact I like all deer pictures. I wouldn't be opposed to throwing some bait out in efforts to get my kids on a deer or simply for freezer meat. Wont knock anyone who does hunt over it. Just not my thing. One: doesn't feel like hunting to me. Two: I am a tightwad who doesn't want to feed deer and coon all year just to put some meat in the freezer. Doesn't seem like I would be saving any money. Lol

I have heard mixed opinions over whether it is effective or not in regards to big mature bucks.

This is what I was looking for lol because that's how I've felt. Never once have I used bait to kill deer and I wasn't going to start. But my thought was maybe I'm just sheltered cuz in PA you can't bait. IMO if I were to shoot a monster over bait yeah it'd be awesome but I don't think it'd be as exciting as without bait.

Diane · Aug 22, 2013

I'll take mine anyway I can get 'em!

Beentown · Aug 22, 2013

I think baiting is over rated. Rarely unless deep of winter will bucks worry that much about their stomachs.

finelyshedded · Aug 22, 2013

Beentown said:
I think baiting is over rated. Rarely unless deep of winter will bucks worry that much about their stomachs.

Ditto to this and what the others have said!

Concentrate on funnels,doe bedding areas and entry or exit points on AG field edges and you'll be fine. Also IMO, you'd be better off to not even hunt the mornings during the first 3 weeks of season then start hunting both mornings and evenings starting the last week of October through November. Chances are you'll just tip the deer off trying to get to your set and either make them more nocturnal or alter their movement enough that hunting them during the evenings will be a challenge.

hickslawns · Aug 22, 2013

teej89 said:
This is what I was looking for lol because that's how I've felt. Never once have I used bait to kill deer and I wasn't going to start. But my thought was maybe I'm just sheltered cuz in PA you can't bait. IMO if I were to shoot a monster over bait yeah it'd be awesome but I don't think it'd be as exciting as without bait.

The great thing about this forum. We don't care what method you use as long as it is legal.

I'll take mine anyway I can get 'em!

And I wish you all the best of luck using this method Diane. I am not one to knock it. Thinking back, I guess I did hunt over bait last year at your place. I guess I am certainly not above it, just not my preferred method. lol

In NW Ohio, there is bait everywhere. Nothing but agricultural fields. We put out food plots. Is this not a form of bait? I guess it is all in the eye of the hunter. I just don't know if it will really benefit you or not.

dante322 · Aug 22, 2013

I'll echo the other guys in saying that bait is for trail cam inventory. I've stopped baiting during season cause it doesn't seem to help. In an ag area, bait is just another dish on the buffet. Look around that creek bottom and see if you can find a good heavily used crossing. If the field you aren't allowed to hunt has any kind of an inside corner, look for the trails leading to and from that. Other than that just do what you are used to doing, look for acorns, and terrain features. In the flatter land, topography is not as pronounced, its much more subtle, but the deer will still use it.

Lundy · Aug 22, 2013

It will vary based upon the available natural food sources that are available to the deer but make no mistake that baiting is highly effective.

A deer' s entire life revolves around eating, sleeping and reproduction. They eat every single day of their lives. Their survival depends on them eating every day. You want to take a couple of quick deer for the freezer there is no easier way, again depending on the natural food sources, than over a corn pile.

The ethical aspect of hunting over bait can be debated but the effectiveness of baiting is pretty evident

My opinion

Baiting

Senior Member

*Supporting Member*

Senior Member

Owner/Operator

Senior Member

Senior Member

*Supporting Member*

Senior Member

Dignitary Member

Senior Member

Dignitary Member

Dignitary Member

Dignitary Member

Senior Member

*Supporting Member*

Dignitary Member

You know what!!!

Dignitary Member

*Supporting Member*

Member

Supporting Member

Supporting Member

Supporting Member

Supporting Member