Tips for Late Season Baiting...??

Kaiser878 said:

IMO the biggest things people who hunt bait mess up on is this.
1. Put to little corn out.
2. Don't have an understanding of where the deer is coming from and set up wrong with the wind.
3. Don't have good access and said deer watches them walk in.... and doesn't come in
4. Hunt to close to bait and get busted by does.
5. Exit the tree with deer still standing at corn... resulting in bumping deer.
6. Hunt the bait in the morning

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I will add.

7. Placing the bait anywhere assuming the deer will come to it instead of placing the bait where the deer wants to go anyway. What I mean by this is I think most bucks that get killed are bedded within 200 yards of the stand when you get in it. Excluding the rut where they roam more. Prior to and after the rut bucks don't move much during daylight. They get up 30-45 minutes before dark and mill around some but they don't stray far. They're usually back in their core area before daylight in the morning but may mill around that area some after daylight. That means that bait needs to be in their core area where they feel safe. You have to he that bait right in there on top of them.

I agree about not hunting it in the mornings. Like I said above the deer will usually be back in their core area before daylight. Odds are he will be on the bait or close to it. If you go walking in before daylight and bump him the gigs up. Ask Alex. Lol.

For number 4 about hunting too close. I always try to put the bait behind something like a bush, clump of trees, etc. Anything that if does come in they have to get behind to eat. Deer get super skittish around bait. Usually they'll get a mouthful then look around constantly while chewing. Get another mouthful and their heads in a swivel.

I was looking back through my pics that was over the corn where I shot my buck this year. I had not gotten a single picture of that buck for about two weeks prior to shooting him. If I was relying too much on the cams I would have thought he disappeared. The day I shot him his buddy that was always with him approached the baited area but stayed back away from it about 35 yards in the brush. He then went completely around it staying in the brush. The deer I shot was doing the same thing. I shot him about 40 yards directly in front of the cam while still in the tall weeds. I was so pumped that I might have got pictures of his final moments. When I checked the cam, not one single pic of him or his buddy that came through earlier. That buck didn't disappear for two weeks. He was there the whole time, It's just corn wasn't on his mind, he was after does. I wonder how many times in that two weeks he skirted that corn and that cam.

Diablo54 said:

What is your best method for figuring out where they are coming from? Extra cameras in the area? Sitting back from afar?

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For me it's snow. The first snow of the year that stays on the ground for 24 hours you'll find me walking the property. Unless the deer learn to fly they show their hand. Deer on a property tend to do the same thing year after year. Even different deer years later do the same thing. Cams leave too much to speculation and only tell a small piece of the story. Get out during that first snow and walk the deer tracks. Take note of where they're going. What they're doing. Whet they're eating. Where they bed. The reason I say the first snow is deer change their pattern in late winter. The first snow should for the most part still have them in the areas they were during the rut. I also think deer know they're leaving a trail in the snow. But it takes them a snow or two to adapt or change because of it. Kind of like when a farmer cuts a corn field. That day and for a couple days after the deer are in the cut field seemingly completely oblivious that it's been cut. It's like they think it's still standing. They acting on instinct and habit. After a couple days they change. I think it's the same with snow. The first one they just do their thing like always. After a couple times they change.

TripleA88 said:

By the way Joe, you were hacking on the other guy baiting near me. He's only hunted 4 times maybe this year. He's lazy and expects a buck to show up on camera every night at 5 PM. Every Friday he rides back, swaps cards, and dumps corn. He's still waiting lol.

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But he also didn't get that buck on cam like you did.