Baiting Mature Bucks.
- Thread starter Jackalope
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bigten05
*Supporting Member*
i believe this does work. what im more interested in is in the years past ive would be baiting a few spots already this season i havent ran anything but minerals. the few places i plan on baiting i wasnt gonna start til late this month or september, i think that having something new in the area makes them want to use it more. the years i have baited in june and july the pics and movement start out good with lots of day time but the longer you feed the more they know its there and use it more at night. whats your guys thoughts on that?
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It's always a delicate balance. Each buck is different with his own personality. A lot of times when following this routine they show up that evening. Some like to be a little more stubborn and show up the next morning or at night. One a buddy was hunting a couple years ago would show up religiously every evening at the same time. On the evenings he dumped bait the buck wouldn't show up that evening but rather the next morning. It was obvious that on the days the buck could hear the quad he stayed away that evening. He said it was tempting to try and slip in there the next morning and try to kill him. What he ended up doing was just waiting him out. He let the season get along further and waited for a day where some nasty cold weather was about to roll in. That night and much of the next day it snowed, sleeted and was nasty. He had someone drop him off the next evening on the quad, dumped bait and climbed up. The buck was dead two hours later. The cold nasty weather had caused that buck to lay low that night and much of the day, he couldn't resist slipping over to the bait after he heard the quad leave that evening.
You could also try dumping less bait. Instead of pouring enough to last the three days until your next dump; only put out enough to last a day with two days empty. Be careful of this however as I have found it only takes 2-3 days of showing up to no bait before deer stop visiting as much.
Good write up. Seems like a solid strategy to me.... especially conditioning them to the ATV. I used to have my mom or stepdad drop me off from the ATV when I'd hunt down there. Worked like a charm.
I think this baiting strategy, coupled with a couple wireless trail cams, would be a very successful approach. Knowing exactly when the buck is there, without the extra step of pulling a camera card would be pretty beneficial.
I think this baiting strategy, coupled with a couple wireless trail cams, would be a very successful approach. Knowing exactly when the buck is there, without the extra step of pulling a camera card would be pretty beneficial.
For fear of stirring the pot and derailing the thread. . . .Let's just say I like the idea. Seems solid. It just isn't for me. Don't have the time. Too cheap to spend money doing it. I WILL however do some baiting this fall to try to get my Cousin Bubba some deer in the area when he comes up to hunt Ohio for the first time. I will not be hunting that property though.
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That's the thing. Lots of people claim baiting makes it easier. I disagree if its a mature buck you're after. In fact I believe it makes it harder in some aspects as that buck knows full well that you are there.
cspot
Member
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I'm not saying its never worked but from my observation personally and on the forum mature deer vastly prefer dumped to feeder.
Plus with a feeder there is no way to condition the deer to your arrival and departure which is the intent of the method.
It is good info. I'm not disagreeing. More than one way to skin a cat. Just not my thing.
Then again, I'm not knocking anyone for doing it. I'll bait for Bubba. Spin feeder. Need to let the resident does know there is food there. Worked in the past to get pics when I introduced my son to hunting. Never hunted over it though. Hoping it pulls some deer into the area for him.
Mao
Member
Really liked it. Thanks Joe. My cousins father in law killed this buck in mid October, 20 yards at a corn pile. On a warm evening. Not to mention he missed this buck less than a week prior eating corn at the exact same spot. Sometimes it just donāt make sense.
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Let's be real. If it wasn't "easier," there wouldn't be so many people doing it... and there wouldn't be as many big deer getting killed. I know quite a few people with a wall of trophy mature bucks that fell victim to a corn pile. I bet we all do. Is it a guarantee? Absolutely not. Does it increase your odds of success? If done properly, I think it absolutely does.
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Let's not confuse consistency of success with ease of achievement. It absolutely increases your odds of success because you are implementing structure to what would otherwise be a random occurrence. Anytime you can organize something to more efficiently achieve a desired outcome you will be more successful. This does not mean however that you made it "easier". It means that you mede it more efficient. Implementing efficiency to achieve a result is the opposite of taking the easy route. When comparing the two methods, baiting with an almost methodical system, versus simply hanging a stand in a pinch point and waiting, the easier route is the latter. The difference is the latter is far less efficient and as a result requires far more time in the stand to eventually be successful. For most that process is so inefficient that the time required to achieve success is more than the time they have available, so in the end they are unsuccessful. However with baiting the work is being put in prior to execution and not during. Simply because it may require less time physically in the stand does not mean it was easy to achieve or required less time commitment.
For example Alex and I usually make turkey hunting look easy. When we tell people about how we shot a bird three minutes in to legal light they naturally think we had it easy. What they did not take in to account was that for a month before season we probably put in a solid 100 man hours listening to birds and taking notes. The end result is we're at Bob Evans by 7:15 on opening day with a dead bird in the truck. We achieved efficiency through the implementation of a structured plan which led to consistent success. Such is the opposite of easy.
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We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. [emoji6]
Spencie
Senior Member
I have a saying: biggest corn pile wins. Itās legal so it is what it is. Very few guys know how to hunt deer without it now and if itās being done in your neck of the woods it changes everything. Iām stubborn and havenāt jumped on the bandwagon. Itās amazing how many 170ā+ bucks die before November now.
Right now, we have a 140-150" 3.5 year-old 10-point in our neighborhood. All the guys on the N side of the road want to let him get to 4, myself included. There's a guy S of the road that's fed 1,500 #s of corn since the beginning of June trying to kill this buck on opening day. His decision to do that, although legal and "ethical", effects the rest of the neighborhood even if he doesn't kill him. Just the presence of that much corn within our square mile is enough to effectively alter everyone else's season. And yes, I was that guy once, so I can't cast too much shade. But as I've gotten away from corn, I can't help but feel like an AA instructor at times. Of note, I don't look down on late-season baiting in the same way as I now do running bait April-December. Not sure why, just seems less "offensive" to me in some way.
As to the discussion Joe and JB are batting back and forth, I liken it to the discussion I had with Tucky way back when on OS and he got pissed at me. IMO, it is harder to hunt Appalachian Ohio than it is NW Ohio. Doesn't mean it's easier to kill deer in NW Ohio, I am simply referring to the "physicality" of the hunting. Saying "easier" opens the door for a semantics argument. Define easy? It means different things to different people. For this discussion, I think it is fair to say baiting effectively "complicates" things, while it increases the likelihood that you can capitalize on a detectable pattern, which without corn, would be harder to identify. So does baiting make it easier to kill mature bucks? Depends on how you define easy and measure the process/results. What is 100% true is that by running bait, you increase the odds of establishing a pattern that both predator and prey can exploit.
As to the discussion Joe and JB are batting back and forth, I liken it to the discussion I had with Tucky way back when on OS and he got pissed at me. IMO, it is harder to hunt Appalachian Ohio than it is NW Ohio. Doesn't mean it's easier to kill deer in NW Ohio, I am simply referring to the "physicality" of the hunting. Saying "easier" opens the door for a semantics argument. Define easy? It means different things to different people. For this discussion, I think it is fair to say baiting effectively "complicates" things, while it increases the likelihood that you can capitalize on a detectable pattern, which without corn, would be harder to identify. So does baiting make it easier to kill mature bucks? Depends on how you define easy and measure the process/results. What is 100% true is that by running bait, you increase the odds of establishing a pattern that both predator and prey can exploit.
Spencie
Senior Member
Since we are in such close proximity to one another you know how mature bucks are hunted in this area. I don't know about other areas of the state but "kids" (30 and younger) pile up the mature bucks from opening day through October...year after year. I'm sure you know some of the names. I have seen some of their videos that show how hard they bait...by the truckload. Not 50# every few days. 500#+ at a time. That keeps the deer from patterning the hunter I reckon.
Then there is what my outfitter neighbor does.....holy crap. That's just stupid. But it completely alters the deer travel within a very large area. Honestly, the guy would be NO threat without money and bait.
The thing that gets me is the ODNR states in the regs that baiting for deer doesnāt increase the hunters odds for success. Are they ignorant or just allowing it because the FB and the Insurance companyās say so.
Why do some other states say it is illegal and have banned baiting?
Why is it illegal to hunt turkeys over bait and not deer here in Ohio?
The little guy with 2-5 acres and canāt get permission to hunt anywhere close to home next to the farmer with 500 acres and a half dozen hunters hunting is pretty much forced to join the corn pile war just to give himself any chance to be successful these days! Then he has to hope those same guys donāt find out he killed Bullwinkle on his little slice cause he was ātheirā deer.
Pretty sad what hunting has come too nowadays. Shouldnāt have to be so much work or cost so much money to kill a friggin deer! Anymore everyone is trying to out draw their neighbors to get and keep the deer on them. Although I totally agree with everything Joe has said in this thread what is wrong with sitting in a pinch waiting? I actually enjoy it and find it very rewarding if and when it does come together. I only find it perplexing that the deer numbers have dropped so low in many areas that a week or two of hunting isnāt enough time to get a mature deer within bow range let alone down of the ground. Those with large managed leases,tracts and sanctuaryās nearby are the ones still living the glory days.
Why do some other states say it is illegal and have banned baiting?
Why is it illegal to hunt turkeys over bait and not deer here in Ohio?
The little guy with 2-5 acres and canāt get permission to hunt anywhere close to home next to the farmer with 500 acres and a half dozen hunters hunting is pretty much forced to join the corn pile war just to give himself any chance to be successful these days! Then he has to hope those same guys donāt find out he killed Bullwinkle on his little slice cause he was ātheirā deer.
Pretty sad what hunting has come too nowadays. Shouldnāt have to be so much work or cost so much money to kill a friggin deer! Anymore everyone is trying to out draw their neighbors to get and keep the deer on them. Although I totally agree with everything Joe has said in this thread what is wrong with sitting in a pinch waiting? I actually enjoy it and find it very rewarding if and when it does come together. I only find it perplexing that the deer numbers have dropped so low in many areas that a week or two of hunting isnāt enough time to get a mature deer within bow range let alone down of the ground. Those with large managed leases,tracts and sanctuaryās nearby are the ones still living the glory days.