I honestly have thought and wondered how much baiting and cameras have played a role in deer sightings during the rut. Let's think about this for a minute. How many times have you seen a hot doe (or one coming in) doing everything she can to get rid of a buck that is harassing her? Now think about what you typically see at a bait site, say corn? Multiple deer! If a doe is being harassed, the last thing she's gonna want to do IMO is stand at a giant pile of corn. That's just asking for more attention because every deer in the area knows of the local buffet. With more people sitting over bait piles, or using them without really knowing how to use them effectively, I believe many hunters are missing the rut.
I know when I first started using cameras, they were like crack, and I was totally addicted. I will admit that I hunted and over hunted spots that I had pics of good bucks just because I had pics. I didn't take into account that they were all at 1am or that I wasn't really in a great spot. I got complacent and relied too much on this crutch rather than hunting the sign. Looking back, during those years, I missed out on the rut too, and it's because I was waiting for big bucks I would never see instead of hunting where I knew the deer would be.
Now combine the two together and consider all the time we spend checking cams and replenishing our bait. Deer get wise, hunters get lazy. Lazy hunters + wise deer = less sightings during the rut? Maybe, maybe not
Now, don't get me wrong. I think there are other factors that contribute to the type and intensity of rutting activity we see, but sometimes I wonder just how big our affect is on what we actually see...
