Yesterday morning I was waiting for my wife to get ready for church and there wasn't much on TV so I popped up the DVR and decided to watch a hunting show. Much to my dismay the show featured several folks in Iowa hunting over some "freshly cut" corn fields aka standing corn they just brush hogged a day or two earlier. There's a lot of stuff that upsets me with hunting TV but this one is definitely in my Top 5. 9 times out of 10 when you see dozens of deer pouring into a "freshly cut" corn field on a TV show it's not because they just ran through it with the combine, it's because they brush hogged the standing corn and basically broadcast several acres of bait for them. I've hunted a lot of fresh cut corn in my life and NEVER seen the amount of deer concentrated into a single area like you see on these shows. It simply doesn't happen. The legality of this "tactic" has been debated for some time. In some areas it seems to be legal, in others it's not. What ticks me off is that the people hunting over these fields aren't honest with what they're doing. They always try to pass it off like these 30 deer just want to come feed in this cut corn field because they really like that spot or something, when they truth is they're just baiting them and not telling us. The same goes for shows filmed in Kansas where they put the bait pile behind a log or pile of brush and expect us to not notice that every deer they film b-lines right for that spot and feeds there. As if there's some sort of magic plant they can't get enough of, but it only grows in this ONE spot. /rant over
I agree completely. I also have heard of using golden acorns to lure deer to a particular corner on a hay field too. It is lightly broadcasted so it won't show up on video but for some reason the deer seem to flock to that end of the field, must be a great hunter to figure out those deer movements. Let me just add that I am in no way saying people should not bait where legal, heck I'd consider it too if I was having trouble getting them close. Just don't try to portray yourself as the "all knowing deerhunter" and not say a word about what REALLY brought those deer in.
Baiting isn't my flavor...but if you do it and it's legal whatever floats your boat, JUST DON'T FREAKING ACT LIKE YOU AREN'T.
Never thought of them just running it over with a brush hog... If it is legal, sure why not if you have the money to waste on planting it, just to chop it down for the deer. But as others have said... Don't act like you are hunting a "fresh cut" corn field when all that was done is knock it down.
I never did understand people's "hard on" about hunting fresh cut corn fields. Maybe this is what they are referring to because I rarely see an increase of deer use after combining.
When you see a TV show and they're hunting a cut corn field with 20+ deer in it, all concentrated in the same spot, you can bet good money it's been chopped down and not combined.
Well here is my two cents. I am not going to name names but I do enjoy watching hunting shows on outdoor, sportsman channel etc. It just makes me sick to my stomach when you are watching some programs and they say they are hunting "public" land. I don't know how many other people have notice in some shows you can see the high fence in the back or you can see a distinct clipped ear or a glint of a gps tracking pin in the ear. It may be a big debate on which baiting is ethical or not and whether high fence hunting is hunting or shooting a "pet". I know a person who had gone to a high fence hunt and had made a horrible shot on a deer. This person is not a ethical hunter and has had more than one run in with the DNR because of it. So after he had made a bad shot on the deer the "guide" had pulled out a gps and they had followed the deer to the back side of the "pen" where the found the deer dead. The other topic of is baiting ethical or not. Honestly it is not my most favorite thing to deer in the way of QDM we do do food plots and we have so to say "safe" plots were we would leave the corn standing were the deer can feed. Depending on how much food we have on the farm we will brush hawg it but we would not hunt it. Thats just my 2 cents and a point of view of what we do.
Yes there is a big difference between chopping several rows of corn or combining a corn field to open it up. But I really can't see much difference between chopping corn rows or planting food plots along a field edge. Just my opinion but I watch very very few hunting shows anymore because of the methods used or not disclosed. Exceptions are your Bowhunt or Die series and a very few others .
I see this as no different than those growing corn and leaving it standing for deer as a food plot source. I don't see it as baiting as you grew it there.... But yeah that's for sure what is going on. They grew corn as an attractant for deer just like any other food plot, and knock it down for easier access to deer in small portions at a time. Not the same as hauling in a few bushels to dump on the ground in a pile somewhere. I see nothing wrong with either practice, but I don't see them as the same.
Justin, this is not always the case. I have hunted places before where a field was combined and i counted over 30deer in the field that night. While you are probably right about it happening on tv when referred to as "freshly cut", that may not alwas be the case. These people also have some killer properties. Also whats the difference between freshly grown food plots, and a cut crop field? If the farmers or landowners are growing corn for deer as a food plot, i dont see a whole lot of difference
I joined a club down in here in FL, as it was my first year being here (military duty station), and the club is overwhelmed by "bait hunters." While it is legal down here, and coming from VA where it is not, this really wasnt my flavor of hunting. I gave it a try this year and genuinely did not like it. We have guys who take the lazy route of placing corn piles 5-10yds (literally) from their treestand giving no effort to scout anything...at all. With that said, this year i am ditching the feeders. The stands i was most successful at last year deer were moving through the area regardless (because i enjoy and take pride in scouting before placing a stand). Of the deer i killed there last year, none were at a feeder, they were either traveling back to the bedding area i was hunting or they were dogging does. It isnt for me, but if its legal, i guess i cant complain about others doing it. But it rubs me the wrong way to see guys put no effort into scouting and/or patterning deer movement and just throw down some corn and hang a stand. To each their own...
I could take you down a couple roads where I live during the fall and you'd see a combine on one end of the field running and the other 50-100 deer picking through it. Some of these new combines don't do as good a job as you think. Especially if the people running it don't take the time to set it.
I don't care that they do it provided it's legal, it just upsets me that they don't ever talk about it. They let everyone think they're just out hunting over a combined field when that's not exactly reality.
I'm guessing they don't come right out and say it may be because like you some people would have a problem with it. Tv's all about ratings ha. Gotta let the peole believe in what they're being told, I mean have you seen the commercials about what a rage broadhead will do? Ha ha. Btw I shoot a rage bh, but I get what your saying.
I'm of the frame of mind that I'd prefer to know the truth in how they got to the moment while they are hunting. If they are hunting behind a fence, tell me. Same with something like this, don't tell me how good of a hunter you are and then 'forget' to mention the fact that the field was brush hogged to create a hotspot.
So this is why I didn't have 35 deer standing in the field ready for me to whack them coming back to bed every time I hunted near the neighbors cut corn field.
In Missouri, it's illegal to mow it down and hunt over it. I really don't see the issue with it though. I can hunt over standing soybeans which is basically an equivalent to hunting over mowed corn. The reason you see more deer after a field is combined is because you have taken away their bedding area. So a couple hundred acres of standing corn might be holding dozens of deer that aren't in the woods.
The place that I hunt gets flooded sometimes, so corn isn't always practical to plant there. When it is planted in corn though, it is absolutely amazing when it gets cut. The deer there don't see corn that often and they go nuts over it when they get it. There have been several times when I have hunted after it is cut that I'll see between 50-100 deer hitting the field. I see where you are coming from though. If you are just mowing the corn down, why not say that's what you are doing? No need to lie about a tactic you are using if it's legal. Just makes me think they are trying to look like better hunters than what they really are.
I agree with Justin totally. Just be honest and say what you are doing. A lot of people take these hunters at face value and try to emulate what they are doing. I saw a hunting show a few years back on Versus TV and they were hunting Trophy Bucks. The guy was after a certain buck when this 180+ buck came by with 10 yards of them in the tree. As the show went off and the buck was walking out of range, the guy said, "Wow, what a great buck that is." It puzzled me for a while until a friend said, He didn't pay for a buck that big. If he had shot it, he would have had to pay the difference for that class of deer. My first lesson on paid deer hunts.
