When the snow flys ive had great luck with bailed alfalfa and clover. And sugar beets Sent from my SM-N920P using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Fleet Farm sells a 30lb feed block, that cost $9 or $10. I've used them in the past and they work pretty well. They have lasted from between 2 weeks and a month normally. Deer don't tend to sit and eat them down like they do a couple gallons of corn, but it tends to keep them coming back consistently. Would give you an option to not walking and feeding it everyday.
Sorry anti baiter here. I’d say do your scouting, develop your hunting skills and pit yourself against your quarry on those grounds. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about yourself and your quarry if you spend time perusing the sport year round. To me baiting is kind of like slopping the hogs on the farm. Ring the dinner bell and wait for them to come running where’s the skill an sense of accomplishment in that?
Deer are much smarter than hogs are. And many times baiting deer makes them harder to hunt because they tend to go nocturnal, you still have an advantage but not as much as youd think. Its a great way to survey the area to see what deer survived and also to help them through the winter coming out of a hard rut. Sent from my SM-N920P using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Not saying a food or mineral station to assess the herd prior to or after the season is an issue however this is substantially different than the original question regarding baiting late season bucks. My opinion is still as I stated prior as to hunting over bait. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion this just happens to be mine.
I don’t always bait, I just think as the rut dies down, and those bucks aren’t looking for does anymore, they like to feed. I agree with you on the standpoint of not baiting during certain times, (like the rut) but as the season draws near an end, I feel almost like I’m running out of options.
Smaller amounts of bait is the ticket in the late season imo. They need to constantly check an area they've found food in the past, not be fat and happy, having patterned the sound of the pick up coming with bushels ready to be dumped. Put a gallon bag of corn in your pack, walk it in, put it out, climb in your stand.
Papa, if you quit bowhunting because of baiting, why are you on bowhunting.com? Baiting is illegal in Illinois because they say it spreads CWD. Not sure what the difference between baiting and food plots are other than one’s legal and the other’s not. Personally I don’t do food plots. I do bait for bear. Get hooked up with a local grocery store and get their old apples. Work great as bait/ food.
