Hello all, long time no see. I see plenty of familiar faces and several new ones. :D I had a few questions come up the other day and I knew you guys were just the people to ask: What states have bans on baiting? What are some of the negative effects of baiting? Positive effetcts? What are some good alternatives to baiting?
PA had allowed baiting only in my zone for the last several years, but withdrew it for this upcoming season because they did not see a significant increase in deer harvests to warrant its continuation. Personally I believe that there was an increase in deer harvested, but not in reported harvests. This is an unfortunate side-effect of PA's reporting system. Negative effects of baiting potentially are: The potential to spread diseases Habitat stress to the baited area Illness induced by gorging on certain foods Predation dangers at the bait site Positive effects of baiting potentially are: Easier to draw deer on small parcels Increase in nutritional quality Increase in survival rate during winter months Both positives and negatives can have arguments for and against them and it depends on the type of baiting done, the food that is being provided, and a number of other factors. Good alternatives would simply be scouting out the natural food sources and setting up on those. Deer are slaves to their stomachs and all baiting does is put the food where you want it. If you know where the food is and when they are there, who needs bait? Baiting is a lightning-rod topic that I stand pretty neutral on. If it's legal and you do it, great. If it's illegal you don't have to worry about it. When it was legal here I used bait from time-to-time on small parcels with varying degrees of success. It certainly is not a golden ticket to big bucks in my area, but in Texas it seems to work very well. I feel it has its place if done properly and in the appropriate environment.
What states have bans on baiting? Wisconsin has a partial ban on baiting. Most of the southern zones do not allow baiting anytime or in any capacity which is including all salt licks and minerals. The rest of the state allow up to a 2 gallon limit per 40 acres and only during the hunting season. It is not legal to put any salt licks, minerals or bait anywhere in the state during the spring and summer when deer need them most. What are some of the negative effects of baiting? I believe it turns deer more nocturnal. The deer get up and feed at night at the bait pile when it is safe and then lay down with their full belly all day. Also in Wisconsin where we are fighting CWD disease, some science has told us that the transmission of the disease is more prevalent when sharing saliva at bait piles. Positive effetcts? If you count mineral licks it helps with the health of the heard during the spring and summer. Some will argue that you can keep deer on the property with the proper use of bait. And of course the obvious reason is to try and concentrate deer movement to a particular spot and then hunt that area. What are some good alternatives to baiting? Decoys, scents, calls, and just doing proper scouting to find natural deer movements.
South Carolina allows it in most of the state. From my experience living in a state that allows baiting, it has more negative effects than positive ones. It throws deer off of their natural behavior patterns. Instead of seeing deer out and about at all hours during the day feeding and looking for food, they learn to pattern hunters and become more nocturnal. Most of your sightings will be right at dark which in a lot of states is past the legal shooting time. We also have a very late legal shooting time here in SC. It also becomes a war with your neighbors. If they are putting out 50lbs of corn per stand a day you have to put out 55lbs of corn per stand. It's very time consuming and expensive. My biggest complaint is how it throws deer off of their natural patterns. I can tell a significant difference whenever I hunt land that is baited vs land that isn't. Then there are obvious reasons not to bait like CWD. Thankfully, we haven't had any cases here in SC yet. The advantages are: Here in the South East the timber companies own most of "our" hunting land. They don't care about the wildlife, their bottom line is pine production. Deer do not eat pines. So, you may lease 1,000ac of nothing, but pines. Without baiting it would be almost impossible to consistently kill deer in this type of environment. You can feed the deer high protein feed which will yield bigger and healthier deer. Years of research and record keeping has down that there is no significant difference between the harvest numbers in areas that allow baiting vs areas that don't.
There is a huge difference between baiting and feeding, most now a days are feeding the deer, not baiting them. A well setup bait site will create competition for the bait, and deer will come early to the site. If it is too large, then the deer will wait until dark. No baiting in the slp in MI, but you can it the up. Baiting brings the deer to you, and it allows view of deer for longer period of times. IMO the negatives of baiting are caused by hunters not baiting correctly. Putting too much bait out and drawing deer from different locations to one spot. The biggest negative is older deer figure it out pretty quickly
There's actually a study that was conducted in SC that shows the harvest ratios on baited v. non-baited sites to be significantly REDUCED. Readers of the study are free to draw their own conclusions. I agree with Germ. There's an art to baiting. I know people who are extremely successful at it. I know others who are simply feeding the deer. Two distinct practices, IMO.
Nope, IMO those two items are not what I consider "bait", being they are always there and deer can come anytime.
Me neither and that is what ticks me off. Salt licks and minerals and dumping corn is the same in the eyes of the Wisconsin DNR. And since you can't bait at all during the off season means we NEVER can use salt licks or minerals to help deer along in the spring.
My state doesn't make a distinction.....due to baiting being legal (makes it easy). **Edit -- Does your state say it's illegal to put them out? Or, is it illegal to hunt within (________') of said?
Timing: No person may: • Place, use or hunt over bait or feed for hunting purposes during the closed season for hunting deer, but may start to place bait for deer hunting the day before the opening day of the deer archery season. This means the 24-hour period from 12:00 am to 11:59 pm on the day immediately before the season.
In PA a lick of any sort is considered bait, as is manipulating a naturally existing food source for hunting purposes. Germ makes a great point about the distinction between baiting and feeding.
You are right. That was a big mistake on my part and I have no clue where that even came from. It was supposed to say that the study shows there is no significant advantage. I guess that's what 3rd shift will do to you. I'm glad you caught that. I hate to give people bad information. Here is the link to the study. http://www.dnr.sc.gov/wildlife/deer/pdf/baitinglaws.pdf
