i have the past few years been baiting hte deer in my area with basic field corn. the corn is always eaten during the night when im not in the woods. im wondering some opinions on other products that you might have tried. cmere deer deer cain accorn rage ect. thanks
Welcome Welcome aboard. Field corn is all I've ever used to get some pictures during the off-season. Baiting here during the hunting season will get you in hot water if you get caught. I haven't tried some of the other products on the market. Maybe some folks who have will chime in.
Im a young hunter and I've always been interested in the baits and how deer react to each one and so far this year the best I have found is the Swamp Donkey by primos, there is a powder and a pellet, I'm in northcentral arkansas and the whitetail seem to eat the pellet better and stay around longer,but the swamp donkey will definately work. Also if the deer are eating your corn as fast as you put it out ( if you put it out by hand and not with a feeder) then buy a bag of rice bran and put it in with your corn. It helps them fill up faster and they will stay around and still eat ,but just not eat as much. good luck
There is a distinct difference between feeding and baiting deer. The baiting topic will get extremely heated, and I've seen alot of friendships destroyed over that topic. Maintaining deer feeders right before the deer season starts is a common practice to attract deer to hunting blinds or to attract more deer to a property specially here in Arkansas. Baiting deer is legal method in Arkansas. Do "I" hunt over baited areas for deer?, NO I do not. I'm more of a transission area hunter. Unfortunately most of these baiting efforts cease just before additional feed is really needed by the deer. Corn isn't one supplement food I would use. Yes i use a supplement program on my land. Supplemental feeding now is what I like, should be done during stress periods and then only under specific conditions. Stress periods for deer are usually encountered when the protein content of the forage is at a low level, supplemental food is provided free-choice, whitetail deer still desire native browse plants in their diets. By definition supplemental food is, the foods placed out for deer are merely there to add to an individual deer’s natural diet. The time frame of this type of feeding of deer is the time of fawning and lactation, and the time of maximum weight gain for the yearlings and late winter. For the mature bucks, it is the time for antler growth and regaining of body condition and fat reserves depleted during the previous autumn rut and winter. Supplemental feeding is also necessary during hot weather when pastures are growing slowly and during late summer in preparation for the rut. Rain fall can be at its lowest. Some people think that they can solve everything by supplemental feeding, but regardless of what you feed or how you feed it, even if you do everything perfect, a whitetail will consume no more than 25% of their diet from the supplemental feed. Where a whitetail will consume as much as 80% of their diet from Food Plots & natural forages. I read alot of articles on the internet on supplement feeding. I'm a firm believer in food plots, & a firm believer in supplemental food /feeding. Thats 25% more a deer can have in there diet. Corn can be used way out of line and be thrown in a feeder all year round and I can see were it can be a consern of nutritional value. Corn does have its place, it provides carbohydrates, much needed nutrition during the lean months (winter). I have alots a deer around them feeders with snow on the ground and the food plots are ate down, this is were the corn does come to play. Many other animals benefit from the corn. All kinds of song birds, squirrels, rats, rabbits, turkeys, hogs, coyotes and more will also eat the corn. But again it has its place in supplemental feeding. Now some fatal diseases associated with feeding include tuberculosis in whitetailed deer, aflatoxin poisoning in deer & CWD. CWD can be highly transmissible within deer and elk populations. The mode of transmission is "not fully understood", evidence supports "the possibility" that the disease is spread through direct animal-to-animal contact or as a result of indirect exposure to prions in the environment. Definition of Prion: A disease-causing agent that is neither bacterial nor fungal nor viral and contains no genetic material.
If you don't like to use corn, you could always try a salt lick, apples, pears, acorns... Or if you wanna go one step farther you could do a food plot. I see nothing wrong with limited baiting, but then again i dont put much out, mainly enough to keep em coming back and enough to stop em for a shot. I never really tried any commercialized stuff enough to say what really works
Baiting is legal here in Oklahoma and if you're not baiting you're not seeing as many deer as your neighbor. It's good to add a little flavor to your bait. Acorn flavored corn is good as is rice bran. Also I've had good luck with Greens Enraged I think it is, better than the Acorn rage. I also like to place little food plots in little out of the way places, usually 1200 to 1500 sq. ft. A little supplemental feeding nearby helps keep them from eatin it as fast as it grows. That being said, I really don't have that much more luck now than when baiting was illegal. It's just that now with nearly 100% of people doing it if you don't put something out all the does will be hanging out at your neighbor's stand. Even if you're not putting out bait you will be hunting a food source, specially early in the season. However, in pressured areas big bucks do not come to baited sites during shooting hours in my experience. But they will follow a hot doe in to a bait site. Deer are either eating, chewing or sleeping all the time. If you're not huntin a food source, you probly ain't in the woods! I kinda liked it before when it was illegal, it was a lot cheaper. Heck, people start feeding 2 months early round here to get them used to coming to their sites. I know of a few that bait their stands most year round. What I like to do is find out what everyone else is using and find something different. I like to use (don't tell anyone) 20% cattle cubes. They look kinda like something that fell from a tree and have a strong smell to them. I specially like to scatter a few out under an oak tree after the acorns are gone to keep a hot site hot. They will handle a little rain but will melt with very much. They don't usually last long anyway.
Short and sweer- Corn will produce alot of raccoon pics and other varmits, I use trophy rocks EVERYWHERE. The first time i drop a rock i put some corn out around it to let animals no its there, then its all up to them on hitting it. Ive learned in the past 3 years that mostly bucks will come to T.R.'s. The nice thing about T.R.'s if they benefit both bucks and does. I keep them out year round and replenish in early may when antler growth in starting and does drop fawns. Not only does it help antler growth but helps keep moms nutrients up to produce better milk, therfore better fawns, catch my drift. Thats just what i use for bait stations, feeding and plots are a whole nother topic
