Deer: Baiting and Food Plots

[Dawn419]

I'm starting this because I managed to hijack a thread that I didn't mean to but want to keep the conversation going.

FarmerChick,

I'd love to hear more about your DH's plot's!

Had doc_gonzo/hubby buy me a game cam as a birthday/annivesary/Christmas gift after we had a pred hitting our chickens and guineas. Caught nothing but our cat on it but doc busted a racoon later on (he treed it in the driveway around 2 a.m.) and am positive that it was our culprit. I'm strategically "battening down the hatches" and so far, so good.

Dawn419 wrote:
As a member, not a Mod:

Personally, I can't wait until we can start hunting deer off our land!

I hope to start working on sowing some food plots this coming year. Our land is mostly oak and hickory, so we have a nice mast crop in good years. My family thinks hubby and I are crazy for thinking we'll be able to hunt/provide on our 17 acres.

OK not a Mod, when you are talking about food plots do you mean people food or game food? If game food I must assume it is legal in your state to hunt in a area set up to attract game. It is not legal to hunt such areas in my state it is considered 'baiting'. If you wish to grow food for game it is permitted only on areas that are 'posted' to prevent hunting. My part of the state is heavy in pine plantations owned by lumber and paper producers. The land under the trees is pretty much bare of undergrowth and the owners don't want hunters because of fire risk. When trees are harvested, blocks or strips are clear cut and replanted. These have proved to be big producers of game and the hunting rights are sold or rented to hunt clubs or individuals. Every year they catch a few who tried to improve their hunting grounds by baiting. What is not generally known is that these clearings in the woods are patrolled by 'copters looking for 'pot plantations'.

~gd,

We are doing people plots but I was specifically talking about food plots for the wildlife in this instance.

In Arkansas, it is legal to bait and do feed plots on private property.

AGFC:

Baiting Deer

Baiting is the direct or indirect placing, exposing, depositing, distributing or scattering of salt, grain or other feed that could serve to lure or attract wildlife to, on or over an area where hunters are attempting to take them. An area is considered baited for 10 days following complete removal of bait.

Hunters may bait deer on private land.
Baiting is not allowed on wildlife management areas.

When we first moved out here, to AR, I was actually shocked at the idea of baiting deer and calling it hunting.

After 2 years of too many "damn, how did we not just wreck" because of them, I am over it! My sphincter can't take many more near misses before I totally **** myself!!!

I grew up on the edge of the Pine Barrens in South Jersey and was lucky to see one deer a year. We saw lots of tracks, but that was it.

I moved to TN after getting out of the Army in '89 and was lucky to see about the same amount , yearly.

Doc and I bought our land here in AR and I have never seen so many deer in my 46 years of living!!! It's nothing to see 6 does and a buck out the dining room window while we're eating dinner at my mom's place. She and stepdad are about 25 minutes south of our place and it's not unusual for doc and I to count 20+ deer along the side of the small highway between their place and ours. We actually joke about the government officials only think they run this state and that the deer are actually in control! We wish!

We've been living here for 2 years now and we still see the deer up close and personal, that were here before us. We've been cooking supper on the grill only to have one of the older does stop in the driveway and watch us while doing so. We won't hunt, just to hunt. If we put one in the freezer, fine...if not then so be it!

Believe it or not, pot plantations are big here, too. I'd hate to have their water bill after living this last years drought and knowing what our water bill looked like just trying to grow veggiesto feed ourselves and hopefully put some up in the freezer!

The 17 acres that we live on were part of a larger farm and as far as we know, no one has actually resided on our section, until we came along. We didn't buy it to rape and pillage it, we bought it with the best intentions of being one with the land.

We cleared about 2 acres (of our 17) to make a home/garden and are working on restoring native fruit/nut trees to add to our orchard to make up for what we've cleared to live on.

Well, I'm running off at the mouth and gonna give y'all a break now!

 

[Denim Deb]

Can't believe you would only see 1 deer a year! I normally see several every week, both dead and alive. I had to brake last evening for one, and slowed way down to make sure there weren't more. Some days, I'll see a large flock of turkeys in a field, and then behind them, next to the woods, a large herd of deer.

I know it's legal to bait around here, and people sell both apples and corn as deer bait. And, I do know that people will plant plots around here as well.

 

[Dawn419]

Deb,

I truly saw very few...their tracks were everywhere but the deer themselves, not so evident at the time.

I haven't been up there in years and my sister that still lives up there complains about them constantly. The area has populated a lot since I left, didn't recognize some of it the last time I was there.

I grew up just a few miles from Wharton State Park and actually did see a Black Bear, which is probably why I never actually saw that many deer.

I wish I had pix of the woods I used to run around in...there was nothing to be seen except for the huge huckleberry bushes, cedar swamps and ocassional cranberry bogs. I know that you know the area I'm talking about but I've had people argue with me about the "population" of Jersey and they totally didn't get the big picture of SJ being a whole differernt entity/world/planet.

 

[Marianne]

Must be legal here, too. I quit putting out salt and mineral blocks for the deer after a hunter moved in behind us. He planted a small milo patch on his property, but most of the deer left after he moved a house there.

(We don't hunt... I always thought that if you gave the deer a gun, then it'd be a fair fight. But I do understand why those on the forum hunt.)

 

[Dawn419]

A true hunter will probably want to rip me a new ###, the food plots for wildlife will also serve to feed our guineas and chickens, if they decide to venture toward the "greener pastures", instead of playing in the road.

I'm not of the mind frame of "have to have one in the freezer", but I wouldn't mind saying "Woot! Venison!". I've got to watch my diet as far as fatty meats and wild game is something that I grew up on and miss and is lean.

If and when I make my first true hunting kill, I suspect I'll cry my eyes dry but will give my Thanks and Respect and enjoy every last bite and tan the hides (working on learning that skill) and want to learn how to use the bones for tools, also.

 

[Beekissed]

Hunting over bait is illegal here~bait being imported corn, apples, sweet feed, salt blocks, etc.~but it is not illegal to plant game plots and the DNR will even help finance the seed, in some cases. You may hunt over game plots here. You may hunt over a corn field or in an orchard also...but not over the bag of corn or apples you toted into the woods and dumped in a pile or in a turkey feeder.

Side note: For those of us raised up on deer meat that was taken using stealth, determination and skill, it is a heritage passed down from generation to generation. We are proud of it, just as much as one is proud of culinary, sewing, crafting, farming or any other skill passed down from our elders. My father was one of the first inducted into the Bowhunter's Hall of Fame here in WV and has killed literally hundreds of deer to feed his family. He passed on his skills and knowledge to his sons and then on to mine.

I'm proud of that heritage and the skill that goes along with it. I know many careless people out there ruin the name of hunting, but there are still a few that see it as a stewardship and a responsibility.

Edited to remove an angry response. Sorry!

 

[FarmerChick]

yea I am more hunt with a purpose. food, use of animal.

hubby is the true hunter (I don't hunt) and he does like to go for trophies. He booked a barbados(?) ram hunt. Yea he got a big one, left the meat for others to divide, he wanted the head mount.

All of his buddys do 2 things. first is hunt for freezer. When full....hunt for trophy. If they get that trophy shot, meat is given away and used.

so nothing is ever wasted.


my mail lady does not hunt but her hubby did. He got lukemia bad and had alot of troubles. he can't hunt anymore due to medical troubles. Tony will hunt his tag and get her one for her freezer. And a few others have been asking if Tony can get them one.

 

[FarmerChick]

Dawn I will ask Tony what he plants. Cause he plants just for deer, he sure loves to feed his deer and take care of them LOL

 

[~gd]

Back on that old thread, I did not mention MY position on baiting, just what the law was in my area. Actually I favor baiting or any other action that would reduce the deer population except one that was actually used. The powers that be actually inported coyotes from the mountains and turned them loose thinking that some natural predation would reduce the herds. Guess what? Yes the coyotes managed to nap a few fawn but evidently they learned that small livestock were easier and maybe more tasty. pet cats became scarce-Yum. Poultry and bunnys YUM YUM. Even small dogs, large dogs unless they had been 'fixed' were seduced into the packs and a 'coydog' is a better preditor than a pure coyote.
MY land [6.5 acres] were open for hunters until a 'city hunter' bagged my large white dog in my yard. Up went the Posted signs along with a note that said that I would provide the written permission to hunt to any experiencedhunters that would apply. I went to the local hunt club to spread the word and learned they had the rights to a large track that adjoined my land. They used to park in my place and organized drives to clear my space and drive the deer onto their kill zone and that worked well for all concerned.~gd

 

[StupidBird]

gd, that's real bad about your dog.

I see there's lots on both sides of the deer plot discussion. One point is, the deer are there anyways; just set them up for a safe shot. More humane clean kill.