Did you use a bait pile to harvest your deer in 2016

[Sitkaspruce]

We can bait here in BC for everything but bears and waterfowl.

I use barley mixed with pelleted alfalfa or cubed alfalfa/timothy mix. Had lots of small bucks, but nothing I wanted to squeeze the trigger on. Lots of big boys on camera, but either nocturnal or when I was working.

Apples are not something normal up here in Northern BC, same as corn, so I have not tried them yet.

Use range salt/water softener salt during the spring/summer scouting season with trail cams to find new bucks and plan the fall season.

Cheers

SS

[Arrowflinger]

Corn and apples

[j.krug]

Didn't poke one this year...little time to hunt...but always hunt over a bait pile at my uncle's farm.

[hankenhunter]

I use a mix of salt, pear, apple,vanilla, alfalfa pellets, and molasses. I make it nice and chunky and use the molasses to hold it together. I then freeze portions in freezer bags and replace them as needed. Many times there would be does waiting for me. Does aren't legal here unless you win a tag. So they are very approachable. But, where there are does, bucks will follow. The big boys seem to like the change of diet as much as the does because this area never fails to produce nice bucks.
Hank

[evaughan]

I don't hunt with bait as I'm gonna move my stands too much through the season but I like to use a gravity feeder with trail cameras July - early September. I've had good luck with corn, oats and scratch feed (poultry mix) but I find it hard to stay ahead of the raccoons. Once they find a feeder it's pretty much useless.....

[Phillyarcher]

In my earlier post when we were allowed in Pa. I used Agway Deer Corn. I would take a small bag and pour a little at the spot and then I would throw the rest around the area, this will help with the other critters that will go right to the bait pile. This method worked real well. Makes them work for the food.

[papabear1]

Didn't poke one this year...little time to hunt...but always hunt over a bait pile at my uncle's farm.

It's not like you Jim, to not get a deer, maybe next year will be a whole lot better for you.

Dave
good luck !!!!!

P.S. did the girls get to go. ?

[coop]

Corn is standard procedure here in TX, although I didn't kill all them on corn, some were just crossing sendaro's. I kill 12 a year on my lease.

[rein1]

I hunt next to a 80 acre corn field , So is that baiting ?? Some say Yes and some No .. I have used gravity feeders and everything else in the past , But in my exp if you want a big mature buck stay away from baiting .Just my opionion

[IronNoggin]

... baiting is illegal and unethical...

LOL! Maybe in your opinion. Certainly not in many more minds though, mine included.

I run bait / camera stations a LOT each and every fall targeting Island Blacktails. These critters ain't called Timber Ghosts without reason, and the bait / camera combo really helps when doing "inventory" of any particular area. Some years we actually manage to take a buck (our crew does not shoot Blacktail does - ever - regardless of regulations allowing that) that we've seen on trail cam, and some years those are actually near a bait site! Not always, but sometimes...

We use salt (peanut butter at times to draw them to a new salt site) and COBB.
The latter is a mix of rolled corn, oats and barley drowned in molasses. One of the Ranchers whose property we hunt calls that stuff "Deer Crack" and our sites "Deer Crack Houses".
Stuff is damn near that effective. Of course bears and such also are attracted to it, which can present problems at times...

This year despite running 4 bait / camera sites, the only buck to come off of any of them was what I'd call a fluke. VERY late in the morning, just as I was withdrawing, this fellow made the mistake of presenting himself in full daylight:



A nice mature Island Buck. To be fair, I am completely uncertain if he would have even bothered with the bait station - he was nose down, way off to one side of the bait, and rather concentrated on the trail left by a mature doe that wandered by an hour earlier. Never did let him get as far as the bait pile (which the doe had investigated well on her way by).

We had numerous camera sightings of other good bucks at the bait / camera stations, but those were pretty well all nocturnal. The few that occurred in daylight were of course those times we were not there...

The other deer I took this year, a good Mulie again, and a buck and doe whitetail, were all by spot and stalk. Much tougher game usually, and one I thoroughly enjoy as a consequence.

Bottom line: Over the years I have taken a fair number of bucks over bait (all Blacktails and some rather good bucks). Some times it works, some times it don't. Overall, it certainly is a useful tool to help determine just what is in your area. Legal, and by all means Ethical - in my humble opinion of course

Cheers,
Nog

[nchunterkw]

Really pretty buck Nog!! Just curious...what would you say he weighed? They are slightly smaller than whitetails right?

[mr meat]

Did not shoot a deer this year but have waited for them to finish there apple before I shot!

[wildcatter]

legal here on private land only. I have not seen anyone kill big bucks on bait, but know plenty that have killed a slew of small bucks and does using bait piles.

Saying that I do rely on the biggest bait stations around,, Corn and Bean fields in the fall, now I add winter wheat fields to em this time of year,,,

[Timbrhuntr]

I don't hunt over bail at home. However when I go to my buddies in Kansas he puts out a lot of baited sites so sometimes I have no choice. At home everyone that hunts around me has a bait pile so I really don't need one anyway. I appreciate those fellows putting out all that bait so that I can hunt the trails that lead to it !
As far as hunting a 80 acre field of planted corn being the same as sitting over a pile of corn are you really serious !!

[Carnivorous]

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE THAT BAIT.