You sound an awful lot like my wife.

No, I climb a tree and jump on their back and break its neck.

I'll be honest. When talking to people who don't hunt, I can usually get them to see that hunting is ethical and necessary. When they ask me about folks that sit in a box blind and blast a deer that has been trained over several months to come to a timed corn feeder, that's where I just have to shrug.

if your talking about baiting you have to include rattling horns grunt calls, scents, food plots, mock scrapes and rubs, not just corn. so do you ban them all.

you forgot acorns

I've never considered using food sources that were not created by the hunter as baiting. And in areas where only food plots are legal, people somehow refuse to consider them as bait. IMO, if you plant, place, or position a food source for the purpose of attracting wild game for harvest, it's bait.

IMO, baiting deer is no more unethical than trying to catch fish with worms or minnows, if the resource is consumed in the end. But from a true hunting perspective, I don't consider it as being "free chase".

There's no question that feeders and food plots have resulted in a tremendous loss in traditional hunting skills within the hunting community. It's really sad that for many kids today, hunting equates to nothing more than climbing into an old office chair in a heated box stand and waiting for something to show up and eat.

From many of the old timers I talk to I wouldn't consider driving around and shoot deer from the vehicle too traditional and hope the landowner doesn't care. Lol. Sure there were many traditional I guess but have not found many.

Wow! A day to remember!

The dead horse got up!

If using a feeder is wrong, I don't wanna be right!

If we don't remind ourselves what we have allowed to become of our sport, the anti's surely will.

Chances are those highly sought after white oak trees have been manipluted by human hand, directly or in directly. Very likely that area has been logged, or that land been turned over before

Great title for a Country song. And at my age, agreed.

Any efforts to improve "natural" habitat for the resource is a good thing.

OK - I'll play!

If it's legal,I'm gonna do it! If it's not I won't.......I've drug my old butt all over the Rockies & in Texas using spot & stalk and hunted with rifles, bows & arrows, pistols and hunted blinds with and without feeders when & where it was legal. I'm not afraid to get it on with the anti's anywhere or anytime.
but I won't interfere with anyones method of hunting as long as it's legal.

When one starts using the "what about the anti's" issue it is, in my opinion, actually giving them the crack in the door they need. Yes there is some room for discussion but I still believe the dead horse just got up.

Push all other issues aside.

Do we really want to raise up a new generation of hunters who know nothing more about hunting than how to wait for deer to show up and eat at a feeder?

Someone has to fill my feeder when I am old so yeah...

I want to hear about all the old traditional methods... Sorry but most drove around and shot deer when they could. With no doe season and few deer they shot any buck and that was it. Now we have long seasons and really get to enjoy it. At least I do. Sometimes I sit on a feeder sometimes on a ridge with my boy.

I'm not...

You assume to much!

- all my kids/grandkids were/are exposed to all kinds/types of hunting and fishing.....they're also exposed to the fact that one does not have to kill or catch something to enjoy the outdoors. My biggest thrill was watching my grandson put several fish back in the water 'cause "we didn't catch enough for a meal so lets let these go".

....and I'll bet there are a lot more out there just like me!

Still - I'm not going to give someone a hard time about how they hunt...as long as they are legal!

Don't know about you guys, but the deer don't just come running when the feeder goes off. I've shot just as many deer out in the open field as I have under or close to a feeder.
I love hearing guys talk about setting up on a trail near an oak thicket and waiting for a big buck to come in, yet they turn around and talk smack about hunting a feeder. Mr. Pot, say hi to Mr. kettle...

i don't see them ever doing away with it. too many people have done it for too long. it would cause soooo much up-roar that i just don't think it'd ever happen.

as far as ethical, i don't think it matters. it doesn't matter where you harvest a deer. that deer was there because he was attracted to that area by something. deer feeder, natural browse, natural bedding, natural acorns, etc. i don't see hunting deer over corn as any more or less ethical than shooting them over anything else they're attracted too.

plus, i might get some flack for this, but i think some folks put WAY too much emphasis on hunting being fair for the deer. i mean i'm not at all in support of canned hunting, or shooting animals in small enclosures where they have no chance for escape. but it doesn't bother me in the least that i shot my deer with a high-powered rifle while he was eating corn. the object of the game is to get out to the woods with family and friends, harvest a good natural grown meal. put meat on the table. nobody cares that the cows in the feed lot have a fair chance. meat is meat, and hunting is for meat.

i think a comparison of lions and zebras would show the lions at somewhat of an advantage too. a lion would obviously do anything he could to improve his odds of a sucessful hunt. its the predatory way.

Say what you want about hunting on public land, but it does help ensure that true "free chase" methods will be around for years to come.

I agree. There are many who would quickly call deer a nuisance.

As for the hunting aspect of our sport, I'm reminded of a quote made more than 100 years ago. "I don't hunt to kill, but kill to have hunted." If the reward is in the hunt, what does it say for many of our tactics today?

the system we have now is pretty good. people are allowed to hunt more or less how they want. you want to use a rifle, then good use one. you want to take on a little more challenge and go spot and stalk with a bow, good, go do it. some sensible bag limits and seasons is all the restriction we need.

nobody is more or less of a hunter because they use a feeder or dont. how many men/women/children wouldn't even hunt at all because of the added difficulty and unsuccessful-ness of the hunt if baiting were not allowed??? it would destroy the past-time for a lotta people.

i personally wouldn't stop hunting if baiting were stopped. and i'd abide by the law. but i'm a pretty seasoned hunter. it'd be a lot harder to take my two small sons deer hunting if we couldn't sit a box blind at a baited site.

I agree with this. The challenge of the hunt does not determine how ethical it is IMO. To me, baiting isn't any less ethical than a small food plot. It isn't any different than a bow hunter saying a rifle is unethical, or a traditional bow hunter saying that compounds or crossbows are unethical.

To me, unethical hunting is breaking laws, taking poor shots, not trying to recover the game, letting the game spoil, etc.

Ok, let's consider a couple things...it is not hard to kill a deer...period.
I have never found a place that was hard to kill A deer, including public.

As far as raising kids... Come on... If its a feeder, if its a foodplot, if its a feild, its the same type of hunting...setting and waiting.

Infact every type of hunting is some branch of that style. This includes deer drives, setting up on travel routes, even spot and stalk.

The type of hunting you do is directly related to the size of the property and habitat.

Tactics haven't changed in you entire life time. Accepted maybe the use of dogs

Corn has been used in feeders or hand spread since the 50's.

People still set on man made water holes to kill antelope..the best way to kill A monster elk is still the water hole, or alafafa feild. Whitetail still rut, and still are more active early and late.

Best way to kill A spring turkey is still using calls.


What's so different?