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Which is more rewarding?

tyson12590

tyson12590

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
289
Location
Coldwater, Michigan
So this is a totally random question. I just want to hear people's thoughts on this hypothetical question. I am not trying to start anything and I support all hunters methods as long as it is legal.

If baiting was legal in your state, in your opinion which would be a more rewarding / more difficult experience, shooting a deer with a crossbow (no bait) or shooting a deer with a traditional bow over bait?
 
Allegheny Tom said:
.300 Weatherby mag at 400 yards. Puts meat in the freezer but not all that rewarding.

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Rewarding for me is a successful hunt with safe return and food on the table. As much as I love all aspects of hunting the bottom line is the meat. That meat tastes good wether it was passed thru with a carbon shaft or a 150 gr bonded boat tail
 
Rewarding is going home with meat. I crossbow hunt for one simple reason. I don't have the free time to dedicate to a bow with work and kids. With a crossbow I can sight in like my rifle, take it out back the day before a hunt and make sure I am on. I am meat hunting and I am happy with whatever deer I put on the ground. I also hunt an area where they run dogs and John boy lives by the motto "if it is brown it is down", so growing big racks on my property is not an option. At least 6-10 Saturdays throughout a season I will have a pack of dogs push the deer off my property. I don't bait because it is illegal in VA. I still have to put all the work in to get a deer inside 30 yards and make an ethical shot. So rewarding for me is meat in the freezer.
Have you ever taken a deer at 400 yards? VERY REWARDING.
 
A lot of these guys who say baiting is cheating are saying that from their redneck blind over a mock scrape on the edge of a food plot on a $10,000 lease in central Iowa....

Unless you're spear hunting from the ground while wearin nothin but a loin cloth you're cheatin.....
 
I think a lot of people have a misconception about baiting deer. Not all areas where baiting is permitted have deer running into the feeders. I hunt East Texas and west Texas. The deer in west texas where I hunt are stupid and they are attracted to the bait during late season because there is not much forage. The way deer react to baiting is dependent on the pressure. I will only hunt the feeders in east Texas if I am trying to kill hogs or does. It is almost impossible to kill a large mature buck on a feeder in heavily pressured areas. They ALWAYS come in down wind and bust you. It is also much more difficult in my opinion to hunt a feeder in high pressure areas because the deer are soooooo much more alert. Trying to draw your bow requires much more stealth and attention. I think that people who have never baited in pressured areas have the misconception that the deer come running in like cattle. This may be true for high fence ranches and low pressure areas, but in high pressure areas you would be surprised how difficult it is to kill a deer on a feeder. Also in east Texas deer will rarely come to corn feeders if acorns are falling. The corn piles up under the feeders for weeks if the hogs don’t eat it. To say hunting a feeder is cheating is silly, I wish I could hunt CRP, corn fields, large food plots, and some of the opportunities other folks have. With that being said I will tell you I find it much more productive to hunt trails, pinch points and sign for mature bucks. For me it is much easier and more enjoyable to hunt away from feeders, I can move more, stretch out, scratch my butt if necessary, and it is so much easier drawing your bow if you are not around a feeder. Deer are much more relaxed as well when they are not going to a feeder. I usually go to west texas to tag out on does right before season ends. That is like beating up a third grader!!
 
I say whatever floats your boat as long as it is legal. I wouldn't bait or use a crossbow,but that is my preference. You do your way,i do mine.
 
Bowmanmike said:
I say whatever floats your boat as long as it is legal. I wouldn't bait or use a crossbow,but that is my preference. You do your way,i do mine.
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I will switch to a crossbow when I’m an old fart. My wife's grandpa still hunts with us and uses a crossbow, he is 91, weighs 100# soaking wet, and still slings corn and concrete like a stud.
 
I love it when guys shooting 350fps compound bows, with trigger releases, drop-away rests, fiber optic sights mounted to HHA optimizers and mechanical broad heads affixed to carbon fiber arrows, look down their nose at crossbows.
Pick up a long bow. Use wooden arrows with turkey feather fletching, kill a few deer like that, then run your mouth.
 
I've never hunted over bait because one, its illegal in NY and two, I don't think it is fair chase for deer. I'm not criticizing those who legally do bait, I'm just explaining my thought process. As far as the implement? I don't care, I think it depends on the situation and the hunter. If you're a twelve year old just starting out and never hunted and a deer comes to your bait pile, are you going to tell me that wasn't a challenge to that new hunter ?? No way man! That kid is probably hooked because of what it took to take that deer.... even if it was over bait. Most of us on this forum are pretty experienced hunters so we look at these scenarios differently because we have had the opportunities. I think a lot of these situations are very relative to the hunter and the hunter's situation. I love to bowhunt primarily but I also like to gun hunt, crossbow hunt, muzzleloader hunt, handgun hunt, trad bow hunt, I love it all. I like using different types of hunting implements or tools and also different types of hunting tools within the same hunting tool genre (e.g. rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader, handgun, then lever action rifle, MSR or AR platform rifle, bolt action rifle, pump action rifle, straight wall cases, bottleneck cases etc., so on and so forth. Hunters are Hunters are Hunters are Hunters..... Lets not judge each other Brother hunters! Anyway, back to baiting really quick. Notice I said I don't think baiting for deer is fair chase. But baiting for bears? I think I could do that. I have never done it, I have never even gone out of my state to hunt before until last year and I just went to a neighboring state to hunt deer because I took a buck during bow season early and I wanted to shoot another buck with my bow. Anyway, I'm sure some of you have ever heard of Bernie Barringer, I trust his information and youtube videos... check out Bowhunting Road on youtube. Bernie was (Maybe he still is) the Editor of Bear Hunter Magazine and he got his start as a long liner trapper. He worked hard and put himself through writing school and is now a freelance author but anyway, check out some of his bear baiting videos and footage sometime. Shooting bears over bait is not easy and even with bait, the bears are highly intelligent and will shy from baits where they have had multiple human encounters. So even within the baiting genre, I think it is relative to the game species. I think our state is way behind on the appropriate and legal methods for taking bears. Many of our game laws are 50 to 70 years old and a lot has changed in the way of research, conservation and wild game population management and dynamics. Bears are beginning to be a problem here in parts of NY and although I'm happy the numbers are returning to allow us to hunt them, I do think some of the science related to hunting them needs to be competely updated and overhauled too. Sorry for the book I just wrote.
 
boyne bowhunter said:
@always89y., you need to get the spear out, dispose of the timberpimp and show us how it's done . . . figuratively, not literally. :tearsofjoy:
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Challenge accepted sir...I have to substitute the loin cloth with a shag area rug. Turns out they dont come in my size!
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Thanks for sharing all your opinions. It seems as though baiting is more hated than crossbows around here lol. I've killed 25 deer with a compound with no bait in Michigan before moving to South Carolina. I started hunting traditional down here and the guy I hunt with hunts over food plots with a corn pile. I gave it a try and I have found it harder and more rewarding to shoot deer with a longbow over bait than it was to kill deer with my compound in Michigan. For those that have never shot a deer with a traditional bow it is likely harder than you are imagining and I encourage you to give it a try.
 
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