Yeah….I’m gonna say it

[raisins]

If CWD continues like it is, baiting will be illegal everywhere. Ohio is banning baiting on private ground if the CWD counties

Up until 2 years ago, WV allowed baiting on public land also, so long as you stopped by Aug 31, with archery season coming in last Saturday of September. If you made salt licks, then they lasted until early season and also putting out corn would change deer travel routes on the public as well, and increase shot chances. Now, you can hunt right over bait on private land and cannot bait at all on public. However, the vast majority of baiting always happened on private, so the new law makes very little change. This all occurred in part due to CWD, but there are some relatively powerful folks that want baiting on private land to continue. I say make it all illegal, but people will keep doing it so long as they sell dried corn!

 

[HuumanCreed]

We don't all hunt bait. And there is a world of difference between finding white oaks and figuring out the deer versus putting out corn and short circuiting the process in order to make the deer come to you.

This is the continuum fallacy which goes something like "a guy with male pattern baldness and one with a full head of hair both have some hairs and there is no hard dividing line between the two, therefore it is the same thing".

There's adrenaline rush and then there is the sense of accomplishment after the fact. I'd wager that folks that hunt deer down without bait would find that more rewarding and more of an accomplishment.

Everyone is different. But for me this is a fact. I have successfully drop a doe feeding under a feeder with a .270 at 40 yards on a lease. Was told to just wait 20 minutes after the feeder go off because the deer recognized the sound and will come like clockworks. This is NOTHING like the adrenaline that I felt on public land with a bow when the buck came up behind me on a trail that I scouted the day before. I was unsuccessful, but the sense of accomplishment and joy between the two scenarios were miles apart.

 

[philsanchez76]

I only hunt public land in Wisconsin. No cake walk but better than what other states have for sure. I don’t shoot a lot of deer.

This weekend was the rifle opener. Never fails every year, the guys who hunt huge farms and only gun hunt this weekend shoot giants. Then I have to answer questions from friends that don’t hunt as to why I hunt a lot more than them and never shoot anything.

Annoying as it can get but they just don’t get it. Every deer I shoot is a trophy to me.

I was always explaining this to people who live in neighborhoods where deer constantly eat everyones flowers. They wonder how I can spend so many hours of my time scouting and hunting public when they could just shoot one off their back deck. I don't even waste my time any more. I hunt for me and my family and no one else.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

I was always explaining this to people who live in neighborhoods where deer constantly eat everyones flowers. They wonder how I can spend so many hours of my time scouting and hunting public when they could just shoot one off their back deck. I don't even waste my time any more. I hunt for me and my family and no one else.

Those are the deer you get paid to shoot. Or at least freezer fillers if they arent inside city limits

 

[philsanchez76]

Those are the deer you get paid to shoot. Or at least freezer fillers if they arent inside city limits

Sign me up.

 

[raisins]

I would have to disagree with that. Unless you are looking at new ground all the time, deer season is almost literally half the year in some states. you can find something else to do thats more productive. After the season ends, about the only things you can learn is some rub sites you didnt see before, the buck you were after or his daddy survived if you found the sheds and where people were hunting or not. There's very little you can learn that will put something on the ground really until a few weeks before the next season starts. What a deer does in April or August doesnt help you kill it in October or January unless you got crop damage permits to kill deer out of season. Might make you a better deer biologist.

people that hunt large tracts of public do look at new land all the time and also check up past scouted areas as well

 

[SNIPERBBB]

people that hunt large tracts of public do look at new land all the time and also check up past scouted areas as well

Thats fine, my point is just checking the same spot over and over out of season has little benefits once youve learned the area.

 

[philsanchez76]

I would have to disagree with that. Unless you are looking at new ground all the time, deer season is almost literally half the year in some states. you can find something else to do thats more productive. After the season ends, about the only things you can learn is some rub sites you didnt see before, the buck you were after or his daddy survived if you found the sheds and where people were hunting or not. There's very little you can learn that will put something on the ground really until a few weeks before the next season starts. What a deer does in April or August doesnt help you kill it in October or January unless you got crop damage permits to kill deer out of season. Might make you a better deer biologist.

The only 2 months of the year I don't scout is July and August. The snakes can have those 2 months here in TN. Just isn't worth getting bit while walking through thick cover. The rest of the year I do scout and that is becuase I am always adding new ground. In public land, your good spots are always turning bad when someone else discovers and over hunts them or cuz the private land owner near by is now baiting or growing 12 food plots. Its rare that I have a public land honey hole stay a honey hole for 2 years in a row. That off season scouting is when I begin collecting new potential spots for next year. And of course, it could be holding 100s of deer in March or April and very few in October. That's possible, but at least where I hunt, the doe family groups tend to stick to the same 5-10 acre little areas of woods, so I know they'll be nearby. My in season scouting will just have to adjust the exact spot within that 5-10 acre square.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

Does might move around due to food source changes, especially around ag lands but as you say, they dont move much. Once you have them pegged, you're pretty good unless something drastic changes, even then its not too hard to find them again. From there its a matter of figuring out where the bucks are likely to come in from.

 

[katiesmom]

Public land is all I have to hunt so I fully understand the rant. I have a co-worker who can hunt on his land and all he can do is rub it in my face that he has tagged out already. Meanwhile, I'm still on the hunt for my first of the season.

X2, and they really don't understand why I continue to bow hunt during gun season...

 

[sweats]

Land in WV is pretty cheap. Around 1-3k an acre depending on area. I look at LandWatch.com from time to time, but anything that has the description "great bugout location!" has me worries about my potential neighbors....

There are some downsides that come with owning land. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I have my place, but it's not all fun by any stretch.

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