Wondering what everyone's thoughts on baiting are for this season. I was thinking of getting some bait out there (apples/corn/etc) within the next few days or so. Some say its a bit early, others say its late?
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Wondering what everyone's thoughts on baiting are for this season. I was thinking of getting some bait out there (apples/corn/etc) within the next few days or so. Some say its a bit early, others say its late?
Welcome to the forum...
You may need to clarify..are you talking about the Rifle season in Nov or the Bow season in Oct...tree stand/blind over a bait pile ?
Do you have a trail cam so see the results ?
Can't hurt.
At close to $20 a bag for whole corn...you don't want to start to early...Quote:
Originally Posted by JUDGE
thats expensive coon bait lol
Baiting deer is a little more tricky of a game than most would think. The usual assumption is, throw some corn or apples on the ground and shoot a deer shortly thereafter. That's not exactly the case.
I've had success and failure with baiting in the past and in my experience, prolonged cold and snow on the ground makes for the best baiting conditions. Deer just have to get up and feed during daylight hours. The other trick is not to put too much bait down. Put enough down to last for a few days, let it run out for a day or two, then put more down. Deer will check the site more often to see if there's food. It they know that there's always a huge pile of bait waiting for them, they'll wait until dark to hit it. Unless cold is getting the deer up and moving during daylight hours, baiting can turn deer even more nocturnal than they already are.
Of course, things work differently in different parts of the province. I got lucky last year in mid-October and shot a doe with the muzzle-loader over a pile of corn that I put down only two days before. This was in WMU 8 where deer don't really even know what corn is and it was around 18 degrees C outside. After that, the deer didn't touch that bait during daylight hours for the remainder of the time we were there.
Give it a try and see what happens. After a bit of trial and error you'll figure out what works in your area.
Baiting works at different times. Right now i am hunting a bean field and some apple trees. It is southern ontario and their are apples trees around so apples which are free work. If i place corn on the ground at 11 bucks a bag i will be poor quick. Try building a pvc feeder. Or buy a speed feeder. If i was baiting with corn on the ground i would be wasting my time.
I find Bair for deer is good in front of s game camera to see what's around the area.but you waste to much corn on little critters to be worth putting out lots of corn to hunt over. A camera will catch the deer at night when you are not around
Off the subject a bit, but how long do you think we'll have to wait till a homemade video goes viral showing some idiot putting an arrow through a deer chewing apples/corn on a bait pile?
I'm up north in WMU 60. I started baiting late this summer and it has totally backfired. I put up spinning feeders with corn. The deer liked it at first, but then the bears moved in. I have now turned two good stands into a lunch buffet for the bears and they have completely run the deer away. Good news is bear season opens in a week:) From now on i'm going to focus on mineral sites for deer and hope that the bears aren't attracted to that. I will still put some attractant out for the deer to hunt over, but I'm done with throwing money into feeding the bears.
I never hunt directly over bait, but if I would I would be as far as I possible could. I typically hunt around bait, I cut the trails deer use to get to the bait pile. I start baiting 3 weeks before the season starts, thats plenty. If you start to early, the bears will move in.
From my experience, baiting has been most effective for me later in the season. Especially when it turns cold and snow hits the ground. In early season, there is still tons of forage,browse and mast for the deer to pick and choose from. Not to mention uncut crops too.
If if you are eager to get one early in the season, deer are still in their summer feeding habits and are easier to pattern compared to later on in the season. Do some good scouting. Find natural food sources, water and travel routes of course. Good luck
Like I said, can't hurt.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
Bears love apples!
We usually just throw some corn piles out about a week or 2 before the season.
I put a feeder out and all I get now is raccoons and squirrels instead of buck and does. Im going to take it down and put a mineral rock out instead. I havent seen many coons lick a mineral rock
I had 3 corn feeders last year and was able to shoot my first deer in November, this year I haven't been up to the hunting grounds much so haven't put much out.
I will be checking trail cam this weekend and putting out a couple salt licks, just to see what's in the area.
If cam shows good activity i may not put out much bait, but if nothing I may put out some corn to see if I can bring them in.
Good luck to everyone this fall. I'm looking forward to getting back out in the bush.
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Where you buying your corn from? Last time picked up a sack at the local feed store was $11.00.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
I was paying $10-12 a bag last year for cracked corn
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Last year it was as high as around $17.....I just called the feed store and it's down to $14 (88lbs) ...it will be more at TSC (they only sell 50lb bags)..hurts the wallet when your feeding the coons...
Last year I found the squirrels were eating my corn. Maybe turkeys also.
The apples I put out did not get eaten. But the deer seemed to love the pears.
Question: Will deer come to road salt? Salt the plow operators use if I put it out? I know I have seen deer licking the roads at night.
Road salt is the only thing I use because it's so cheap and yes the deer do go to it.
I don't use: 1. corn because deer can't digest it, squirrels and turkeys love it.
2. Apples because raccoons and bears love them
I do use: 1. Carrots because it not the deer love them once they figure out what they are. Start them off after a hard frost when their normal food source dies. They will only pick at first. The second year they will go crazy on them.
Cost: $6.00/50 lb bag
Roe+
I start with minerals just after turkey season, that gets them coming in on a regular bases. I do not feed until a few weeks before the season opens
The deer seem to do fine with the corn they take out of the fields every summer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roe+
I've tried carrots a few times over the years...never any results...they just get moldy laying in the bush after a week or so.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roe+
Yes with all the corn fields around here, the deer see it as 'natural' food..even if it's laying 500 yds into the bush under a cedar tree...a bag a corn has always served me well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fox
I tired with soya beans once, picked up a 5 gallon bucket of spillage once it was harvested off the field next to where I hunt and put it back into the bush by my tree stand...they never took to it there. Maybe because it was husked and not on the plant...
edit add: Roe is right about the diet...even between Oct/late Dec you will see deer turn away from apples and corn ...it's like their natural diet needs change with the seasons. I've watched deer eat only apples in early Oct skip the corn then they will poke the apples off the pile to get at the corn late in Nov...
Deer can digest corn. I'm not sure what you base your opinion on that they cannot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roe+
I've see way to many deer scavenging harvest corn fields to believe that.
I also pick up a couple thousand pictures of them eating corn every fall on the trail cam.
Late fall/early winter cornfields are deer hotspots.
The *only* time deer can't digest corn is if they haven't been feed it during the fall/early winter and then are fed it when they are starving - the same applies to any grain.
Apples are great. Deer can be particular about the type of apples.
The once I get from MacLarens at Renfrew are good, as are the ones I pick up at my inlaws in Kemptville.
But I've twice tried apples from a friends trees from near Casselman. The deer pick at them, but for the most part leave them to rot. The deer seem to like red sweet apples.
Corn works too, particularly after mid November when the apples freeze - deer appear to not like frozen apples.
I usually leave corn out all fall, and feed apples as well.
Carrots rotted on the ground.
Once Halloween is over don't throw your pumpkin away bring it to your bait pile and break it open, you will be surprised at how much deer like it
Foolish thought here. Hows bout something long term. Hay, wild turnips, clover, cut trails in winter for them to run etc etc. Something that helps your freezer, and. Yes I know it's foolish, but maybe helps the animal too, more than a few temporary sweet apples
Not bear though. I think that's best in urbaniaQuote:
Originally Posted by huntnmachine
I've got about 1.75 arces they've been feeding on for about a month now
Dan
Quote:
Originally Posted by myot
GOOD ON YA
Baiting should be called greeding. Does fk for the animal pop
Well, I don't bait - but I've got lots of land and crops and foodplots and time.Quote:
Originally Posted by standup
But I'm not going to knock somebody who does.
Because maybe they have none of the above, so their choices and opportunities are limited.
If it don't benefit me and animal I admit I'm in over my responsible means and don't do that given thing. From hunting to fishing, cars You name it. To use your analogy I should just take a wack at surgery. I mean it's within my means to do the incision tonight, maybe tomorrow night I could do the........Hold on, way wrong. Can't do it right. Maybe don't do is best optionQuote:
Originally Posted by Bigbear
To each, their own. Hunting isn't surgery - it's an enjoyable pastime. So I'm going to stick up for those hunters who don't have the time, money or resources to do it the way I do.Quote:
Originally Posted by standup
Exactly. We are all on the same team. Except for some odd ducks (not naming any names here) who seem to be in a world of their own :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbear
Quote:
Originally Posted by sullyy
IOW's
EXACTLY. We are all on the same team of butchers. Except for Standup who won't do unless he can do it with the respect it deserves, and is in a world far different than the new me me me world that says I get mine, phuk the animal pop, they'll always be there
You do realize that deer cross fences and browse rather than graze right, they may eat in a hay field but that is not their primary food source, they eat a lot of different things and all at the same time, they wander around and eat here and there all day long.Quote:
Originally Posted by standup
That is why baiting for deer is tough, you do not get the same animals at the bait every night, you do not have then staying there for long, they pop in, have a munch then head out.
If we all had hundreds of acres to work with and no need to make money off the land then maybe we could all plant just for the deer.
I know you originally asked about baiting. But as mentioned, best to have started that early. Granted some deer will come to food, but many will be leary and go for it at night as season gets closer.
I would say, plan on baiting next year, this season, if you know where they bed and where they feed, you have an excellent opportunity to harvest deer this season. Set up off that trail between the two areas.
target early spring for food plot, bait, mineral. just my thoughts.