Hunting Forum

Pouring out corn to bait deer...... This just became legal in Georgia last year, in the southern part of the state anyway. I know this has been legal in South Carolina for years, and I'm sure in other states as well. What is everyone's opinion on baiting deer?  What are the pro's and con's and is this anything you all recommend, and how would it compare to food plots?

Leslie, your area is probably similar to mine, with either pine plantations or swamps. I firmly believe that if we didn't bait with deer candy, we'd probably never see a deer, much less kill one. I do plant food plots, and I get a lot of pictures, but all of the pictures are in locations where the corn is located. Even at our dog hunting club, if we want to jump a deer, we turn the dogs loose wherever we have baited a stand with corn. There is simply too much natural food sources and agriculture surrounding the pine plantations and the swamps, especially with a lot of oak trees in the deep swampy areas that are pretty inaccessable so we need to use something that will draw the deer out into open areas.

BTW, baiting is only legal in certain parts of SC.  The upper part of the state can't bait, can't run dogs, has different seasons for different weapons, and has limits on the number of deer they can kill.  They and a lot of the Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia hunters who lease huge tracts of land for still hunting are the reason that we will have limits beginning next season.  Their next goal is to eliminate all dog hunting.  I doubt they'll push to outlaw baiting though, since they've found out just how difficult it is to kill a deer without it.   When they're paying as much as $3,000.00 an acre for hunting rights, they want to make damn sure they see deer.

I've been using spin feeders throwing corn for over 20 years. Corn has very little nutritional value for deer. It's more like candy to a kid, it satisfies a sweet tooth. For the most part, its very seldom a mature buck will come to a feeder to eat the corn. The does and young bucks will feed on the corn, and the mature bucks will come to the area of the feeders looking for a receptive doe. Now don't get me wrong, there have been a few times I have taken some nice bucks actually feeding on the corn.
Protect your corn to keep it dry. Once it gets wet and starts getting moldy, the deer won't touch it. I set my feeders to fire for 3 seconds twice a day during season, about an hour after sunrise and then again about two hours before sunset.

One of the cons would be in your expectations of what it will attract. Some wildlife specialists fear they will congregate heards and spread disease. I have seen youtube videos of this but I suspect these were taken on a high fence deer farm. I have never witnessed anything close to that around my feeder. I use the same type as Grandpops set for 6 sec. at 7 AM and 4 sec. at 6 PM.

I set my game cam up on the feeder in early Nov. for a 7 day period set to take 30 sec videos. I had 125 videos when I picked it up over half were of racoons at night (counted 8 in one). Over half of the remainder were of a button buck that has been almost a daily visiter. Others were of young 6 pts, one nice 6 pt. with long main beams. I hunted that stand 5 of the 7 mornings the camera was there. On one of the AM that I wasn't there the cam got a pic of a really nice 8 pt feeding.

I shot my only allowed buck the second week of bow season and have hoped the feeder would bring in the does but only have been seeing young bucks. One of the Ams that I had cam there I had watched the litte button buck feed for about 15 min and then he got spooked and wandered off 45 min later I spot a fawn step ouy and head toward the feeder and then a doe came out and headed the same direction. I thought I would wait and see if I could get the cam to capture my shot. I got set with my crossbow for that shot and was waiting for the doe to come on in. Out of another window I watched as she was broadside 25yds sniffing at a deer block that was 10 yds from the feeder. She then turned and went the other way and I had missed my opportunity at a shot. The fawn turned out to be the button buck coming back for more.

We have several feeders on our 400 acres. What is the best time to set them for and for how long. Currently my dad likes them to be at 6 or 7 depending on daylight savings for 20 seconds.

I am under the impression that doing it a bit later in the morning would force the deer to come into the bait during relative light so that I can see them, maybe not shoot right away.

I guess when and how long are my questions?

That's a good question. It depends on how fast you want to go through the corn or if the corn seems to start to pile up. I noticed this after I had just started this season and turned off the PM feeding time untill I saw that it was being eaten. I put 150lbs in my feeder and it will last between 3-4 weeks. I've wondered my self about wether I should set Am time later. A lot of mornings I show up 15 -20 min after the feeder has gone off and the corn seems to already been eaten. I kind of doubt that the deer wait for the feeder to go off before they come in. They just come when they want and eat what is out at the time. On my PM feeding I sometimes wonder if I am just feeding the coons.

I don't know if I were to put out more than what was being eaten if it would bring in more deer or just go to waist.

They deer at my feeder come in whenever but there is a significant amount of movement towards the bait. Just before the feeder goes off. I think that it is important to set it off early in the morning but after the start of shooting hours and for a time that allows for there to be just enough spread that the deer eat it throughout the day and not over night so that you get daytime activity at your feeder.

Somwhow this thread got off track.
We have been baiting deer up here in N.J. for about 12 years now. My favirite bait is sweet potatoes. We buy them for $60 per bin (30 bushels). The squirrels don't really bother them to much and the crows do not either. Do not know about potatoes down there. Have used apples, they will work but attract bees. Some people use sugar beets.
If you are going to bring in a bag of corn, throw it around, it will last longer than in a pile. Once you start hunting bring in a bucket full every time you hunt.
Some people say that when you bait you will turn the deer nocturnal. I do not believe it. They go noctornal on there own after the rut. It is what they do.
I am sitting in my living room looking at my mounts, a 11,9,8,5 and a four pointer all shot overbait. This does not count the 6,8,8,12 and four pointer that busted me or something else went wrong.
Remember when you are hunting over bait that you are hunting deer that are comming to the bait either to eat or mate.
Here in South Jersey I bait 25-30 yards out.
Joe Termite

Down here, the feeders with shelled corn work in some spots and not in others, which is unexplainable. I've actually had corn go bad in the feeders, because I had to set the timers to sling smaller quantities since the deer would leave it alone and it would pile up on the ground. I have better results with cob corn, and just scatter about a 1/4 to 1/2 a bushel over each bait location I've established. I also have trail cams on each bait pile and have deer coming at all times of the day and night, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why, other than the moon phases and the amount of acorns in the swamps. I just baited this AM, after getting out of a tree stand, then swapped cards in the cams and came back and downloaded my pics. At each location, I'm seeing the same deer, repeatedly and the time is anywhere from 5:00PM till 12:00 PM, with a lot of activity just after sundown and prior to sunup, but still there is that late morning and often mid-day appearance. I have one bait pile about 30 yards out from a stand that overlooks two food plots and the other bait pile is about 80 yards out, which is what I have on most of mine.

We cannot bait any time in NY. But, what I have heard is baiting will mess up the deers natural patterns to feed on the surrounding natural resources and rely on what the feedeer has to offer, leaving them malnourished and fighting to keep healthy through the winter months. But, it may be different down south and out west? We can plant food plots, but not hunt over them. Also, food plots are seasonal, and not permanent.

GLW, I don't do well with perennials, which is why a replant at least three times per year. My food plots just happen to be in permanent locations on my property, but the crops planted are pretty much seasonal. We use corn for bait piles, so there isn't any real nutritional value, but it's more like giving candy to a kid. The bait is basically designed to draw the does and fawns to the food plots in the first place; and where the does are is where you'll find the bucks. Down here, the deer aren't likely to bed in or near the food plots, since most of them are in the middle of planted pines, so the idea is to provide an attractant that will bring them out of the deep swamps and very nasty, thick cover and out where they can actually be seen......while also avoiding the snakes and 'gators.

You may not realize it, but even in NY, you do use bait when you hunt over a deer trail, near a bedding area, along a fence or ridge line, near water, and near any mast producing trees. Also, when hunting the rut, you're using the best bait in the world if you have any does in the area. The only difference is with our food plots and bait piles, we're simply adding additional sources of attraction.

"You may not realize it, but even in NY, you do use bait when you hunt over a deer trail, near a bedding area, along a fence or ridge line, near water, and near any mast producing trees. Also, when hunting the rut, you're using the best bait in the world if you have any does in the area. The only difference is with our food plots and bait piles, we're simply adding additional sources of attraction."

Oh of course I realize that, but it's their natural enviroment and won't effect their future health unless one ends up in my freezer!
I undersatnd your point though.

I would like to add one thing that I forgot to mention. We have never had any case of CWD, Blue Tongue, or any other disease down here, and we don't seem to have any problems with the deer nutrition or diet problems being caused from baiting and food plots( also, remember that with bait, it's normally a hunting season situation and not a permanent one). I know that many opponents of baiting want to blame it for spreading disease as well as the claims you mentioned about the native browse; but, studies done by the University of Georgia, and by QDMA do not support any of those claims. I honestly believe that in some instances the different states and their DNRs just make efforts to justify their regulations without any real scientific validity. We all know that the Feds tend to take the liberal point of view about hunting (as shown with the wolf and polar bear debates), so I often wonder if the states pay too much attention to the tree hugging vegans and that's the source of many of the game laws.

I do believe you are onto something there? I would have to think (and only speaking from a 4 seasons state) that the reasoning of hurting the herd by "soley" feeding the deer enough to keep them from normal browsing, could be valid, but can you imagine how much food you would be giving them daily to upset that balance? I don't believe it myself, just something I read. This year was very bad in these parts due to drought and frost killing many buds early enough to stop growth of apples and many fruit/berry bearing bushes/trees. But, we still seem to have a very healthy deer herd. My spike horn was very fat, early bow season. My 7 point was a lean machine and zero fat, during rut, which is normal. My doe was fatty, late season. They are getting fat somehow? I would think because they are very adaptive creatures.

I believe the cause for spreading disease isn't from the actual baiting, it's from bringing many deer together in one gathering, in which one infected animal may pass the disease quicker through shared saliva. Where the disease originates from is the real question? Still, all the scare of CWD isn't validated in my opinion.

We have been in a drought for a couple of years, but we did have a lot of rain at the end of the summer. All four of the deer I've killed were nice and fat, as have been all of them I've seen killed; but, we also had an extremely heavy acorn crop this year. Couple that with the late summer growth of natural browse and my bait piles aren't being consumed nearly as often as they were just prior to October. I've actually had some corn left after almost two weeks on some of the locations. Before the acorns started falling, I could put corn out in the AM and the next afternoon it would all be gone........off of all five of my piles.

I've also read that many concerns about the disease is from large gatherings of deer at bait piles.  Apparently, our deer herds down here are hell of a lot smaller than most places.  Although we have a good deer population, it's seldom to see more than 5 or 6 deer all together on a food plot at one time.  The most I've ever seen was earlier in this season when I had 15 does and fawns spread out over two food plots where I have a stand overlooking both of them.  Usually I'll see an old doe with a yearling and a fawn or two, so that night I thought I'd been transplanted to Texas!

Here in MI, baiting has only recently been limited, but was legal for many years prior. In my opinion, the practice has created slob hunters. Now some of you have your hackles raised, not all baiting hunters are slobs, but a common and unfortunate scenario takes place. The slob thinks all that's necessary is to put bait anywhere in the woods and not only will deer make new paths from two counties over, they have the exclusive right to the surrounding area. That is they can urinate on your pop-up or take a knife to it if it is found within 200 yrds of their bait. If you find a dim figure in your spot wearing hunter orange in the pre-dawn opening day, you best just leave. No deer is worth hearing bullets zipping thru the tree overhead. It has gotten better in recent years, but many hunters just complained they would stop hunting altogether if faced with a bait ban. I baited myself in years past, but not in a long time.
It has become a crutch for so many hunters here. It really is sad what baiting has done to some hunters.

Lngsht27, you are evidently hunting on public land. Down here, when we bait it's all private property. Since I live and hunt on my own property, or on club land, I've never had to deal with those types of so called "hunters". Now, if I happen to find a bait pile on my side of the property line, and a tree stand is located on the other side, I will sit over said bait pile, but I'd never cross the property line and do anything to the other dude's stand, and he better hope I don't catch him crossing the line onto my side!!!!!!!!

ternera, when I say pile, it's actually a long line of scattered cob corn, usually 5-6 feet in length. That way, the deer will usually present a broad side shot.

If you do use corn a feeder with a timer or if you don't have the fund's a gravity feeder you can make youself will save you aton of money. And by using a feeder and not just piling the corn all over the deer will have competition with other deer and animal's to get the corn when it's available. I have piled it up and found that the pictures were all at night they know it's there but come in when they feel the safest. I read that mature buck's will not come to corn pile's or feeder's and don't want to ruffle any feather's but they most defintley will come to feeder's . Maybe not much during rut but prior to rut and more so after rut. When the buck's are finshed breeding and out of rut they will HAVE to eat and will come to what's available. I also plant food plot's and when I do I make sure to plant quality clover (Famous Name) that will be available for the deer year around. I've seen deer paw through the snow trying to get to clover and a good clover when maintained should last 4 to 5 years. I also plant some plot's with an annual that will sustain and feed them through the winter with barrascis,turnip's,chickory,rape, etc (also Famous Name). If you hunt food plot's you will notice that like the corn the big mature buck's will not come in as agressivly as the younger deer and doe's until after rut but like corn you can hunt the trails leading to the food source's early season and the food itself later in the year. Good luck