Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Feeding deer

Once thing that stands out at me about this spreading disease is farm deer .
You have deer flocking to corn fields and soybean fields, nibbling along the tops , doing their deer greetings and ass licking all the while pissing and craping were they eat , so how is scattering feed any different than browsing crops .
I do agree , something about dumping feed in large piles seems disgusting, just a personal thing I guess , but scattering feed and moving from place to place throughout the woods just doesn’t seem any different that the feeding off crops as far as spreading disease .
I figure if deer get infected in an area , that area of deer is going to get infected , but no worse from feeding to browsing .
What’s your take , without a knee jerk reaction , think about it .
Kenneth

I spread feed here in the deep winter to help the deer we have left. Small amounts here and there so they don’t bunch up and draw too many wolves. They seem no worse for it.

Osky

We all hunt deer by capitalizing on their food or water source.

If we are going to criticize ourselves, shouldn't we do so for shooting them when they are trying to get pussy? Hell, some hunters even make themselves smell like deer pussy to attract big bucks. That's just wrong. That's akin to baiting SACharlie with a Huffington Post article about why Trump should be in jail.

Baiting deer around here has become popular since the early 80's or so. So much of our land in this area is growing pine timber of various ages, and while deer numbers are way up since the 60's and 70's, it was harder to hunt a big monocrop pine tract and see deer like you might in a hardwood or mixed timber forest. The deer were present, but often not visible unless you hunted a large right-of-way or a timber change. Baiting allowed hunters to lay eyes on deer and direct some of them to areas where they could be seen. Most hunters around here will tell you that a good buck is almost never killed on bait, but he might be roaming the outskirts of the area with his eyes on the does. I've seen one shooter buck on bait in the last 10 years (in the daylight). I have killed several on planted food plots, which is practically baiting also. Baiting with corn or bran allows folks to see deer/hogs that already live there, and that's about it. Banning bait in my area would take a lot of piney woods hunters out of the game, especially young hunters and meat hunters that just want to see deer. On the flipside, it's also enjoyable to hunt in the absence of bait if you have access to property that's good for it. Going after buck sign, game trails, funnels, and acorn trees does pay off, and requires more effort/forethought.

What about when they lick each other or a licking branch above a scrape ?

nose to nose contact is what they are trying to prevent. I hunt Portage county where there hasn't been baiting in a long time due to CWD at a deer farm in the County. Unfortunately the Warden still gets a lot of guys who feel they have to bait and it costs them, especially with drones now. Unfortunately the USDA basically does nothing to enforce deer farm regulations that in my opinion are more important than baiting. We know a guy that was to four different States in a week picking up deer for the deer farm and all had " records" he said.

Scattering results in visibly the same actions and interactions (to me) as normal browsing or acorn eating. The deer are more calm and natural acting than near feeders or bait piles. Matter of fact we have often picked up acorns here in our yard and taken them to areas of failed acorn bearing. Try getting the shop vac out in the front yard and vacuuming it while the neighbors walk and drive by. Guarantee it’ll cut down on drop-ins.

Lazy Bastids!

That is one fat deer!

They really go nuts over Alfalfa pellets, the scent attracts them pronto.

Deerabeetus Rex 😲

If you have hypothetically ONE sick deer and it mills around, browses or feeds in a scattered format, thin it’s possible it could not spread it’s bug so easily. It might get a chance to succumb, develop antibodies or maybe only spread it one other animal.

Maybe Joe Brown Downer takes out the slow mover in his lucky wet dream deer outing.

If your hypothesis leans on a shîtpot pile of deer already infected coming to a communal bait pile and bumping warm noses with a fellow remaining healthy deer then yes, youre going to have a high vector of transmissibility


Depends on what type herd disease it is.

Holy sheetz , that’s a fat mo fo !
I agree with about all that was said , especially feeding doesn’t mean you’ll get big bucks simply because of bait piles or scattered feeding . I feed a couple spots year round but find the best hunting away from the feeding area .
It does seem to help with overall health and numbers .
I remember when I was young there weren’t near as many deer around here as now . There are more seasons and bag limits are much higher but big bucks are much more common than they used to be .
Biggest deterrent I see to good buck numbers , size and overall herd numbers is concentrations oh non working holler honeys roaming about at all hours with no respect to property boundaries.
But , that’s another can of worms.
Good luck to all through hunting season !
Kenneth

In some areas of NC ( down east ) there are such large areas of planted pines ( timber companies and private plantations ) that baiting really helps a stand hunter. Otherwise you would see few deer even though many are there. That is why dog hunting got popular in that area. I live in central NC and it seems everyone spends a fortune on corn and in fact it seems no one knows how to hunt without it. We have great whitetail habitat, hardwoods, mixed pine and hardwoods, pastures, agricultural areas and there are some very nice deer here. I told a good friend of mine that I don't bait and he said you better because your neighbor is. A lot of folks kill nice old bucks on or around corn piles. I do it naturally, generally hunt in the woods and always in the morning. I like to hunt what I think are travel routes to and from native food sources. I might not see as many deer as the corn folks but I generally do OK. Baiting is legal I just choose not to do it..

I always figured deer were put here to feed me. Not the other way around.

To add to that. We don't have many quail any more so I do take my dog to a preserve sometimes. it is not much fun to me but it it is for the dog. I much prefer woodcock hunting, however the dog probably doesn't as he comes home scratched up and briars stuck in him and slap worn out. But he keeps on keeping on. And so do I.

Have they proven how deer transmit CWD to one another?

Dirty needles.

I’ve hunted and used corn in South Georgia for over thirty years. I can’t ever remember shooting a decent buck off of a feeder. Deer feeders just keep does traveling in a more consistent manner and on the property. Pictures of decent bucks at feeders is almost always at night. Really big older bucks are almost never seen on a feeder day or night. I take youngsters to sit a feeder. They see deer and take a doe. It helps get them hooked on hunting. When they get older I show them how to leave the feeders behind and hunt bucks. Bucks cruise downwind of feeders checking does during the rut but even then rarely come into the feeder.

No baiting here in Michigan s northern lower, but every gas station and feed store is selling bait, lots of it! Passed a lid man pulling or trying to pull a Jed sled stacked with core and bags of sugar beets he could barely move the thing trying to drag it into the woods the only way I can kill a deer is that my buddies place on some of his food plots I have friends that kill deer, but they are bathing with 50 lb bags of corn taking a chance on getting caught and yes big bucks do come to bait stations got them on camera see them all the time mostly at night though. I can't figure out why they have a no baiting band but yet they let every time Dick and Harry sell bait and everybody from downstate comes up buys bait scatters it throughout the national forest so those of us that are trying to hunt legal just aren't getting a lot of shots anymore I'm ready to go back to baiting cuz I don't have property to put food plots on my uncle don't own a cornfield or Uncle Joe's got a big farm that these guys that claim baitings to bad but they yet they hunt the fence rolls in the farms. Michigan has lost alot of hunters due to the baiting band, But you Can bait for the Youth season for one week go figure.