Deer Baiting

[muskybuck]

Picture this, it happens all the time in WI, to me anyway. You are still hunting back in the woods. You start to come into some nice deer trails. You are thinking that you are coming into something good. The trail starts to look even better and a few other trails come into it. You start thinking man, I have to get a portable in here and get a big one. Then you start seeing corn cobs laying around and some hunter comes out of a ground blind and starts giving you he!! for screwing up his hunting. That is what is like when your state allows deer baiting. What a bummer. The limit is a five gallon pail. You hardly ever see a bait pile that small. They use ATV's and haul in upwards of fifty to a hundred gallons or more. MN HAS A GOOD THING GOING with their no bait rule. WI legislators are subject to heavy lobbying by people telling them that their business's would be severely damaged if they were not allowed to sell corn as deer bait for 7-8 dollars a bushel. The legislators cave in. Even after CWD moved in and it was proven that the bait piles and deer feeding were a big factor in the spread of it.

[huskminn]

I'm with you on this. I personally see no valid reason to allow baiting deer. Bears are a different story, for a variety of reasons, but deer do not need to be baited to manage herds and have a succesful and enjoyable hunt.

Baiting only encourages the unnatural spreading of disease through frequent contact with other deer and their feces. Baiting has little to do with improving deer nutrition that is sometimes accomplished through food plot planting. Baiting is all about getting a deer to come to your stand site. Period.

Deer corn is no doubt big business in some states. However, it is not the wildlife manager's responsibility to subsidize the corn farmers. If corn farmers want the gov't to protect their markets for corn, they should lobby for another tax-payer subsidized ethanol plant.

[muskybuck]

Right, I do not consider this having anything to do with baiting for bear. The deer herd is huge in WI and I think they should give the hunters another week to hunt instead of just the nine day season. Its so bad you can not ride a motorcycle at night unless you stay under 40 MPH or less. That way you have a "chance" of surviving an impact. We have the earn a buck system now in a lot of the state and we will see how that works I guess. I just do not see baiting as the way to do reduce it.

Its not the farmers selling this corn, its the small local gas stations, convenience stores etc.

[larryz]

Deer baiting in WI is actually now limited to one pile of two gallons per

hunter on each 40 acre parcel.

See http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/baitfaq.htm

But as stated above it would be better if not allowed as enforcement is not easy.

[Dockter]

HORRAY!! Let's hear it for NOT baiting!! I agree with all of you that baiting is useless and has not place in hunting.......finially!!!