Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum How many actually "bait up" a spot for opening rifle? How do you normally do it?

How many on here "bait up" a spot the months leading up to season for their opening day setup? We have a few people on our club that usually do it and they seem to have decent success with it. Some put feeders in or around the patches a few months leading up to season while others just keep spreading corn around every week or so. Reason I ask, is that I have never done it and I have a spot I thought about trying it on. This will be one of my backup spots for opening week in case things do not go as planned. Its completely out of the way and right on the line of a big thick sanctuary that backs up to some ag fields. I can count on one hand probably the numbers of times I have seen someone hunt remotely in the same vicinity of it in the past 3 years and I have personally never hunted it. So last Saturday I placed a feeder in there for the main purposes of leaving it til its time to remove it in efforts to keep traffic and scent down in the particular area. I have never been a fan of feeders personally based of a bad experience a few years back to where the bucks completely avoided it at all cost. Hopefully this wont be the case. What do yall usually put out or do leading up to season from this time on to "bait up" your spots?

Thats just asking for a baiting ticket

Everything will be emptied prior to season with duct tape over funnel or completely removed.

Bow hunters on my old club were doing this until the game warden flew around with someone and marked the corn sites. Then he wrote 4 tickets on opening day of bow season.

Unless you completely remove it, it'll probably still be considered legal bait. That's my guess.

This will only be for rifle season and most likely will be completely removed and the only reason Id leave it and tape up the funnel is if something were to come up to prevent bringing it home. If the funnel is taped and there is not any corn on the ground nor in the feeder then I am not sure how I could get a ticket?

When the corn is gone...the deer don't typically just keep on coming to it for long at all.

Really no need to tape it then. And, yeah if the corn dries up, the deer will not likely continue to come.

Remember as a child your parents likely said not to play with matches as you might get burned?

A feeder will probably do more to divert traffic (especially daytime) around it than anything...this effect will likely be worsened because of your placing it In an otherwise pristine area. Also, as has been mentioned, once you stop feeding the doe's and yearlings and coons that were coming to you will mostly revert back to their old travel routes within the 10 days. Hand sowing a spot for a couple weeks is a nearly can't miss proposition, but what kind of impenitent criminal would consider that...?

Also, if you're gonna ride the fence just know that you may as well go ahead and break the law because nobody with corn out in season really knows if they're legal or not until a GW tells them. The reg is garbage, and the best policy on feeding deer in Alabama is to never say a word about what you're doing to anyone you don't trust.

I have never fooled with "feeding" deer and was curious to how they would react mostly. Most I have ever done consisted of 50lbs of corn spread out in front of a camera to get an inventory prior to season. I am just curious because these guys do this in different spots year after year with some sort of results. All feeders and what not is to be removed at the first of November per our club rules but the bucks they had still remain in the general areas. That includes no more scouting etc. which our president monitors heavily so I know they are not putting out feed behind his back. Makes no sense to me either because I figured they would go back to their normal routine. I am just curios if it will work on this little secluded cutover and if there is a nice buck in the area, which I believe there is, and hold him to that general location if all else goes to crap the first couple days in my number one and two spots.

Or, you could just LEARN HOW TO HUNT!!

I am pretty sure that I already have that part down with proof to show for it as well as references. Thanks though for the helpful tip..

not I...

i hate people like this he's not doing anything illegal. I'm willing to bet you've probably hunted some type of food source such as white oaks, fruit trees, or food plots. tell me what is the difference?

If it backs up to a large ag field that's all the bait you need. Just figure out where they're entering the field and pop one.

[quote=rackdisaster]Or, you could just LEARN HOW TO HUNT!![/quote

I guess none of the folks in states where it's legal do not know how to hunt. If our backward state had any sense, it would legalize it too. What a dumb comment

yeah just because someone has different tactics than he does they automatically don't know how to hunt

There isn't a difference as far as I am concerned. I will most likely be sitting a funnel that necks down three main draws into one that leads up to large cotton and corn fields not counting the draw is laced with red and white oaks. I'll catch them coming back in the morning and headed up in the afternoons. Those food sources play a huge roll in the stand placement for early season. I have killed four bucks from this stand and a buddy mine has killed one as well from it. I see that personally no difference as sitting over a baited field (which I won't do anyways).

My second choice is a second year cutover ridge that littered with oak trees with a transition of planted pines at the crest and a pond with feeder draws on both sides of my stand at the base of the ridge. Cant drop a dime on the ground in there in November without it falling in a set of tracks. Again, I wouldn't hunt there if it weren't for the food source.