No bait No deer

Which conflicts with the great folks involved , and the info they share.
Happens in other organizations too.

It is what it is ...
Co-ops make sense. If only for the networking.
And deer health awareness is always good.
When deer are running optimally healthy , and habitat is not declining from too many , I've little to say to a landowner trying to be justifiable about their target selections or desires.
As ever with me since owning a hunt site , if it's contentious about my choices , it ends at my borders.

Healthy balance first is not a bad goal..
Then hunter desires can follow in cherry picking.
Balance is not a one time (year) swipe at a solution though.

Many years of high pressured (participated in by many hunters) public land hunting has made controlling hunter density on a hunt site (with some deer in the area) my main goal.
It works.
But those public land days are not forgotten. Especially the lack of control over the herd , or it's hunters.

IF what I do (or anyone does) is duplicatable by everyone else as far as the playing field and hunter density on it , then it can be fairly promoted.
If everyone does not want to participate and cooperate though , or duplication is not realistic , it's pushing a rope.
Not a wetted and then frozen rope either....
I'm not looking for a rope to push. Or for you to push.

 

Change your handle to Martin Shooter and get back with us!

 

Can't be shooten what you ain't seein

 

I would HIGHLY recommend anyone that is serious about creating better habitat and hunting, to get on Youtube and follow Jeff Sturgis with Wildlife Habitat Solutions. TONS of content for free!

 

Hmmm, my comment was based on your post I quoted. Sorry if I mis read that the deer you're "seeing" aren't real!

 

Can you pm me your address? I have a Christmas card for you! Thanks!

 

I'm seeing deer but I don't like to shoot does. The buck I have seen doesn't give me a decent shot. The only shot I had was at his hams and I let him walk. So my deer are real and tomorrow it starts again.

 

I'm buying one early next year, it will be perfect on my future food plot sites.

 

We are surrounded with baiters, they have shot nice bucks this year and have no qualms about continuing to bait in our QDM co-op. With bait sales at local gas stations still going strong and laws that are being ignored it is not a level playing field for those who do not bait.

 

On my way through Cadillac yesterday there was a line up of half a dozen or more pickups getting front end loader scoops of carrots and beets from the market . The piles were still 6 ft high. Somebody is doing alot of baiting. No level playing field here.

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They are buying horse feed or at least that is what they said in the previous post. I'm setting here in my blind and I have deer wandering all around me even on the down wind side.

 

The Ban on baiting may or may not be needed, but in the end all it has done is screw over the the folks that do not own land. I know for sure most folks on private land are still baiting.
The only way to really enforce this with out screwing over one group of folks is to up the fines and ban the sail of the bait other then at feed stores. Its just too convenient to grab a bag or two right now.
As far as shooing deer with out bait...anyone that been at it for more then an hour knows that hunting on a farm or decent private land you do not need bait.
I hunted state land and saw one deer in day light hours in 14 sits. There are lots of them on the cameras. Too many folks watching Tv shows when it comes to real hunting.
When it comes down to not needing any strategy and just airing your self out in the woods and basing it all on luck, lot of folks will get out of it the future no doubt.
At 57 I am finding the folks I hunted with loosing interest fast.
The way the DNR will fix this is an all inclusive seasons and air bows all that crap.
With the covid this year and folks home, they did sell more licensees this year so thats good.

 

Have to hunt where deer are. Baitpiles in alot of places with heavy pressure (most state land) make deer primarily nocturnal.

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