Why is it that bear hunting seems to always involving hunting a bait pile, yet it seems uncommon for beast to hunt bucks over bait. I realize all the obvious, that mature bucks don't work that way, but what if they did? Late season buck hunting? Do you bait if you don't have a food source to hunt? Does it work?
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Baiting for bucks vs bears?
- johndeere506
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
Baiting can be effective later in the season. It's more effective when it turns brutally cold - like it was two years ago.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22707&hilit=dhurtubise+9+days
In this post you can follow my 2nd hunting season (two years ago), one where I concentrated my efforts on baiting close to buck bedding (not close like a true beast hunt - typically 1-250 yds, not 40).
I did try it last year, but with the mild winter, I never had any mature bucks on the piles, and thus never hunted them. I did get two pics of mature bucks, but they were just walking through and never even stopped for a nibble. There were big tracks, but never right on the bait. Typically they circled the bait looking for does and would have required a different type of approach (not right on the bait, but maybe 75-100 yards downwind). Last year definitely formed my opinion that baiting has it's periods of effectiveness, but you really need to have the right conditions and most often, an indirect hunting approach.
There are a few beast members who really understand the strategies required to hunt a big buck off of bait. I learned a lot from some of the posts in my 2013 thread + a mysteriously deleted thread that had a ton of good info. The general agreement is that hunting right over the bait is usually not your best approach.... but my opinion changes in those years with brutal cold and probably also deep snow (2013 conditions).
Hopefully we can keep this thread civilized.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22707&hilit=dhurtubise+9+days
In this post you can follow my 2nd hunting season (two years ago), one where I concentrated my efforts on baiting close to buck bedding (not close like a true beast hunt - typically 1-250 yds, not 40).
I did try it last year, but with the mild winter, I never had any mature bucks on the piles, and thus never hunted them. I did get two pics of mature bucks, but they were just walking through and never even stopped for a nibble. There were big tracks, but never right on the bait. Typically they circled the bait looking for does and would have required a different type of approach (not right on the bait, but maybe 75-100 yards downwind). Last year definitely formed my opinion that baiting has it's periods of effectiveness, but you really need to have the right conditions and most often, an indirect hunting approach.
There are a few beast members who really understand the strategies required to hunt a big buck off of bait. I learned a lot from some of the posts in my 2013 thread + a mysteriously deleted thread that had a ton of good info. The general agreement is that hunting right over the bait is usually not your best approach.... but my opinion changes in those years with brutal cold and probably also deep snow (2013 conditions).
Hopefully we can keep this thread civilized.
- johndeere506
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
Dhurtubise wrote:
Hopefully we can keep this thread civilized.
Yes that was my intent. Ill check your link too.
It was a serious question. I am not a bear hunter, and probably never will be. Im definately not judging others who bait for bears or deer, just interested in the difference. Id guess that most bear baiters dont bait deer, at least on this site anyway.
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
Illegal in my state and probably many others so it doesn't get brought up too often. I'm sure it could be done but you have to put a plan in place and think about location of the bait.
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
I don't know much about baiting but I suspect a mature buck and a wary old boar are equally hard to kill over bait? Bear hunters kill a lot of bears over bait but most are young it seems - just like deer.
I am interested in hearing more from guys like Hodag who have had success with it. Always interesting to hear about different methods.
I am interested in hearing more from guys like Hodag who have had success with it. Always interesting to hear about different methods.
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
JoeRE wrote:I don't know much about baiting but I suspect a mature buck and a wary old boar are equally hard to kill over bait? Bear hunters kill a lot of bears over bait but most are young it seems - just like deer.
I am interested in hearing more from guys like Hodag who have had success with it. Always interesting to hear about different methods.
Im very interested as well. I actually enjoy baiting camera sites, and probably should do it more for inventory late season, to see who survived. I bet I could think of ways to make it work, but it would be pretty tough to consistently kill good bucks that way, and lots of work. I enjoy all things related to deer hunting strategy, so if nothing else Im just curious if people can/have done it, and how. Ive had great shooters come to plots/bait in daylight before, but I was off hunting the swamps and woods somewhere else most times...
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
I am interested as well Hodag. If I ever baited again, I would not hunt over the bait. I would hunt downwind of the bait 100 yds or so during the rut. I think the bucks scent check the bait pile just as they would any ag field. When I use to hunt the UP, i seen a couple bucks do this.
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
Also interested to hear what you have to say about it.
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- Hodag Hunter
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
Sorry for the delay, will post some of my tips that work in the next couple of days.
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- Ryan
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
rutjunkie wrote:I am interested as well Hodag. If I ever baited again, I would not hunt over the bait. I would hunt downwind of the bait 100 yds or so during the rut. I think the bucks scent check the bait pile just as they would any ag field. When I use to hunt the UP, i seen a couple bucks do this.
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It is a shocker to people down here if your not hunting over bait..they say you'll never see any deer lol in my experience whenever i baited a site for deer it turned the deer nocturnal, does and smaller bucks would show up during daylight but the mature bucks knew better, now if i had known the beast tactics back then i could of found the bedding and cut them off on their way to the bait pile, but i would never hunt for a mature buck over a bait pile again unless i had a ton of trail camera photos of him in daylight, i wasted so many evening hunts thinking that the big ten i have on camera at the bait pile everynight at 12 am would show up at 5 pm if your looking to fill the freezer then you can slam does and small bucks over corn piles anyday, especially in areas they dont have many options for food, but relying on bait to kill a mature buck..it happens but it's rare
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Re: Baiting for bucks vs bears?
More baited cold weather mature bed bucks in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22614
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