I did bait them this year as I was running the combine unloading on the go and the cart left with the auger still running.

We do have areas we don’t farm as it just doesn’t raise good corn and we as raise alfalfa so we are one of the only people in the area that try to help the population, but we don’t really do anything other than farm and then try to shoot one in season as it’s amazing by opening morning there are no deer on any of our ground with usually a set of foot prints or tire tracks showing up.

You can go back to a spear in some states if you want.

Hunted on my family land for years, over time you learn where the deer are going and coming from. Never had the time to put in food plots, never baited, usually just grab the gun and walk up the mountain, maybe sitting in a prime spot for awhile between hikes...Killed a lot of deer that way.

I've killed deer just about every way you can. (Not with dogs though), and everyone has been fun.

I still do but do run trail cameras. I think I relied to much on them before finding if I didn't have a big buck on camera I didn't hunt which I realized was completely insane because I enjoy bowhunting. This area food plots do not help completely because there is to much agricultural crops in the area. Best hunt natural travel areas.

Gotcha.

I, for one, still have to scout, find, and hunt natural travel ways and patterns to kill older bucks. I have taken a few in plots, but most have been taken on natural travel corridors...once I figured out where they were and how they used them. Both bucks I was blessed with taking this fall were killed on travel corridors...no bait. But, cameras on scrapes in those areas showed me there were mature bucks travelling thru there...which was the decision maker for me to hunt there when the conditions got right.

This is my 51st year of bowhunting deer. When I was a youth, I went out with my bow and walked around the woods looking for deer but didn't get any that way. Then I found a deer trail and hid nearby and I shot a deer that way.

Later, I found where two deer trails intersect and I realized I could increase my odds by putting up a treestand there.

I started using deer lures, and later trail cameras, and then food plots, and mock scrapes and then hunting other states and holding out for a big buck and then eventually using cell cams. I have killed more than 100 deer with a bow in a dozen states and some really nice bucks.

Sometimes I like to just go out back and shoot a fat doe for the freezer.

Deer hunting can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Do it the way that gives you satisfaction; live and let live, because everyone is on their own journey.

I do all the management and tactics on my own ground. Food plots, feeders, game cams, etc. But, I have kids and grandkids that get to hunt maybe four of five days a year. They cant spend most of that time trying to figure out the deer. Most of my hunting is done on a large piece of public where food plots, feeders, and game cams are not allowed. I have not killed a deer on my own 400 acres in three years.

That said, I enjoy the game cam pics more than I do killing one.

J very few hunters are outdoorsman. They shoot 5 shots to check their rifles zero if we are luckey and go sit in a stand 1 to 5 weekends a year and are Done. In their mind they are big time mountain man quality outdoorsman. They would not know coyote scat or a mink track if they saw it and have very little true outdoor knowledge.

Honestly my 11 and 13 year old are better hunters and outdoorsman than 90% or more if the "hunters" I know. Take then to a 20k acre chunk of land they have never been to and there will walk it find the sign and pick how they want to hunt it and have deer on the ground with 2 or 3 days if not the same day.

So it's really no big challenge if kids so young can do it is it? Or Is it they have been hunting and trapping for years and know animal behavior and can read sign. They didn't start off picking their own spots I did and had them set up in ground blinds with good rest. But I showed them the sign and explained why it was a good spot even when they were 5 and 6 years old.

But swamp nailed it. I spend way more time and money invested on my farm. I have land I paid for property taxes, tractor, implements, seed cost ect. I know my land and deer very well. I live there after all. I plant plots and feed the deer when they need it most. We don't shoot a lot of deer of the farm either. Each boy shot 5 deer this year and both got a decent 8 point, and both tagged out on mature spring Tom's this season.


I bet they let more deer walk this year than most hunters that" hunt" like you think is really hunting do in several years combined. And yes we go to new property 100% blind other than looking at maps several times a year and they see and kill deer.

Yes people still do and some are very young. My boys are better hunters and outdoorsman than I was even in my early 30s. And they are 11 and 13. But they have grown up with it with a dad that prioritized taking them and teaching them. Whereas was self taught with a longer learning curve, lived in town and had much less time and opportunities to be in the fields and wood than they have. That's great and all but in today's world they would have probably been better off with a dad that was a computer programmer instead of one that thinks there is something wrong with grown men playing video games.

Providence it's good to know you taught your kids to be hunters not just shooters. Have a couple grandkids coming of age. A couple of years of squirrel hunting and learning sign and it will be time for deer.

Lol. Is it hunting when you get all dressed up in orange, load up the rifle and walk in 1/2 a mile to get away from people. Sit down with your back against a tree on a seat built from sticks off the ground just like your dad showed ya. Sitting there, getting up and moving around when ya get cold and stiff ... here's many a seat built over the years. Only to see deer on the hill side and in the draws below feeding on acorns. Pulling the gun to your shoulder and never taking a shot; knowing the real work would begin cause it's a 1/2 mile of up and down hills dragging a caress back out behind ya.

Sure, you could hunt closer to a road, but what would be the fun in that!

I started them out shooting .22s and they tagged along for squirrel and deer when they were about 3 and they could walk well enough. When they could shoot ok I packed their guns and sat behind them when they would shoot squirrel. Once they were not missing them at 25 yards I started them on deer. It's been so much fun. I don't care if I ever kill a deer again but hunting with th kids is what I live for. There was nothing like watching a 9 year old let deer walk when they hang out under them from 5 to 40 yards for 30 min when I know wgrown men that can't do that. Watching them go from its a buck its shot to letting a lot of them walk was another step.

What sucks is I don't have a lot of first left with them. My 13 year old had killed 18 deer with compound bow, x bow, and a variety of guns from 357 mag carbine, 300 black out pistol, 243, 7mm08.

My 11 year old has killed 15 but addd in 350 legand and remove the compound bow.

Get those grand kids out. Make the trips short and fun to match their attention span. If they get antsy and want to leave early plan for that possibility. I alway got snacks like beef jerkey, sun flower seeds, and trail mix. Took drinks also. Took a propane heater and blanket to the ground blind and even coloring books to help keep them from getting cold and board so they would stay out longer when small. Now the youth deer season is great for kids with warmer Temps and less or unpressured deer still on summer patterns. I got a Caldwell field pod shooting rest for the ground blind so they could make accurate shots when very small. Wish I had known about those field pods when my daughter was getting started.

I'd say yes to a degree. Some of Those that have never hunted without the cameras and feeders and really high populations would struggle without. But so goes any advancement in hunting. I'd struggle without a compound and sites. Imagine bowhuners hunting whitetails with out a stand or blind.

I can look at a track and get pretty good idea of the deer that left it behind. The track doesn't tell me a thing about its antlers. The deer I have on camera in September have long abandoned that area by November. Cameras give me an idea of what's lurking out there, it doesn't help me kill them.

It helps you know to wait. What did a hunter do in 1980 to know whether to stay in that area or go? Not succeeding is just as an important to the development of a hunter as is success. It teaches perseverance.

J, how do you think we know where to set cameras?
I guess the first question should be, have you ever hunted the South? Can you walk 50yds and in any direction and see 3-4 different trails deer use?
Have you ever spotted a buck in late July and see the possible potential and break out OnX or maps or even start putting boot leather down and figure out why is he in this area? Where does he bed, where does he go? What route/trail is he actually using? Actually what about after deer season in February when all the leaves are gone and most vegetation is dead, do you walk the trails and finding intersections and see where they lead, whether it’s cover or bedding areas. Are you paying attention to wind in these places and using a compass do keep a reminder of your predominant wind during deer season and why these trails and areas are used. Do you find sheds that tell you a certain buck survived? Do you actively put in days to look for a particular set of sheds?

Have you followed that deer into August and see that that’s the deer you want to pursue this season? Or maybe he’s not “the one” but you still want to keep track of him. Maybe you don’t actually have a “shooter” this year, so you decide to learn about this one deer so when he is mature, you have a better chance of taking him.

As I referenced before, how would “you” determine that? What trail are you going to sit and watch? Actually that brings up what do you consider mature deer sign? What do you look for in August and early September? A large tree that’s been rubbed? A truck hood type scrape? Do you just sit over that? If so, how many days? Have you determined his bedding area and the wind and know when you can hunt or sit to figure this buck out? Too much pressure and he’s gone…got to play your cards right, after all he is mature or becoming mature and “you” don’t want to be the reason he matures faster than necessary.

And just for reference I have videos of a rub on a tree the size of my leg that a spike spent 10min on giving it everything he had. Did he make that initial rub? Highly doubtful, but how many sits will it take to wait for a mature buck, or the buck you’re after before you see him in range and get that shot? How many scrapes and rubs have you seen in July and August? Yeah, there’s community scrapes and when the rut hits they’re everywhere, but early season what do you “know” to be mature sign?

There are 3 constants in a deers life, mature or not, water/food/sex. Down here water isn’t an issue. Food is abundant as well, but I can capitalize on that food by supplemental feeding where he’s likely to be based on cameras and scouting. That supplemental feeding will keep the does around, which in time should keep him around. Cameras also show me, if I don’t have a particular buck, what other mature deer are around and that if I know them by sight, I’ll take when they come through. Also want to throw in the fact that supplemental feeding takes place year round. Think Swamp has posted before about the mortality rate of mature bucks after the rut. Well, we try and eliminate that with supplemental feed…in my case it’s peanuts. My feed is in cover with natural food sources. When the acorns are gone and the beauty berry has lost all its leaves, they don’t have to roam looking for feed or go to the open fields, the peanuts are there.

So yeah, I’m pretty sure today’s hunters that utilize cameras and supplemental feed are more than capable of finding and harvesting mature deer. We’re in the woods over 320 days a year learning their behavior and patterns. Filling a freezer with does down here could be done within a weekend. Actually taking our 10 does and 2 bucks with one needing 4pts on one side could be done in 2 full days of hunting, but why? That’s just shooting in my book. I want to find that ONE buck and pursue him or take a mature deer that needs taken.

State game lands hunter here an always fill my tag every year this year I go about 45 minutes up into the Mt find sign an sit an wait just filled a doe tag the other night doing just that ...soo its illegal to bait in Indiana but you do it anyway ?

feeding animals during closed winter seasons isn't baiting

Guys that say they are giving back to the animals isn't that what mother nature does naturally seems like a waste of time ...I don't know about out west but here in the east the deer will be just fine there's no need to waste your time an money on corn an food plots for them

So when Mother Nature takes, what then?
Stewards of the land…look it up.