Interesting read...

[Basseyes]

...on baiting.

http://wideerhunters.org/articles/bfhalfgal.pdf

[Musky Buck]

I never thought about the part where yes, I could bait and actually just hunt out of my house, be about a 200 yard shot to the best place to dump the pile, I better go change my vote to yes on the other thread, just set up a bench/rest in the living room and zero my 9 power right to the pile. I used to think baiting deer may lead to a higher unnecessary slaughter, wrong, I could try to "harbor" the deer by bagging that opening day lucky buck and then continue to bait through the end of muzzy season on 4 way separate properties helping them survive season and keeping them away from the neighbors who sit my edges on all these properties in the wide open, maybe some guys would quit and we could have less nocturnal deer again.

[lakevet]

Here is a quote for the article:

"Privatization of Wildlife

Like navigable water, wildlife is held in public trust and managed by the states for the benefit of all citizens (Roosevelt Doctrine, North American Wildlife Policy, see Leopold 1933:17-18). Wildlife privatization is currently a major policy issue nation-wide. Baiting and feeding are forms of wildlife privatization as deer are attracted to and held (managed) on private lands. We (DNR and hunters) should be doing all that we can to discourage this trend, even though there are strong political and market forces pushing toward wildlife privatization.

The uneven distribution of hunter access to the deer herd created by the patchwork of public and private lands results in uneven distribution of deer, i.e., hot spots and cold spots. This likely is one factor affecting hunter confidence in the accuracy of deer population estimates and their willingness to accept antlerless harvest quotas prescribed by the agency. Because baiting and feeding tend to attract and hold deer to the food sources, these practices seem to exacerbate the patchiness of deer distribution, the problems of hunter confidence in population estimates, the acceptance of harvest quotas, and in turn the difficulty in effectively managing the public’s deer resource.

Access to private lands will continue to vex landscape scale deer management as variable access, alone, creates a certain patchiness of deer distribution. However, the current baiting and feeding practices exacerbate this patchiness."

Whole article is a good read. Highly recommend you read it as multiple issues are addressed. Also always impressed with Teddy Roosevelt's writings on hunting and how extremely important it was to him for "the common man" to have access and opportunity to hunt in wild places and how the wealthy tend to reduce the common man's opportunity.

Good post Basseyes.

Again here is the link: http://wideerhunters.org/articles/bfhalfgal.pdf

lakevet