mnslayer wrote:You said it yourself Kellory THEY BECOME USED TO IT'S LOCATION. In my book that is a trained reaction. And yes food plots is a form of baiting. Although this is normally beneficial to archers only in Minnesota as firearm season usally is covered in snow. Admittally this was not the case this year with 40 degree weather. I must also add I don't hunt corn fields or food plots. I hunt stalking, stand hunting and preplanning. hunting is about waiting for the opportunity then making the cleanest kill possible.
They get used to it, just like acorns, apples, clover, huney suckle, corn, and anything else that naturally grows in your area. JUST LIKE A NATURAL FOOD CROP! And your method of hunting is a personal to you as your underwear, and just as private. It is a personal dicision as to the method you choose to use. Preplanning is key, as you say, you would not hunt around an orchard? or a stand of white oaks? If you choose to ignore a natural draw provided by God, that is your choice, and I wish you well with it. It will help you when you are hunting parkinglots, and sand dunes. Without the draws, there is no reason for the deer to be there, and they know it, and we know it. Plant a tree, and watch it grow, rest in it's shade, eat it's nuts, harvest it's lumber, but don't hunt around it because the deer are more likely to wanting to benefit as well? Redicules! If I pour out accorns for deer feed (in season) that is called baiting (legal here) if I do it in the off season, then it is just feeding, (also legal and smiled upon here) If some of those accorns sprout and take root, then there is a future hunting spot, and NOT concidered baiting, because it GREW there, yet I placed it there in the first place! Same with food crops, food plots, and apple trees. If I plant apples on a slope for good drainage, and wait a few years, I will again have a pile of apples, piled up by God and gravity! and yet more trees! dropping yet more apples. The only difference is time You say preplanning? Here is the theory made into practice. Is God guilty of baiting? He started the practice. We did not develope in the dessarts, or rocky mountian tops, We moved there only after being well established. We prospered where we had food, water, and shelter, and a lack of preditors. IE: food (natural or bait), water (of course), bedding/ shelter, and hunting pressure.(us) as well as 'yotes, wolves. wild dogs, ect. We humans followed the food for a large part of our early history, until we essentialy baited ourselves, and planted our crops for food later, instead of now. The only difference is time. Baiting is really nothing more than placing food on the ground, rather than in the ground. The rest is just waiting. If accorns grow on the property, and I rack them into a pile, have I baited? If I move them from the middle of the lawn to the fencerow, have I baited? I have added nothing that was not already there. Same with apple or corn? If the corn I lay out sprouts, it is not bait, but the seeds themselves are? why? The only dofference is time. Redicules.

The only real difference between a good tracker and a bad tracker is observation. All the same data is present for both. The rest is understanding what you are seeing.