I don't know, were you baiting?
I don't know, were you baiting?
If sitting in a treestand is waiting, what is it that you consider hunting?
Ain't nobody got time for that!
Hunting, to me , is using what nature has provided in the area without the use of bait.
Setting over barrels of feed that is distributed by a timer, is a poor example of hunting. Hunting a forest with multiple oak trees is not the same. Acorns are not dropping or limited by way of a manual set timer.
I think what I actually said was, setting over bait, is waiting. Setting in a treestand without the use of bait, in a natural setting , is not baiting and waiting.You are relying on your skills as a hunter, to blend in with the environment, being undetected . You are also using your skills to access the surrounding area and attempt to take game without the use of bait not normally part of the landscape. You are not trying to funnel game to one area. You would be relying on your skills to pick an area that has game and using your wits against it.
I just choose to use what nature has provided in the area. To me, that is hunting. Might not be every ones definition.
These are just my opinions and I'm not really trying to step on any toes here.
^^^^^^ Well said and a respectably stated. I bait, and still consider it "me vs the game animal". I know their weakness, and try to take advantage of it. I still have to blend in and go undetected even when sitting over a corn pile. Wind still has to be right, etc. In order for me to hunt most of my properties efficiently, I have to attempt to "reroute" the deer. Bedding cover is limited, and most of the time where they bed is with in sight of their food source, which is hundreds of acres of wheat, beans, milo and corn. When deer are bedded in these small pockets of cover, sometimes as small as 1-3 acres of trees, I can't go sit on the edge of the trees and wait for the deer to come to the ag fields, it's impossible to get to a stand, because the deer bed just yards from the feed fields. The terrain is pool table flat, the deer know to bed on the North side of cover with a south wind, they can see me walking in.............vice versa with a North wind, they'll either see you walk in, or smell you if you approach from the wind side. All of my stand set ups are positioned east or west of their bedding, and attempt to make them come to me.
Flat ground, no timber, makes things way different than picking out travel areas on terrain changes, creek funnels, etc like I grew up hunting in NE OK, and as you're used to in the Talihina area. One of the places I hunt on is one of the biggest clumps of timber for several miles, and it's broken timber and just over 8 acres IIRC.
Flat ground, no timber, makes things way different than picking out travel areas on terrain changes, creek funnels, etc like I grew up hunting in NE OK, and as you're used to in the Talihina area. One of the places I hunt on is one of the biggest clumps of timber for several miles, and it's broken timber and just over 8 acres IIRC.
I don't disagree with you a bit. My other comments were just trying to ruffle your feathers, but I feel the same as you. Where I hunt is completely opposite of Okie. We have hills, thousands and thousands of oak trees, and limited openings. What I find most difficult is patterning deer here. Nearly every place can be a bedding area. Feeding areas are all over when the acorns are dropping. Trails are... all over? Trying to get within 25 yards of a deer that takes a random path half the time is quite a challenge. I run about a dozen feeders and have stands at all of them, and have other stands at what funnels and crossings I determine might be lucrative. Most of my bow kills come from stands over feeders. I do not feel as accomplished when I kill a deer over a feeder. I would not call it cheating, but it not quite as satisfying. Certainly hard to hunt a trail a deer "might" come down when you know he is going to be under that feeder 20 minutes before dark.
I've hunted se ok for 2 seasons now, I've found it much more difficult than open area SW ok for the reasons you just described. In SW ok I knew within 15 minutes or so when deer would pop out at various trails, it was clock work.
You hit the nail on the head r00s7a. I hunt in Latimer county in the same type of terrain. Hunting on a feeder stand might has made all the difference in the world over hunting trails, bedding areas, ect. where a deer may or may not walk by.
