Formerly The Outspoken Sportsman

But oh what a change came into my life the first time I ever hunted over a bait pile, out of a real, honest-to-goodness, all weather hunting blind!

It happened during the time I had my "Moore Outdoors" television show and we were invited to film a hunt with former Detroit Lion, Bob Kowalkowski who owned a lodge and deer hunting business located near West Branch known as Stag Haven.

I could go on and on about the many great experiences I had hanging out with Bob, his lovely wife Judy and their son Scott who now plays for Detroit just like his dad did.  But suffice to say that Bob turned me onto the wonderful world of bait and blind hunting.

The very first time I hunted with him, I was able to take a nice buck with my bow from one of his all weather ground blinds over a pile of carrot and corn.  And, remarkable enough, when I got the meat back from the butcher shop, I couldn't taste any difference between that deer, which had been shot from a toasty, warm, comfortable blind and the ones that I had killed while sitting on a stump out in the open with either rain or snow or a combination of both pouring down on me!

What a incredible  revelation!

And so from that time to this, I have become a real "baiting booster!" And in addition, I have begun to take a lot more deer on a regular basis.  So much so that for the past few years, our camp has adopted an "eight point or better" harvest restriction.

This season I began baiting my blinds in my hunting area on the first of October, (must obey the law, don't you know?) right up until the last night of blackpowder season which was the 10th of December for us Yoopers.  That's almost two and a half months!

During that time span, I put out over 4000 pounds of shelled corn and probably 1000 pounds of crushed apples at the various blind locations.  We put down three 3 pound coffee cans of corn and a half dozen apples at each of the blind location every day and if the bait is scattered out over a fair sized area, the deer will nibble and pick away at the food for as long as you decide to stay in the blind.

Now, I can just hear the "baiter haters" in the group beginning to snarl, "See, that's exactly what I am talking about!!  5000 pounds of bait is way too much!  It's taking unfair advantage of the deer to shoot them over a feed pile and it's not fair to the other hunters in the area.

Blah, blah, blah, whimper, whimper, whimper!"

I personally really never for the life of me been able to understand why the "baiter haters" of this world, look at my preferred method of taking deer with such disgust!  To my knowledge, none of us who hunt over bait have ever made out that sportspeople who hunt in ways other than ours are bad hunters or poor sportsmen!  Why does it seem impossible for these folks to give us the same courtesy?

Hell, we've even got a guy who lives near me who recently wrote a book called "The Dumbing Down Of Deer Hunting" who refers to the practice hunting over bait as "a cancer on the sport of deer hunting!"  He doesn't even want us to be able to hunt out of blinds.

(It should be noted that each hunting season this same individual religiously builds and maintains a blind/baiting arrangement for his wife to hunt out of!)

But for the rest of us, this lover would prefer that all 850,000 of us firearms deer hunters would spend our days afield wandering around the woods like the lost tribe of Israel, blazing away at thousands of fleeing whitetails.  Why shucks folks, we were able to knock off six hunters during the rifle season just past and this with the majority of state sportspeople who where a part of the firearms season hunting safely from blinds while sitting over bait piles.  Even so, again I sadly repeat that six hunters were accidently shot and killed and that's six too many!  But it does make me wonder just how many of our fraternity would bite the dust in the very real possible event that hunting blinds and bait piles were ever completely outlawed.

I also find it more than a tad interesting when I see a huge number of the very people who knock MY bait hunting activities, blithely setting up their ground blinds or treestands in close proximity to runways and major trails coming in and out of farmer's corn, winter wheat alfalfa or rye feilds and loudly proclaiming to the hunting community that they don't engage in the practice of baiting!

Excuse me???

Let me state with all assurances that I am right on the button, that the only differences between what I do and their particular activities are simply that they are too cheap to buy their own bait and too lazy to haul it back in the woods to their blind!

 
But for a moment let's discuss exactly what baiting amounts to.  Baiting is simply a method..a way..a means, if you will of attracting deer or other wildlife into an area or situation where it can be taken by the sportsperson.

It's no different than waterfowlers luring ducks and geese into shooting range using decoys to fool them into flying close to their blinds.  Or fishermen utilizing fresh worms and minnows, (it's called "live bait" by and by!) or painted lures to bamboozle an unwary fish into biting a hook or moving into spearing range.

I've never been able to understand why it doesn't seem to faze the anti-baiting crowd to appeal to the sex drive of a deer by using all manner of attractor scents, doe and buck urine in many different forms and dozens of different buck and doe attractor calls available on the market today, but are so vehemently opposed and so dead set against anyone who should catch the attention of this same animal by stimulating his gastronomically triggered food habits!

Attracting game is attracting game and I really don't see the difference!

But the cold reality of it all, whether my "baiter hater" friends care to admit to the truth of the situation or not, is that there are a whole lo more positive than negative aspects to this bait hunting/blind hunting deal!  Please allow me to list one or two for you.

First, let's talk about the welfare of the deer.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been baiting since the first of October of this year.
I wish that you could visit my hunting area and observe with me the condition that these whitetail deer find themselves in.  The animals who have been taking advantage of the feed piles on a daily basis for the past two and a half months are universally in tremendous shape!  Their coats shine like a new penny.  They are filled out almost to the point of being fat.  The reason is a simple one.  What I have been doing for the past ten weeks, (give or take a day or two,) is essentially graining out these animals in the same way farmers do for their beef cattle!

I have also given these deer a leg up, a jump start, if you will on the remainder of the winter months.

What you must remember here is that while these deer enjoy the benefits and tasty pleasures of my feed, (bait piles), they are not eating up their usual forest mast, food supply.

This means that this food source is available to them for the rest of the winter after my feeding program is finished.  And further, this allows the existing forest range to support the existing population of deer.  The truth of the matter is that there is little or no chance that say "my" deer will find themselves in the slightest danger of starving no matter how brutal the remaining winter months might become.  I personally regard this as a good thing, although our intrepid, DNR wildlife biologists who would prefer to see our deer herd decimated to the point of non-existence no matter how it's accomplished, probably would not rejoice with me on this point!

Another point worth mentioning is the fact that healthy deer have a much better chance when it comes to running away from our rapidly increasing wolf and coyote population.

     The next positive aspect of bait hunting that I want to touch on has to do with the important benefits that a bait pile in the woods has on other animals and birds besides deer.

Over the several years that I have enjoyed hunting over bait, I have had gray, black, fox, albino and red squirrels, cottontail and snowshoe rabbits, porcupines, and on at least three occasions, black bears visit the food piles.  Other assorted winter birds such as partridge, turkeys, chickadees, nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, ravens, crows and many other feathered feeders all take advantage of the free treats.

The question I must ask here is, exactly what harm an I doing to anything?

     Next, I would like to touch on the oft repeated criticism of my method of hunting by the "baiter haters" who constantly submit that I am taking unfair advantage of the deer to kill it while it is standing 75 yards away, broadside, head down eating on a bait pile.  They state with every assurances that I am not showing the proper respect for this fine game animal when I harvest it in this unfair and poor sportsmanlike fashion.

Here is the fact of the matter.  As far as I am concerned personally, when I shoot at a deer, I want to kill it!!  I find no comfort or pleasure in allowing an animal of any kind to suffer one second more than is absolutely necessary.

When I choose to take a deer feeding on a bait pile, I am afforded the luxury of being able to carefully pick my shot and wait for the optimum moment to squeeze that trigger.

I regularly choose a shoulder or neck shot, either of which will serve to to anchor the animal immediately.  Because I shoot as well as I do, the animal in question goes from a living thing to freezer meat in the blink of an eye with virtually no suffering involved.

I have already indicated my distaste for other methods of hunting which often times result in sub-marginal shots at fast running deer that can mean gut shots, broken and blown-off legs as well as a sorry and sad litany of other horrifying and non-ethical shots.  With this in mind I am compelled to inquire as to which hunting method truly shows the greatest concern for the dignified and compassionate taking of a deer;  shooting at a whitetail which is madly dashing through the forest in a terrified, desperate attempt to get away from the hunter, or a quick, clean, merciful, sure shot at a stationary deer at a bait pile?

And besides, I'm getting too damned old to drag deer very far!

But the major complaint that the opponents of my sport like to trot out whenever the baiting issue is discussed is the supposed, fancied and totally blown-out-of-proportion tie-in between baiting and bovine TB.

Now, folks, I'm not going to get into this aspect of the situation too heavily at this time for a couple of reasons.  First, because I'm already out of space for this month, and secondly, I don't want to bring all my information to light until it comes out completely in the form of my latest book, coming soon to a bookstore near you entitled, "BOVINE TB...THE GREAT LIE!"

Suffice to say that for all practical purposes, there IS no tie-in between bovine TB and baiting/supplemental feeding!  Let me repeat!  There is no tie-in between the two!!  None whatsoever!  And none of these bureaucratic liars who for years have been putting forth this false premise regarding the two can prove otherwise!

You as a bait hunter or as a sportsperson or private citizen who likes to feed your little handful of deer and other wildlife behind your house or at your blind location during the hunting season and the winter months to follow, are not doing a single thing to adversely affect those animals in any way, shape or form!

And don't let these know-nothing traditional purveyors of false information tell you other wise!

The bottom line here is that for the majority of the deer hunting fraternity here in the state, myself included, hunting over bait piles can be and in my opinion, is a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a day afield.  And may I further observe that if you ain't tried it, DON'T KNOCK IT!!

The truly wonderful thing about the sport of deer hunting is that you can do it in many different ways which should include hunting over bait.

Bill Moore

The Outspoken Sportsman.