Do you bait for deer? if you do then how so?

OK so I do NOT hunt with bait. Not because I think it's right or wrong but because I think its a hassle. And I also think smart deer know it doesn't belong and may go into a nocturnal feeding pattern on the bait, or at least in my experience they do. I personally have never seen a big, older, wiser buck come in and eat bait which is another reason I don't hunt over bait. I may use it late-late season when theres 2 feet of snow and then it may pull some deer in. Otherwise no.

My dad however is a baiting machine. He puts out corn, apples, carrots, sugar beets, salt blocks and any other gimmick sold in stores with a picture of a deer on it; and he puts all of it at EVERY stand he has, literally. He spends a fortune on bait. And he rarely gets anything decent to where it could be attributed to the bait. When he does see a good buck, it's never eating the bait. It's usually just viewing the area from a distance.

So, do you guys bait? if you do how do you go about it? and why do you do it? It is not right or wrong to bait, it is a preference. For me I prefer not to.

Nope I do not

I do bait on my wife's lease. But like you, I have no confidence in drawing any decent bucks with bait. I mainly do it because she has yet to kill a deer and just trying to give her a chance at any deer. With drawing deer in, the best results I get are with plain old whole corn. I've tried some of the other things out there and I get the most deer on camera using just plain corn.

I do the same thing sometimes for my wife and my kids. But not for myself. And when I bait for them I usually use corn ur sugar beets. My ol'man uses everything, especially the Trophy Rocks. He seems to think he going to grow big antlered bucks on public land by using them.

We have a small private area where we have been asked to remove deer that we bait. Mostly just take doe there. We bait not only to attract our quarry, but also to put the animals in safe shooting lanes, there are houses fairly close by. While I have never killed a big buck on the bait, I have seen a few really good ones come in to check the bait, and even shot a fairly nice one during the rut, as they move through to check for the does using the bait pile. My wife did kill a nice nine point that came in to feed on her pile though. We just use corn, sometimes topping it with deer cocaine liquid to sweeten it. I also rake up acorns from the oaks that drop in my backyard and dump them there as well. It's a lot of work humming in the corn, but it keeps the freezer stocked.

So just some interesting info, the area I shot my 8pt is full of bait piles. I've walked the area and the surrounding properties and come across many spin cast feeders, carrot piles, etc. When i shot my buck and gutted him I cut open his stomach to see what he had been eating. I found nothing but remnants of acorns and some type of grass. No corn or carrots. Which tells me again, that the decent bucks in that area each are smart enough to know to stay away from the bait or they just plain prefer acorns. Either way I'll aways put my money on a nice set of oaks next to a thick bedding area. My grandpa used to say "don't try and lure the deer to where you are, just go to where the deer are already at" and that is exactly what I try to do.

No I do not bait. If I did I guess I would get a ticket. There is no baiting on the game lands.