Ethics of Baiting Whitetails

Rick from Mississippi asks,

Bill, First off, I have been following you and your productions for many, many years. Your attitude and faith have put you at the top of my list, so THANKS for all that you have done and I know you will continue to do. My question centers around the current trend in Deer hunting in my region of the U.S. at least, whereby deer hunting seems to have become a very predictable game of employing attractants such as rice bran and other chemicals/agents to pull the animals into your hunting stand site. Hunters in this area actually place 55 gallon barrels full of attractants at their tree stands and simply throw buckets of the attractant on the ground after they reach their stands. While the state laws allow these measures, the reality of utilizing these attractants has resulted in the harvesting of the top-tier mature bucks quickly resulting in an age class gap on these properties due to the very predictable nature of the attractants effect on the local deer herd. This type of deer hunting seems to remove the 'unknown' nature of deer hunting and hence much of the enjoyment of the hunt to me. I have watched the evolution of the game camera utilization craze that helps identify the local population and now the evolution of the attractants seem to be the next logical step for many hunters who are willing to exploit any means possible to harvest that trophy. I also know that not all states allow the practice of hunting over attractants and I believe that NONE of the top trophy whitetail hunting states allow this practice but I could be mistaken. I was wondering what your thoughts were on this subject if you have ever encountered these types of practices during your hunting career.

Bill responds,

Topic: Ethics of Baiting Whitetails:

Rick,

Thanks for the support. I appreciate it. This goes back to the age old debate about personal choices and maybe even ethics. I have a certain style of hunting that I like and it produces a lot of satisfaction for me. I didn’t necessarily start out hunting this way, I more or less grew into it. 

I say this to point out that how we hunt is very personal and while I don’t like hunting over bait or even over-using trail cameras, where it is legal I won’t condemn someone who likes to hunt that way. If it is legal we need to at least be neutral regarding those methods. If we really hate a certain style of hunting we should go after the laws that make it possible rather than the people who follow those laws.

I could possibly be more successful with a slightly different style of hunting (especially if I used cell cameras and kept them running all season), but I like doing it the way I do it. Like I said, everyone has a style of hunting that produces maximum satisfaction for them.  As long as it is legal, we should not bash them for that.

Answering the question about big buck states that allow attractants; Kansas allows baiting. I am not sure what they classify as “bait” but it is legal there.  A few other states that are sleepers also allow baiting; Oklahoma is another one, I believe.  Good luck. (9/3/21)