Each to their own. I wont jump all over you for your opinion, although I don't agree with questioning my morals. There are all kinds of posts about using attractants on this forum. This has kinda killed the purpose of my post and any hope in trying to learn on this anyways. It has been a heck of a lot of work scouting with boots to the ground in the alpine. Finding and following a particular buck and setting my sights on it does take skill. It's a choice to try and connect with a particular deer and it isn't easy by any means. I spent 8 days in the alpine last fall and didn't come back with a deer or elk. After finding him and then establishing a mineral site and trying to get him to stick around has been timely and tiring. I used some scent sticks last year that didn't really help and throwing something else down to merely try to increase my chances of him making a mistake doesn't make any of this easy. Aside from the huge amount of preseason work that goes into keeping my eyes on this buck, when September rolls around it will be no different than situating yourself near an alfalfa field for deer or a farmer's field for elk and hoping he passes by that evening. Hunting is very much about right place and right time, but I think working hard to increase your odds of crossing paths takes more skill and time than just good luck and certainly doesn't make me question my morals.
Last edited by hparrott; 07-14-2019 at 05:28 PM.
He has likely just adjusted his day to day routine. Good chance he has only dropped a little elevation and is spending time in the timber where the frost hasn’t killed off his preferred food source.
The alpine is pretty but spending time glassing below tree line is usually productive at that time of year.
"The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom."
Regarding your original query....I can say that black bears around my place absolutely loved the alfalfa pellets I thought I had secured in a bin for my domestic animals a few years ago.
Proguide66 hiked up an entire bale of alfalfa into his blacktail spot and the results were a waste of effort. The deer simply did not care for it at all.
I hiked up some apples on a salt lick I set up last year. Blacktails also did not care for them. Gave them a quick sniff and went back to the salt. Birds packed at them some and then a bear found them and ate them a week later.
Again, BTs not mulies.
All I can say is good luck. I ran several bait sites on a chunk of private property for the last 3 full years. I tried everything, alph-alpha, COB, beets, corn, you name it. Mid September came along and none of the deer stuck around, they all disappeared for 2 or 3 months. Happened every year. Some came back very end of hunting season but were all nocturnal and the rest returned mid-winter. The other stands with just mineral blocks did just as well and didn't have the fricken crows in all the time. This was all on private land that should have had very little if any hunting pressure. I also found that specific individuals only showed up on the same 1 or 2 stands and none of the others, even when I stopped baiting one or the other and the stations aren't very far apart. This tells me the deer don't go out of their way or change up their travelling routes for it.
In short, my experience is the deer won't go out of their way or change their routes or seasonal habits for bait/feed. Basically, if it happens to be in the middle of the trail they use they will stop and eat it if they are hungry, otherwise they don't go looking for it. I have stopped buying all the different feeds and run just the mineral blocks now, cheaper and last a lot longer, and I've seen no difference, otherwise not worth the time and effort, if you are on a used trail they will come, if you're not, they won't.
Last edited by russm86; 07-15-2019 at 01:56 PM.
And hunting, yr round, even at night, taking whatever species or sex at will is the other side of the coin.
Let's not worry about the legal or moral issues as this scenario is cultural and is ceremonially justified despite negative impacts on breeding parts of the population.
Best pinch your barbs when fishing beside river gill nets that are compromising endangered salmon runs.
Fair chase and conservation......that is being removed at an alarming rate.
Here we are talking about when and what and how long to use a legal tactic to put your annual game meat in the freezer when someone else drives up in January at night and takes a disproportionate amount of game that negatively impacts overall populations.
Something to think about.....
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with keyboards and forums. - F L Wright
Try and be kind to everyone but fear no one. - Ourea