Covering up a corn pile.


slugshooter

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Was talking to a buddy couple of days ago and he was saying that someone told him that if you have a corn/bait pile and want to condition the deer to visit it at a cetain time (ie. daytime) you can cover it up at night time and this will condition them to visit during the day. It seems like it would work but then again far fetched because unless you really cover it up they would still be able to get in there, especially if they can smell it. I had an idea of burying some of those big rubbermaid containers in the ground and then at the end of the day snapping the container on and camoflaging it with branches and such, the only problem I see with this is visiting that same spot everyday it would be next to impossible to hide the fact that a human is visiting that spot often ,what with leaving scent around and all.

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Re: Covering up a corn pile.

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I cover mine every nite before leaving the stand,and covering during the day has not worked because they seem to bed about 50 yards from my stand if i cover it during the day.

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I think that would be when you'd have to do it. On your way to and from your stand. Seems fairly logical. I don't bait with corn though.

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Re: Covering up a corn pile.

I think you can condition them.

My wife has a cousin that baits. He puts the corn on a tarp with 4 ropes tied to the corners of the tarp, then he ties the 4 strings together and attaches them to 1 big rope in the center and throws the main rope over a branch and raises and lowers the corn when he's hunting. He's had decent success with this technique. If you leave it out over night, the deer will clean you out for sure.

I wouldn't use the tote idea personally. I'd be afraid of water getting down in the tote and ruining the corn. Plus, I don't know if a deer would put their head in a hole to eat, maybe they would, but I just don't see that happening.

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Re: Covering up a corn pile.

Oh man! I am really trying hard not to react negatively to all this talk about conditioning wild animals to make them easier to hunt. There is something about treating deer like Pavlov's dogs, or some dumb farm animal that really rubs me the wrong way for some reason. I guess if that's what hunting has become for some, far be it for me to throw a wet blanket on it. Everybody's view of what hunting is all about is different. That's what makes the world go around I guess.

Doc

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Re: Covering up a corn pile.

My main purpose for posting this was to see what the guys on here thought about it. I hunt public land therefore no corn, no bait, no nothing, well, scents of course. I don't know if I would hunt right over a corn pile, I would be more apt to set up in a travel lane to the corn.

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Re: Covering up a corn pile.

where can you put out a "pile"??? and why would you? heck a gallon ice cream bucket is more than plenty, if you want to hunt that way. They will know when it's there, and when its not....but so will the huge bucks, which are much too smart for that. just coming into the area on your wheeler will ring the dinner bell, they do associate human activity with feed real quick.

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Re: Covering up a corn pile.

I agree with KC and Doc. We built a clover food plot and we are very happy with it. No deer were shot in the food plot because they were visiting at night. However we took 4 bucks off the property and missed one last year (the first year of the plot). The previous record for harvesting deer at our camp was two.

I'm going to play devils advocate and take this a step further. I also believe that most of us bait deer. When you smather scents all over yourself and trees in the woods you are baiting deer. Whether it is food, curiosity or sex attractants you are using smells to bait in deer.

Ranger

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