[Martin_Cheetah]

Are you joking? ukey:

Where I come from, hunting off bait piles is very illegal.

Get in touch with your inner hunter, and hunt without bait.

 

[bagel77]

No I am not joking hunting bait piles in NJ is legal. I do hunt off bait piles but I also hunt bait piles.

 

[fast51]

Are you joking? ukey:

Where I come from, hunting off bait piles is very illegal.

Get in touch with your inner hunter, and hunt without bait.

come on now, bait could be considered alot of things, and whether you like it or not you more than likely hunt over or very near bait too. corn, soybean, alfalfa, or biologic feild, acorns, percimons, salt or mineral blocks, heck hunting near water could be considered bait. i personally see nothing wrong with it and it greatly increases your chance of harvesting game.:wink:

 

[fast51]

Okay I have a question. I am going to be starting a bait pile and I had planned on using apples. Figured the deer would be drwn to them. I also knew my neighbor had some apple trees and I knew he wouldn't care if I tookthem. I went over today to gather up some apple and believe it or not ....NOT one single apple. None on the tree none on the ground .....nothing. So I was wondering any Ideas were i COULD GET CHEAP APPLES? I mean I can use apples that have been down for a while. anyone ever do this? buying apples in bulk for bait?

we have alot of apple orchards around here so i just buy them by the bin from the growers (usually around $30) some orchards will even let you pick up the apples that have fallen to the ground.

 

[bagel77]

Thanks fast....good point about different types of bait piles.

 

[Martin_Cheetah]

Sorry Bagel, i spoke too soon.

Good Huntings:wink:

 

[sits in trees]

deer will walk over you for apples, make a trip to the NY apple country(orange county area) and buy a few bushels of the stuff they can't sell, heck we can't use them.

 

[XtremeOutdoors]

Bait or no bait, its just like planting a food plot, thats "baiting" to if you want to call it that for the simple fact that its put there to hold deer & hunt around most of them. Most people will say they dont hunt over them but I think if baiting is illegal here in Indiana that plots should be illegal too... just my 2 cents. For the people that frown on baiting get a life!

 

[Bent Stick1]

Here in Ontario Canada, baiting is legal but sidearms in the bush are not. If you are using apples and on the ground (like me) expect to see some bears as well and don't forget your bearspray! (So i've heard) It's my first year and i'm also using carrots mixed with apples and corn. Carrots are going for 2.99 for a 10lb bag here.

 

[spartan212]

I use apples for bait and have for a while. As for finding them cheap, I have a family friend that manages the produce department at the local grocery store. I asked her a few years ago what they did with the "bad" apples and other fruit, she told me they usually just throw them out. So I asked her if she would mind saving me some, she said no problem. I get them by the box load now!

 

[joffutt1]

NO dont do apples. Do shelled corn. They will pass up the apples to get them. My brother has a pile of apples, sweet feed, shelled corn, and a mineral block in a food plot. This is a deer buffet. The deer skip it all and go for the corn. I even had corn and white oak acorns i found a picked up a 5 gal bucket and mixed them with corn. They passed up the WHITE OAK ACORNS and cleaned out the corn. Go for CORN!!!!!

 

[double o]

Try a product called Rutn Apples this stuff is great. I put rutn apples out with corn and cut up fresh apples and corn and they tear it up.

 

[hypovolemicshok]

I would drive around and see if you see some people with apple trees in their yard and just ask them if you can have some. My mom has an apple tree in her yard and she hates picking them off of the ground so she has no problem with people taking them. Last year she tried putting them out with her garbage and people would just stop and grab them.

 

[southern_rebel]

ive been thinking about using apples....my question is should i leave them whole or cut them in half?

 

[BrowningYukon]

ive been thinking about using apples....my question is should i leave them whole or cut them in half?

If your apples are smaller than baseballs then I wouldn't cut them as they won't rot nearly as fast. If they are bigger than baseballs I would cut them in half makes them easier to eat and would attract them to stay at your pile.

If you got peanut butter spread some on a few apples. Better yet take a big apple drive a gutter spike nail through the center of the apple to a tree and spread thick peanut butter covering the whole apple...it works great! Works like a "lick".

 

[strikerII]

Apples

I hunt and help out at a commercial apple orchard. Some trees are loaded this year, others very few apples. My area is devoid of acorns this season, only some pin oaks. So the deer are heavy into the apples. They stay longer in the AM in the orchard and arrive alittle earlier in the PM. They LOVE apples, you don't have to cut them up regardless of their size.
They also work as great cover scent. Step on some of the softer, rotting ones enroute to your stand.
Problem I have in NJ with them when I put them out at my trail cam locations is the BEARS! They will lay in an apple pile for hours, eating, sleeping, rolling around in them. Deer seem to avoid the area because of this.

 

[BrowningYukon]

Just my opinions from a little field research I have done..

When your handling apples, picking them then transporting them to the woods wear gloves. Human scent sticks to fruit and deer will avoid your bait. Also another idea that tends to work is don't pile them in a large pile but rather spread them around. While cutting apples isn't a requirement regardless of size I have seen from the game cam pictures and jazz video that deer will go to what is easier. Smaller apples are better than larger hands down. The test I did was put a pile of large apples out uncut and mixed cut apples into the pile and scattered them around. On game cam pics and jazz video the deer ate up the cut apples first before eating the larger sized apples. Simple fact is and like humans it's easier to eat something that is easier to chew IE smaller bites. The larger uncut apples had chunks eaten out of them but the whole apple wasn't eaten. Smaller apples and cut apples were eaten and they were ALL gone.

And yes apples make a great cover scent. Matter of fact I buy from a natural organic website "organic apple powder" by the pound. Then put the powder in a little pill bottle for transport and sprinkle it as I walk in and around my stand. Thing is with "apple powder" its a high concentrate pure powder and you don't need allot. Just 2 onces of it will have half the woods smelling like fresh baked apple pie..LOL

 

[Dthbyhoyt]

I have used apples before and the deer really love them , what I do is take around 10 and cut in half ( to help get the smell of them in the air ) and then leave the rest uncut . I normally just put them out on top of corn .. works great .

 

[dt5150]

when i put apples out, i'll take one or two and rub em on trees around the area to help the scent spread out.