Baiting vs Trails

When I go deer hunting I want to see deer, thats the point of going right? I grew up hunting over corn piles, mineral blocks, food plots and would see deer on a fairly regular basis. The more experience I got watching deer and their behavior is that they seemed to come in cautiously. They almost know that what they're munching on isn't natural in their habitat. About 7 or 8 years ago my father and I started using our potrtables and setting up over well used trails on oak ridges, bottoms and where small pines met mature pines. We didn't see the amount of deer as we would over baited areas, but there was something interesting I noticed. I started seeing better quality bucks. The bucks I saw seemed very relaxed and just took their time, unless the rut was in full effect. Also the doe's seemed less nervous and didn't spook as easy as over baited areas. Now when we scout after the season has wrapped up we start looking for more heavily used trails in new locations for the next season. I still love to hunt the baited areas early and late, but when the bucks seem to disappear I'm going back to that well used trail.

"Your adventure begins at DAYBREAK"