Deer Baiters

[DaveS]

I had a friend two years ago get arrested on thier club lease. James didn't even know there was corn in the area. Corn plie was about 40 yards from him. Wildlife officers had been watching the area and just happened to be the one to get caught.

Pg 14 Item 5 "Prohibited Acts" reads as follows:

No person shall make use of bait to take wildlife unless the bait has been removed and any feeder disabled at least 10 days prior to hunting.

I'd never heard of the 250 yard rule before.

Dave S Edited November 4, 2012 by DaveS

[Wingshooter]

[quote name='DaveS' timestamp='1352037892' post='838798']I had a friend two years ago get arrested on thier club lease. James didn't even know there was corn in the area. Corn plie was about 40 yards from him. Wildlife officers had been watching the area and just happened to be the one to get caught.


Dave S[/quote]

Stories like that make me nervous. There's no way to know if there is a bait pile near your stand placed by someone else unless you disturb all the woods around that stand. I wonder how the Wildlife Officers knew it was there?

[DaveS]

They were tipped off that the area was being baited. James got caught. Went in on club property in the dark and climbed a tree with his stand. Busted! This issue does cause problems on public land where so many people hunt. You could put the corn down, and I could be the one to go to jail for it.
James lost his rifle and could not hunt for one year. Bad deal in my book!

Dave S

[Lumber_Jack]

[quote name='DaveS' timestamp='1352037892' post='838798']I had a friend two years ago get arrested on thier club lease. James didn't even know there was corn in the area. Corn plie was about 40 yards from him. Wildlife officers had been watching the area and just happened to be the one to get caught.

Pg 14 Item 5 "Prohibited Acts" reads as follows:

No person shall make use of bait to take wildlife unless the bait has been removed and any feeder disabled at least 10 days prior to hunting.

I'd never heard of the 250 yard rule before.

Dave S[/quote]

Here is an article from the Chattanooga. I'll look for the actual regs later when not on my mobile phone.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2011/8/23/207538/TWRA-Clarifies-Internal-Law.aspx

[Guest TNBrat]

I think I'll follow the laws as written.

If it ever came to the point where I HAD to hunt for food that would be different. But I don't expect the TWRA to be hanging around if that happens.

I don't consider it hunting if your just waiting for "the thrill of the kill". Just like with most things in life, a person should have to work for what they get. If it's worth getting, it's worth working for.


TNBrat Hiding in the woods…

[DaveS]

[quote name='Lumber_Jack' timestamp='1352040087' post='838815']
Here is an article from the Chattanooga. I'll look for the actual regs later when not on my mobile phone.

[url="http://www.chattanoogan.com/2011/8/23/207538/TWRA-Clarifies-Internal-Law.aspx"]http://www.chattanoo...ternal-Law.aspx[/url]
[/quote]

So if I'm on my property hunting, and some YOYO placed corn 60 yards away on their property, I can get in trouble? That's funny stuff right there. I have a real feeling that law doesn't get enforced. It's not in this years hunting regs and I've heard or seen nothing about it. That code came out last year but the hunting regs says nothing of it. I'll check around and see what I can find out.

Dave S

[MacGyver]

I've got an uncle in South Georgia where they just changed the law to allow for taking deer over bait. He's been a long time outdoorsman, and I asked him about whether he was going to try putting out bait. He replied, "No, you know I hunt in the swamps. If I put out corn, I'll have fence around it to keep the hogs out, and once you've got hogs, you've got to worry about gators when you're trying to get to your stand. It's just not worth it."

[Chucktshoes]

I'm not a hunter so my thoughts are likely worth exactly what you paid for them, but here they are.

If you are engaged in the SPORT of hunting, I view baiting as very poor form.
If you are hunting to put food on the table, well, that's a different matter entirely. Take advantage of whatever method you can to feed the family.

[mike243]

well its legal in Ky,if you seen them in clarksville that might explain the corn.Im not for baiting but some folks need the easy button.

[Guest Irie]

I'm pretty sure they banned baiting in Michigan because they discovered the bait piles contributed to thenspread of chronic wasting disease. One sick deer eats, spreads the disease to those who eat after...

[mike243]

its not banned in Mi,it is restricted to 1 gal per so many acres the ;ast time i read about it

[Guest adamoxtwo]

[quote name='DaveS' timestamp='1351981207' post='838501']
Well, my daughter and myself went to Rural King today to get some much needed farm supplies and observed the following:

A Man, Woman and teenage Boy, all wearing camo, orange hats, vests and carrying hunting knives was standing in Rural King. The boy was holding a box of Muzzleloader bullets and what appeared to be a box of 209 primers. They all appeared as if they was getting ready for an afternoon deer hunt. As the boy and Woman stood there, the Man loaded 3 bags of "Deer Corn" onto a feed cart. So I think OK, they have chickens? But the Deer Corn was priced about 8 dollars more a bag than the feed corn which was just a few feet away. I feel a little baiting coming up! I'm sure the guy is teaching his son well. I'm a really good judge of charactor, and this guy was smell'n bad in my book!

Dave S
[/quote]

Perhaps they were hunting in Kentucky? It's legal there no? Have to be empty for what is it 2 weeks? before you hunt by a feeder?

[monkeylizard]

Arise! zombie thread!

 

I need some advice. I think some ass wipe has just ruined the rest of my first-ever deer season.

 

I've been hunting some land that belongs to my cousin. There's another guy that hunts out there too (friend of my cousin). We've texted to make sure we're not going to be out there on the same days, but other than that I don't know the guy at all. The lot is about 150-200 yards wide and goes deep. I'm setup on the far right side and he's just left of center, so only about 50 yards from my stand. During another unsuccessful hunt today, we saw 2 big doe, but it's a wooded lot and we didn't have a good shooting position from where we set my stand. After a while, my hunting partner and I went walking to where we have seen the deer moving on 2 different hunts.  We found lots of tracks along some dirt bike trails so I think I know where I want to set my stand next year.

 

Anywhoo....as we were making our way back down the hill, we came out where the other guy's stand is setup. I found 2 large piles of pellets just 20 feet in front of his stand with a game cam aimed on them. That puts those piles just 50 yds from my stand. That means I'm done, right? The only way I can get >250yards away is to go all the way to the back of the property, but that means ascending and then descending a 150ft rise in terrain, and having to drag any deer out from there. No thanks.

 

I suppose all I can do now is go back and take my stand down. I think I'll do it the day before he goes out next and make as much noise as I possibly can.

 

1) Am I correct in what I've said above that I'm done?

2) Would you call TWRA? Tell the landowner? Send the master baiter a nasty text? Move on and call it a day?

[KahrMan]

Double check the regs.  I am not sure if there is a distance rule or not.  I would definitely tell the guy to remove the feed.  If he refuses let him know you will tell the TWRA because it is effecting your ability to hunt.  This is all assuming that your cousin has not approved of the baiting.

[Hozzie]

The rule is 250 yards. Even if you are 300 yards, you can't shoot a deer within 250 yds of the food meaning you couldn't shoot one more than 50 yds away. Edited December 13, 2014 by Hozzie

[Lumber_Jack]

I would tell the landowner that he is using illegal hunting tactics. If that doesn't get the dude run off, the call TWRA and find a different place to hunt. Do not go back and hunt with that bait on the ground.

[mudstud]

Arise! zombie thread!

 

I need some advice. I think some ass wipe has just ruined the rest of my first-ever deer season.

 

I've been hunting some land that belongs to my cousin. There's another guy that hunts out there too (friend of my cousin). We've texted to make sure we're not going to be out there on the same days, but other than that I don't know the guy at all. The lot is about 150-200 yards wide and goes deep. I'm setup on the far right side and he's just left of center, so only about 50 yards from my stand. During another unsuccessful hunt today, we saw 2 big doe, but it's a wooded lot and we didn't have a good shooting position from where we set my stand. After a while, my hunting partner and I went walking to where we have seen the deer moving on 2 different hunts.  We found lots of tracks along some dirt bike trails so I think I know where I want to set my stand next year.

 

Anywhoo....as we were making our way back down the hill, we came out where the other guy's stand is setup. I found 2 large piles of pellets just 20 feet in front of his stand with a game cam aimed on them. That puts those piles just 50 yds from my stand. That means I'm done, right? The only way I can get >250yards away is to go all the way to the back of the property, but that means ascending and then descending a 150ft rise in terrain, and having to drag any deer out from there. No thanks.

 

I suppose all I can do now is go back and take my stand down. I think I'll do it the day before he goes out next and make as much noise as I possibly can.

 

1) Am I correct in what I've said above that I'm done?

2) Would you call TWRA? Tell the landowner? Send the master baiter a nasty text? Move on and call it a day?

Before I returned I would talk to the land owner and the baiter and let them know whats going on. And if the baiter does not remove the bait I would tell the landowner that he needs to remove my stand for me or I will be calling old G.W. If you show up to remove the stand and the G.W. catches you within that area you might end up with a real big mess. Not having a place to hunt because of someone else's choices sucks, but  spending their jail time will suck a lot more.

[monkeylizard]

Thanks guys. Stuff like this puts everyone in a bad spot. The guy is my cousin's coworker, so that can be awkward for him to have to address, but master baiter has made his choice to hunt over bait, so I'll be letting my cousin know and he can handle it as he sees fit. Although he has ruined my hunting, it's not my land so I don't feel like I have much say so in the matter. I'm pretty sure my cousin doesn't know, but I honestly don't know if he would care or not. He's not a hunter himself and we've never talked about stuff like that (why would we?). How he handles it will tell me all I need to know about whether I'll be going back next year or not. Since I don't have any other place to hunt, I'm not in a hurry to get my stand down. Season ends in a few weeks anyway so I may just leave it up until then.

[Danger Rane]

While the situation described by the OP does sound a bit suspect, there are some of us that use deer corn for purposes other than illegal baiting. We routinely have turkey and deer walk through our backyard and I like to put corn out in a couple spots so they slow down long enough for my family and I to enjoy watching them for a bit.....or until my 3 year old starts banging on the window yelling "urkey!" I have been able to get a turkey each season this year, but we just wait until after I've gotten one to start putting our corn out. There's only been a few deer so I haven't wanted to shoot any of them yet. As much as I like shooting and eating God's creations, sometimes it's also just nice to sit back and watch it. Two days before the Fall Turkey season started we counted 39 within a bow shot of the back porch, boy that was a sight....and a ruckus!

[DaveTN]

2) Would you call TWRA? Tell the landowner? Send the master baiter a nasty text? Move on and call it a day?

I would not call the TWRA for any reason. I would ask your cousin if I could clean up the bait and leave a sign that hunting over bait is illegal. But I’m not a hunter; just looking at it from the legal side.

[dats82]

If you decide you're done hunting, i recommend that get naked as a jay bird, put a mask over your face, and go clean up the bait piles. Then just leave a note on the camera. "You're doing it wrong. Look at the pictures, and you can become a master baiter."

[bersaguy]

This issue was brought up in Illinois when after 50 years of not allowing deer hunting they were force to reopen it after a large herd of deer walked out on one of O'Hare Airports runways while a 747 jumbo was on final approach and had make an emergency abort and it made a major panic for controllers sending planes all to complete new route to prevent a mid air crash. Farmers all over Illinois had been raising hell for 20 years about crop loss due to thousands of deer on their farms and it was all being ignored.

 

There was big fight with Mayor of Chicago and farmers when the Mayor said they would hire private companies to shoot nets over the deer, put them on trucks and ship them to southern Illinois. The farmers said they would shoot any truck driver that tried to release the deer. So Mayor could not find a company to do that. The Governor hired a large team of professional hunter to go to O'Hare and hunt the woods around the run ways and Neuhoff  Slaughter house in Chicago was paid to process the meat and give it to Homeless shelters and Orphanages.

 

 

Then the Governor told the DNR to set up a deer season.Compound Bow, Cross Bow, Muzzle Loader and shotgun slugs are allowed. No HP rifles. The first year was a Zoo because of one rule put in and that was no hunting over baited areas. Once you drive 25 miles south, south west or due west of Cook County you are in the corn belt farm belt. Game wardens were busting people for hunting over baited fields. Heck, in farm country up there you have no choice but to hunt around baited fields of some type because the deer seasons fall right in the middle of harvest time and there is corn laying in every field and the only places hunters can put up stands is in trees in the fence rows between the corn, mullet or Sorghum fields. Midway threw the first year they dropped that rule and anyone that was arrested prior to that were all released and all fines and any thing else was returned. I realize that was along read but no other way to explain it.

 

 

Since the season was opened in 1990  car insurance costs have also dropped since the number of claims for hitting deer on the highways has also declined.  On average 200+ deer were hit by cars and trucks per day across the state. That rate last year was about 70 per day and it has gone down every year since 1995 so the hunting season is working.................... :up:  :up:  :up:   

[bersaguy]

My son owns 14 acres of timber and woods right behind his house in Cheatham county. Right after he bought it he picked 5 different location that he saw deer regularly. On each location he plated a Peach tree and 5 Persimmon Trees and for the last 2 years they have all been bearing fruits and they always see deer in the woods. I have 5 processed deer in my freezer now and have everything from Back strip and tenderloin steaks to roasts and hamburger. He said he or my grandson will get me one more before the season is over. I have plenty to get me through till next season. Game Warden says he is totally legal........................ :up:  :up:  

Edited December 14, 2014 by bersaguy

[mikegideon]

Before I returned I would talk to the land owner and the baiter and let them know whats going on. And if the baiter does not remove the bait I would tell the landowner that he needs to remove my stand for me or I will be calling old G.W. If you show up to remove the stand and the G.W. catches you within that area you might end up with a real big mess. Not having a place to hunt because of someone else's choices sucks, but  spending their jail time will suck a lot more.

 

I don't hunt deer either. But, seems to me that if you don't have a gun, you're not hunting. Leave the guns at home and retrieve your stand. If you run into a game warden, then just tell the truth. 

[tnhawk]

Well they have to do something to level the playing field. Them deer are smarter than they are.

Fixed it for ya.