Burrr

In my opinion baiting is not desirable bc it throws deer off their pattern and screws up the work surrounding hunters may put in. I had to deal with it firsthand for years with an adjacent landowner. A few days before the season opened the neighbors would show up and we immediately noticed fewer deer on our property. The first week was always slow, but we would see more deer as the season progressed and their camp emptied. Every deer we were able to take would have corn in their stomach. A few years ago their camp disbanded and we have since taken over hunting the property. We’ve had great success throughout the season and have found the deer hold their patterns better. Not a single deer since the neighbors left have had corn in their stomach. Maybe a coincidence, but I don’t think so.

I’ve heard this is one of the ways the deer were disqualified in the Sullivan county contest.

an officer would have to do a lot of legwork to reach those charges - they would have to find the spot (without your assistance) and would need some kind of DNA evidence to match to the deer. Would they do it? Possibly. But it's not a given. And you would still have your deer and gun for those charges.

of course if you're innocent you you would cooperate. But when you read the DEC officer highlights it seems an awful lot of guilty poeple tend to cooperate as well, and while the brief write-ups of incidents leave out 99% of the story, it doesn't appear that the officers cut any slack for cooperation (based on the citations). I didn't start the thread as an instructional how-to on baiting deer and getting away with it, I was just curious if there was a legal or regulatory requirement that said you HAVE to show where you killed a legally tagged deer.

If the officer already knows, you would think he'd have the ticket written and wouldn't bother going on a detour to see where a deer was shot - and if he is willing to take that detour I would assume he is looking for more wrong-doings to charge you with.

Having heard that several of the top deer in the Sullivan County Democrat's annual big buck contest have been disqualified for being taken over bait, I've been wondering what law/regulation requires a hunter show a DEC officer where they shot a deer if said deer is already off-site and legally tagged? I often read in the DEC officer highlights the officers ask suspected poachers/baiters to show the kill spot or gut pile - what would happen if you said no?