DEC News Flash

[Steve D]

                                

Hunters Reminded to Forget the Bait, Enjoy the Wait!

With the onset of deer season, hunters start to consider ways to improve their odds of success. Unfortunately, some hunters may turn to unethical or illegal practices to gain an edge. Baiting is one such practice. Recently, baiting has become all too common in New York. This is evidenced by the preponderance of deer feeds and mineral supplements that show up at retail stores just prior to deer season, and then quickly disappear after the season ends.

Baiting deer is illegal. New York Environmental Conservation Law Section 11-0901 states: “no person shall hunt deer… with the aid of a pre-established bait pile…” So why are products available every season that are illegal to use? Because currently, there is no ban on the sale of these products, some of which have alternate uses for domestic animals. But by providing them in camouflaged bags with pictures of big bucks on the packaging, it is clear who the products are intended for.

Here are some things to consider before purchasing deer bait:

• Baiting wildlife is illegal. Hunters have an obligation to follow the law. Shooting a deer with the aid of bait is poaching.
• Those who bait deer (or other wildlife) take opportunities away from other hunters and the general public.
• Baiting is a type of supplemental feeding, which can affect how deer behave. Concentrating deer at feeding areas can cause localized problems.

The public is generally supportive of hunting when hunters observe fair chase principles. Baiting deer (or other wildlife) casts hunters and hunting in a negative light, which has the potential to reduce public support for hunting. Ethical hunters are the best advocates for their sport. The biggest “trophy” is knowing that a hunter “did it right.” Forget the bait; enjoy the wait!

[Four Season Whitetail's]

Whatever...Funny all the other states that allow baiting have no issues and they all have bigger deer than Ny.   Funny how baiting is fine for some animals but not for others.  I think there is a word for that.

[Dinsdale]

12 minutes ago, Four Season Whitetail's said:

Whatever...Funny all the other states that allow baiting have no issues and they all have bigger deer than Ny.   Funny how baiting is fine for some animals but not for others.  I think there is a word for that.

Michigan has banned bait for the lower portion.

Other states all have proposals on the table in one form or another between bait and urine bans.

[turkeyfeathers]

24 minutes ago, Four Season Whitetail's said:

Whatever...Funny all the other states that allow baiting have no issues and they all have bigger deer than Ny.   Funny how baiting is fine for some animals but not for others.  I think there is a word for that.

What can you bait in NY legally and hunt ?

[Merlot]

Now what do I do with the truckload of apple and corn bait??….sonofabee, there goes my attempt to film my version of a deer hunt video called Merlot Monster bucks...the easy way...I wonder what Hitler would do when confronted with this pesky rule...that Hitler video was classic a few years back.

[eaglemountainman]

It's becoming very pervasive. Even guys in my own club are saying, " Why not? All our neighbors are baiting and sucking all the deer off our hill." Then invariably, we'll see a picture of one of these neighbors in the local paper posing with  their trophy that they've been scouting/feeding since July. We've even called DEC to check a club that borders us and they say they can't do anything without probable cause. It's very frustrating.

[ncountry]

28 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

What can you bait in NY legally and hunt ?

Coyote?

[turkeyfeathers]

7 minutes ago, ncountry said:

Coyote?

That's all I can think of too

[rob-c]

I was just in the local Walmart the other day glancing around the hunting section and came to the half bare shelf’s where they had loads of powdered deer bait for sale. Illegal to use but not to sell.. 

[helmut in the bush]

I've hunted over corn for years, it provides good entertainment. Michigan used to be a big baiting state, some of the outdoors stores had bins like a builder supply yard with piles of carrots and sugar beets, they would fill your truck with a loader. This farm I hunt in central Ohio has a salt pile, the deer tear the place up over that, they dug a 30' trench eating the dirt down hill from the pile. I don't see a problem with it, it will draw in some predators. 

[Merlot]

5 hours ago, eaglemountainman said:

It's becoming very pervasive. Even guys in my own club are saying, " Why not? All our neighbors are baiting and sucking all the deer off our hill." Then invariably, we'll see a picture of one of these neighbors in the local paper posing with  their trophy that they've been scouting/feeding since July. We've even called DEC to check a club that borders us and they say they can't do anything without probable cause. It's very frustrating.

A lot of cheaters out there and are seldom caught. Would not try such stuff like baiting, unless I find I'm terminally ill and don't give a crap anymore.

[SteveB]

6 hours ago, turkeyfeathers said:

What can you bait in NY legally and hunt ?

Coyotes?

Edit - didn't read the responses

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by SteveB

[Bionic]

25 minutes ago, ODYSSEUS said:

Great big Pallet of 2 types of Deer corn in Walmart. Pallet of 1 type was half gone.

Yup welcome to Orange County.   Basically everyone I know just use mineral blocks for "taking inventory on whats around" for camera use.  It drives me insane, guys like my dad, and I go years between deer up here in 3k Sullivan,  and those guys look at you like how can you have NOT seen a deer in a week....hmm, I wonder why.  I also know a few who get old leftover doughnuts from Dunkin, for bear hunting.  Funny how none of them get big bucks, but they are too lazy to think about about it.  A little rant, sorry.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Bionic

[philoshop]

My understanding is that the DEC is more concerned with the congregating of the deer, thereby facilitating the spread of diseases. In plain English: when there are 25 or 50 deer around the same feeder or mineral lick diseases can easily spread. I have no personal view or opinion on this position, just stating what I have heard.

[turkeyfeathers]

Anyone watch Northwoods law ?  Always busting baiting perps in Maine. Stiff penalties too.  

[eaglemountainman]

I say to each his own. If a guy wants to sit and stare  all day at a pile of apples or corn or sugar beets, whether it's legal in his state or not,  it's no hair off my ass. I won't presume to preach about the ethics of such a thing. If that's what defines hunting for them, that's fine with me.That is not how my dad or grandfather hunted and it's not how they taught me. I hunt with a small group of guys who  feel the same as I do. We live all year for the peace and solitude we experience while still hunting in the cold quiet woods or following a fresh track in newly fallen  snow and shooting a deer whose track ends where he lays after our shot. There are few things during the course of the year that give me that same sense of accomplishment. I've been doing it this way for 47 years and, with opening day about 5 weeks away, I'm as excited now as I was when I was 15. If all I had was the prospect of keeping guard over a bait pile to look forward to for 47 years, I probably would have given it up decades ago and taken up golf.

[Just Lucky]

Baiting is the same as a food plot except one is legal and one is not.

They both can effect how wildlife behave.

That being said I started some food plots this year. Very addictive. 

[Steve D]

I for one do not bait and really do not see the need. I prefer getting them in their natural environment under natural conditions. I move around to much and hunt different areas to even think about baiting anyway. Besides with my luck one of the neighboring properties would probably shoot them on the way to the bait anyway and I am not going to help them by baiting.

 I also have a hard time seeing the difference between baiting and food plots other than one is legal and one is not.

There is enough farm land around me that they will eat what they want when they want anyways.

[DirtTime]

8 hours ago, ODYSSEUS said:

Very good Steve D! Without a doubt-Fall Turkeys will come to that Corn bait pile as well and be taken by a poacher!

[Four Season Whitetail's]

What can you bait in NY legally and hunt ?

Ny was not the only state I was speaking of. Why do they throw out bales of alfalfa in Saskatchewan ? Corn on the roads in Texas. Bear piles in about every state? Don't see any issues in any of those states that Ny has not seen? Why can you bait a furbearer and not a whitetail? It's the same reason some have no problem shooting a pig behind fence but scream holly hell over a whitetail getting blasted behind the same fence? The same word fits those people.


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[eaglemountainman]

 

1 hour ago, Just Lucky said:

Baiting is the same as a food plot except one is legal and one is not.

They both can effect how wildlife behave.

That being said I started some food plots this year. Very addictive. 

Yes and no.

Let me preface this by saying that I am  a slightly right leaning Republican and just because something is not right for me, that I would never pass judgement if you feel  it is right for you.

Here's how I see it.

A bait pile is a temporary source of limited and unsustained nutrition, placed with the express intent to alter game behavior and position it in an exact location to be harvested. In most cases, when tags are filled, the feeding stops until late summer the following year. NY State says this is illegal.

A food plot is a planted crop. Its express intent, like the bait pile, is also designed to alter game behavior and position it in a small general area to facilitate harvest. A food plot, however, supplies sustained nutrition from early summer till hard frost/freeze and sometimes beyond. NY State says they are legal. Would I hunt over one? No. Refer to preface.

An Ag crop is planted with the intent to provide nutrition for livestock or human consumption and is either directly or indirectly a source of income. Naturally, they are legal to hunt over in NY State. Would I stillhunt 50 yards or so inside a wood line from an Ag crop? Sure. Hypocrite you say?  I don't think so. And the reason is very simply that, although they do attract game and other wildlife, it is consequential and not the primary reason for planting. 

If you still feel that I'm a hypocrite, I would ask you the reread the preface and extend to me the same courtesy.

Forest Gump would say, " And that's all I have to say about that."

[wolc123]

2 hours ago, ODYSSEUS said:

OK-- not much of a deer hunter here-- but until just a few years ago, I never saw any Deer Corn in Walmart or Dick's. I used to unload those Walmart trucks years ago and there was never any Deer corn to throw on the Rollers.   My big concern is that the hunters baiting the deer will also bait the turkeys in Spring and Fall.

A guy wrote on here that it takes oder and moisture out of hunting boots if you fill them with it.  Maybe it is folks with stinky feet who are buying up all that corn.   I imagine that it is no good after absorbing all the "stink" so they have to keep buying more.   

[Four Season Whitetail's]

I like how they say.....Pictures of big bucks on the bag so you know who is buying it. Kinda says what hunters are looking for in their eyes.


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[Reb]

I have a friend that buys large amounts of the so called deer corn at tractor supply when it's available because it's cheaper than the other corn,says this time of year he gets alot of looks from other guys when he picks it up,lol.  Im not a big fan of guys just dumping a random bag of corn out a few times a season to hunt over but I dont see any difference between guys that feed corn all year round and those that have food plots,both are there for the same end result.

[landtracdeerhunter]

On 10/14/2018 at 1:35 PM, rob-c said:

I was just in the local Walmart the other day glancing around the hunting section and came to the half bare shelf’s where they had loads of powdered deer bait for sale. Illegal to use but not to sell.. 

Their hunting in other states that allow it;  well maybe a select few.

They bought their ticket, I say let'em crash, LOL.