Alabama-Legality of Hunting Deer Over Bait

[CAJUNLAWYER]

There is the meat/braggart hunter vs. the knowledgeable trophy hunter.

There is the meat hunter vs. the knowledgeable trophy /braggart hunter. This observation made after sitting in my doctors waiting room reading magazines filled with pictures of almost deformed deer with incredible racks next to order forms for their semen. I keep picturing plains indians killing buffalo for food arguing whether chasing them over a cliff was fair or not......

 

[llowry61]

There is the meat hunter vs. the knowledgeable trophy /braggart hunter. This observation made after sitting in my doctors waiting room reading magazines filled with pictures of almost deformed deer with incredible racks next to order forms for their semen. I keep picturing plains indians killing buffalo for food arguing whether chasing them over a cliff was fair or not......

For me it has been a transition. First it was get one, any one. Then it was get a bunch of them, then get a buck with a bow, then a bigger buck and so on. I think as I learned and matured as a hunter my motives have changed. If it is legal and the person is comfortable with the approach then who am I to criticize.

 

[Skeet 028]

As I have said I am originally from Md. The farm across from ours was rented by a group of Amish guys from Pennsylvania. They shot any buck deer they saw... Got so the bucks lived on my farm from Mid September to Mid January. I wouldn't shoot a buck on a bet. And I got up close to some really nice ones.. The fellow that rented the farm to the amish fellows also hunted on the farm and the deer hunting got really bad. We(he and I were pretty close) set up a deal the next year...they could continue to rent the farm...but if they shot a buck it had to be mounted..scrub buck or whatever. They agreed and he stuck by his rule.....Now those ol Amish boys were pretty tight. After 4 yrs the quality of deer hunting went way up...But the really big ones still came over to my place. I don't understand the big deal about killing big bucks...During the rut they surely are not the best eating(elk are even worse)...So they shoot bucks for the bragging rights. Is that any worse than someone shooting over bait?? I really don't think it is just "sportsmanship"!!

 

[Igiveup]

Old TexMex , in post #36, posted a web site. I looked at it and it said it was legal to bait deer in Oregon. I was always under the impression it was not. Was in town today and the lady at the local place where hunting licenses are sold said definitely not. Still bothered by the web site results, my wife called the Oregon fish and feather people, and low and behold, they said it IS legal to bait for deer while hunting in Oregon. Thank you Old TexMex for the enlightenment, but still not going to use bait.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

All kinds of ways to hunt.........AND it is hunting.....Deer over corn/food plots/fields/scents....Ducks over flooded grain fields/decoys/calls......Coyotes/Elk/moose/deer with calls.......Doves over manipulated fields........ALL LEGAL. And I do it all.........Folks that complain about how someone hunts legally and ethically.....Are the REAL snobs.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Hunting varies from location to location in a given State.
I have deer hunted on a National Guard Base in Indiana where each Hunter was assigned a specific location.
You had maybe 200 acres which was your plot. You could sit, roam, or whatever in your site.
No shooting over or crossing the road.
That’s for chickens!

 

[Absalom]

Hunting ethics will always be a personal matter.

You’re entitled to your own ethical standards as long as they’re within the law.

However, you’re NOT entitled to other people agreeing with your ethics. If that bothers you, the problem is yours, not theirs.

Live with it. Or avoid discussions.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Hunting ethics will always be a personal matter.

You’re entitled to your own ethical standards as long as they’re within the law.

However, you’re NOT entitled to other people agreeing with your ethics. If that bothers you, the problem is yours, not theirs.

Live with it. Or avoid discussions.

I REALLY don't care what other people think of what I do.

 

[BigBoy99]

When you ACTUALLY hunt deer, you are moving and stalking the animals and hoping to see them before they catch sight of you.

Shooting deer over bait is not hunting. It is killing deer from a fixed position (blind or tree stand) because the shooter is too lazy to get off his rear and actually do some walking!

 

[oneounceload]

Hell, here in Florida we not only bait them, they run them down with dogs............not for me.
I did my first hunting out West where YOU had to chase the animal in HIS backyard - lots of preseason scouting, glassing, looking at maps and charts for seeps and springs
It IS called HUNTING, not KILLING

 

[vonn]

This has been an interesting thread. Everyone has a preferred method ang I hope you all have a great experience.

 

[Old TexMex]

A choice in ethics of killing is a natural thing, and right. Making stuff up to justify your ethics isn’t.

And as far as calling people “lazy” for hunting from a blind, I’ve walked a mile or more to get to a blind. Bow hunters aren’t lazy, and those guys sit really still. I don’t care at all for the whole shooting out of a custom designed vehicle in high fence “ trophy rack” breeding deer farms, but plenty of people do.
Laws allowing baiting/ feeders are almost universally based on over population of the deer stock, and congestion due to expanded human population / reduction of natural habitat. It’s called management.
Biologists always have the most influence in modern game laws now. ( probably second to urban planners expanding city limits)

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

When you ACTUALLY hunt deer, you are moving and stalking the animals and hoping to see them before they catch sight of you.

Shooting deer over bait is not hunting. It is killing deer from a fixed position (blind or tree stand) because the shooter is too lazy to get off his rear and actually do some walking!

Not true........By a long shot. You apparently have never hunted the vast swamps and thickets and the large agri fields of the south east. To say one's methods of hunting in the vast US are wrong Is a holier than thou attitude.