Baiting North Ga vs South Ga

[GeorgiaGun1]

The issue is wildlife are not your personal property. They are a natural resource like any other. They are no more "your deer" than it's "your air" or "your water". The attitude that the wildlife "belongs" to individuals is exactly why we have the regulations we do. Left to our own devices, we've already proven we will decimate the populations up to and including extinction. "Look, a passenger pigeon!"

I completely agree, the arbitrary distance is absurd. It should be all or nothing.

I agree it's not my deer:

However it is my land, my grass, my trees, my corn, my fooplots, my equipment, and my legal right to harvest the deer (up to the legal limit) I'm not arguing against bag limits. Only arguing personal property rights. How I manage my property should be my business. If the state wants to restrict me to one deer a year then so be it. But random rules and regulations that are essentially meaningless is just beuracracy. And another way to turn the average person into a "criminal".

 

[GeauxLSU]

I agree it's not my deer:

However it is my land, my grass, my trees, my corn, my fooplots, my equipment, and my legal right to harvest the deer (up to the legal limit) I'm not arguing against bag limits. Only arguing personal property rights. How I manage my property should be my business. If the state wants to restrict me to one deer a year then so be it. But random rules and regulations that are essentially meaningless is just beuracracy. And another way to turn the average person into a "criminal".

You have the all rights you mention with your property. You can dump a truck load of your corn on your property if you want. You just can't shoot a deer over it because it's not "yours". The same way you can't pollute a stream running through your property. I get the frustration with the distance thing and I agree. But if your stance is "tell me how many I can take a year and let me worry about how I take them", then we'll just part ways on that point. Deadfall, poison, night vision etc?

Now I'll ask a general question. Have you ever not had the opportunity to take all the deer you want under the regulations as they currently exist? (My answer to that would be "no" FWIW). Do you GENUINELY think legalized baiting in north Georgia will "fix" something?

 

[GeauxLSU]

Baiting isnt always a surefire way to see or kill deer. I put out a feeder last year, set to dispense twice a day during daylight hours only. The main reason for the feeder was to try to get more deer on camera, to get a better idea of what size deer were using our property. The only deer that actually visited the feeder during daylight hours were deer that were less than a year old. Every other deer on camera was after dark.

And that is by far the most typical response to feeders by deer, particularly during daylight. Young and dumb.

 

[GeorgiaGun1]

You have the all rights you mention with your property. You can dump a truck load of your corn on your property if you want. You just can't shoot a deer over it because it's not "yours". The same way you can't pollute a stream running through your property. I get the frustration with the distance thing and I agree. But if your stance is "tell me how many I can take a year and let me worry about how I take them", then we'll just part ways on that point. Deadfall, poison, night vision etc?

Now I'll ask a general question. Have you ever not had the opportunity to take all the deer you want under the regulations as they currently exist? (My answer to that would be "no" FWIW). Do you GENUINELY think legalized baiting in north Georgia will "fix" something?

Actually I mainly hunt public land. I rarely even shoot a deer on my property. It's more of the principle of it.
How is a feeder any different than a food plot? Hell, even DNR plants food plots on public land. I don't understand how a field of corn is really any different than a pile of corn. And not only are they ok with it, but they encourage it and will even offer subsidies for landowners to make food plots.

And in all my years of hunting the most I've ever shot was 4 deer in one season. And that was years ago and was helping cull some does.

I'm a two deer kind of guy. Maybe a 3rd if I'm running low on ground for the kiddos sloppy joes or chili.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Actually I mainly hunt public land. I rarely even shoot a deer on my property. It's more of the principle of it.
How is a feeder any different than a food plot? Hell, even DNR plants food plots on public land. I don't understand how a field of corn is really any different than a pile of corn. And not only are they ok with it, but they encourage it and will even offer subsidies for landowners to make food plots.

And in all my years of hunting the most I've ever shot was 4 deer in one season. And that was years ago and was helping cull some does.

I'm a two deer kind of guy. Maybe a 3rd if I'm running low on ground for the kiddos sloppy joes or chili.

This is going the predictable way every baiting thread goes. If you honestly want the law changed, write a well reasoned note to your legislator about your rationale. You may even attempt to ping WRD to get their opinion on the matter.
I'd ask you to reconsider your stance for several different reasons but nothing is going to be expressed in this thread that hasn't been beat to death in the million other baiting threads on GON and other forums.
We don't need it for any biological reasons, it's potentially detrimental to the general health of the herd and I personally think (here's the opinion part) it diminishes the activity.
Food plots can be any number of agricultural undertakings so I'm not sure how you "eliminate" them but if you think it's a waste of public money to plant them, I could understand you lobbying to have that practice stopped on WMAs (public dove fields would be a problem).

 

[GeorgiaGun1]

This is going the predictable way every baiting thread goes. If you honestly want the law changed, write a well reasoned note to your legislator about your rationale. You may even attempt to ping WRD to get their opinion on the matter.
I'd ask you to reconsider your stance for several different reasons but nothing is going to be expressed in this thread that hasn't been beat to death in the million other baiting threads on GON and other forums.
We don't need it for any biological reasons, it's potentially detrimental to the general health of the herd and I personally think (here's the opinion part) it diminishes the activity.
Food plots can be any number of agricultural undertakings so I'm not sure how you "eliminate" them but if you think it's a waste of public money to plant them, I could understand you lobbying to have that practice stopped on WMAs (public dove fields would be a problem).

Oh I'm very active in voicing my opinion to the DNR. Trust me on that. I'm also a licensed commercial trapper and some of those laws are even more baffling and less grounded in facts than the baiting argument.

It won't ever be settled here, and surprisingly I actually support those who don't agree with baiting. I support their right to choose that on their property. As I would hope they would support my choices on mine.

 

[NorthGA_Recon]

Bear population in northern zone is why baiting is not legal. They don't want you baiting the bears, because it probably would wipe them out. Since bear season runs with deer there's no way to say you're baiting deer and not bear. But I have heard from DNR that baiting will soon enough be legal in northern zone.

 

[Bear44]

Bear population in northern zone is why baiting is not legal. They don't want you baiting the bears, because it probably would wipe them out. Since bear season runs with deer there's no way to say you're baiting deer and not bear. But I have heard from DNR that baiting will soon enough be legal in northern zone.

Good point. Never thought of that.

As for the idea that baiting has no real effect on the huntability of deer, that is not my experience at all. Years ago I invested a large amount of time and money in leasing and scouting property in South Georgia. We developed a club and even leased a house nearby for the members to use because most of us were travelling quite a ways to get there.

The amount of sign was astonishing. We also saw several very nice bucks while they were still in velvet well before the season. We were all pumped because of the quality of the land and deer population. A few of us had even gotten fairly solid patterns of movement on different mature bucks. Then...

About two weeks before the opening of bow season me and my brother were near the boundary of the property when we heard an ATV on the adjoining land. It came very close to our property line, so we went to investigate. We could see the big pile of corn that had been dumped from our side of the line. Upon investigation we found this was common all around our land, which was long, but rather narrow. Everyone was baiting the hell out of the area and this was before it was legal. The result was that just about every deer got sucked right off our land. Fresh sign became almost non existent and during the entire season only two does were killed. All of the members of the club were experienced and skilled deer hunters, but if the deer have left there's not a whole lot you can do about it.

I might be wrong, but my feeling is that the vast majority of people that hunt over bait in South Georgia now, poached over bait before it was legal and I don't think very much of them at all.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Oh I'm very active in voicing my opinion to the DNR. Trust me on that. I'm also a licensed commercial trapper and some of those laws are even more baffling and less grounded in facts than the baiting argument.

It won't ever be settled here, and surprisingly I actually support those who don't agree with baiting. I support their right to choose that on their property. As I would hope they would support my choices on mine.

Similar to the pro choice logic I suppose. We just won't agree that it should ever be made legal. That's fine. Your desires will be legal soon enough.

 

[GeauxLSU]

Bear population in northern zone is why baiting is not legal. They don't want you baiting the bears, because it probably would wipe them out. Since bear season runs with deer there's no way to say you're baiting deer and not bear. But I have heard from DNR that baiting will soon enough be legal in northern zone.

I don't know who told you that but that has nothing to do with it I assure you. You are correct though about the eventuality of the legality.