Baiting clarification

[Triton Mike]

What part of "ANY AREA" or "ANY LOCATION" is hard to understand?

so if I am a 500 yards from bait am I legal? You stated ANY AREA or ANY LOCATION? Whose to say the bear doesn't smell a 500 yards away? Substitute 500 yards for 100 yards, 200 yards, 300 yards 400 yards a mile.. At what point is it legal or not legal. keep in mind 500 yards maybe off of your property.. I just think it would be wise for the DNR to eliminate any gray area. I'm not hunting over bait period but I am just hypothetically speaking. that is all I am saying. The rule doesn't apply to me because I don't plan on baiting but if you want to enforce a law and make it stick it seems like it would be best to whittle it down to it's most basic element.

 

[Throwback]

that doesn't answer my question. Define over, under, around.. I get the point of the law but the law isn't clear and leaves room for interpretation. If you drive 55mph in a 50mph speed limit you get a ticket. If you have a .08 level of alcohol and the law says your illegal if you have .07 you get a ticket. Whats over, under and around? Put a yardage on it just like they did with the deer law previously..

you will be charged with what the law says not the regulation book.

and the DUI and speed laws aren't as clear as you think they are. there are dozens if not hundreds of case law decisions on them that explores the gray areas in those laws also.

 

[ripplerider]

With it being legal to bait deer..and the limit at 12..............why do we even need even 1/2 the Game Wardens that we have today?

What are they going to Police now? Talk about a waste of tax payers money......

I don't know... maybe hunting at night, hunting from the road, killing does when it's buck-only, hunting while intoxicated, hunting before or after the season, hunting without licenses, hunting without permission...I can think of a few more without getting into fishing violations, turkey poaching, roost shooting of ducks... we need more game wardens not less.

 

[Killer Kyle]

Y'all need to slow down and think about this for a second. The deer baiting decision was made to satiate the people berating the state to make a decision. It was done quickly, and immediately prior to the printing of the regs. There hasn't been time to establish a distance rule for bears yet. The DNR is beyond aware of the question now presented before them, and it will be seen to the next go-round when the regs are printed, I assure you.

Next....there is some vagueness to the current rule, sure, but you are grown men and can hopefully exercise some common sense here. If you shoot a bear looking at your bait pile or headed to it and you know it, you just shot a bear over bait. You all know that. If you shoot a bear headed to your feeder, under your feeder, or under some kind of molassas or apple flavored drip or something similar up a pole or in a tree, you just killed a bear under bait. If you kill a bear within sight distance of bait, you definitely know you just killed a bear near bait.
The bottom line is this. If you aren't sure if you're in the right or wrong, you're probably in the wrong. You all know that. Many of you seem so bent on pushing the envelope that you are going to find yourselves having to argue your innocence. Assume 200 yards is the rule for now until the regs are changed. Do that, and you'll remain above reproach for now.
Its really a simple issue that too many folks are making too big a fuss about.

 

[Possum]

You don’t have to harvest a bear near bait to be breaking the law. If a bear eats your deer corn you put out you are breaking the law whether you shoot the bear or not.
I’ve seen tickets issued before for concentrating bears and no bear was shot.
It’s been this way as long as I can remember. It’s up to the game warden whether you get ticketed and up to the judge how much of a fine/ jail time is issued.

 

[Throwback]

the 200 yard rule has never as an operation of law been applicable to anything other than deer.

 

[lampern]

In case folks were wondering where the bear and turkey and 200 yards came into play right from the Georgia laws:

(4) Any person who takes any big game animal, other than deer, within 200 yards of any place where any corn, wheat, or other grains, salts, apples, or other feed or bait has been placed, exposed, deposited, distributed, or scattered so as to constitute a lure, attraction, or enticement for any game bird or game animal shall, upon conviction of thereof, be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature and shall be punished as provided by Code Section 17-10-4.

 

[Throwback]

In case folks were wondering where the bear and turkey and 200 yards came into play right from the Georgia laws:

(4) Any person who takes any big game animal, other than deer, within 200 yards of any place where any corn, wheat, or other grains, salts, apples, or other feed or bait has been placed, exposed, deposited, distributed, or scattered so as to constitute a lure, attraction, or enticement for any game bird or game animal shall, upon conviction of thereof, be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature and shall be punished as provided by Code Section 17-10-4.

But thats only if you actually kill one. The code on bear hunting over bait does not have a 200 yard provision.

 

[lampern]

The other law dealing with baiting bear

(1) Except as otherwise provided by law or regulation, it shall be unlawful for any person to hunt any game bird or game animal upon, over, around, or near any place where any corn, wheat, or other grains, salts, apples, or other feed or bait has been placed, exposed, deposited, distributed, or scattered so as to constitute a lure, attraction, or enticement to such birds or animals. It shall also be unlawful to hunt any game animal or game bird upon, over, around, or near any such place for a period of ten days following the complete removal of all such feed or bait.

 

[lampern]

But thats only if you actually kill one. The code on bear hunting over bait does not have a 200 yard provision.

I posted the other law so folks can understand it seems there are two laws on the books dealing with bears and bait, one with a clearly defined and fixed distance.

 

[Killer Kyle]

But thats only if you actually kill one. The code on bear hunting over bait does not have a 200 yard provision.

Lampern here has provided us a clear answer. The law states the take of a big game animal other than deer or any other game within 200 yards of bait is illegal. Bear is a big game animal, and thus the 200 yard rule applies. That puts this entire issue to bed. Am I not correct? Lampern, can you provide a link to the laws you ppsted here please sir?

 

[Throwback]

Lampern here has provided us a clear answer. The law states the take of a big game animal other than deer or any other game within 200 yards of bait is illegal. Bear is a big game animal, and thus the 200 yard rule applies. That puts this entire issue to bed. Am I not correct? Lampern, can you provide a link to the laws you ppsted here please sir?

That's just stating the punishment if you kill one within 200 yards of the bait.

The bear bait law itself is a separate law that I have already quoted it makes no mention of a distance To hunt a bear from bait.

 

[lampern]

I think the law is saying there is a much more severe punishment for taking a bear inside of 200 yards than outside of 200 yards for bait

 

[Christian hughey]

Yeah my opinion foodplots are enough for bear, deer, Turkey whatever this sudden frenzy for using corn is crazy. All I see on my club is the old men put the corn out and they hunt it with no success ,get many trail cam pics (@ night) of large mature bucks coming in and I kill them (in the daytime) imagine that. With nothing but an acorn ,Muscadine, and persimmon in sight put out by God fellas. Deer get used to these feed stations. They will use them (@ night) but they are smarter than that if you hunt a property like mine you will have much more success hunting thickets on the boundary out of sight of the corn.just my take though

 

[meandmydog]

It is a set up for failure. A state record bear at the feeder. Hum! Let It walk.

 

[Christian hughey]

Also gives wardens full discretion on how each case is handled. There is no fine print. Large print, nothing. Got a feeling it's gonna be trouble I'm just gonna leave the corn to you guys and hope you don't put it to close to me.

 

[Christian hughey]

Just throw in this out there what if the bear takes a while to bleed out and runs over, falls dead right by a bait station. Then gw wants to see the shot? Sketchy territory but we may be overreacting. The new baiting regs may allow them to be more lenient. Doubt it but this may be one way they are allowing us to thin them out a bit. I hear the numbers are getting larger and they are becoming more of a nuisance in the mountain communities this time of year. They do like there revenue though so it's a toss up.