Baiting deer?

[Ben Fougere]

Does anyone know if a person is allowed to "bait" deer or plant a food plot here in BC. I know that you can't bait bears, but I can't seem to find anything that says you can't bait deer for the purpose of hunting. The biggest argument I hear is that it's illegal to feed wildlife which would suggest that I can't set up a food plot next year, but then if this is true, no one should be feeding birds in their backyards.

So, the question is, does anyone know where to find out in writing if it's ok to bait deer?

[Bighorn hunter]

It's in the regs somewhere, just not sure where, but it is legal to bait ungulates in bc

[dave_83golf]

How is that truly hunting? Get out, hike the cuts, track through the trees, and enjoy hunting for what it is. There are deer everywhere in BC, do you really feel the need to bait? Legal or otherwise???

[papaken]

How is that truly hunting? Get out, hike the cuts, track through the trees, and enjoy hunting for what it is. There are deer everywhere in BC, do you really feel the need to bait? Legal or otherwise???
It seems this is a young hunter asking a legitimate question regarding the legality of food plots. He has probably read much about them in many of the hunting mags. If it is a legal method to hunt he should be encouraged not berated for his choice of hunting method, any legal form of hunting should be supported. If we continue to suggest that all methods of hunting but "my method" are wrong we just feed into the antis and do nothing to support our chosen activity.

[coach]

Well said, papaken.

[Blacktail]

glad you said it cause I was gonna.

grey area for deer but bears are a no no for bait
have at her

[Call of the Wild]

Here's your answer and a debate on baiting at the same time. Should keep you busy for half an hour.


http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?49820-Baiting-for-ungulates-legal-in-B.C.&highlight=baiting

[FirePower]

If its legal (which as I understand it to be) then by all means if thats how you want to hunt go for it. I'm sure as papaken said this is a young hunter or one relitvely new who has read of it and seen it on Wild TV. It is big in the US, and I am fortunate to have a brother in law who is a professional hunter(guide) in Tanzania and have hunted with him many times. Over there some "guides" build, as Jed Clampett would say, "CEEMENT PONDS" they call water holes throw hay around and build in quite lavish(in some cases) blind huts. Then their clients pay big money sit in comfort and wait to pick and choose their trophy, water being the lure there. Not my cup of tea but whatever makes you happy I guess. I guess maybe I have done it as well, only I choose to think of it as getting to know the alfalfa rancher lol

[dave_83golf]

My intention wasn't to attack... I see how it came off that way... I apologize... I was just stating my opinion and giving a suggestion. It seems many younger/inexperienced hunters have be taught to road hunt, and not to get off the beaten path... My suggestion was to get out and hike, have fun with it, enjoy the surroundings... I just feel that 'baiting' deer is immoral and unethical, regardless of its legality, again, just my opinion... Sorry if that opinion ruffels feathers

[Bowzone_Mikey]

how is any differant than Calling, rattling or pouring scent ..... animals need to to eat ... just as they need to breed ....

yes its a perfectly legal way to hunt

its illegal to bait predators in BC with foodstuffs and honestly it has nothing to with any ethics .... it was as I understand it some Victoria bleeding heart thinking that public safety was at stake if someone where to take a barrel of oats and molasis out to the woods and shot a bear off of it

[FirePower]

Here's your answer and a debate on baiting at the same time. Should keep you busy for half an hour.


http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?49820-Baiting-for-ungulates-legal-in-B.C.&highlight=baiting

This raises the question IF bait is defined as cultivated crops, and it is illegal to bait bear, is it then illegal to shoot a bear on a farm/ranch (being hunted with permission of the land owner)that raises hay, grain or fruit as these are cultivated crops and it is reasonable to assume any bear in the vacinity is there for dinner.
Just asking??

[Big Lew]

If it's legal,"to each his own". We all make personal decisions on our paths in life, some take the high road, some take the easiest, and some take what ever road gets them there the fastest. Our own conscious dictates which we choose.

[happyhunter]

This raises the question IF bait is defined as cultivated crops, and it is illegal to bait bear, is it then illegal to shoot a bear on a farm/ranch (being hunted with permission of the land owner)that raises hay, grain or fruit as these are cultivated crops and it is reasonable to assume any bear in the vacinity is there for dinner.
Just asking??

I think it would come down to intention. I dont believe that farmers/ranchers grow crops to bait bears.

[bighornbob]

I think it would come down to intention. I dont believe that farmers/ranchers grow crops to bait bears.

I agree. It is perfectly legal to wait in a apple orchard for a bear but illegal to take a box of apples and dump them in the bush then wait for said bear.

Perfectly legal to bait deer.

BHB

[Surrey Boy]

It's legal, ethically sound, and not to be looked down upon by members of this forum as per the forum rules and guidelines.

However, sincerely meaning this for your benefit, tagging out in the first week of the season might drive you nuts as your friends continue hunting until December. Just something to consider before you pop that third buck.

[buck nash]

Scents and calls are a much stronger lure to a rutting buck then food is. I don't hear people questioning the ethics of these strategies, nor should they. As for baiting being the easy route...I don't know about that. Sounds like a lot of work and some careful planning involved in baiting. You gotta find a good spot, carry all that stuff in then replenish it as they deplete it. It's no guaranty of success either. Bears might come in and steal your bait, wolves or other hunters might get the deer you've been feeding all summer or deer might only visit your bait at night....lots of other things could go wrong. Then you gotta carry all that shit out at the end of the season. Not easy and to do it successfully you will be spending a lot of time in the bush.

If it's not for you, fine. But it's not an ethical issue if it's legal imo.

[Gateholio]

how is any differant than Calling, rattling or pouring scent ..... animals need to to eat ... just as they need to breed ....

yes its a perfectly legal way to hunt

its illegal to bait predators in BC with foodstuffs and honestly it has nothing to with any ethics .... it was as I understand it some Victoria bleeding heart thinking that public safety was at stake if someone where to take a barrel of oats and molasis out to the woods and shot a bear off of it

It's illegal to bait BEARS. Other predators may be baited.

[Big Lew]

Technically, there's a lot of people in West and North Van., Coquitlam, Belcarra, and Port Moody, a good percentage of them anti-hunters, that should be charged for baiting bears. They leave garbage and other food stuffs out even after being warned "a fed bear is a dead bear". They are baiting bears knowing the Game Department likely will shoot them.

[elkeater]

lets not forget the disabled hunters that could use a little leg up

[Bowzone_Mikey]

It's illegal to bait BEARS. Other predators may be baited.

You are quite right ... gimme a minute while I pull my head out of my ass .....

dont know what I was thinking ....

to those that think baiting is easy ... have obviously never done it ... in Alberta where baiting bear is legal (and ungulates is not) a dedicated hunter would haul a shit pot of bait into several sites usually twice a week for up to a month before the season even opens ....

hunting over over bait is not (for the most part) just a matter of climbing into a stand and placing a box of timbits out ....

[new hunter]

not to hijack this thread , but is there much point using scent or trying to call blacktails and mulies ?
Would baiting even work for said species , or are we talking about white tails ?

[heyblast]

Just to add for the benifit of new hunters it is illegal to bait for waterfowl, but is legal hunt on a harvested field or a field containing grain IF it has flooded naturally, ie from a heavy rain.

[beni]

I will bring a call with me while hunting for mulies (mainly because my mulie spots have nice WT bucks too). And I have gotten Mulie bucks to respond to a call, not come in but they at least let me know that they were there. Have never tried those scent things though..

[urbanhermit]

we can lead a deer to dinner, shoot it over a food plot and take it home and eat it legally. The granola munchers on the other hand, as much as they want to, cannot have sex with wild deer.......we win!

[leadpillproductions]

I get a kick out of people thinking baiting is easy , Last yaer was the first year i ever baited i never hunted as hard for a deer . Got to see some amazing stuff deer do . I started aug 15th i think and i shot him nov21st . But i guess if i hunted him in the fields it would be ok thats not baiting lol. -30 in a treestand is easy i guess lol

[gutpile]

So you plant some oats for the deer or you put a salt block out for the deer.
Than comes a bear along licking the salt block and you have a bear tag, it's illegal to kill it ?

[Ben Fougere]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I don't think that baiting is as easy as some people think it to be, although I've never done it. I'm assuming that it's ok to bait on crown land by the feedback on this thread? Do you need a special permit to plant a food plot on crown land? Or, is baiting allowed only on private land?

[Foxton Gundogs]

I agree. It is perfectly legal to wait in a apple orchard for a bear but illegal to take a box of apples and dump them in the bush then wait for said bear.

Perfectly legal to bait deer.

BHB

But i can see Firepowers point, the regs does say "CULTIVATED CROPS" which according to the letter of the law "your" apple orchard is. I am not saying I don't agree with you (just playing Devils advicate here) however "INTENT" is not mentioned in the regs. only that bait IS cultivated crops. Just food for thought or would that be bears lol

[Foxton Gundogs]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I don't think that baiting is as easy as some people think it to be, although I've never done it yet. I'm assuming that it's ok to bait on crown land? Do you need a special permit to plant a food plot on crown land?

Again acording to the letter of the law it is illeagal to make any improvements to crown land with out permission which planting would be. Would it be acted on?? I would say depending on what you planted, sort of like releasing non native fish into lakes and rivers.

[Foxton Gundogs]

Just to add for the benifit of new hunters it is illegal to bait for waterfowl, but is legal hunt on a harvested field or a field containing grain IF it has flooded naturally, ie from a heavy rain.

And again the can is open and the worms crawl....dam I'm up way to early lol, but most of us water fowlers have done that and I've even been checked in my blind by a CO and never tought twice nor had a problem. Off to load horses the mountains are calling have a great next 10 days all.

[Darksith]

What were you thinking as far as planting a feed lot? It is probably not a great idea to go dig up an acre of land and plant a crop on it, and someone would probably say something about it, or at the very least a MOF or MOE person would find out about it. That being said if you wanted to plant an apple tree or something then it would probably slide under the radar. Just remember that anything you do can start a ripple effect, you don't wanna start doing something and have it turn into a nightmare even though that wasn't your intentions. What region are you thinking of doing this in and for what species of deer?

[pg83]

Technically, there's a lot of people in West and North Van., Coquitlam, Belcarra, and Port Moody, a good percentage of them anti-hunters, that should be charged for baiting bears. They leave garbage and other food stuffs out even after being warned "a fed bear is a dead bear". They are baiting bears knowing the Game Department likely will shoot them.


You're bang on Lew. A neighbour of my mom would always put out stinky garbage whenever they saw fit. There are constantly black bears around as the houses back onto a creek and garbage cans are always spilled across the road come garbage day. The District hasn't done anything to them thus far despite multiple complaints.

[BCsniper]

3601
Baiting in October over some steam rolled corn

[BCsniper]

Sorry about the last post, trying to get the photos to work.

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc451/BCsniper2011/deerpics013.jpg

[BCsniper]

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc451/BCsniper2011/Deerpics7086.jpg

And although we have had bigger bucks come in while there earlier in the season, the frequency appears to go up before the rut.

[dave_83golf]

After my comments, and reading this post, I'm thinking I want to actually give this a try... Thanks guys, this is why I like this forum, kind of opens your eyes at times, provides helpful insight, and is quite informative!!! Inside 1 month until we get going!! Good luck to all!

[.300WSMImpact!]

I don't think I would plant an area to get big bucks in, I would plant an area on my land to create a deer heard you know get yourself 20 or 30 does that hang out, be consistent plant it every year put some cams out watch the action, and maybe in rut a big boy or two will come by to breed your does, oh I wish I had some land to plant some oats or something

[buck nash]

So you plant some oats for the deer or you put a salt block out for the deer.
Than comes a bear along licking the salt block and you have a bear tag, it's illegal to kill it ?

Yes it's illegal. Same as if you shoot a deer and come back the next day to see if a bear is visting your gut pile. You may not have intentionally set up a bait for the bear but you knew that's what he was there for and you put the bait there.

[BCsniper]

So if you came across a dead animal in the woods and placed your stand-up, you could hunt over a dead animal because you never placed the bait you merely were using the natural circumstances to benefit your hunt?

[Surrey Boy]

So if you came across a dead animal in the woods and placed your stand-up, you could hunt over a dead animal because you never placed the bait you merely were using the natural circumstances to benefit your hunt?

Why not?

You can't put out salmon to bait grizzlies, but you can walk up a spawning stream where dead fish are on the bank naturally. Just don't place the food source there yourself.

Or you can get a trapping licence and take your bear under trapping regulations which are often looser.

[Backcountry archer]

Why not?

You can't put out salmon to bait grizzlies, but you can walk up a spawning stream where dead fish are on the bank naturally. Just don't place the food source there yourself.

Or you can get a trapping licence and take your bear under trapping regulations which are often looser.
Check out page 16 of the 2010-2012 hunting regs. under notes #6 for bears.

Now back to Deer hunting methods.
I bow hunt a lot on private farms from a ground blind next to Alfalfa fields and near the hay stacks to help the farmer out with his diminishing hay crop.
I'm not always successful since it is usually pretty darn cold in a tree stand and my ground blind is not a real good disguise in late season.

I'm thinking of building a hay bale blind to stay warm and fit in better by looking the part.

[buck nash]

So if you came across a dead animal in the woods and placed your stand-up, you could hunt over a dead animal because you never placed the bait you merely were using the natural circumstances to benefit your hunt?


That seems to be the consensus. The scenerio has been debated a thousand times on this site. My friend's core instructor told him it would be legal but the majority read it as illegal and I think the spirit of the rule is obvious. The most commmon argument against this view seems to be that you could say that you didn't know the gut pile was there. This is a possible legal defence but not a valid argument. It only demonstrates that it would be hard to enforce. Why make the c.o.'s job harder? They should be spending their time catching poachers not waisting time in court trying to prosecute people who want to test the wording of the rules.

[VicP]

That seems to be the consensus. The scenerio has been debated a thousand times on this site. My friend's core instructor told him it would be legal but the majority read it as illegal and I think the spirit of the rule is obvious. The most commmon argument against this view seems to be that you could say that you didn't know the gut pile was there. This is a possible legal defence but not a valid argument. It only demonstrates that it would be hard to enforce. Why make the c.o.'s job harder? They should be spending their time catching poachers not waisting time in court trying to prosecute people who want to test the wording of the rules.

Well said. This has been debated so many times before and if people did a bit more research it would not have to be debated.

[Ben Fougere]

Well said. This has been debated so many times before and if people did a bit more research it would not have to be debated.

If the hunting regs (OR "rules") were written better or more clearly, than none of us would be debating these topics here on this site. Why should the "rules" be open to interpretation. Isn't hunting about harvesting an animal while trying to manage nature so that the coming generations may enjoy it? It would be nice if the "rule" book per se was written in a little more black and white. What makes it even more confusing is all the hunting shows and mail order catalogues out there. Maybe we need a better hunting reg manual?

So, I could say that I know EVERYTHING, but I don't. I still have a lot to learn and I think that most people on this site come to gain more information, debate topics and most importantly....brag about the times that they got out into the bush while everyone else was sitting at home staring at a computer.

Lastly, I'm still a little confused as to whether or not a verdict was reached on baiting deer here in BC. I gather that it is LEGAL to bait deer on private land over cultivated crops, but can I start my own food plot on crown land? If I need permission to do this, where would I get it?

[moose2]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I don't think that baiting is as easy as some people think it to be, although I've never done it. I'm assuming that it's ok to bait on crown land by the feedback on this thread? Do you need a special permit to plant a food plot on crown land? Or, is baiting allowed only on private land?

Your best bet is to find a good game trail and follow it to a junction. This is where you want to place your bait. Areas like this will be found quickly by animals and once they find the food they will return lots and then more start showing up. A trail cam will tell you in a few days if your in a good spot. A few 50lb bags of oats and or barley and mabey a salt block and your set about $40.00 will ge you started. Its worth the effort to carry it couple km to keep it a bit harder to find by other hunters. If your bait is being hit hard a new sack should be taken in every 3 to 4 days . This is the time we switch out our cameras sd cards as well. I am not big on hunting over bait myself but it's a great way to get TC pictures and see what is around. According to our camera there would have been times where a person could have sat up to 4 days strait before a legal buck showed in day light. Not an easy hunting method in bitter winter weather , but like any other method put in enough time and you will be rewarded for it. Here is a thread with our pictures and some more info hope this helps
Mike http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?58895-Trail-Cam-Pictures-(-Lots-)&highlight=trail+pictures+moose2

[rocksteady]

Lastly, I'm still a little confused as to whether or not a verdict was reached on baiting deer here in BC. I gather that it is LEGAL to bait deer on private land over cultivated crops, but can I start my own food plot on crown land? If I need permission to do this, where would I get it?

It is legal to place bait for any big game animal (except bears) on any lands....Crown or Private....You can start your own food plot, I see nothing in the regs about it being illegal...HOWEVER, as in the past, introducing non native species can bite us in the ass big time...IE. The giant Hogswart problem a tthe coast is from it spreading from peoples ornamental gardens, purple loose strife-former "garden flower" etc etc...

Just be careful and think ahead before you plant something from a bag from some company in the US claiming big antlers and massive bodies on deer...

[Ben Fougere]

Thanks rocksteady. I like the idea moose2 gives with a bag of oats. I really like the trail cam pics. Now I need a trail cam.

[BCsniper]

Cabbalas had the bushnell 5mp on sale for $129 that's the cheapest I have seen them and they ranked 2nd on a website that tests the cams. Ordered up a few as I think they were a steal. That was cabelas.com not ca

[peashooter]

what about scent sticks and spray (bear bomb) type lures for bears. is that "baiting"?

[Squamch]

You don't need to prep a plot, just find last years grow op, or watch in February/march as the hippy gets his plot ready to go, then as soon as his plants go in in April, report him, then go replant in that well turned, manured soil...