question: law state this: A hunter may not:

hunt migratory birds with the aid of bait, or on or over any baited area.

The place I dove hunt also has deer hunters who feed year around. Their feeder is about 200 yards from where I hunt. However sometimes while walking the fence line I get to with in 75 yards of the feeder. What distance must I stay away from a deer feeder. I'm sure that a lot of us have this same problem, but I cant find anything except "hunt over a baited area." Thanks for helping me out with this question.

You best bet is ask the GW for that, they all have different opinions on that.

Our game warden told us, "If I can see a deer feeder, you are too close and it is considered a baited area." Consequently, we don't hunt dove.

Thats is what I was afraid of!

Distance has nothing to do with it, other than, the closer you are to it, the stronger a case can be made that you are using bait as an aid to kill birds (all other things constant). But the word "aid" is the key word and "hunting over". "Hunting over bait" is clear cut, using bait as an "aid" is not so clear. If there is a deer feeder on your property, and no dove are flying to the bait, then you are not using bait as an aid to kill birds. If however, a deer feeder is 1000 yards away, on a neighbors property, out of sight, birds are flocking to the bait, and you pattern the birds, which happen to fly over your property on their way to the bait, then you are breaking the law, you are using bait as an aid to kill birds.

The spirit of the law is pretty clear jmo, and this would be your argument in court. But everyone will tell you something different on this one, including GWs.

I don't like shooting around a feeder as one might hit the feeder.

If you shoot them flying should not be an issue, but if you skillet shoot them when they are all around the feeder, this can be problematic, kinda like shooting your decoys.

if there is a feeder on your property you can get a ticket --- period------------ if its a 1000 acres and you are on the other end you are subject to a ticket , I have seen a ticket a game warden gave in bell county,,, a deer feeder that was in about 2 feet of water dispensing fish food, the dove hunters 600 yards away were ticketed. If you think a game warden will be reasonable(its possible, but unlikely) you have not had much exposure to them. As usual Federal are worse than state. Game warden's job is to produce revenue,,, not to be reasonable.

if there is NOT a feeder on your property you can get a ticket --- period------------

Using bait as an aid, has nothing to do if feeder is on your property or not. If feeder is on neighbors property, you can get a ticket as well.

Not sure what kind of Game Wardens you've dealt with, but most of them are great and reasonable guys. If you believe the doves may be there because of the feeder, don't hunt there. Just be smart about it and the game wardens will be reasonable as long as it is the right thing. I've hunted less than 500 yards from a feeder while talking to a game warden. Its all about what is happening in that specific situation. Hope that helps

SO would hunting next to cattle feed pens be the same?
How is a feeder any different than hunting in sunflower fields or rice fields?

My dog trainer in Burnet Tx, has about 60 acres,,,, he drove up to his property to find a sign on the gate saying no hunting. Almost 2 miles away they busted some guy that had dumped a dump truck of grain, milo I think, in his field. There was no hunting in a 2 mile circle of the grain----------- that sounds reasonable to you??? One of the neighbors had called the Feds and turned the guy in. None of the guy's neighbors could hunt the rest of the season. The unintended consequences -------- last year, he did it again,, this time no one turned him in , or they would have not been able to hunt on their land either.

I just posted this in 'open hunting discussion' forum. Here is a rather dramatic example of a game warden 'raid' in Bell County. this was 1992. Ticketed were 39 hunters, including the sheriff, county attorney, 2 justice of the peace, and a captain in the local state game wardens. Ex state district judge was the host of the hunt. Kind of an interesting read if anyone is interested. I can tell you NONE of these guys had any clue that the place was baited.

[url=news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19921206&id=SThSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=azYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3113,4999593&hl=enhttp://]Ex-state district judge fined $10,000[/url]

let me try again.

ex-state district judge fined $10,000

That is very interesting, that would suck...

I just hunt tanks at the hunting lease. Closest feeder would be over half mile away and dove don't even eat corn that time of year around here. They are full of wheat, milo and sunflower. I don't walk around to shoot dove. Too dang hot.

They should pic better friends. I have seen a few baited fields in my time, on public. It was always obvious to me. If there is natural food/crop in the field, don't need bait. If there is not any natural food or crop, and birds are flying in like there is, and sitting in the tees all around the bait, you know something is wrong. Busby sounds like a real donut, surprised GW was fooled.

It means you're about to kill a [censored] ton of birds!

Same....I always hunt water....

Its up to your local game warden tell you what he thinks it means!

^^^^^^And that is wrong in so many ways. Joe gw says 100 yds is ok, then Jim gw says no no 300 yds. To me, needs to be written so everybody is on the same page.

Or a deer breeding operation next door.....I posted a scenario like this a while back and no one had a good answer. As has been said, how do I know what is on the other side of a hill that I can't see? Shouldn't be held liable for what is on the next property over. Otherwise I could go dump grain along a fence line to keep people from hunting their own property......Hmmmm.

It is written. You can't hunt over bait (you know, like a deer hunter does, this is clear cut). And you can't use bait as an aid, JMO, this is clear cut too, just hard to in force fairly. It's written loosely like this so it can't be gamed. If you put distance in the code, people would game it.

Guy I do understand what your saying and written so loosely. But if say there was a feeder in my pasture, with little corn or no corn in it, but its sitting there. It sounds like I would get a ticket. And if I did, I think I would have to have DNA test on the corn to prove that the corn he ate was from that feeder. lol (corn is planted on the tilled land here) This is where I smh. I know people will say, move the feeder to avoid any problems, but mine is a 600# feeder and a pita to move. But it looks like I will move it.

I've been through this with GW's here,,distance from a deer feeder is up to the discretion of the GW and intent.