HF or baiting.......which is first to go

All this got me thinking. Which do you think will be the first to get outlawed.......HF hunting or baiting deer? I can see how the fish and game could say no more corn feeders and get it done quick, but I don't see how they could tell a landowner to put in new fences knowing what that costs and how long it would take. So for you people who don't like HF but like your corn feeders, do you really think a law would be passed banning HF first? If they banned corn first, would you still argue that people have a bigger problem with HF over baiting?

Neither will go

Im sure they said that in New Mexico right before they banned baiting of all species.

Yet they will let you run lions and bears with dogs

I don't think either will go in TX. They are both deeply imbedded in the hunting culture here. Plus our politicians are way different than in NM, CO, CA, etc.

i think it'll be from a knee jerk reaction to get a ban pushed through. If CWD becomes an issue with tpwd, I could see HF deer movement and baiting banned as a reaction.

I hope neither will go, but hunters bashing hunters will never help them stay. I want to hunt high fence, over bait, from a helicopter - pretty sure texas is the last place where I can make that happen!

Utah might be an option at some point, but only if you're up to date on your SFW membership.

Yeah... probably so... but its still all about the $$

Wonder how much difference there is between both states annual income from Hunting....

When you can be put in jail for your religious belief's... anything is possible.

I don't think either one will go but if one does it would be baiting

There is a big difference between NM and Texas. Private land ownership trumps fed land ownership. NP is right again... our politicians/lawyers won't allow the public to take away our individual rights.

I submit the recent CWD brouhaha as evidence to support my claim. Tpwd and tahc were at first going to destroy all deer in the index ranch and all ranches that had stocked deer from that ranch. They soon were reminded who exactly pays their salaries. A "compromise" was reached so they could save face, but they are pretty much neutered now. As it should be.

Both baiting and HF have supporters and detractors. In the end I do not believe either will be outlawed in Texas.

Here in VA baiting is illegal (but next door in Maryland it is) and HF is illegal (but next door in West VA and PA it is legal). So each state has their own "norm."

I don't see how (using "logic") someone can be told how high to build a fence on their own property.
They could also be High Fencing to keep things out. How are "they" going to determine what is going on?

As for baiting....
Everyone has already figured out a way around that.
It takes more effort than some mechanical device slinging food.
But... Planting crops for "harvest" is not "baiting".

Doesn't matter to me if they got rid of both. I'd still hunt, enjoy it, and fill my freezer.

Neither will ever go and neither should

I don't like HFs but that's just a preference. Landowners should be allowed to put whatever kind of fence they want up. It's not my land so it's not my problem. I personally find more satisfaction taking free range deer over a HF deer. That's just me though. More power to those making money off of HF deer and more power to those who like to pay to shoot them.

The Midwest hunters who think a corn feeder is wrong but planting a food plot isn't are ignorant. You are going to tell me it's ok to plant 30 acres of corn to attract deer but I'm not a real hunter because I hunt a corn feeder? I don't get that logic.

Yes Sir...

How's that Golf Course looking up that way...love that course

Looking pretty good but I don't get to golf much. I figure the wife will go ahead a kill me if I add golf to the hunting and fishing.

It's all about Battle Choice Sir

Well said

A lot of businesses would be affected greatly with nobody buying corn nobody buying feeders. It would be like a second oil crisis.

Well I got 2 feeders running now and 60 hogs running around on camera and no deer. How about the hogs get exterminated first.

Didnt years ago allow deer hunting with dogs? In-laws used ta run beagles, coon dogs... Have had people bring hog dogs here & hunt... Now its hard ta find place ta run dogs... Our last stray dog we took in, put on dog run, it got loose, found shot up by mail box.. i'm a lowfer how other people spend their money ta hunt, none of my busness... Ya'll know the old saying about opinions, mine stinks ... Had some backstraps & finished off last of pinto beans... Tooth started achen, so lifted lid on LTD, medical reasons, feelen no pain.. Tomorrow i'll plead the 5th, few pints low's...

Never say never. America and Texas are becoming much more liberal. Most of our politicians are moderate whores with a very few real Conservatives. Look at what has happened in the last 6 years in Washington DC. Who would have ever thought that this stuff could happen?

Land usages have changed and will continue to change. More people are watching spectator sports instead of getting outdoors. Due to the cost, hunting is getting too expensive for the average family guy. Thus, we are not recruiting enough of the kids and teens.

The state of our national parks is a disgrace.

Look at the uproar over killing a lion in a country where kids starve to death on a daily basis.

While the NRA is still a powerful lobby, I'll bet that less than 50% of the posters here are members. I might be wrong about that. And, even fewer land owners. Let the other guy carry the load.

As the Bard once sang, "The times they are achanging". And, I believe that we will sleep through this like we have other things that we are seeing happen every day.

Texas won't outlaw baiting, they will just tax it. Alabama doesn't allow baiting, but is considering a change to allow it. Comes with a $50 permit for each feeder used during hunting season.

I don't expect to see either go in my lifetime.

interesting.

Well put.

As civilization slowly takes over large hunting land, it would not surprise me if someday HF is the only kind of hunting. I will not see this in my lifetime or my children, but loss of land is happening, and faster than we think. I used to hunt places here in Bexar County that are now subdivisions and strip centers, and I never dreamed that would happen 20 years ago.
There are some parts of the world that have HFed just to keep the starving natives from poaching. And here in Texas we have more of their native species than they do. If Texas HFs come down, the amount of endanger animals will go up.

Midwest hunters would have to eat their words if suddenly baiting with feeders (as compared to baiting with plots) was allowed in their state, because every one of them would do it.

And the idea of taxing feeders, that just ticks me off.

Spot on

i'm not an NRA member... Didn't need them ta stand up ta credit adviser when they said: leasing was a bad investment ... Edit: like pappy once said: like a scab i'm usdta getting picked on

I don't think either will go. There is too much big money buying off those in the state government. How do you think they got captive breeding started? TPWD has way too many "Irons in the fire". When that happens nothing gets done right.

Mechanical feeding is too much of an industry, with that money backing it, to end in Texas. Too much money behind the high fences so it won't change.

As a landowner, what I would like to see are rules for hunting near a property line. My place as an example; there is a neighbor that owns 140 acres next to me. He made the decision to clear the native habitat and plant improved grasses. Not a tree or bush on it. He leases it to three "hunters" from Houston and they place their feeders within 15 yards of my fence. One is actually 15' from the fence.

I realize the animals belong to the public but these guys are hunting my place. The rules governing the shooting across a fence are weak and unenforceable.

Neither will be banned.

There were and are places in Texas that the only food source for the deer are what ever feeders are on private property. 2012 was a prime example. TPW has bigger things to worry about than if a guy has a feeder on his property. No way they would ever find the majority of them anyway. Also in 2012 they made suppressors legal for game animals, and at some point made heli-hunting hogs legal for non-land owners. All I have seen lately is rules getting relaxed instead of more strict.

If your land is not in an HOA or inside city limits no one is going to tell you what fence you can or can't have.

IMHO.

+1 Didn't the possession limit for dove get bigger as well last year or the year before?

By all means call me stupid and my opinion isn't a well educated one as I'm still reading and learning hunting rules here compared to England... But why would they ban either? Already you have licensing in place and limit restrictions to manage the taking of all species, so what is the benefit of restricting even more. Same with food plots for duck... No baiting? Why when you can only take 6 a day, what's wrong with feeding them in? It's beneficial in the sense you will likely shoot a limit, but if you did your homework and fieldcraft that's likely too. Feeding anything in to a managed habitat is beneficial to both hunter and game. No one would do if otherwise.


Habitat, wildlife management and supplemental feeding done by hunters and ranches is beneficial and far exceeds what they harvest doesn't it? That's why limits are in place, to ensure a sustainable population.

All that said, I don't know what I'm talking about, my Game and Estate management degre doesn't translate to anything over here

What gets me is mentality behind the hate for high fence.

If I shoot a deer over feed on a low fence place, how is it different if I do the same thing under a high fence?

I just got back from wyoming hunting antelope. No fences period in most of the unit

Hunt was pretty dang easy

Texas is past the point of no return, so no probably not. What did the Drury boys say about what happens when they hunt Texas. They get hammered by the northerners every time they come down to hunt Texas, and even north Texas. That says a lot.

Heard some people got caught baiting dove the other day by the GW and the GW took them down to the fire house and the firemen and cops had a cook out.

How bout twenty years from now? Id say there will be twice as many high fences if not more. I bet we all will have to wear blaze orange no matter what. If you can still buy ammo then you will probably have to have a gun card to buy ammo like Illinois' laws already have. Our long hunting season will probably get chopped up like many northern states. They may ban center fire rifles for hunting like Illinois. We will be lucky to even still have the right to bare arms. An over populated country, over commercialized hunting community, and liberals will make hunting seem like a bunch of well I just don't know. Oh ya those hogs will probably be a state game species that you have to buy a tag to hunt. High fences will probably be the new norm and the only way to hunt in the future in a sense that its the only safe way, kinda like more organized, and easier for the government to monitor, and safer. Hey his is just my night mare don't worry too much.

Yes, you know what you're talking about. Logic is simple, and you've got it. Baiting allows a hunter to take a much better/higher percentage shot. High fences allow MUCH better management.

The reason either or both would be banned is either a lack of logic, or an anti hunting agenda.

Not to worry... You can always just "run'em down"!

Called private land...land deeds and how we were historically born into this Nation

Screw the damn yankees and their bleeding heart liberal politics and opinions. They can take their opinions and whinings and move to California.

Of course about a quarter million per year of those liberal grubs are moving to Texas and screwing up our political order so pretty soon we will be run by the same socialist scum that is running the rest of our country now.

fun

Neither will go. As to the Drury Brothers and their friends giving them grief...they hunt over cornfields, soybeans and food plots back home. Not one bit different than sitting over a corn slinger.

Drury Brothers are interested in two things: Money and the Drury Brothers..in that order.

Neither, at least not in Texas. Also, who gives a crap about the Drury brothers, those idiots still believe scent elimination clothing works.

do they really? or do they just get paid enough to believe in it?

I doubt baiting will be outlawed in Texas. There are WAY too many deer in Texas and anything that helps to cull the herd is a good thing.

JR

That really depends on the county.....Counties where you can't take a doe w/ a rifle don't have near enough deer.

What's the deal with the Drury brothers? What do they have to do with TX - I thought they were Missouri people? (I don't watch whitetail hunting shows on TV anymore.)

Oh I am sure it's the almighty dollar, which by the way I love and can't get enough of, but at least have the guts not to mention your hunting a particular wind direction or won't hunt a stand because the winds wrong when your pitching a product or products that are supposed to eliminate scent.

I heard that those dudes have crops for days to hunt over, and as for the scent eliminator I can wash my rear with special soap and could climb in a rubber bag and a deer will smell me no matter what . If the air aint right, it just aint right. I like a cold crisp high pressure day with a predominate northern blow and then I have a sit without thinking about working with fractions because the wind is swirling all over the place or my scent is making a skunk mushroom cloud all around me.

They'll never tell you how high you can build your fence. I also don't think they'll outlaw baiting but just like dove, if they do you'll still be able to plant crops and hunt over them.

They hunt the Stasney Cook Ranch in Shackelford. I doubt anyone from up north gives a rip they hunt there. It is 24,000 acres LF.

Wonderful example

Baiting would probably go first as most states have already made it illegal (which I disagree with). It has been illegal in Wisconsin to bait for years, except with a stipulation of no more than two gallons of bait at one site at one time. They want you to bait but it to be gone sooner than later, I believe the reasoning is that CWD is spread through saliva and baiting sites "may" help accelerate the spread of the disease.