Our group of hunters have about 10-12 places to dove hunt. Lease, private and personal. This year we decided that we are going to try our hand at wild sunflowers on a few of the personal places. One of the private places is 80 acres of sunflowers. So basically last week we shredded, disked, cut seed heads, scattered and covered. If we can't hunt it no big deal, I'd just like to get some opinions as far as the law goes?
Would hunting there be considered hunting over bait?

Thanks
SAC

i would say baited

It is all up to the GW
But I would not hunt it

NOT BAITED for Doves. You can mow or shread what ever you want for Doves. Waterfowl NO.

10 day rule apply??

IMHO you're asking the wrong people. A 5 minute phone call to your local warden will provide you the answer you seek. His opinion is the one that will count when you take the field.

P.S. This is what I did this week simply to verify I was covered.

No need to make a call. Perfectly legal to hunt dove over.

If you shredded 2 week prior to opening day I would say you're okay but better call GW just to make sure. Baiting tickets are expensive I am sure!

http://www.fws.gov/le/what-is-legal.html

You can shred the day you hunt. What part of what you did would be baiting according the federal regs I posted? Is cutting and then scattering the seed normal at practice? Was it scattered at the same time The heads were cut or collected in one location and then scattered?

Obviously ask a GW but know what is normal.

This seed was imported from another property. That fact alone is what has me worried.

Read the regs I posted. If that is how you normally plant then it is legal.

If you shredded 2 week prior to opening day I would say you're okay but better call GW just to make sure. Baiting tickets are expensive I am sure!

I bet your fine.

I make a living off of this. You can manipulate fields for dove hunting however you want. Scattering seed is a different thing though. Waterfowl and dove follow different rules. Even though they are migratory birds.

Not sure why you would of covered the seeds up after you shredded though. Doesn't that defeat the purpose

We are wanting sunflowers there next year. Just got off the phone with the GW and he said its pretty much a baited field. To those that recommended contacting the GW, thanks. I never thought to check out TPWD for listings. Now I have all 6 numbers saved for the 3 counties I hunt.

Is it baited since that is normal ag practice the spread seed this time of year? I thought it was normal but in November time frame.

Good for you. All the conjecture in the world doesn't equate your own Wardens interpretation. This is not to say you can contest a ticket if you disagree, but at least you know what you are into from the git-go.

Hopefully you have time to find another spot.

If you brought it in from another field it is baiting.

If you cut up the seed heads and scattered them by hand then that is probably baiting.

Yep and for future shred um and hunt um you can disc um up after season. If you get rain at right time you'll have sunflowers again.

Yeah, we did this with the future in mind. Hopefully in a few years we have a well established "weed patch"

Baiting
A hunter may hunt any migratory game bird:

over standing crops, standing flooded crops and flooded harvested crops;
at any time over natural vegetation that has been manipulated. Natural vegetation does not include planted millet. However, planted millet that grows on its own in subsequent years after the planting is considered natural vegetation;
on or over a normal soil stabilization practice;
on or over lands or areas where seeds or grains have been scattered solely as a result of a normal agricultural practice except waterfowl and cranes may not be hunted where grain or other feed has been distributed or scattered as the result of:
pre-harvest manipulation of an agricultural crop; or
livestock feeding;
over crops or natural vegetation where grain has been inadvertently scattered as a result of entering or leaving a hunting area, placing decoys or retrieving downed birds;
using natural vegetation or crops to conceal a blind, provided that if crops are used to conceal a blind, no grain or other feed is exposed, deposited, distributed or scattered in the process.
A hunter may not:

hunt migratory birds with the aid of bait, or on or over any baited area;
hunt over any baited area until 10 days after all baiting materials have been removed;
hunt waterfowl or cranes over manipulated planted millet, unless the millet was planted not less than one year prior to hunting;
hunt waterfowl or cranes over crops that have been manipulated, unless the manipulation is a normal agricultural post-harvesting manipulation in accordance with official recommendations of State Extension Specialists of the Cooperative Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
No person may place or direct the placement of bait on or adjacent to an area for the purpose of causing, inducing or allowing any person to take or attempt to take any migratory game bird by the aid of baiting on or over the baited area.

you should not have said "scattered"

It's not what he said its what he did that makes it illegal. Saved himself from a possible ticket

if the seed was grown in that field the game warden told you wrong.

if the seed was brought from somewhere else then he was correct.