Had a run in with the local game warden the other day and was talking to them about some trespassing that happened last year on my place. Long story short they told me if there was a feeder ANYWHERE on the property I could get a ticket for hunting dove over bait. Even if I am a good 600 yards away from the feeder or longer, it would still be considered hunting them over bait. Skipped this mornings hunt worrying about it and now wanting to hunt this evenings hunt but they will likely pull in and check me. They know the feeder is 600+ yards away. I shut the feeder off when she told me that info but there is still a little corn on the ground. Missing opening day when I can walk out the front door of my house to hunt sucks. Have fun and shoot straight guys.

Find a shovel and make it go away

Thought of that and did that. Feeder is turned off. But its about impossible to get every piece of corn up. But the way the GW is, they will go out of their way to find a piece. Never been in trouble with any game wardens but the way this new one is acting and talking, I will have be check many times this winter.

I would assume there are thousands of people hunting dove on their or someone else's deer lease this year. I would get a copy of your land off google maps mark on it where you are hunting and where the feeder is and if they write you up id take it to court and show them everything. 600 yards is almost a mile. What if you hunt a property with no feeders but your adjoining property has a feeder 600 yards away? I don't see what the issue is. Sounds like the GW was in a bad mood or something.

Also id ask to talk to her supervisor.

That's crap! Most people dove hunt at leases where they deer hunt.

I asked about the neighbor's feeder thing. She said a hunter shouldn't know about the feeder on the neighbors property. Biggest problem is she is friends with my anti hunting neighbor.

That seems a bit excessive on her part. I have a tank a out 300 yards from a feeder I was planning to hunt, kinda makes me wonder now.

Seems like a conflict of interest to me.

Neighbor calls GW hey I can't stand my neighbor shooting all those dove any way you could come out and give him a scare? I got 50 bucks and you can't hunt deer on my land.

I asked what would be a good distance from the feeder to be considered safe and not get a ticket. I live on this property and have a huge field in front of the house I use for dove hunting. The woods where I deer hunt are behind the house. Feeder is 600+ yards away. She said technically the dove could be flying to the feeder. Or from the feeder.

Or not. Hopefully one of the wardens on here will chime in on this.

If you have her number I would call her right now be very kind to her and say. I know technically you can write me up for baiting bc I have a feeder on my property over 600 yards from where I bird hunt but if I hunt are you going to write me up? Explain that you don't want to break any rules but that she isn't being rational and you would like to talk to her supervisor and explain everything to him/her. If they can't fix this issue id keep going up the chain till it gets fixed. You should be able to use your own land without being scared of getting in trouble even though you are doing nothing wrong. Now if the feeder was in the middle of an open field that you are dove hunting on then I could see the problem or if you were sitting in baling picking dove off at the feeder. Not all GW's are created equal.

Technically it says ON OR OVER. She needs to get familiar with her laws. You can always clean it up and wait the 10 days and she can say whatever she wants, you are legal!!

I would get in contact with the captain/ chief.

File a complaint and go hunt. If you get a ticket, take it before a judge and fight it. I would anyway.

Crap for sure!

I printed out a satellite view of my land marked where the feeder is and where I will be hunting. Also went drove down and took some pictures showing where the feeder is in a horseshoe of woods which you can see on the map. Therefor it cant be said that I moved the feeder. I'm gonna do an evening hunt and see how it turns out. Thanks for all the advice. Hopefully we can get some birds without being jacked with.

Did the GW seek you out to warn you about this or did you ask about the feeder and baiting and this was the response? My guess is you asked and she told you the "technical" truth about the subject so if another GW gave you a nugget for it you could not say she said it was OK.

I put my deer feeder up 2 weeks ago. I'll be hunting 200 yards from it tomorrow in a different field.

I realized the problem as soon as you said "her"


I've heard the same thing about deer feeders. I think its the classic example of the old saying "a game warden can find any reason to write you a ticket". I think most wardens would use common sense, but I know a few could be jerks about it...... I would just go hunt and not stress about it.

The law is very funky and talks about if birds are going To, On, Over or From feed where hunters are hunting that it would be considered baiting. Some ideas tie your dog on the feeder while you dove hunt; put up a scare crow; put tarps over the corn; don't hunt doves

Never could understand this law. What is baiting? Hunters can shoot dove over a newly harvested corn or milo field or over a sunflower field. No problem. We can hunt deer (which is the most protected species in TX) and shoot them while they are eating but get a ticket for hunting dove to close to a corn feeder. Really! Give me a break. Such a stupid arse law. Think your GW is taking the baiting law to extremes.

I would hunt it without question and take it above her head when she wrote a ticket. If you are really that worried could you not take the feeder down for a few weeks to get your dove fix? If you turned it off, take it down and nobody is the wiser. To hell with people being irrational to people who are trying to hunt the right way.

Hell, I know of a pond with a feeder that attracts ducks. One day someone was hunting it. Warden said it was fine as it wasn't attracting the birds.