Feeding or Baiting?

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Baiting, feeding, whatever.... Hunting is hunting and harvesting is harvesting. If you are out in the woods for the experience of being in tune with nature and being a predator, you use skill, cunning and knowledge to enjoy the whole experience and (maybe) harvest an animal. If your sole motivation is to "kill something"   :so you can brag about it at the bar, and at work, to your friends and family and just try to build an image based upon success in the field then you are welcome to these practises. I for one don't care about filled tags, but memories, and hunt with like minded individuals who live for the outdoors year-round, not just during seasons. I consider myself an outdoorsman and a sportsman and when I hear some Idiot bragging about his conquests I am glad he is not a part of my camp. You are welcome in the forests because it is public land, but I will not invite you to my campfire and our wild game/fish/shellfish dinners.

[robodad]

I think that feeding/baiting is just a justified form of domestication and it doesn't matter what species of animal it is, animals are week and predictable when it comes to getting a belly full of good grub.

There are no baiters/feeders only farmers/butchers. I just wished folks would leave the wild animals wild !! 

[shoot-em-dead]

I can understand baiting deer or elk or bear. Where I come from we relied on the meat for food. Of course it wasn't our only source of meat, we had stores but still meat that comes from hunting is a lot cheaper. As far as baiting a turkey I guess I don't see any point in that. Also, someone mentioned a food plot. What is the difference between a food plot and a bait pile? Either way you are putting food in a certain location so animals must come if they want to eat.

[bowhunterforever]

 

[cohoho]

Food plots, baiting, whatever.  Their both the same, one just regenerates itself.  Who really cares if someone baited or not, first off baiting if done right is an extreme amount of work, so those that do it successfully hats off to you, it is hard work.  Some folks like to hike all over and target remote animals again hats off to these guys too, I like both ways personally.  As for the being unethical, that's crazy.  The same unethical standards can be said of someone driving down the road and sees a great animals but because they weren't 20 miles back, is it unethical to go after that animal, please.  Now what, their labeled as a "Road Hunter".  I see pictures on this site all the time that folks have sneakers on their feet.  I listened to other threads where keeping a big fish is outright wrong, but in the same web site, taking the biggest deer, bear, Moose is perfectly OK.  They all pass their genes, that why I only target smaller animals...      Hunting isn't only about tagging out, it the experiance. 

[CP]

I started hunting in Texas where baiting is legal and accepted.  I don’t remember any arguments back there about the ethics of baiting.  I do remember heated arguments about spring turkey seasons.  Many considered it unsporting to hunt turkeys in the spring when they were so vulnerable.

Confession time; I have shot turkeys over bait and over food plots.  I have called to turkeys in the spring pretending to be one of them and shot them out of hiding when they came close.  I have even snatched turkeys out of their pens and decapitated them with a hatchet.  I see now that all those methods are wrong, unsporting, and unethical.

The only sporting way to hunt turkeys is to sneak up on them in the predawn darkness and shoot them off their roost at first light.  True spot and stalk, that’s my method from now on.  No one can argue the ethics of the spot and stalk.

[DOUBLELUNG]

My take on hunters and ethics (within the law):

1.  If someone enjoys doing something, they call it ethical.

2.  If someone ejoys doing something, and it interferes with someone else doing something they enjoy, that second person will find the first one unethical.

3.  The more competition there is for a limited resource, the more unethical other people are perceived to be.

4.  #2 - interference includes pissing off third parties (in our case, nonhunters), potentially jeopardizing the future legal status of things we enjoy doing.

5.  I am absolutely as judgemental as anyone else when it comes to ethics.  Washington is chock full of unethical hunters and fishermen compared to other places where I've lived.  The degree of competition for scarce resources seems to be the driver behind the degree of unethical behavior.

[yelp]

 

[Wacenturion]

CP.....you said........."Many considered it unsporting to hunt turkeys in the spring when they were so vulnerable."

Yeah that argument is an old one in some circles.  Comes out of not understanding that removing toms during the spring has little impact on the population....more of a knee jerk argument and unfounded in biological fact.
"
CP also said............The only sporting way to hunt turkeys is to sneak up on them in the predawn darkness and shoot them off their roost at first light.  True spot and stalk, that’s my method from now on.  No one can argue the ethics of the spot and stalk."

I'm assuming you're trying to be funny....but if not.....I'm sure that you'll make a lot of future friends out there in the turkey woods. 

[jackelope]

i picked up on the extreme sarcasm in relation to the roost shooting joke/statement CP made...

[fishunt247]

I'm hoping for sarcasm. If not...hmmmm

[CP]

I was just giving this thread one last   

I’ll leave you all to determine what you feel is right and wrong.

[Wacenturion]

I was just giving this thread one last   

I’ll leave you all to determine what you feel is right and wrong.

Already know....just hope you do....if not I guess I'll give you a pass based on your age and corresponding level of maturity...lol.