Attention Illegal MN Deer Baiters…

Minnesota is NOT Wisconsin or Texas. Deer baiting is illegal.

I was up at my farm yesterday and I watched an airplane slowly fly a north to south grid pattern passing within sight of my property several times. Guess who’s out there looking for Master Baiters and their bait piles? Yep! Our friends at the DNR!

Obviously, there’s nobody here that would bait but spread the word to your fellow hunters out there. The DNR has been cracking down on baiters for years and it looks like this year will be no exception.

If they spent last weekend dumping corn, pumpkins, and apples or rigging up illegal feeders, they’ve already been busted. Plan on a visit from a not-so-friendly Conservation Officer on Saturday morning just after first light. Going up early to clean up the bait pile won’t save them, it is still illegal to hunt a baited area, read the regs.

By the way, make sure anybody who doesn’t think baiting in Mn is a big deal knows that their gun goes bye-bye if they get caught baiting. That’s how most of those rifles get into the annual DNR auction.

Just a friendly warning. I detest illegal baiting. Hunt ethically or don’t hunt.

Grouse

Amen Grouse. Glad to hear they are out looking for it. Never did understand how a guy could feel good hunting over bait.

Also, claiming to not know a pile of bait was in proximity to your stand is not a good enough excuse. Make sure there is nothing nearby.

I always wondered about the neighbors where I hunt who feed them. I do not believe they hunt, as I have never heard shooting from that area – I think they are just feeding/watching deer. I shot a buck a couple years ago that was full of corn(and this is not farm country…lol) When hauling that deer, I can just imagine trying to explain to the officer that the corn that fell from the deers mouth “wasn’t from me” Somehow I just get the feeling that it would be a hassle to clear ones name. Baiting is rampant across the state – no doubt about it.

This is a timely thread. I’ve seen a plane around my area lately doing the same and was curious what they were doing. They would also cut out the engine from time to time. The plane had some yellow lines on it. What did your plane look like?

Honest question here…if pumpkins were planted nearby (like a food plot) and then split with axes to make them an easier snack, is this baiting in MN? I know of people who do it in Wisconsin with great success.

Well good thing it’s not ‘baiting’ when you’re 20 miles from a farm hunting over a 1/2 acre of corn you planted to feed to your ‘cattle’ sitting way up there on your high horse. Plus- any bait cheaters know to use use those little feed pellets that blend in unlike corn piles and fruit. Carry on.

Must be why I have been hearing a helicopter every night this week in the metro too.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Must be why I have been hearing a helicopter every night this week in the metro too.

HRG

Why spread the word? If they are doing something illegal, let them get caught…or report it. If you help a violator not get caught, aren’t you in part responsible ?

Ripjiggen wrote:

Must be why I have been hearing a helicopter every night this week in the metro too.

Haha oh yeah, I don’t miss the Ghetto bird we’d hear most Friday/Saturday nights over Frogtown when we lived in StP.

What do you do if you find bait on public land? Obviously don’t hunt close to it, but I came across a couple licking/feed blocks on public recently.

Also those attractions you buy in the store for deer are illegal according to DNR.

Charles are we talking scents or food?

buckybadger wrote:

Honest question here…if pumpkins were planted nearby (like a food plot) and then split with axes to make them an easier snack, is this baiting in MN?

Yes I believe that situation IS considered baiting in MN.

If you alter or concentrate any crop in a way that is inconsistent with “normally accepted” growing and harvesting practices, it is baiting. You can grow pumpkins. If you smash them to make them more attractive to the wildlife, that is not consistent with normally accepted growing or harvesting, so it’s baiting.

Also, you can grow corn, but if you spread corn on the ground in the cornfield or pick cobs and pile them up, you are concentrating the food source and it’s baiting.

Full summery of regs here: https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/rlp/regulations/hunting/full_regs.pdf#page=60

Randy Wieland wrote:

If you help a violator not get caught, aren’t you in part responsible ?

If they had bait on the ground and it got spotted, they are already “caught”. They just don’t know it yet. Baiting is illegal 10 days before the hunting starts. If they want to avoid the consequences, they would have to abandon the entire property and hunt elsewhere.

It is well-publicized that the DNR uses spotter planes to spot bait piles. I’m not letting any secrets out of the bag and the POS poachers that are going to bait, are going to bait.

Grouse

Baiting has always been a hot button issue as long as i can remember . I have hunted deer pretty much every way you can think of except with dogs . I killed my first bow killed buck in 1984 over apples and corn . Killed my first gun buck in 1971 sitting on a stump . Killed deer on drives , killed deer still hunting , killed deer luring them in with a scent trail. Killed deer from tree stands and ground blinds. I have baited deer in Ontario and struck out, baiting does not guarantee success. Every state province has their own regs , Michigan years ago it was illegal to hunt elevated in a tree can you imagine that ? It was once illegal to put out salt blocks in wisconsin that changed . Wisconsin went from unlimited bait to a 2 gal amount . Ontario has unlimited baiting ? To me baiting is nothing more than a tool to harvest a deer . No more than a guy who plants 100 apple trees to bring them in or some guy who who has the wherewithal to plant acres of food plots to bring those deer onto his property .

If done properly, baiting changes hunting into shooting.
Baiting is the lazy mans way to success.

Tom schmitt wrote:

If done properly, baiting changes hunting into shooting.
Baiting is the lazy mans way to success.

So is using a gun, real men only throw rocks.

I’m not sure about how it is in other areas, but in my area, it is very easy to take a hike grouse hunting and locate bait by deer stands. Our local fleet supply sure seems to pedal a heck of a lot of corn this time of year…..lol.

I wonder if MN will ever follow WI’s lead and just allow it? Part of me thinks they should, just to free up wardens for other enforcement. It seems like our local warden is nearly 100% occupied by bait issues most of the season. Perhaps that time could be better spent doing something else?

Wis not only outlaws baiting, but also any feeding of deer, at any time, hunting or not hunting, in any county where CWD has been found. Not many countys left where CWD has not been observed. Even if you are not a hunter, it is still illegal to feed deer in areas where cwd has been observed. A lot of deer corn for sale signs when driving around here. It’s quite funny actually. Also alot of electronic feeders for sale also, and I think those are outlawed also.

I called the MN dnr last year about deer hunting near a known bait/feeding area and a person has to stay a significant distance away with a stand. I just read the handout that comes with a license purchase and it has a section on baiting, including “attractants/scents”, so maybe read that and decide for ones self if they are going to be ok.

Pumpkins in a garden that have been broken up to hasten decomp isn’t baiting. Pumpkins from one’s doorstep and dumped in the woods, whole or broken, are likely going to be seen as bait. I know farmers who let pumpkin growers dump the un-used/un-sold pumpkins in fields where they are busted up and used as cattle/hog forage. I guess I’d avoid hunting a fenceline near where this happens. Farmers will dig out the old stagnant corn from storage bins and spread it in fields for cattle or pigs. While it may be agricultural in practice in the dnr’s eye its likely baiting if they find anyone hunting close to it.

Was watching as my neighbor packed their truck for deer hunting. I think they packed more bags of corn than they did clothes.
DT

deertracker wrote:

Was watching as my neighbor packed their truck for deer hunting. I think they packed more bags of corn than they did clothes.
DT

I’m not hunting but want to put some out in front of my cameras and got quite a dirty look buying some bags the other day

I asked the FW to spread some corn for me on the other side of the road (in a field)

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deertracker wrote:

Was watching as my neighbor packed their truck for deer hunting. I think they packed more bags of corn than they did clothes.
DT

clothes this year is tshirt and orange vest…

Tom Sawvell wrote:

I called the MN dnr last year about deer hunting near a known bait/feeding area and a person has to stay a significant distance away with a stand.

Yes, a lot of people have tried to get away with the old gag of throwing down corn on the other side of the fence and then sitting on their side of the line and shooting deer going to/from the bait pile. It’s not my bait, it’s the neighbors… Not going to get you anywhere with the CO.

Also, the vast majority of baiting in MN is open and shut corn pile dumping in front of stands. The DNR published some photos 3-4 years ago from Aitkin County and in one picture you could see corn piles on 4 different properties.

I’m not getting into the debate of IF baiting should be allowed. In MN it’s illegal and therefore no ethical hunter would do it.

Grouse

If you were a non deer hunter or hunted elsewhere and had a major problem with a neighbor who hunted, all you’d have to do is bait/feed your whole property border and they wouldn’t be allowed to hunt anywhere near your shared property line? Seems like someone could really screw with neighbors they didn’t like.

I don’t bait but have no problem staying out of other peoples business. I know for some the thought of not trying to control what others do is a physical impossibility. They can’t help themselves but to try to control others these days. No room left for freedom. I’d also do whatever I could to help warn anyone that might be at risk of being robbed, assaulted, or killed by the armed thugs in green costumes who impose their opinions on everyone else via threats and violence.

So lets say im a farmer and baiting is not allowed in my area . Through normal agricultural practice i pick corn , or leave corn stand in my fields . Why is that not baiting ?

Don Meier wrote:

So lets say im a farmer and baiting is not allowed in my area . Through normal agricultural practice i pick corn , or leave corn stand in my fields . Why is that not baiting ?

Some one with a little power made all the rules that will profit them the most