Legal in AZ????????

[novice]

OK experts out there, need your help again. I have just got done watching the Men's channel. They were hunting white tail in Texas and using deer attractants, Buck crunch, peanut butter, etc. I have looked thru the AZ Hunting Regs and see no mention of attractants being illegal. 2 questions: 1- are they legal? and 2- are they ethical?

[Guest Guest]

Legal:yes

ethical:of course not.

[300 wsm]

Yes they are legal, the only thing that you can not bait for is waterfowl, and bears, and I think it is up to the individual if its ethical or not, I personally think that it is ethical.

[Rembrant]

Salt has been the norm here in AZ. AZ deer don't seem to bait well from what I've been able to glean from various sources over the years. Tell you what, If you found a magic substance that causes Coues bucks to committ suicide, it would be best to keep it under your hat - cause if it became the craze, it would go the same way as the bear bait - illegal.

Mike

[Guest Ernesto C]

Questions aswered.

 

Ernesto C.

[.270]

to me, bait = lazy. get out and hunt. learn about the wildlife. see the country. enjoy the experience. i see these losers on the hunting shows sitting in a stand, reading a romance novel or playing a video game and it really turns me off. a stand on a trail or a wallow or waterhole is a completely different thing. have no problem with that. sitting over bait is something that i just don't understand. i can see how anti's associate all hunters with slobs. wear out your boots. scratch up your rifle. learn to use the wind. learn to track. it's a great life. shooting something eating out of a can is a real waste of everything.

[novice]

Couldn't agree with you more .270 ( & others). Watching these guys (& their kids) shoot huge bucks in OPEN fields & using attractants seems to take the thrills and excitement out of the whole equation. I have hunted and fished in PA & AZ since I was 12 yrs old (48 now, you do the math), and I had never seen anything like this. Even baiting for bear doesn't seem right. Thanks for the responses.

 

Our group is getting out this weekend to scout our area. Looking for tanks WITH water seems to be the first order of business.

 

THX again

[TREESTANDMAN]

To an small extent I agree with what is being said. I love watching deer at a close distance unspooked from a treestand and "baiting deer" with salt or grain has allowed me that opportunity. Baiting deer requires time and effort and money and needs to be thought out strategically, especially in AZ where the deer concentrations aren't quite like Texas for instance. If you guys think baiting is unethical then how is sitting water not? All deer have to drink. I have hunted salt for years and I feel it is ethical because I have to buy the salt bags, decide where to establish my salt plots, haul the heavy bags over my shoulder to my sites. Not only that but it gives the deer minerals they need to grow nice racks and blood circulation. I also love glassing for deer, spot and stalking, calling, and still hunting. There is a time for everything. It depends on the attitude of the hunter. If the hunter "baits" deer because he is greedy and lazy and can't get a buck any other way I believe it to be unethical. If he tries baiting because he enjoys seeing deer more frequently from a treestand, enjoys watching them fight and play, then I think it is fine. Last year was the first year ever I tried grain, I had no bucks come in but the does were fun to watch. I killed a buck chasing a doe coming into salt from a treestand last year in december.

[.270]

hey, i never said unethical. i said lazy. yeah, yeah i know. it's a negative connotation. but i really feel that sitting in a treestand over a food pile is a little different than what i was raised to believe was hunting. a stand over water or a well used trail or a natural saltlick, or even waiting on a meadow for animals to come feed in the evening is different to me, because it is a naturally occuring thing. it's as basic as it gets. been done for centuries. something that has been produced elsewhere and then packed into the field to bait in an animal just doesn't seem like something that i'd like to do. especially putting things out that enhance antler and body growth. we ain't farmers. how can a buck with genetically enchanced antlers be allowed in a record book? don't seem right to me, but it happens all the time. just another reason to dislike record books, too. but that's a different subject. a guy misses too much in a stand. there's a big ol' world out there and i wanna see as much of it as i can. and sitting in a stand doesn't offer me that. get on a track and see where it takes me. that what i like. i've tinkered with bear baiting, when it was legal, but never had the patience to sit there long enough. plus it always seems like some other lazy joker like me would put another bait up about 50 yards away. i've always loved to hunt with hounds too, and some folks have a disdain for that. hunting methods are like opinions and opinions are like armpits. everyone has at least 2 of em and all of em but mine stink.

[TREESTANDMAN]

Some of the best experiences I have ever had have been from treestands. I've called in does, watched bucks chase does around, been able to listen to them communicate, watched how they react to noise and weather, watched how they react to elk coming in. I have learned a lot from stand hunting and have great memories.

[bullwidgeon]

I think shooting bears over bait sucks, bears become reckless over food alot. Kinda like drug addicts, sometimes it seems pitiful to watch on the Outdoor Channel a wild and wary creature come into some dudes stand in Maine, stick its head in a barrel full of krispy kreme donuts and sit there and munch them and stare at the hunter in the stand waiting to be cracked. Something is not right with that scene in my book and I have no desire to do it. Shooting a coues deer with a bow with or without bait is another thing all together. These deer are not as chingered and tame as their South Texas and Alabama cousins, for the most part they are wary no matter what kind of bait or lure you use even in the rut. Ethics is a personal thing, do as you see fit as long as it is within the law. And yes, I have killed a bunch of deer over feeders in both Texas and Louisiana when I lived down there and I still feel it is a messed up way to hunt. That is just how I feel personally and I don't look down on anyone who wants to do it that way...

 

Bret M.

[.270]

and ya never find any arrowheads or old mule shoes from a tree stand either. ethics is a word that gets thrown around too much. if it's legal, it's ethical. people will protest about hunting and the death penalty and then go to a pro-abortion rally. it's all opinions. in my opinion, i'd rather tromp around and spook em up so's i can use my finely tuned and razor honed shooting skills on running game. plus, i've never seen a stand with a place for my horse. Lark.

[TREESTANDMAN]

Lark,

 

I bet you couldn't climb a tree if you wanted to. Don't feel bad, we will all get old sooner or later.

[.270]

you'd lose that bet. in fact, i can climb one quicker than you. do it all the time.

[TREESTANDMAN]

Sure ya do, I bet its uphill both ways too.