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Is baiting really hunting?

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Well in 50 plus years of deer hunting & harvesting a few hundred deer, I honesly don't think baiting is hunting. It is harvesting, pure & simple. For the first 30 plus years of deer hunting I never baited,( it was illegal here) but when it became legal here & everyone around here was doing it. I did as well. The deer here just went from one bait pile to another, if a deer harverster did not bait they was sxxt out of luck. Baiting requres very little skill, I see it as going to a slaughter house, picking out your beef & then shooting it. I am glad that they finally made it illegal here in the county I live. However if it is legal in ones area, I sure would not pass judgement on anyone. Got enough people bashing hunters. 
 
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My 2 cents. There is division all around. It seems everywhere I look. Different folks have different methods. I am not baiting but my favorite hunting in life was dove hunting setting around a river or pond. In reality I guess thats baiting the birds were needing a drink. I shoot rabbits that get in the wires garden if she didn't grow the vegetables there would be no rabbits. My neighbor has pigeons that eat his feed and I shoot them. So I guess I am baiting there to. 
 
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Baiting is not hunting.When I think of "The Hunt" I think of moving,scouting,ranging,I go to the animals.

YET,when "hunting" I see no reason to not use "calls" or in Duck "hunting" not to use decoys.

I :bait: fish ,yet I also use "lures".....So you can see some people can intermix the different terms.

Baiting is a form of luring,when people get older they have a harder time hunting so need all the help they can get.

There is also "meat hunters" the goal is to harvest meat ,it is not the hunt it is the meat for food.

So in reality to each his own.
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+1 what I would've said.
 
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My 2 cents. There is division all around. It seems everywhere I look. Different folks have different methods. I am not baiting but my favorite hunting in life was dove hunting setting around a river or pond. In reality I guess thats baiting the birds were needing a drink. I shoot rabbits that get in the wires garden if she didn't grow the vegetables there would be no rabbits. My neighbor has pigeons that eat his feed and I shoot them. So I guess I am baiting there to.
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Exactly. I have been fortunate to have bow hunted in 6 states for deer. Once I was hunting in Illionois , & landowner/outfitter over drinks started trashing anyone who hunted over bait. I ask him what was the difference when he had put me up in a tree stand over a corn field where all the corn had been harvested, except tiny parcel within easy distance of my tree. Well I can tell you that did not go over well, LOL.. 
 
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Kind of like that movie “ build it they will come”. People see these videos but a air rifle aren’t happy just shooting targets they don’t have pests so they put out bait and then they have pests now they can get a lil blood, makes them feel good in some weird way, kind of like the areas where there are no drug problems. Put a table on the sidewalk with some koolaid and crack and see what crawls in, I’m just happy shooting targets my hunting days are long past On that note I never baited deer,bear, or any other wild game big or small.
 
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I may be in the minority, but it bothers me when people bait for pests. I don't think a critter is a pest if it is trying to survive off your property. When you set bait to attract them to your property, then the critter wasn't really a pest. If you have a mouse problem on your property, I get why you would bait a trap. However, If you have to attract squirrels to your property by setting up feeders, then I don't get it. It would be like putting sugar water all over your body when you go out in the woods to attract mosquitos so that you can swat the suckers that dare land on you.
 
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I may be in the minority, but it bothers me when people bait for pests. I don't think a critter is a pest if it is trying to survive off your property. When you set bait to attract them to your property, then the critter wasn't really a pest. If you have a mouse problem on your property, I get why you would bait a trap. However, If you have to attract squirrels to your property by setting up feeders, then I don't get it. It would be like putting sugar water all over your body when you go out in the woods to attract mosquitos so that you can swat the suckers that dare land on you.
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At least for me, what I do with "bait" is to try and direct the pests to a safe place for me to eliminate them. They were there before I ever put out the bait, and will still be there if I never put bait out again. The "bait" simply maneuvers them to a safe place to kill them with the least chance of collateral damage to neighboring properties, etc.

If you think that is unethical, then we will have to agree to disagree.

p.s.

I also have bird seed feeders, hummingbird feeders, and I feed the numerous cottontail rabbits that frequent my property. I like watching them and they don't do any damage to my property. Do you also consider that "baiting"? Not that I really care what you think...
 
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I don’t consider either to be the right(true) or the wrong way to hunt. By your definition of true hunting I agree it will require more skill and physical ability from the hunter. Although, I don’t think baiting regulations are in place to preserve the sportsmanship of hunting. If every hunter was to use baiting stations it would make it drastically harder for those “true” hunters to get their tags filled. As well as disrupting the natural way the animals seek out their food. Put a bait pile out for deer and pretty soon the deer start to associate bait with humans and will only come out at night avoiding humans to forage. 

(Assuming that you fish) Do you use bait? Or do you dive in the water with a spear to stalk and catch your prey? Before humans used fishing poles with bait we were either diving into the water to spear the fish, spearing them in shallow waters, or spearing them from a boat. In fact, there are still people today that fish this way. These “true” fishermen probably feel the same way about baiting fishermen as you do about people who use bait for land mammals. 

Whether it’s baiting deer or fish, or trapping hogs in a pen and then shooting them at point blank range it’s a display of humans superior intelligence among the animal kingdom. The ability to work smarter not harder 


 
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we are allowed to bait deer and elk although I don't personally do it nor have I ever, I don't mind those who do. I have never felt the need to bait although I feel certain in instances it isnt always a bad thing. An example would be a disabled hunter. I do know a couple guys who do bait during a November deer and elk late archery hunt and they have yet to connect on an animal lol. I guess I would still consider it hunting. Just not as rewarding if one were to harvest an animal while doing it. 
 
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@BackStop

I guess if the critters are already on your property causing damage, then I have no problem with baiting them to a safe spot to dispose of. I've seen videos of a guy who places feeders in his yard to draw in squirrels from woods beyond his property so he can record himself shooting them. I don't consider this "pesting" because I don't believe the squirrels are causing damage to his property in any way. He is not protecting his property. He is just drawing them in on purpose because he likes killing them. 

Like you, I enjoy the wildlife that visits my backyard. I have a bird feeder out because I welcome the animals to my yard, which means they are not pests. 
 
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@BackStop

I guess if the critters are already on your property causing damage, then I have no problem with baiting them to a safe spot to dispose of. I've seen videos of a guy who places feeders in his yard to draw in squirrels from woods beyond his property so he can record himself shooting them. I don't consider this "pesting" because I don't believe the squirrels are causing damage to his property in any way. He is not protecting his property. He is just drawing them in on purpose because he likes killing them. 

Like you, I enjoy the wildlife that visits my backyard. I have a bird feeder out because I welcome the animals to my yard, which means they are not pests.
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Try and think of it this way. I spray poison to prevent damage to my property from insects. I have never had damage (AFAIK so far) from insects, but that is probably due to my due diligence of killing them BEFORE they have a chance to enter my home and do the damage.

Pesting is exactly the same. I have had damage from chipmunks, rats, mice and squirrels. I am not waiting for them to do the damage again before I eliminate them.

Does this explanation help you to understand in any way? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...
 
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I both hunt and pest my main quarry being the CA ground squirrel which is perfect for air rifle hunting. I hunt them at National Forests and open range land in their natural habit (which is much harder) and I also "pest" them on agricultural land primary nut orchards where they have an abundant food source but also causing a lot of damage and where the farmer is usually already trying to kill them with poison or propane gas to blow up their borrows so I am usually a better option for the farmer.

I agree with others here these two very different types of activities which becomes very apparent when you do both on a pretty frequent basis. I agree baiting isn't really hunting and I have never done it but if the game is near a known food source (say agriculture) that is a grey are technically you aren't baiting the game you are just waiting near an area they are known to be at but I would say it takes all the "sport" out of it which for me at least is a large part of the enjoyment. Similar to why I don't consider shooting ground squirrels at 250+ yards with a .223 from a field shooting bench as really "hunting" since there is no "sport" going on there but I know many would call this sort of thing "hunting".

I would also say "hunting" traditionally is done to harvest game animals for consumption and shooting and non game animals that live outside population areas (ground squirrels, certain bird species , jack rabbits, etc..) could still be considering hunting even if consumption is not the end goal. 
 
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It really depends on where your hunting. I sell hunts and have hunters come out to my ranch. My place is in south Texas about 50 miles from the Mexico border. You can not spot and stalk unless you are only sticking to walking on roads. There is no pushing bush like up north in groups it just can’t be done at least at my place. When someone wounds a deer and I have to track it most of the time i am crawling through the brush and when I’m done picking hundreds of thorns out of me. There is not one plant or tree not covered in thorns. If anyone wants to spot and stalk hunt there send me a pm I’ll let you hunt for free lol
 
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Some people are easily gratified. They can pick animals off over bait that is unnatural to the environment and live happily ever after. Others need a challenge to make success gratifying. It’s all about the process or the means and less about stacking animals. We are inherently becoming lazy and less patient. Baiting is the temporary cure but it will bite us in the end. All kinds of animals at small bait sites is just asking for diseases to be spread. Neighboring properties now battle who has the greatest bait. Yeah, that’s hunting. Will it ever stop? Nope. If some guys couldn’t bait, they would quickly lose interest in their hobby.
 
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Many years ago I thought that legal baiting was a good idea. I carefully studied what my prey would eat and how to properly place the bait. I would even make sure my scent was not on any of the bait. I became very good at this.

I was a master baiter.
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ROFLMAO!
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You sir, are an inspiration to us all!
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LOL!!! Even wit bait rats are hard to shoot they are so wary, and it's even tougher to get it on video.

I am a Master Baiter as well.
 
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