Bear Baiting

Try it sometime
Click to expand...

I've tried about every kind of hunting there is. Even grizzlys over a dead Elk gut pile with a bow. Back when you could still get a tag in MT. for $250. I got about 30 yards on a big boar and decided I wasn't Fred Bear.:)
So, I'm not impressed by any hazard from a black bear when I have a big rifle and he has to climb 20 feet to get to me. If I can't handle that I deserve to be eaten.
 
We have bated in Colorado and they use to come around quite well.
Click to expand...
Hope that wasn't recently as baiting isn't legal in CO anymore. The only bear I've ever got was spot and stalk, but more like spot and shoot. Wasn't any real way to put a stalk on him to get closer than 200 yards.

I really don't see baiting as unethical and it surely isn't inhumane. How many bears get to eat before one is actually shot?
 
Inhumane? Hardly!! Since when is feeding animals inhumane? Where does that put the little old ladies in the park feeding ducks and pigeons? OK, you feed them to shoot them, but you don't shoot every bear that comes to the bait. I don't believe in baiting, but I also don't believe in forcing my opinions onto others. It's legal, so it's OK. I also don't believe in investing my retirement funds in the stock market, but it's legal. Just not my thing.
 
I dont bait

In my province its illegal..I like to think since I can get a black bear with out baiting that makes me feel better about my hunting abiltities. I dont think its fair but thats just cause its obvoiusly illegal and frowned upon in british columbia..BUT perhaps if I had the oppertunity to try it some where legal I would have a different perspective. In gernal alot of worse things could be done. I would be more mad to hear someone leaving their game in the bush after shooting it (just for the rush.pleasure. and not gettin the meat etc after) than if I herd some one was baiting, which I think we can all agree on. BUT haha I do find that it looks trashy and un professionl when you see the big barrels full of what ever they have in hunting videos!
 
Perfectly humane... as humane as any method and perhaps more so because of the short ranges and time it provides the shooter.

And there may be good reason to hunt over bait, depending on the area. Locations where bears exhibit the potential to become habituated to trash, crops or livestock, and are in the near presence of people would be one example where bears responding to bait sets should be culled. Also, in other areas where wildlife managers would not expect to reach harvest goals because of cover and distribution but deem it necessary to improve hunter success.

It's not the purist form of the hunt and wouldn’t be for everybody, but it's certainly not inhumane.
 
I also don't believe in investing my retirement funds in the stock market, but it's legal. Just not my thing.
Click to expand...

hehehe... I hear ya, Scorch. I've been through too many market whipsaws to "invest," but I "trade" regularly. It only took me ALL DAY to scalp a whopping 31 bucks after commissions, but that's almost 2 boxes of .223 I didn't have when I woke up. So, "Boooo-Yah!" Call me Mr. Wall Street! :rolleyes:
 
Buzz and Inspector -

I do not dispute habitat infringement is an issue. But I also know some coastal communities with little, if any, growth, that have increased "interaction".

I have also encountered significantly more bears in the last few years in wilderness areas while hunting.

There are obviously many factors in population growth, and I over-simplified by implying that the change in hunting regs was the only one. I do, however, firmly believe it is ONE of the big reasons.
 
Personal opinion, but I think the anti-bait crowd is using the word "inhumane" where some of us might prefer "unethical" or "immoral" instead.

I don't see any difference at all between baiting for bear and baiting for deer. Or fish. :D I don't like to hunt over bait, because I don't like to sit and wait. But I know places where the physical situation for landform and vegetation precludes any other method. Ergo, I'm uninterested in the arguments.
 
If you can't prove it since it's a "subjective concept" then just try to convince me it's inhumane.
Click to expand...
I'm not going to try and convince you that it's inhumane, because IMO, it isn't. How's that for subjectivity? :cool:
 
davlandrum,

I would love to go bear hunting sometime so don't think I was hugging trees... There's plenty around my area that hug bark and they don't need my help. I also love seeing animals in the wild when I'm not armed as I'm sure most do. I was working more towards the point that they want to move out here and then they whine.

There may well be an increase in population with all of the restrictions on hunting here. In fact, most bear trouble I hear about happens in areas where you would be ticketed for shooting a .22, much less something more effective for bear. I also see more coyotes than I did 20+ years ago.

It seems that the city folks move out and bring their fear of guns. Then the population density contributes to make safe shooting areas more scarce. The laws get changed and then they tremble when a big blackie is in their yard (My wife and I would be looking out the window and taking pictures and as long as it wasn't causing too much destruction I'd leave it alone.) Some of these restrictions are due to irresponsible shooters, but I think that's mostly an excuse to crack down.
 
My question is, how can it be considered inhumane?
Click to expand...
There will never be a consensus on what is humane when it comes to killing any animal in a hunting situation. What I consider to be compassionate would be considered barbaric to someone who is an anti-hunter. We just have to accept the fact that we will never dance to the same beat and not antagonize them.
I so not hunt bear, but I always say, "God Bless the Bear Hunter's" If we take away baiting we will bear the results of less bear harvested and have no one to blame but ourselves.
Just be thankful you don't have a preserve close to you like there is outside of Orr MN.
http:
//www.americanbear.org/sanctuary/bear-sanctuary.html

This group controls hundreds of bear in northern MN.
some will claim that a bear may range over 50 sq. miles in its home range.
This sanctuary is about 40 miles away.
Hunters and bear preservationists do not get along very well in that area.
 
Simply put if we want any hunting in the future you better be willing to stand up an fight for any legal form of hunting today, cause if baiting ,hounds ,trapping, go the way of the Dodo bird guess who's in the antis sights next.Alex
 
davlandrum: you could prove your case if Oregon keeps records of bear harvests from before the change in regs to after. If there is a significant drop in bear harvest after baiting was made illegal then your point would much more likely.
 
I hate it when people want to treat animals like humans. Of course it is inhumane, you are shooting an animal that is not threatening you. It is not ethical to do that to a human.

I plan on hunting deer over bait in the future. I am not doing it for a trophy or to validate anything. I like venison and I don't want to waste a lot of time looking for a deer.

If I went on a trophy hunt I would not want to shoot over bait.
 
In Michigan there are a few differnt seasons. The first one you can stand hunt only or track etc. The rest of them you can run them with dogs, and that is what most people due. I have never ran a bear with a dog so I guess I have no experince with that. Run the bear with a pack of dogs till it is in a tree on cornered then shoot it. Is that inhumane? I cant even answer that because I know there is a big topic on the way people hunt or even for that matter what is inhumane or not. I have hunted bear over bait, and got one that way. I am sure lots of people think that is inhumane. It is pretty hard just to walk up to a bear were I live, and just shoot it. I guess thats why you never see them bird hunting etc. I think the most important part is how do you feel about the way you hunt. Is it legal, and I think the most important part is that you will only take a shot with good placement or pass on it. Not taking a shot on anything you are hunting because you can not get good placement or are unsure for whatever reason makes a good sportsperson in my opion.
 
Bait give the hunter an extended opportunity to sort out the boars and sows, and reduces the chance of indirectly killing cubs still dependant on mom. Bait offer the greatest chance of a clean single shot kill and the least chance of tracking and possibly losing a wounded animal.

Most humane and ethical in my book.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top