amazing first deer hunt for 12 year old

[popolarbear]

another amazing story for discussion.

my 12year old was super excited to go deer hunting for first time. passed fire arm safety class. got all gear together. .. goes off with brother in law who the day before closed on the property in question. 3 groups of families go as a group basically on a group hunt. during the night one older "guest" goes out and sprinkles apples under his stand. at sun up, everyone goes out, and he shoots a deer. second non-shooter gives hand and helps the older gentlemen by gutting the deer, at which point ....
.
.
the DNR officer walks up, and asks who's deer this is.
have the kids go inside .
"your in violation for hunting on bait." after numerous interrogations. it pans out that 3 stands had salt licks that had trace amounts of molasses in them, one stand had apples under it. the salt licks were placed months ago, but that didn't matter. 3 adults got $900 fines, and lost guns. kids being new hunters were allowed to get away with warning since the adults should have known better and guide them better. in honesty the other adults were not aware that they had made a violation until then. the apples placed by the guest were not known by the owner who had just purchased the land the day before.

[popolarbear]

the elderly guest who placed the apples in the middle of the night, lost a precious gun from his father. the land owner lost a $1600 favorite gun.
kids lost the opportunity to hunt on a good plot of land that they really didn't need to bait to begin with...

deer was confiscated.


what i don't understand fully is that the other two hunters really didn't go out with any intention to violate the laws. they would have gladly moved salt licks away had they been aware that trace amounts of molasses in the licks qualified them as baiting.


my kid came home upset that his first hunt went so bad.





anyone think the non-baiting buystanders who were hunting on stands next to salt licks have a chance to present their case and get guns returned???

[DiverQueen]

The sad thing is that there is a booklet put out by the DNR that a responsible hunter should get (AND READ) when they purchase their deer tag.  Ignorance is no defence.

Next time, place cotton balls with vanilla on them in tree branches!

[scubafreek864]

Assuming this was here in Minnesota?

Highly doubt that they will be able to get them back.

Baiting is baiting, no matter how someone sugar coats it. lol  ;D

If you are putting out mineral blocks, you need to read what all the contents in that block are. 

Did they have out regular salt blocks, and poor molasses on them, like "Stump Licker Molasses"?

The regulations in the Handbook are specific on what is considered baiting.

From the DNR 2011 Handbook:

Hunting Method Restrictions
Bait or Feed
• “Bait or feed” is grain, fruit, vegetables, nuts, hay, or other food that
is capable of attracting or enticing deer and that has been placed by a
person.
• Hunters are not allowed to use or hunt over bait or feed or hunt in
the vicinity of bait or feed if the hunter knows about or has reason
to know about the placement of the bait or feed.
• A person otherwise in compliance with this section who is hunting
on private or public property that is adjacent to the property where
bait or feed is present is not in violation if the person has not participated in, been involved with, or agreed to baiting or feeding wildlife
on the adjacent property.
• An area is considered baited for 10 days after complete removal of
the bait or feed.
• Liquid scents, sprays, salt, and minerals, are not considered bait
or feed.
• Any attractant that contains grain or other food sources is considered
bait or feed.
• This restriction
does not apply to foods that have not been placed by
an individual and result from normal
or accepted farming, forest management,
wildlife food plantings, orchard management,
or similar land
management
activities. Piling harvested pumpkins or other food from
a food plot is one example of baiting.

That sucks that your boy had to be part of that. 

[Hydro]

that's too bad your kid had to go with crappy hunters, I'm all for sport hunting... but when it comes to baiting and ambushing there's not much sport in that.

As for adults claiming they didn't know the others were baiting, again they are adults and that's the risk you take..choose your buddies wisely... alternatively you gotta at least let other people in the group know if you are gonna pull somthing against the law to give them the option of getting out of the situation

Compare it to a group of divers going to a historic wreck and someone takes an artifact.... who is to blame? The diver that took it, or the entire group that was there while it was happening?

[popolarbear]

I would think that this situation with salt licks would fall under

" Liquid scents, sprays, salt, and minerals, are not considered bait
or feed.".. especially since the licks are licked and not eaten. and other ingredients are trace and actually dont make up any significant portion of the material.

also of interest in this case is that the officer was seen on the property multiple times over the last month. all times no badge was seen in the camera. I thought that there is a regulation that states something like the officer was required to be in uniform consisting of visible badge.