Neighbor Hunting Over Bait

hookinembig · Post by **hookinembig** » April 29th, 2015, 9:21 pm

I am a new member and killed my first spring gobbler on 04/18 this year. As some of you may have read in my previous post the land we leased this year was full of gobblers and turkeys. The first Saturday out we heard at least 4 to 6 gobblers throughout the land. My first hunt ended in success with a nice gobbler. I wasn't able to get back to the land last Saturday due to prior obligations but my dad and brother were able to go. They called using a crow call and multiple yelps and cackles and heard nothing throughout the whole property it was cooler and raining. Walking all of the bottoms and logging roads. On the way to the last area they happened to stop and talk to the neighbor who owns a little bit of land beside our lease. Turns out he has been putting corn out in his field and hunting the gobblers that come in(just a little bit illegal in VA). In a week he, his son, and buddy killed 5 gobblers along with the one he had in the back of his truck that morning. He had a pitcher of corn that he was going to put in the field to try to pull in another. He said he had seen 7 totally so that is 6 killed total. He said he was feeding his cows (with a pitcher full). We were able to get back up to the land on Tuesday and walked and called for 4 1/2 hours and not a single sound. It is unfortunate that people feel the need to hunt over bait because they don't want to put the time in and work for it. Heading back up on Saturday and weather should be nice so hopefully we can pull off a miracle. Sorry just needed to vent a little.

OLE RASPY · Post by **OLE RASPY** » April 29th, 2015, 9:53 pm

Sounds like they have murdered all of them. He's pretty brave talking about baiting. I've had it happened to me on adjoining farm last year and that's what has hurt my hunting this year on one piece of property that I hunt. I had 12 different gobblers rooster night before season and opening day 6 gunshots and next day 5 gunshots and one of them shots was mine. I killed one on that farm last year and hunted every weekend till end of season and heard or saw nothing. Haven't heard or saw nothing this year either. So I feel your pain.

hookinembig · Post by **hookinembig** » April 29th, 2015, 10:01 pm

It is definitely disappointing but all you can do is work hard and it will pay off. I enjoy being in the woods with my brother and dad so their is always a positive to every situation even if we don't hear any gobbling or see any strutting toms.

Hookinembig

oldfantail · Post by **oldfantail** » April 30th, 2015, 6:23 am

Game Commission has a number; use it.

hookinembig · Post by **hookinembig** » April 30th, 2015, 6:52 am

We thought about contacting them but he has cows and he will just use the excuse that he is feeding his cows even though it is a pitcher full at a time. Plus around here you are lucky if you have one game warden per county most only have one per two counties. Still may try contacting them because I am sure deer season will be the same, but hopefully our food plots will be established enough to hold the deer on the property.

Cut N Run · Post by **Cut N Run** » April 30th, 2015, 7:06 am

I hunt at a couple of local horse farms and help maintain the trails there in exchange for rights to hunt each farm. Four years ago, I'd been hearing several gobblers roosted along the creek near the swamp a few weeks before turkey season opened and was looking forward to getting a crack at one of them. I already knew where I was going to set up, so I left the place alone until opening day. On Opening Day I barely heard a few gobbles from way on the other side of the swamp and nothing in the woods that had been full of gobbler sounds less than 2 weeks before. I also heard three shots from across the swamp not long after it got light.

I got shut out that turkey season for the first time in a very long time and couldn't understand what happened. Then in late May, one of the horses busted through a fence, got out, and the farm owner called me to track him. I followed his tracks to the other side of the swamp and came across a couple of shooting houses in the woods and the ground in front of each one was pretty much raked to bare dirt. It suddenly made sense of what the deal was. I returned the horse and immediately contacted the Wildlife Department. I don't know what happened to whoever was "hunting" there, but I know those blinds went away and the turkeys have returned to normal activity.

Jim

Post by **redarrow** » April 30th, 2015, 8:47 am

That sucks. I say drop a dime on em.The Warden will figure out what he's feeding.

hawglips · Post by **hawglips** » April 30th, 2015, 9:22 am

redarrow wrote:That sucks. I say drop a dime on em.The Warden will figure out what he's feeding.

Yep.

snapper1982 · Post by **snapper1982** » April 30th, 2015, 9:49 am

hookinembig wrote:We thought about contacting them but he has cows and he will just use the excuse that he is feeding his cows even though it is a pitcher full at a time. Plus around here you are lucky if you have one game warden per county most only have one per two counties. Still may try contacting them because I am sure deer season will be the same, but hopefully our food plots will be established enough to hold the deer on the property.

He can say he is feeding his cows all he wants but it would still be illegal to hunt turkeys over the spot he feeds his cows. If they are hunting over a food source that was put there no matter what it was intended to feed it is baiting.

turkey_slayer · Post by **turkey_slayer** » April 30th, 2015, 11:09 am

You don't feed corn to cows by a cup. That wouldn't fly with a warden

killerstump · Post by **killerstump** » April 30th, 2015, 11:46 am

Look on your va license there is a number there.

Or

1-800-237-5712.

K9Doc · Post by **K9Doc** » April 30th, 2015, 12:02 pm

If u don't report it, u are part of the problem.
Then your complaining is falling on Deaf Ears here

appalachianassassin · April 30th, 2015, 1:52 pm

turn his azz in.

pedro · Post by **pedro** » April 30th, 2015, 2:21 pm

I would report it

turk835 · Post by **turk835** » April 30th, 2015, 3:10 pm

That's a load of crap. A pitcher full of corn wouldn't fill a turkey's crop let alone a cow. The game commission needs to be notified, these kinds of outlaws need to be taken out of the woods as they have no concept of turkey hunting in it's purist form. Poachers ore the lowest type of people.

Bill

Bigspurs68 · Post by **Bigspurs68** » April 30th, 2015, 10:31 pm

He's just basically stealing from you and others. He's a slob. Do something about it and maybe next spring you can actually hunt turkeys and enjoy it.

Gar Commander · Post by **Gar Commander** » April 30th, 2015, 10:38 pm

Same thing happened to me last year, except opening day of youth season my son killed the neighbors turkey about 50 yards on our side of the fence. This is what poured out of him when cleaning.http://i960.photobucket.com/albums/ae89 ... 1430361370

appalachianassassin · Post by **appalachianassassin** » May 1st, 2015, 1:16 pm

ive dropped the dime more than once. never felt a bit bad about it either. I would turn my own brother in for baiting.

Grumpy · Post by **Grumpy** » May 1st, 2015, 8:30 pm

I would definitely let someone know whats going on for the birds sake if nothing else.

Hognutz · Post by **Hognutz** » May 2nd, 2015, 9:22 am

Hunting over bait is not all that it's cracked up to be. I tried it once.
First of all, it's not easy climbing a tree with a sack of corn tied to your waist. It does get in the way and slows you down like an anchor.
Second, by the time I got up to roosting height (Make sure you sight your shotgun in accordingly!), the limbs were so small that I had all I could do to balance 3 or 4 kernels on the limb without them falling off!.
Thirdly, I had to do this four or five times because the dang squirrels had the corn gone by the time my feet hit the ground!
In conclusion, I think it's best to forget the whole baiting idea.
Get to that roosting tree early enough to blast them right off the limb!!
Happy hunting!!

OLE RASPY · Post by **OLE RASPY** » May 2nd, 2015, 9:38 am

Hognutz wrote:Hunting over bait is not all that it's cracked up to be. I tried it once.
First of all, it's not easy climbing a tree with a sack of corn tied to your waist. It does get in the way and slows you down like an anchor.
Second, by the time I got up to roosting height (Make sure you sight your shotgun in accordingly!), the limbs were so small that I had all I could do to balance 3 or 4 kernels on the limb without them falling off!.
Thirdly, I had to do this four or five times because the dang squirrels had the corn gone by the time my feet hit the ground!
In conclusion, I think it's best to forget the whole baiting idea.
Get to that roosting tree early enough to blast them right off the limb!!
Happy hunting!!

ccleroy · Post by **ccleroy** » May 2nd, 2015, 10:35 am

Did you report it??? I would have sat right there until the Warden showed!!!!

hookinembig · Post by **hookinembig** » May 2nd, 2015, 3:33 pm

I did finally report it so we will see what happens. I saw him up there this morning riding around on his utv. Luckily we pushed a gobbler and a hen off of the field when we were driving to the back portion of the land so at least there is one left.

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