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Mineral Lick Question

risto2351

risto2351

Well-Known Member
Okay guys I was just wondering.
Does anyone definitely know.
If I put down my mineral lick is that considered to be baiting? Most of my blocks will be dissolved by the fall season and I was going to put down a couple with Ghost's recipe on the ground thatI seen on the site recently.
I like to hunt in this area but want to make sure I am legal.

To me they will be gone by fall so I really do not know for sure.

Thanks for the input.
Risto
 
IMO I would consider that baiting. The regs consider mineral blocks or other natural minerals as "bait" without defining how long they have been there. Blocks will break down, but will still be in the soil. I'll let others chime in on it, but if it were me, I would put them far enough from your stands that the DNR wouldn't think you were sitting over them. Just my $.02 worth though.
Cy
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I think that it is baiting. See: Prohibited Devices and Activities page 6 of 12. Since this is one of those area where the CO has some discretion, I'd want to have a fair distance between my stand and a mineral lick. What is a "fair distance" though?
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A hot trail to a mineral lick is about the same as hunting the lick.
 
It would be considered baiting but I rarely get any pics in the fall over mineral licks. I would find a different area to try out the mix and make sure the legalities are in your favor.
 
Thanks guys,
Now to throw a little fuel on the fire what is the difference between that and having a stand over a food plot?

I will read the regs because maybe my answer is in there.

Thanks for the responses.
Risto
 
Technically, a food plot could be considered baiting. My view on how it differs is that a mineral lick is a very focused area of activity that could be covered from one stand. A food plot is usually much larger and the animals can enter it from many different approaches. One stand usually won't allow you to cover the whole food plot, then again, sometimes certain approaches will see the majority of traffic.

Has anyone ever been arrested or heard of someone being arrested hunting a wildlife food plot? Or a mineral lick? I think the DNR would rather focus on spotlighters with high powered rifles than a bow hunter next to a food plot.
 
Ok
I couldn't stay out of this one. How about if you hunt over a food plot that you can shoot across we'll call it 75 percent wild and 60 percent fair chase.
 
You can't shoot across it with a bow yet your muzzleloader can reach every corner.... Ok for bow, but not for gun????

We are splittin' hairs and tempting ethics. Man, season can't get here soon enough.
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I've read situations where the neighbor hangs a stand right on someone's property line. So put a salt block right in plain view of his stand on your side, then turn him in for hunting over bait (anonymous call to TIP?).
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If it's a real burr under your saddle, send him a certified letter that you have a salt block there so he can't claim ignorance because he had to sign for the letter informing him it was there!
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Guaranteed enemies then!! I'm scheming too much, come on season!!!
 
JR,
I do agree come on season!!
As far as the salt licks though. I have five blocks out for the deer. I also wanted to try putting salt in the ground. Not to hunt over but for the deer.
Was wondering how far to put them away from my stands. I really do not think it is baiting when the block is gone. Most deer like Shredder mentioned will not be around it in the fall anyway.
O well thanks for the input. I will just make sure I am a ways from them this fall.
Risto
 
That most likely would be considered baiting. The block may be disolved by fall, but it is still there, just absorbed into the soil.
The way baiting was explained to me is this: If you carry it in and an animal can consume it (food, mineral, etc) it is bait. If you grow it on the spot (food plot) its ok. Why the difference? I suspect they had to draw the line somewhere. As for distance, I was told that if the officer feels that the presence of the bait is influencing deer behavior to the benefit of the hunter, whether or not he can actually shoot to it, it is considered hunting over bait. Definately a gray area.

I am glad baiting is illegal. What a mess that would be with everybody trying to out compete their neighbor with a bigger truckload of corn, beats, etc.
 
It is considered baiting in PA, the law states they must be removed 30 days before the hunting season starts. It does not make much sense to me because it does disolve into the ground and stay there a while. From my observations though, the deer don't seem to bother them much in the fall. Early spring and summer they seem to get the most attention, that's when the does need the extra minerals for fawning and the buck for the antler growing period. I think hunting over bait in a small concentrated area is un-ethical but then again what's the difference of hunting over one lone white oak in a stand of timber that draws them in like a magnet?
 
There's a lot of trail camera pictures of deer sitting on mineral posts on this sight. We all must be baiting. I agree with what was said earlier about them not coming to the posts during the fall as much but who knows.

Say someone started a mineral post back in april to put a camera over and give their deer a little more minerals during the spring and summer months. But come November and on a ridge 100 yds away they are sitting in a treestand when all of the sudden MR. Booner walks by headed in the direction of the mineral post.

Is this baiting or not? I don't know but I for one would let one rip through his side and call it dumb luck.
 
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I am glad baiting is illegal. What a mess that would be with everybody trying to out compete their neighbor with a bigger truckload of corn, beats, etc.

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Some states have a mess just like that TP and those people have completely forgotten how to hunt.
Even a 1/2 acre foodplot, deer can come and go from anywhere which is a whole lot different then coming to a 5 gallon bucket of corn.

My mineral licks get very little use in the fall compared to spring and with all the poaching and illegal activity going on in the fall, I suspect it would have to be a pretty flagrant siutation...that someone reported, before an officer would repsond to it.

As is always the case with every person....hunter or not...all things come down to ethics and morals...is it something you can "get a way with"...or live with...
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a pretty flagrant siutation

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Like big round bales stacked around a clover plot with one entrance/exit 20 yards from a treestand?
 
I wonder who you are talking about Pharmer. And they claim all their hunts are FAIR CHASE!!!!
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But I think you have it wrong, 1 entrace/exit on each end of the food plot so they both can hunt the same plot!
 
I remember a few years ago during a real hard winter, the deer were using a stack of round bales in a field pretty much 24 hrs a day. The temps were well below zero,the snow was deep and hard which made it real tough for the deer to dig to any food.It was late muzzleloader season and a few deer were shot over the bales. At the time I didnt consider anything wrong with it, now you guys got me thinking, this could be considered baiting , I guess.The bales were not set there for the purpose of hunting, but they were drawing literaly hundreds of deer all day long.
 
Sorry to get you confused, we are talking about a celebrity brothers that have ground in Iowa, their tactics involve this, they planted a clover field and then lined the edges with hay bales and only had 2 entrances/exits, basically they constructed a coral with hay bales and then put their treestands at the entrance and exits of this field. Sorry about the confusion. That is agriculture so if the deer come up to it that is their loss and your gain in my opinion if it was as you stated, now if you sat it out there far from cattle and not in a row like most farmers do and it is rather obvious what you are doing then I would consider it baiting. Like someone said earlier, DNR is more worried about high powers instead of someone taking a deer with the right weapon in the right season over a bait pile that they might or might not come to. Your chances just increase slightly in my opinion
 
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a pretty flagrant siutation

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Like big round bales stacked around a clover plot with one entrance/exit 20 yards from a treestand?

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Dang...at first I thought you were kidding...but apprantly not
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I'm all for making funnels but, that sounds more like a trap.....like I said, it comes down to ones own personal ethics and I suppose when money is involved...ethics tend to go right out the window
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I agree I don't mind making a pinch or two but I've heard quit a few stories about this. Putting round bales up around a food plot and even a fence all the way around it with one opening.

Ethics definitely has to come into play.
 
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