You lost me. Baiting, which us merely toying with an animal's sense of sight and smell is killing, but calling, which is toying with an animal's sense of hearing, is totally legit and as realistic as it gets?OldMtnMan wrote:[Bait which is not hunting but killing. Also, it's illegal in a lot of states. (like mine) The other way is calling. A very popular way to hunt for bear. Calling is as realistic as it gets.
I'm really not trying to start a baiting debate, but there is an irony in your way of thinking. That one way of tricking is acceptable, but another is not. Calling is just baiting with the sound of an injured animal.
I respect people who put the time into hunting without needing any type of aid, baits or calls or anything. I really do. It's an art. But it's also not realistic for many people anymore. I don't have 125 days a year to scout and stare at my quarry. I'm lucky to have my weekends in hunting seasons, many people don't get time off at all. However, something I do almost every day of the year is eat, and I prefer wild venison over a store bought cow any day of the week. If a corn field or even a pile of corn is going to make the difference between me seeing and shooting a deer during open season, I'll do it every time (if legal of course, it is in my state). Not everyone is a trophy hunter.
Yet I've pulled my bait each year for bear season because baiting bears is illegal in my state too. You see baiting as an ethical issue because it's too easy, but honestly I find no baiting to be so much worse. In my area anyway. Maryland has a lottery for bear tags and a 5 day season (Monday-Friday mind you, no weekends). So it can take years to get a tag, you can only hunt them in certain counties, and most people have to take off work to hunt them. Without the aid of bait (what many consider a gaurantee, also not really true), you can be rest assured the majority of bear hunters in this state are shooting the first 30 pound cub or sow with first year cubs (which orphans the cubs and sentences first year babies to death, they normally stay with mom into their second spring here) they see every time. That's the true price of a lottery, short season, limited area, and no aids. A 15% success rate (arguably less than that) makes people desperate. People are going to take what they can get because they're often making sacrifices just to be able to participate. At least with baiting, you might provide someone the option to pass up on the first sow or cub they see in hopes of a mature boar. And then you could realistically add a size limitation.
Baiting isn't always the monster people make it out to be. If you sit over an animal's only natural water source or a natural food source in it's established territory, does that really make someone any better? You're still taking advantage of an animal's senses and needs.
Oh, and even though I remove the corn, the nearby apple tree full of apples is legal. As is my neighbor's corn field. How does one even draw a line as to what's hunting versus what's killing?
I would not want a bear caller in the game just because of the availability of baiting for some species already. For those that can't be baited, spot and stalk. It's nice having a handful of animals in the game that aren't necessarily easy to kill.