Ted Nugent took aim Tuesday at a new rule prohibiting baiting and feeding deer and elk in Michigan, insisting the ban will lead to “widespread civil disobedience” among fellow hunters.
Mr. Nugent, a Michigan-born rock guitarist and longtime board member of the National Rifle Association, testified in front of a state House committee in support of a bill that would overturn the recently enacted rule against baiting game.
“This is a Rosa Parks moment,” Mr. Nugent told reporters afterward, according to the Detroit Free Press. “The law is wrong, the law is bad, the law is illegal.”
Backed by both the Michigan state Department of Natural Resources and Natural Resources Commission, the rule banning hunters from feeding deer and elk is meant to lower the odds of the animals spreading certain diseases, according to its advocates.
“We believe the authority to ban baiting and feeding should remain with the Natural Resources Commission, the body responsible for regulating the method and manner of take of game in Michigan,” said DNR spokesperson Ed Golder. “In addition, peer-reviewed research has shown that baiting and feeding that concentrates animals beyond their normal movement patterns increases the likelihood of disease transmission.”
Mr. Nugent took issue with the state for standing by the peer-review research, however, slamming both the DNR and NRC over the ban, local media reported.
“They’re either liars or they’re stupid,” said Mr. Nugent, Michigan’s Up North Live news site reported. “But, in the world of political correctness, some guy in a lab coat made a decision. He’s never even eaten a deer; he’s never been in a deer woods and if he has, he’s either lying or hopelessly ignorant. I want regulations based on sound science to keep these precious wildlife resources in the asset column, attracted to the hunting families in Michigan, to become a destination state.”
“I am the ultimate conservationist and I killed two mature bucks on my property last year with my bow and arrow, neither of them anywhere near bait. I don’t need to bait. Nobody needs to bait. I don’t need an 850 horsepower hellcat either but I’m an American and I own that property,” added Mr. Nugent, according to the outlet. “If you don’t want to hunt over bait, it’s pretty simple. Don’t. We choose. It’s a choice.”
Mr. Nugent, 70, was born in Redford, a suburb of Detroit, but moved to Texas more than a decade ago, even buying property nearby then-President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford. Dubbed the “Motor City Madman,” Mr. Nugent previously wrote columns for The Washington Times.
The recently enacted ban on baiting game is not state-wide: it applies throughout Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and in parts of the Upper Peninsula where a high number of deer have become infected in recent years with a certain, contagious neurological disease known as chronic wasting disease.
The bill backed by Mr. Nugent, HB 4687, is not likely to be considered before bow hunting season begins next month, the Detroit Free Press reported. Firearm hunting season starts Nov. 15.
"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."-- Thomas Jefferson
I have not got a dog in this hunt, since I'm not in Michigan, and I'm not really a Nugent fan. But, I'm also not a fan of deer baiting and feeding. It's not any skill whatsoever involved in sitting over a pile of corn. On the other hand, I suppose you could also say that it's about as much as sitting over a food plot that is the only food in the area.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
Everything that hunters do is considered to be bad for the deer.
It should be up to the landowner what takes place on their place regarding this.
I just find it hard that slinging some corn will make every deer within miles of the site to come in.
The deer belong to the people of the state not the landowner. I wonder if they are thinking of banning food plots? It could be considered a form of baiting.
Everything that hunters do is considered to be bad for the deer.
It should be up to the landowner what takes place on their place regarding this.
I just find it hard that slinging some corn will make every deer within miles of the site to come in.
The deer belong to the people of the state not the landowner. I wonder if they are thinking of banning food plots? It could be considered a form of baiting.
You could expand on that and ban hunting on any agriculture field that grew a crop the deer eat. No hunting on corn fields, soybean fields, wheat fields, oat fields, etc. You know there is some spillage and lots of the fields start a second growth. This could also be considered a form of baiting.
Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist
Everything that hunters do is considered to be bad for the deer.
It should be up to the landowner what takes place on their place regarding this.
I just find it hard that slinging some corn will make every deer within miles of the site to come in.
The deer belong to the people of the state not the landowner. I wonder if they are thinking of banning food plots? It could be considered a form of baiting.
I doubt they'll ban food-plots. That's the issue they'll use to drive a wedge between the land-owning hunters and non-land-owning hunters. True "Divide and Conquer".
I can walk on water.......................but I do stagger a bit on alcohol.
When I was a kid we didn’t have feeders and such. But we’d hunt hell out of a salt lick or around the acorns in the oak mott, or a hole in the oat patch fence.
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Everything that hunters do is considered to be bad for the deer.
It should be up to the landowner what takes place on their place regarding this.
I just find it hard that slinging some corn will make every deer within miles of the site to come in.
The deer belong to the people of the state not the landowner. I wonder if they are thinking of banning food plots? It could be considered a form of baiting.
i've been beaten over the head & shoulders while involved in this argument, more than once actually.
the king's wildlife belongs to the king, passed down to the state which sells commoners a license which allows limited hunting. it's sure to piss people off when the discussion gets intense.
here in georgia, in so far as i know, and i don't much keep up with the stuff anymore, baiting was allowed for south georgia, and then finally allowed years later for north georgia. my commoner's mind tells me if a food plot is legal, then so is "baiting." same thing in my pea brain. and the deer don't seem to know the difference.
We have become dependent on this form of hunting in MI That being said I really cant remember shooting a buck off a bait pile
I would also agree this form of hunting really doesnt make the best hunters. That being said I am sure you can find methods of hunting almost everywhere that other would roll their eyes, waterholes, dogs ,corn feeders ,helicopters etc
They (the bucks) know that a pile of sugar beets dont just fall there
The only thing it may help is if a doe is heading that way and he is hot on her tail
But I have shot quite a few off food plots and I will be sitting off one Nov 15 God willing
There is so much BS here in MI Re deer hunting I really dont know who to believe or root for anymore
Hank
Last edited by boatboy; 09/18/19.
Thank You Lord for another day,Help my Brother along the way
When you mature,you realize hospitals and schools are businesses,and the Beatles were geniuses
Live Like A Champion Today
NRA EndowmentLife Member,My Daughter is also a Life Member
We bait, plant food plots, hunt holes in the fences, hunt game trails, hunt the falling acorns and pecans. We do what is legal, if they do away with feeders, so be it.
Seems this has turned into a discussion of "baiting". I've hunted over a corn feeder, hunted over a food plot and hunted over nothing. I don't see where hunting over a corn feeder does a whole lot. The deer come to it at times. Mostly when it is about to get so dark it is past twilight and you can't really see to shoot. It feeds squirrels, raccoons and I'm sure a lot of other critters. Food plots might feed deer. In the last eight years, I've seen one pair of deer come into a food plot and take a bite or two. Virtually all of the deer I've gotten are traveling from one place to another. I've NEVER seen a situation like you see on the YouTube hunting videos, or the hunting shows, where you sit in a big blind and five or six deer come out into a field while it is light and stay there to feed. '
There are a few in our club that have feeders out. Not sure how much they really rely on them because it is a lot of work and takes a lot of time to maintain them. Where I hunt now is an hour away. Keeping up with a feeder is just not possible and really isn't needed. But, each to their own. By the way, I am in SC.
