Deer-Shooting Over Bait Now Legal Throughout Georgia

ATLANTA, GA — Hunting deer over bait that you placed to attract them is now legal throughout the state of Georgia.

The move comes despite opposition in the Georgia General Assembly, where lawmakers were repeatedly unable to get enough support for the measure, and from several former top state wildlife officials.

In April, Gov. Nathan Deal issued an executive order essentially telling the state Department of Natural Resources to expand the areas where hunters can shoot deer close to bait, or "hunt over feed." Until now, hunters in south Georgia could shoot a deer within 200 yards of feed, while those in north Georgia couldn't.

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Deal's order told the DNR to study the situation, but also essentially told it what to do after studying. Its wording called for the department to "evaluate and determine an appropriate expansion of the Southern Zone" where deer-baiting is legal.

This week, the DNR's board announced it had approved a measure "allowing hunters on private lands across the state to hunt as close as they would like to supplemental feed." The change will be in effect for the 2018-19 Georgia deer hunting season, which begins Sept. 8 for archery and Oct. 20 for firearms.

Under longstanding regulations, hunters could place bait — usually corn — for deer anywhere in Georgia, but couldn't shoot a deer within 200 yards of that bait. A 2011 law change lifted that prohibition on hunters in south Georgia, while keeping it in place for those in north Georgia.

Hunters are still barred from baiting deer on state or federal property.

In May, a letter to the DNR board, signed by four former directors and commissioners with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, opposed the change. In it, Mike Whorley, president and CEO of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, wrote that the state should be decreasing the areas where hunters can hunt over bait, not expanding them.

"Governor Deal and his administration have done remarkably good work in protecting and conserving land for future generations ...," Whorley wrote in the letter, addressed to DNR board Chairman Aaron McWhorter. "However, this Executive Order is counter to 'sound wildlife management principles,' is contrary to virtually all peer-reviewed wildlife science and is bad for hunters, hunting and our deer herd."

While Deal's order says that no science has shown baiting deer in Georgia has contributed to animal disease or a dangerous thinning of the herd, Whorley notes that no studies have looked at deer disease in Georgia since 2011. Baiting deer draws many of them into a small area and can contribute to an increase in disease like chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis, he wrote.

High consumption of corn, the most common feed used for bait, is unhealthy for deer and also can attract "nuisance animals" like raccoons, feral hogs, opossums, Whorley wrote.

Sportsman groups and others, including members of the legislature who have shot down efforts to expand deer baiting, also have argued that the practice is unsporting.

Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Natural Resources