Hi all.
I searched for this subject in Migratory Waterfowl and didn't find anything.

What do you guys think with respect to a safe distance from a hog feeder for a duck hunt?
Our situation is 850 feet (almost 3 football fields) from a feeder.

The regs say nothing on distance:

"Baiting is the direct or indirect placing, exposing, depositing, distributing, or scattering of salt, grain, or
other feed that could lure or attract waterfowl to, on, or over any areas where hunters are attempting
to take them.

A baited area is any area on which salt, grain, or other feed has been placed, exposed, deposited,
distributed, or scattered, if that salt, grain, or feed could serve as a lure or attraction for waterfowl."

The water is a long slew. We plan to set up in the middle. The feeder is 450 feet from end of the slew. 850 feet from our blind.

Haven't hunted it yet. Just trying to determine if:
1. Can hunt. Far enough away
2. Can hunt after you turn off timer and pick up all grain on ground 10 days prior
3. Can hunt after you move feeder to tim buk two and wait 10 days.

Thoughts?

From what I've heard , your best bet is to contact the GW for that area and see what his/her distance is

Hunt it, let it ride, only illegal if you get caught....

In all seriousness, what does it say about dove? I would assume it would be the same because both are migratory birds. Honestly, three football fields seems fine to me. I have been short stopped by ducks far closer than that for a feed I wasn't on. If they want to be there, you surely aint gonna be able to kill them from that distance. Doubt if the feed on that feeder is where they want to be, you would be able to pull them three football fields away.

There is no distance. You could be on the adjoining propert shooting dove going to bait unknowingly and it’s illegal.

Basically are the ducks going to the feeder?

No. Property owner has never seen ducks on that water that give two hoots about the feeder or the corn at its base. Again it's prolly 600/700 feet from the water sweet spot where they dabble. 450 feet from the tip of the slew that is very narrow and looks like a landing strip.

I took ya'lls advice and texted a few game wardens off the TPWD website.
Really cool as it was just like ya'll said, they all responded almost immediately.

The consensus is: if you're hunting dove or ducks with bait, obviously, it's illegal. But it's gray on distance. Probably deliberately. Every GW has the discretion to determine if any given situation constitutes a baited hunt. And a deer/hog feeder in the general area a ways away from the taking of dove or ducks doesn't NECESSARILY mean an illegal situation. But it COULD. It depends on whether the GW, in their discretion, witnesses game taken where bait was involved.

In our situation, that deer feeder 850 feet away, 450 feet out of water, isn't actionable.
Unless there's a duck that likes to walk. Which, if we witness it, hope we get video, and we'll walk ourselves.

Thanks to all for your advice.

"take them" is the key for me. I interpret that as 40-50 yards. 850 ft is way out of gun range. If the ducks are not landing at or near the feeder to actually feed, I'd think you're in the clear. If you do talk to a GW - think carefully how you frame and ask the question. I'd lean on being vague than too prescriptive.

The other side is - a feeder could be right near a pond and the ducks never go to the feeder, but loaf in the pond - the feeder in itself isn't attracting the ducks. The pond/water is. Hammer away there.

Yeah. Good word. Thanks.

If birds are not going to the feeder I personally would not worry about it.

Problem is it will cost you way more to fight the ticket then to pay the ticket.

If you are with in sight of a feeder, as in 200 yards I wouldn’t do it. The legality is Mr/Mrs. GW discretion and you have no real legal defense, other then to hope the JP is understanding of your intentions and that feeder wasn’t feeding any ducks.

I have not read the regs in years, but what you posted above is what baiting is. It is not against the law to bait. Based on my memory of the regs, what is against the law is in 2 parts:

1) Against the law to hunt "over" a baited area. Like what deer hunters do. Example, sitting over a feeder. So regardless if birds are going to the feeder or not, you cannot hunt over a baited area.

2) I'm paraphrasing this 2nd part going off memory, but you cannot use bait "as an aid" to kill birds. So if birds are going to a baited area every morning, and you set up 3 miles away from the baited area but in the flight path the birds are taking and pass shooting them, that is against the law. This is why distance is not in the reg. But if birds are not going to the feeder, there is nothing to worry about.

If a local GW gives you a ticket for hunting 300 yards from a feeder that no birds are going to, he is just being a jerk, and probably just does not like you for one reason or another. Normally it is the federal GWs that go after hunters killing birds off baited areas, and they will bust the hell out of you with no mercy.

Good deal. Sounds like a resonable answer to me.

If you're hunting migratory birds 60 yards from a feeder, I'm betting you would get a ticket if caught.

That's not always the case. Good example happened to me dove hunting about 20 or so years ago. Here's the short version.

Had permission to hunt this place and 2 properties over was a huge sunflower field that was day leased for dove hunters. We set up about a half mile away on a flyway going from a day roost into that field and we'd pass shoot the doves as they came by. Been hunting there for several years and one opening afternoon the local game warden stops by and tells us he had just busted the landowner and the lease hunters for baiting. We of course knew nothing about the baiting and we weren't in any trouble, but the GW told us to leave and not come back to that property for at least 2 weeks. So bottom line is that yes, we were definitely hunting doves that were being baited, even though we were a good half mile away from the bait. Every circumstance may be different, which I'm sure is why there's no mention of distance in the regs.

Read my post. gspbrad is talking about part 1, you are talking about part 2. And you are lucking the GW did not give you a ticket, I suspect the Fed GW did the bust, but it was the local GW that let you go with a warning.

The link below is the Federal regs on baiting.. Here is the key section, boils it down to one sentence...

"Excerpts from Title 50, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20.21(i) 

No persons shall take migratory game birds: 
(i) By the aid of baiting, or on or over any baited area, where a person knows or reasonably should know that the area is or has been baited. "


"By the aid of baiting" is the part 2 I describe, and part 1 I describe is the rest of the sentence.

https://www.fws.gov/story/2021-12/information-waterfowl-hunters

Turn the feeder off while you're duck hunting, seems pretty easy to me. Let the deer clean up the corn before you hunt.

It has to be gone for 10 days before you can hunt it, that is not very convenient.

How would you know if it had been off for 10 days, or 10 hours once cleaned out? I try to stay within the regs and have considered this in past when dove hunting...especially if you are paying for day hunts. No idea when getting dropped off in a field if there are deer feeders back in the woods...and if so, are they operational...and if not, for how long?

You mean how would the GW know? The only way is if it is a sting, and GW’s are spying the place. Which is what the fed GWs do I’m sure on big busts.

Makes me wonder if any nearby residents or anti-hunters ever considered sneaking out in the field the night before with some bags of milo or other grains, then make an anonymous call to the GW the next day.

I disagree. If you are calling the Game warden to find out if a particular action is legal, then I would be as descriptive and accurate as possible. If you describe the situation accurately, and the GW say "you are good to go", and then you end up getting a ticket, you can show the text in court. At the least, I would think the Judge would be lenient because you did due diligence to be within the law. More likely, he would dismiss based on you doing due diligence.

They do that on public. Several times I have seen baited areas on public. First time I was scouting, found tons of dove all in one spot. I'm checking it out and drooling all over myself, when another hunter walks up to me and says "Don't even think about it, it is baited, and the GW's are watching".