Hunting over feeders

I watched a video and a deer was standing in the middle of a pile of corn when he was shot. I hunt public land, no feeders/baiting allowed. But I will hunt close to persimmons.
 
There's videos for just about every kind of hunting. Well.... some call it hunting. Laying out $10-20k to shoot a pen deer.

Some places like Texas, corn feeders are a tool to get the deer in the open. Shoot a few deer and feed many many more deer and animals.


I don't care what people do. If it makes you happy , have at it.

I shot more deer in 2024 than some folks will shoot in a life time. Free range Ag field deer. Fed a whole bunch of needy people .
 
I don't mean to sound hypocritical because years ago, when on a deer lease, I had a feeder. All I ever saw were fawns and does. Night time trail camera pictures showed a few bucks but I never saw them in the daylight hours. After I quit the lease I started hunting public land again and in Okla there is no baiting or feeder allowed. Seems I killed just as many deer without a feeder as when I was using one. Maybe even more and better deer. One friend of mine has a big expensive lease. Lots of land and plenty of big deer. They don't have food plots, they use feeders and keep them going almost all year long. They know when the deer come in and watch them all year long. To me... that's just deer killing. Not so much hunting. I scout the areas I plan to hunt or just go back to areas where I had good luck and set and wait. Last year was terrible, I didn't harvest a single deer. I passed on a few and now think maybe I shouldn't have but that was last year. This year hasn't let me get in the woods yet due to family health issues. Maybe I can get out to hunt, maybe not. Family comes first.
 
I set up cams in natural feed areas. If I see the deer that interest me I’ll start feeding. Some spots have been fed a few years now.
Sometimes the bucks I’m after are killed over the feed, sometimes they’re killed on the trails leading to it. My main focus for feeding is after the rut and through through early Summer. Gives the entire herd the extra protein for bucks to put back on lost weight of rutting and does a little extra for fawn survival and milk production.
With that said, I was at a Fall Field Days yesterday touring a Planatation when I get this pic. I don’t know for sure if I’ll shoot him, he’s one of those I need to see in person.
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So this morning I decide to go to that stand that’s 21yds to the South (right) in that pic.
I get there and already know there’s a small buck on camera so I’m not too worried about running him off in the dark. I park, get harness and bow and start walking. I get to the South edge of the drain and look at the camera and he’s already there.
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I swear every sound was amplified as I was backing out, lol! I made it back to the truck and he stayed another 30min or so. I didn’t even want to crank the truck so I sat another 15-20min until his last pic.
I figured it’s daylight now so I’ll go ahead and sit at my ladder stand and shoot some does.
Pulled up that camera and the piebald is there.
IMG_0059.jpeg

So I went to the pond and watched deer in the dove fields for a while and came on to the house.
 
William Suter said:
I don't mean to sound hypocritical because years ago, when on a deer lease, I had a feeder. All I ever saw were fawns and does. Night time trail camera pictures showed a few bucks but I never saw them in the daylight hours. After I quit the lease I started hunting public land again and in Okla there is no baiting or feeder allowed. Seems I killed just as many deer without a feeder as when I was using one. Maybe even more and better deer. One friend of mine has a big expensive lease. Lots of land and plenty of big deer. They don't have food plots, they use feeders and keep them going almost all year long. They know when the deer come in and watch them all year long. To me... that's just deer killing. Not so much hunting. I scout the areas I plan to hunt or just go back to areas where I had good luck and set and wait. Last year was terrible, I didn't harvest a single deer. I passed on a few and now think maybe I shouldn't have but that was last year. This year hasn't let me get in the woods yet due to family health issues. Maybe I can get out to hunt, maybe not. Family comes first.
Click to expand...
See I disagree…going out and just shooting what walks by is killing and I did it for umpteen years. I can go to any public land and kill whatever is legal.

Finding a particular buck and putting every effort into learning his patterns and watching him grow for years is hunting to me. Yeah, can’t really do that on public land so take what you can get. But on private, I have that option. Still a gamble, but it’s paid off more than it hasn’t.
 
So walking in to a strange piece of land and scouting for deer sign, tracks, rubs and scrapes isn't hunting but knowing what time a day a buck comes to a feeder is????? Yes I guess we do disagree. And FYI, I don't shoot the first deer that walks by. My last public land deer weighed 130LBS +/- and was a 140ish class 8 point. I passed on several young deer last year. Ended up getting skunked. Filling the freezer is more important that the size of its horns. I have plenty of wall hangers and a nice fat doe is much better table fare. I've never said its wrong, its just not how I hunt.
 
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Nope, didn’t say that. Shooting anything that walks by isn’t hunting its shooting. I don’t have a problem with how anyone hunts.
Everything mentioned still has to happen whether you use a feeder, plant a plot, or find the only acorn producing tree. You still have to find tracks, trails, etc…heck if it was as easy as putting out a feeder I’d have one in my yard and shoot.
And think you must have made an error in your weight…130lbs?? That’s a 2yr old here and with a 140” 8pt rack would have to be the deer of a lifetime. Got any pics?
As far as filling the freezers, we shoot a pile of does here as well. Gotta take the does to manage the land.
 
Deer around my area don't get huge. Body weight anyway and they don't weigh them anymore at the check stations. Fact, we don't even have check stations. You just fill out a form on the phone and they send you a number. I don't care much for that system either.He may have weighed more, truthfully IDK, it was a guess. I know he was a PITA for this old man dragging him out of the woods. I got pictures just never figured out posting. As to his rack, a friend that scores at out club said he should score at or near 140. He's a great buck but I think he was older than 2yrs and doesn't matter as he was just a nice buck coming off public hunting and nothing to prove and not trying to make excuses but he was never weighed on a scale or officially scored either. I'd shoot one like him again if the chance comes along.
 
I've all but stopped using feeders because I've killed just as many deer using them as I have not using them. Sometimes deer come out and visit the feeder, sometimes they walk past without a care in the world.

Less work and same results... no brainer.
 
I’m all for whatever someone wants to do. Feeders aren’t legal in NY, but I see why some use and rely on them. Folks that have small parcels or without much natural mast or whatever might have issues holding deer. Sounds like much of the southeast requires leasing land if you want to hunt. If you can’t afford to lease, and you can run a feeder on a small parcel as a way to draw and hold deer, so be it.

Honestly, it seems like the places that allow feeders, are places that have more problems with too many deer to begin with. If feeding can be used as a management tool, I see no problem with that.
 
Had 19 deer around the last evening I sat…only 3 showed on camera, lol. Think peanuts were down, I swap between corn and peanuts when feeding, and the other 16 deer were on acorns.
I’m hunting what I call a “drain”, just hardwoods along an overflow from the big pond. Most of those hardwoods are acorn producing oaks with a variety of browse along the edges. The already perfect spot just supplemented by some peanuts/corn scattered all year. The deer are going to be using that area anyways…there’s a method to the madness, lol.
The majority of the property is open pines. I sometimes like to hunt out of the climber just to watch the open areas. The two main issues with that are finding a tree the climber will fit around and which trail to pick, lol. I attempt to find an intersection and hope something comes down one of them. I archery hunt so it’s a little bit more of a challenge for bucks.
Both my stands, lock-on and ladder, are in the same drain, just different areas. But both have their own food sources, yet both get supplemented.

William, I read Oklahoma and figured y’all had the same size deer as Kansas. I’ve seen some grown ones out there when turkey hunting in the Spring. We have public land here I could bow hunt on during archery season, but they have draw hunts for rifle hunting for certain days during the rifle season. And yeah, I remember back in the day of taking your deer in and them weighing it both live and field dressed, and pulling the jaw bone for aging purposes. They’ve long quit that and have just one GW manning an entire WMA (wildlife management area). Those days are long gone and the fact I do have private land to hunt, I don’t take up a spot that someone without could have.
 
I hunted a small, very small lease that was really close to the Kansas border. The two bucks I got off that lease were more Kansas deer than Oklahoma deer if that makes sense. One deer, field dressed (gutted) weighed 178lbs and was a 10 point. The following year I killed an 8 point that was really close to the same weight. Most deer around where I hunt weigh 120-150 dressed. I'm sure there are bigger deer but public land doesn't always let a deer mature. We use to joke, "If you don't kill it someone else will". The public land I hunt now has a lot of corn and bean fields. Some of the smarter deer do get pretty good size but they are smart. At least until the rut starts. LOL

I don't like the electronic check in. I know its easier on the Wardens and check stations are a PITA for store owners, but I also know that several Bucks are recorded as does. They never see a butcher shop so people get away with it.
 
That’s like my state…head East and the weights drop considerably even on private grounds. They’re more along the 130-150 pound range for mature deer.
In my county, we’re more along the 200-250 pound range for mature deer.
They can come over here and kill does bigger than their bucks weight wise.
 
I've been debating posting on this, and don't take it as a condemnation, just a personal opinion.

This opens a real can of worms.

Growing up, deer hunting put meat on the table.
When I was growing up, baitng and salt licks were illegal and considered on the same level as jacklighting, tools of a poacher. Things you learn growing up can shade your convictions.

When I see photos of big bucks standing in a feed pile and hear the discussion on picking a buck and nurturing him through the years until he's impressive I have more admiration of your husbandry skills than hunting skills. It doesn't sound much different than raising a prize steer or pig for slaughter except your raising for antlers instead of meat.

Deer hunting is one of the few pursuits of game where baiting is even ethical/legal. Placing bait for migratory birds is illegal. Ground sluicing pheasants or quail at a pile of feed would be frowned on by most Hunter's.

I don't hunt deer any longer, my wife doesn't eat venison, I'm not going to cook two meals at night so I have no reason to kill one.

It is a legal hunting method,. Some would say the use of a game caller isn't ethical for predators, I use one. Some say it is wrong to use dogs to pursue game, I raised, competed with and judged bird dogs. I've hunted over a decoy dog, illegal in WA now.

It isn't something we should get agitated over, if you don't like it don't do it.
 
I have turned into more of a "Horn Hunter" the last few years but will say filling the freezer is a goal also. I let small deer walk. Small body, young, small horned bucks usually all get a pass.......unless its end of season and nothing on the ground. Then its a different game. Usually one good size deer is about all I need for the freezer. I don't kill deer just to be killing. That's what coyotes are for. I could say a lot more about baiting/feeders but AWS pretty much said everything that I would have. I'm a deer "Hunter". To each their own.
 
Ive hunted over feeders for almost 10yrs.
It’s not like most people think. It’s not fish in a barrel. 90% of the time mature bucks will walk right past it. If they do come to it it’s during nighttime non shooting hours.
The biggest benefit is drawing in doe, which in turn attracts bucks, and primarily during pre-rut and rut. Some bucks may stop for a brief snack, maybe a few minutes before moving on.
Deer that do come in are also easily spooked, by either smell or sound. It’s def not as easy as many think it is.
Your area may differ
 
I hunt public land and baiting is illegal. Trail cams are only allowed certain times of the year, usually well before season opens.
I kill whatever tickles my fancy and I suggest y'all do the same so long as you're doing so within the laws of your state.
 
The land where I have hunted since childhood is only, over 800 acres, though it’s difficult to get an exact count due to river accretion. We are surrounded on three sides by commercial hunters. About a decade ago, they cleared the entire section to the north of us to create irrigated crop fields. On our western boundary, they cleared all the trees for open grazing pasture. When the hunting season begins, we often see various trucks with out-of-state license plates. To the north, they set up stands in small patches of cover located in the corners of 160-acre crop circles. To the west of us, hunters place their stands about 80 to 100 yards off our property line, with feeders just on their side of the fence. I refer to them as the "Orange Army." I don't consider them to posses wordsmanship; they pay to come out, have someone drive them to a blind, and drop them off to shoot a deer off a feeder within a predetermined number of days.

In my earlier hunting days, I would shoot the first buck that came by with antlers. Back then, it wasn’t legal to harvest does until the last two days of the season. Over time, I began to pass on smaller deer and focused more on antler size. With the invention of trail cameras, I started to target specific deer on our property and aimed to manage the herd's quality by culling inferior antlers and taking does. However, with the commercialization of neighboring lands and the influx of various hunters, the herd quality diminished, making it rare for deer to reach maturity. Despite my management efforts, I realized they had little to no impact. I eventually gave up trying to alter antler genetics and shifted my focus from antler size to age.

Deer season comes only once a year, and I still enjoy the hunt, so I now pass on younger deer regardless of their antler size and hunt for age instead. I used to think mainframe six-pointers were cull deer, but I’ve learned that even they can exhibit character at 6.5 years or older.

A mature, mainframe 6 point;

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We put out a lot of grain to help keep deer on our side of the fence, and I’ve taken many young hunters, select coworkers, and friends out with me. I’m not selective with them; I tell them to shoot whatever they’re happy with. I don’t give them full access to the land, and I can't commit to helping them hunt for a specific target deer, but I want them to have the chance to harvest a deer, so I put them in a stand over a feeder. Personally, I prefer to savor my hunt and navigate back into the thick cedars to harvest an old buck that has reached that age by being smart enough to not come to a feeder during daylight hours. Your reasons and tactics may vary, I neither judge nor care…
 
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