Effect of feeding deer on neighboring hunt clubs

I am in an 1800 acre hunt club in Russell County. Beautiful piece of land, 12 hunters, 30 food plots, low pressure. What we have experienced this year is a spotty acorn crop and basically failure on the food plots which were seeded twice. On neighboring clubs they feed protein and corn year round.

Last year we shot 1 Quality Buck, this year none so far while one of the neighboring clubs shot 9 last year. (They were cited for baiting last year). This year we had some pictures of nice deer and a fair number of tracks running around, then the recent rain storm and cold snap hit. I thought the woods would be on fire, instead it seems like most of the deer have left the property. We are getting no pictures, very few tracks.

My question is this: Does aggressive feeding year round on neighboring clubs kill the hunting on a club that does everything else right but does not feed?

We don't feed during the year and see a ton of deer and have killed some nice bucks. Now granted, none have been killed in plots, but have been killed in clear cuts, power lines and road crossings.

I can only guess that year round feeding with premium groceries will hold deer on a property. I wish I had the money, time and energy to do year round feeding.

Sounds like you don't have any food and they do. Find out what natural browse your deer are eating

Even if deer are eating on the neighbors they (some) should still live on you. Every deer does not move to where a feeder is. Every year there is a dead period at our place of 7-10 days where you would not think we had a deer. It has to be attributed to the rut in some way imo

The other club could have better bedding and that would affect them more than food in Alabama

How much pressure y'all put on that property? 12 guys on 1800 acres. 30 food plots seems like a lot also.

12 members on 1800 acres does not sound like a low pressure Club.

Uh YES! It can cripple deer hunting on lands that are not feeding just as heavy. The only exceptions are if they have bedding areas they prefer on neighboring lands.Ive had this happen with neighboring property that feeds by the ton . Since money is no object neither is the amount of feed and supplements they put out. 3/4 of the deer that we used to see are on their place.

What do you consider low pressure then?

12 members on 1800 acres isn't bad if you keep riding the roads & checking cameras etc is kept to a minimum

Well, lets just say that we have food plots that have not had anyone sit in them yet this year.

THAT is low pressure!

he said there are 12 hunters on 1800 acres with 30 food plots its possible that there is a food plot that hasn't been sat

I really don't know the answer, but I'll share a similar experience. For several years 3 of us leased 600 acres in Chambers Co. That was the absolute BEST bow hunting land I've ever been on, period. It was stupid how many deer that land held, and when the white oaks bore, son it was ON!!! No crap, I've seen 20 does at one time on a small ridge. You could kill a deer every morning and evening if you wanted to. Couldn't overhunt it either it seemed, you could kill a deer from the same tree every day for a week. This land was about 50% short pines, 25% huge pines with sage and privet underneath, and the rest scattered hardwood patches. We had 6 plots, one of which was 1.6 acres and would look like a Tecomate commercial. But once those acorns were gone, so were the deer. We seemingly had everything they needed, but every season if you didn't kill your deer in bow season, you were done! I do not believe anybody even close was feeding them, but it was like a seasonal pattern....the later in the year it got, our deer just vanished. They wouldn't even touch those plots very much except for a couple of does here and there. We wouldn't get any pictures, nothing, they were just gone. Next year, they were right back though. I just think in some places the deer have seasonal homes?....like you have a beach house you live in all Summer, then move back home in the Winter. Heck if I know.

You could be right.

But, my experience with Clubs says not.

12 members, at least 6 have kids. Other 6 have friends and family. And, they don't like to hunt......but, they just like ot sit in a patch and watch to relax. LOL

SO, every weekend, at least 1/2 the patches are hunted and ALL of them are visited/scouted.

Just been my past experience.
Everyone else's may vary!

well i guess i wasn't thinking like that luckily i have always hunted with people who didn't bring a lot of guest

YES ! They may bed on you and only feed under the cover of darkness. NOW is the time to be feeding to attract does. Attract the does, the bucks will follow. I was in a club once next to a hunting preserve. the preserve closed during Christmas and the owned fed corn heavily while no one was hunting there. We saw ZERO deer during this period. Corn trumps everything during periods where browse is scarce.

Id be alot more worried about a neighbor doing rotational burns and creating good habitat rather than the neighbor that just dumps corn out. But I don't think either would affect your hunting unless you have property that provides nothing for deer.
IMO on 1800 acres, you can have the right 12 guys that create very little pressure. You could also have 1 wrong guy that could pressure the place to death.

Well heres my $0.02 lol - first of all 12 members on 1800 acres in my opinion is def not a high pressured place. Now this club may be different but Ive never seen every member in a club all show up every time all the other members do. Secondly, I dont think the feeding has as much to do with it as bedding does. If you can find where they bed at, and its on ur property, then you can kill deer no matter what the circumstances. Theres a lot of days, I think that instead of coming to corn and protein, they eat greens. I think its kinda like we are, we dont want the same thing to eat everyday.

We have a total of 3 guys hunting 800 acres. I would consider that low pressure but we still have to be careful and watch where we sit or just the 3 of us can make them nocturnal or I guess I should say more nocturnal.

The place I hunt in Madison Co, I think every house has a feeder it seems. I still see deer almost every time and I'm up a mountain 1/4-1/2 mile from the houses. It can affect you're place if the land has poor natural browse. Deer can't survive on green fields alone.

As far as the low pressure goes, all members live at least 2 hours away, there are designated areas to park vehicles when hunting. We don't hunt over food plots much and the club has 800 acres of 7-10 year old clear cuts which provide plenty of bedding areas. Only 2 members bow hunt and half the members did not show up until Jan 1. The problem with this club is not pressure. I think the existing food sources are poor this year and the deer migrated over to the corn piles on neighboring property. One neighboring club has 9 members on 900 acres and they shot 9 Quality Bucks last year.

Does the 900 acre club have younger cleat cuts? The deer may just be more visible to them? When you say 7-10 yr old clear cuts, are they planted in pines if so the pines should be tall now and starting to choke out the underbrush making it less appealing?

I think it makes a real difference. As soon as my south neighbor started feeding during season our sightings went down noticeably and there were no real changes in the area as far as habitat.I do not understand it because I want the deer on their feet looking for food, not bedding up 100 yds from a feeder and coming out as soon as its too dark to see/shoot.

Get the 12 of you together and buy a couple of protein feeders. Place them in the center of your property and make the area around it off limits to any human activity other than to refill the feeders. Feed year around.

We gave up a really good piece of land in Conecuh County due to rampant baiting on neighboring properties. This was before any feeding at all was legal. We would have a lot of pictures of good bucks up until about mid October then nada. We would see a lot of empty corn bags on the local roads though. Once gun season opened there were daily shots fired on the neighboring properties. You cannot make things work in that situation unless you break the law, which we were not willing to do. That is why Alabama's baiting laws even now only help the outlaws. Their advantage will go away if the state ever legalizes baiting. My opinion.

We have different age class pines, a lot of thick cover, swamps, Hardwoods, the club is very diverse. As far as the feeders go I believe that we will have to try that next year. I would think a club this size should harvest an average of 3-4 Quality Bucks per year. Right now we don't even see does or any tracks around, and don't get pictures of hardly anything. It is like 90% of the deer and all the bucks have left the club... In the summer we got pictures of lots of deer including some nice bucks.

The 900 acre club has basically the same habitat as us.

This to you may want to think about like what you said above 900 acres and 9 members means more guns in the woods with more deer being killed. As far as your neighbors feeding well I had the same thing happen. They were feeding by the truck load. I had tons on deer on camera in bow season but when gun season came in and my neighbors started hunting and feeding our deer numbers went way down. If they have pulled alot of does to their land then the bucks will follow.

Condor, if you've got 1800 good acres that are not very pressured, you are right on the money in saying your goal should be to harvest 3-4 quality, mature (3 yr old or older) bucks off your property. You might could sustain 5-6 a year depending on your density, overall age structure for the area, neighbors and what the surrounding properties are doing.

I agree. We had an 1800 acre lease in Butler County and had 7 members, 1 of those was only hunting for arrow heads. We didn't see a ton of deer, but we didn't shoot does on plots. Come mid January we saw a LOT of deer.

Your neighbors aren't pulling all the mature bucks to corn piles.