Hunting over "corn piles"

Over the past 10 or so years I have hunted a good deal in KY where baiting deer is leagal. I hunted on private property that had numerous feeders and mineral licks. During those 10 years we killed many good bucks but I don't recall a single buck being killed on a feeder. The nearest one came and he also happened to be the highest scoring was that he was walking across the shooting lane behind a feeder.
At one time or other the feeders were filled with everything from corn to nutrious pellets. The bucks were mostly killed either on a food plot, a mineral lick or "cruising" in the woods near a feeder or food plot.
I do believe that the feeders kept the does and yearlings around and the bucks stayed with them just didn't hang out around the feeders in the day light very much.
Bottom line is bait is not neccessarily a slam dunk for killing bucks, except in the regions of Texas where it has been made their primary food sourc, over the years.

I agree, if you get a nice buck to come to a feeder it will most likely be at night. It isn't worth the risk to kill a nanny.

I asked some guys that hunt feeders in Fl about that one time and they said the key to consistently killing good bucks under a feeder is to run it year round and have been doing that for years since those bucks were fawns. I dont hunt over corn even in Florida so I dont know about the feeders, I do know though that those, in whatever state, that pour or scatter corn out on the ground, swear by it and kill some good bucks.

depending on what kind of pictures you have and what time the bucks are at the food plots/corn piles and feeders.........here is an idea? why wouldnt you hunt deeper in the woods on a trail leading to the bait(food plot/corn) to catch that big buck during daylight hours making his way to it? never really understood the concept of hunting directly over a food plot instead of hunting deeper in the woods on a trail leading to them,not saying you wont and cant kill a big deer hunting over it,but i would think that your odds of killing a big one would go way up by catching him on his way there before staging up waiting till dark to enter the field.

Agreed. But don't tell the guys in my club!!!

I hunt in FL in a club with 50+ feeders running at any one time. We may not kill "good deer" by AL standards but with do kill good bucks for our property.

This is just an anti-bait post

50 feeders running at one time...wow sounds like a blast

I have a friend who has fed year around for years. He takes 3 or 4 mature bucks off 80 acres every year. 10 corn feeders and 3 piles of sweet potatoes. He grows his own bucks so to speak and doesn't shoot them until they are 5 or 6 years old. I sat an watched an 18 inch wide 8 point come and eat corn 50 yards in front of a shooting house last weekend, so it can be done if you choose to hunt this way and you have the right piece of property. I have seen as many as 16 racked bucks come a pile of sweet potatoes in one afternoon. I don't care to kill a deer this way, but it is so much fun to go watch. This is in NW Fla.

He has apparantley figured something out that the rest of the hunters in America have not. Even in some of the best places in the US to hunt and on ranches where they feed year round, I've never heard of anyone killing 3 to 4 mature 5 to 6 year old bucks off of such a small piece of land especially over a bait pile.

How high is the fence around this 80 acres?

I have a friend in KY who was a KY GW for many years. He retired 5 or 6 years ago and when he puts out bait he pours it on the ground. He owns his own property and lives on it so he could do it any why that he pleases. I just figured he did it the most effective way, based on his vast experience. His place is surrounded by big buck tracts, but he is not a "trophy" hunter.

It's easily done if the surrounding clubs are only shooting mature bucks. The bucks go to the place with the least amount of pressure (80) acres. My brother-in-law has an 80 acre place like that in Walnut Hill, FL. Every year he manages to kill at least 2 mature deer. The clubs around him all shoot 8-point 15" or better and feed year round.

I would think maintaining 10 feeders and 3 tater piles and only 80 acres would be putting quite a bit of pressure on the place. But to say it's easily done?? There is a difference in 3.5 yrd olds (which are hard enough to kill) and killing 5 & 6 year olds that are few and far between, I don't care how you good you manage your land. We've been letting bucks walk on our land for years, and only kill older bucks, with little pressure around us. Our guys work real hard to keep the pressure off during the season, and we don't kill that many 5 & 6 year olds. And I think most on this board will concur. The problem is a lot of folks are referring to 3.5 as 5 &6 yr olds, and often time 2.5 yr olds are thought to be racked bucks that get misjudged as 3.5 yr olds. I'm not saying you don't increase your odds of killing an older buck by keeping the pressure down and providing good habitat and food etc., but to say it's easy doesn't line up with my experience.

Its not as hard as you think to maitain 10 feeders. Our club in Walnut hill has about 25 feeders that the responsibilty of club abd we fill them up 2 times a year and the members just keep an eye on them to make sure they dont get clogged.

A feeder is nothing more than a food source that nature didnt provide. NO DIFFERENT than a greenfield.

I live in NW Florida and have hunted over corn in the past. I personally hope they don't make it legal. IMO all it will do is drive up the cost of hunting. You can say A person doesn't have to use corn but I'm telling you from experience, if everyone around you is feeding corn and you aren't then you won't be seeing many deer.

One thing I can't figure out though is why do a lot of guys on here want to voluntarily add a fee on using a feeder? Where else have you ever heard of folks volunteering for a tax or a fee. We don't have stickers on our feeders here in Florida and they spin just fine without them.

So they can feel good that the State condones the way they want to kill a deer and so they can have more rules, regulations and laws to keep everybody honest! Of course, they will want a tagging system included with the fee for everytime the feeder is filled so the State can make sure that nobody is feeding more than anybody else and know how many "legal" feeders there are.

FYI it costs almost $40 to fill up a feeder and you'll do it three times a year. Now add one your plot that you planted then nitratred around Christmas and tell me your cost per acre.

Geronimo, your exactly right about corn. It only works if everyone doesn't use it. We can have some of the prettiest plots but if the feeder stops working your odds of seeing deer drop dramatically.

I too have hunted in clubs that corned deer in FL, and it turns a good club into a management hassle. There are several problems with corning. First lets discuss the difference between a food plot and corn piles or feeders. You are limited to where and how many food plots you can have on most properites, so the the deer usually have to move a little bit to get to a plot. Feeders or corn piles can be but anywhere. There will be corn piles or feeders all over the club causing the deer to have to move very little to find food. When you plant a plot you have no reason to mess with it again except once more to fertilize, but with corn piles or feeders most guys are in and out of the woods checking feeders and the cameras that are hanging close by, putting a lot of pressure on the woods. Both of these factors make the older bucks even more nocturnal than they already are. Just look at all the pics of good bucks that are posted on this site, probably 95% (if I had to guess) are taken at night. And that's even preseason when there is not near as much pressure. The biggest negative to me (being someone who runs a club) is the issue of guys getting upset becuase someone is hunting too close to where they have put out some corn. And it does get very expensive and turns into a lot of work tying to keep the corn out. Now I will agree you will see plenty of deer with corn but they will be a bunch of mallet heads and young bucks. I'm all for a split season that allow us to hunt into Feb but legalizing corn is a bad idea in my opinion.