I know a lot of guys used feeders before the “baiting privilege” came along last year. I used feeders this past season and saw less mature bucks but seemed to have more deer sightings. Mature bucks were on camera at the feeders at night but wouldn’t touch them in the daylight. For those of you that didn’t use feeders before, what’s your experience adding them in? I think I might just go back to plots.

What kind of feeders are you using? Spin, gravity, or trough?

Spinner

What times do you feed and how much?

30 min before sunrise then around 4pm. I forget how many seconds. Maybe around 3-4. I used a Moultrie motor with 55gal drum.

During the off season I feed at 12 noon. So it drops about a pound. During the season I drop a little more, maybe 2 pounds at 7am and noon. It’s not a lot of corn, but if they want it, the must come during daylight to get it. It keeps deer in my plots during the off season and comfortable. This has worked for me for years. I use 55gal drum spinners. If you have a trough, gravity or free range type feeder, they can lay up in the woods till dark, then feed at their leisure. Once the sun goes down I don’t want any feed on the ground. Cuts down on coons too.

The plot should be the main course. The corn is the ice cream.

There shouldn’t be any food available at night for them to eat, if so you are putting out to much.

We put feeders on our buck only plots last yr and had them go off in the evenings at 4pm for 8 secs. I couldn't tell you whether or not the feeders made the difference or not because we also changed up our plots from just feed wheat to WMS last year BUT, overall we did see more deer and killed more bucks on that particular piece of property than we have in the last 5yrs.

The most significant place that we seen a difference was a straight away that in the past had very little deer traffic on. We took a spreader, and every week we would spread 50lbs of corn down this road for about 150yds out of the 300yd stretch. For a place that had very few sightings in the past turned into probably the hottest place on the property. Was not uncommon to see multiple bucks in this road on a daily basis in January. Maybe the deer felt secure that they could retreat to cover quickly and could hear traffic coming from a mile away? I am not sure.

Mature bucks, well, you will mostly get pictures of them at night and won't see them much in daylight regardless. That being said, we had pics of mature bucks using feeders in daylight. As far as mature buck sightings, well, we had one that I know of and he is dead. We typically shoot mature bucks b/c well, you ain't gonna see them very often. Maybe my definition of mature and yours differ.

The most buck productive field we have is 450 yards long and 20 yards wide. Always kill mature bucks in it, every year. have killed them from November to February.

I saw more bucks last season than I ever have. Most of them were within 50 yards of a feeder. Had some daylight pics of mature bucks at the feeder but didn't see any of them feeding while I was hunting. They did seem to cruise around the feeders looking for does and non-dominant bucks though. I'll be running them again