Do you think it's so much the feeder that spooking them or all the scent of the critter trying to kill them that's associated with it thats constantly reaming fresh from checking cameras and filling it up and just seeing if it's working, et ....If that feeder area constantly reeks of human scent they're gonna be looking at it as if it's an ambush spot and hell yeah they're gonna be leery of it.....The smarter ones or more leery will avoid the ambush spot altogether. Now go out there and put a 55 gallon drum full before a rain and have it set to last 6 weeks or so with a solar charger.....then leave it the hell alone......I bet you'll see a big difference in the reaction to it. Imagine if you have 6-8 feeders spread around on your club with hunters constantly screwing around with them......now you've got 8 places for them to link feeders to predator ambush spot.....the little spinner going off for a few seconds and day ain't the issue

I've had them stand there and let the corn hit them, waiting on the feeder to stop.

IMO, deer get conditioned to what the sound means. We converted our gravity feeders to spin feeders to save on corn costs and other reasons mentioned below. I couldn't tell any difference in what came to them and what didn't in my cam pics.

In general, in places where browse is abundant, and corn is not their primary source of quality food, I believe it's harder to kill big bucks on a feeder. In places, like some places in TX, where the natural browse may be abundant (or may not) but it's not high quality browse, I think it's probably much easier to see big bucks on feeders, or corn piles, etc. When I hunt the hill country in TX, we put out corn at noon the first day, and the deer (rack bucks included) are on it within a couple of hours. I never see that behavior in AL. They will find it quickly here, but usually in darkness if they have a choice. Which is another reason why we switched to spin feeders to try and make the deer eat in daylight. I've seen deer come up under one and hit the spinner with his tongue. When a 1yr old spike does this only a couple of weeks after the feeder is placed, it tells you that they don't take long to learn what's what. I can't imagine that they suddenly get scared of them, UNLESS they are there when other deer are shot on them.

When I started in SC clubs years ago, a native told me: " Get a Boat winch and hang your feeder in a tree. Make sure it has the power to fling the corn out there pretty good.
It is MUCH more likely to be eaten that way, than piling up and spoiling under a 3 legger. Leave all the scents and other crap up at Walmart where it belongs.
Keep that feeder going, and sit back and wait".

He was right. SC Deer know exactly what a spin feeder sound is.
But they will come on THEIR schedule. Not yours.

Those SC bucks had probably been exposed to feeders since they were fawns.In other words they were conditioned to it since birth. They still might be a little shyer than does or younger deer. For older bucks that are there when the feeder is first put out would be a different story .

How is a feeder any different to a buck than all of the shooting houses in the woods?? Do you think he sees them as a feeder and a shooting house or sees them as a big black box and a small black box??

Been my experience they don't come high tailing to a shooting house either. Even if the house has been there for years.

Exactly......because it's associated with the predator that's trying to kill them.......reaction to 4-wbeelers over time links the object to the predator trying to kill them.......without the experiences that caused the link then it's just another inatimit object .....

Now deer usually approach any feeding situation with caution and check it over before committing and letting their guard down some to eat. Bucks very well may choose to eat somewhere other than the main food sources because the concentration of deer on those places may be drawing in coyotes or humans as well. He may seeknoit a secondary feeding spot where few other deer are using and free of predator scent.....If you want to use a feeder to kill a buck then don't just set it up and watch for him to come to it. Instead....find a location that gives you a strategic advantage over him and use the feeder to draw him by you on his way to it. Get it at least 100 yards or so away from you just depending on the habitat..... The buck is gonna stop a certain distance out from it and he's gonna sit there and check things out for a minute or twenty..... he's also likely to circle and approach it from downwind or stand around until the wind shifts to him.....You want to try and identify where you think he'll hold up to check it over and set up somewhere around that spot and farther away......

I like it! Nothing better to enhance an already productive feeder, than to have stands favoring different winds and hunting pressure.

It's not rare for a Spike or Doe & Fawn to set up housekeeping. I usually drive them away during my sits.
Spikes can be especially annoying at this.

Opinions will vary on the feeder spook deal but u made a comment Tree Dweller that struck a cord with me. I hate scaring deer out at end of hunt and big bucks want give many spooks before they Only nocturnal. The place I am on now - I can’t set up my stands where I can leave them where I am undetected so I try to keep my pressure Way down and always hunt the wind.
I hav been on properties where the land allowed me to move my stand away from the feed point/field So I could leave undetected with deer still feeding - I hav killed some of my best deer on spots like this. If u always hunt the wind and are able to have set up where u can leave undetected - it’s like u never hunted. Love those type stands

Guess it’s a conditioning thing

They won’t come near feeders on my place

But I can pour it out 50 yards away and they’ll eat it

Or they’ll eat in clover all around it but never get within 50 yards of the feeders

Does live under them. Could be part of the problem.

I think it’s wishful thinking to have a 5 plus year old buck come feed out of a feeder whether it’s gravity or spin during hunting season. The idea is to keep the does and younger bucks around, which in turn, could lead to an older deers death.

well said

You will notice that Deer always have a guilty look on their face when eating corn at a feeder.

The best bucks I have on camera will come to a gravity feeder without much issue. Now, it took them 2 to 3 weeks to get to that point, and would only eat corn off the ground during that time frame, but they eventually got used to the feeder. You won't see them in the morning, or during the day, but in the evening, either right at sundown or just after it the bachelor group comes on out and feeds until about 3 or 4 in the morning, then skeedaddle till the next night. Gravity feeders will still make noise too when the corn settles, and deer will give the feeder the stink eye every single time that happens. But it doesn't scare them away. Couple hundred pounds on the ground and fill the feeder up and they will get it.

I just put the feeder back out again after having pulled it before turkey season. I've re-positioned it to a more central spot of the property in front of a shooting house at the base of a food plot. Same story as last year, everything is spooky about it again and will only come feed on the corn underneath and around it for a short while. The bucks will figure it out eventually. I know this year has been super wet compared to last year so I imagine the deer are having no issue finding tender browse in the surrounding woods and don't need to fool with a new feeder yet, but they eventually will.

You couldn’t be more wrong. It’s absolutely possible to get mature 5yo deer to eat at a feeder. You just have to start when those mature deer are yearlings. I have 4.5 yo deer at feeders regularly but those same deer have been eating at feeders for 4 years now.

To say I’m wrong is a little out there. Anything could happen, that’s what makes hunting fun. Playing the odds it won’t happen though. How many 5+ year old bucks did you kill over your feeders last year?

Oldest buck I have killed at a feeder was professionally aged at 7.5 years. I have killed 6 that were over 4.5 in the last few years that were at feeders of that were eating from feed spread in the previous 1-2 hours, and I have seen 40+ bucks over 4.5 years old at feeders, just not deer I was allowed to shoot as a guest on that club.

Again, it's what they get used to seeing/hearing. I do not believe that you would have a good chance killing a 5 year old the first season that a feeder is in operation, but once it has been running for 5+ years, they are used to it. The key is year round operation. I never let mine stop running, just adjust the time down when feed starts to build up.

I have also killed mature bucks within hours of filling a feeder, but it is in areas where they are used to feeders being filled, as well as after using a road feeder on my way to the blind.

Texas?