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We've never had any problems.out where we hunt your luck if a persimmon tree will grow.we have slot of blackjack trees on the sides of the hills.
No apple trees in my hunting area. The ones I take over there and dump out are whole apples. I have trail cam pics of deer with an apple in their mouth.
I don't know. I will throw mine like a baseball at large tree trunks, making apple juice. It creates more smell, and deer can lick off the pieces.
Dennis's daylight buck aside, most big 'uns like that will most most certainly come to your feeder, but *not during the day*. Usually at dusk the does will come in, but the bucks will stay back a ways off, 75 yards more, until full on dark in some trees or bushes. That's why you want to try to catch them in such a "staging area" at dusk, back away from the feeder a bit, maybe 75 to 100 yards or so toward where you think they are bedding, in some trees. Apples won't fool a wily buck. Only the rut will make them lose their preservation instincts, and show themselves outsid cover in the daylight,, and even that won't if there are plenty of does for them. Kill those does, and let the little bucks live.... then the rut can work in your favor - see dennis's daylight photo for proof of that - he's there because the does are there - not because there's food. The *does* are there because of the food - the buck is there because the does are there.
The best of all worlds is to kill a lot of does, to get your ratio almost 1:1, or preferably no worse than 2:1, then have a draw like a feeder, then wait till the rut, then stake out that staging area back off a ways from your draw in the woodsy staging area maybe 100 yards away. Even a wily buck will want to keep tabs on the does that are at your feeder at dusk, by being nearby. OR, wait until after the 2nd rut is over in mid-late December, or later, and then the big bucks are hungry as a three-peckered billy goat, and just *might* come to your food draw during the day.
Having said all that, I planted 6 apple trees on my hunting land for a reason - not because they're a better draw than corn - but because they cost nothing in either money or effort once they're grown, quite unlike a feeder or food plot. Apples, peaches, persimmon, cherry, any kind of fruit like that, or blackberry bushes, can draw them. After researching, for me, apples offered the best mix of hardiness of fruit tree species / total mast crop volue/weight / deer likability, etc.... I purposely bought 4 different species of apples, all of which drop their harvest at different times, from July/August clear through November, to keep the deer coming (that's the plan anyway - they haven't matured yet).
Remember, though a lot of birds and such will eat apples, they don't get devastated by *everything* in the forest (squirrels, crows, raccoons, etc.) like the corn does.
I've heard one of the most cost-effective ways to draw in deer, and keep other wildlife off the food, is to dump a pickup-truck load of cabbage or other similar vegetable on the ground. Very few species will touch them except the deer, the deer love them, and getting a small buttload is a lot cheaper than, for example, apples. And they will rot very slowly -much more slowly than corn for example, which gets moldy within a few weeks and full of more aflatoxin, so it's a cheap draw that lasts a long time.
The best of all worlds is to kill a lot of does, to get your ratio almost 1:1, or preferably no worse than 2:1, then have a draw like a feeder, then wait till the rut, then stake out that staging area back off a ways from your draw in the woodsy staging area maybe 100 yards away. Even a wily buck will want to keep tabs on the does that are at your feeder at dusk, by being nearby. OR, wait until after the 2nd rut is over in mid-late December, or later, and then the big bucks are hungry as a three-peckered billy goat, and just *might* come to your food draw during the day.
Having said all that, I planted 6 apple trees on my hunting land for a reason - not because they're a better draw than corn - but because they cost nothing in either money or effort once they're grown, quite unlike a feeder or food plot. Apples, peaches, persimmon, cherry, any kind of fruit like that, or blackberry bushes, can draw them. After researching, for me, apples offered the best mix of hardiness of fruit tree species / total mast crop volue/weight / deer likability, etc.... I purposely bought 4 different species of apples, all of which drop their harvest at different times, from July/August clear through November, to keep the deer coming (that's the plan anyway - they haven't matured yet).
Remember, though a lot of birds and such will eat apples, they don't get devastated by *everything* in the forest (squirrels, crows, raccoons, etc.) like the corn does.
I've heard one of the most cost-effective ways to draw in deer, and keep other wildlife off the food, is to dump a pickup-truck load of cabbage or other similar vegetable on the ground. Very few species will touch them except the deer, the deer love them, and getting a small buttload is a lot cheaper than, for example, apples. And they will rot very slowly -much more slowly than corn for example, which gets moldy within a few weeks and full of more aflatoxin, so it's a cheap draw that lasts a long time.
Last year I got several 5 gallon buckets full of apples and threw them by my feeder and deer cam over a 3-4 week period.
What I found out.......unless deer are raised near apple trees, they pretty much won't touch the things. They would hammer the corn and leave the apples. I got more pictures of squirrel and raccoons hauling off with the apples than anything. EXCEPT one yearling buck would come in EVERY evening and eat about half a dozen apples or so, and that was it.
Granted deer might not act like this everywhere, but I found out real quick that the deer in my area would much rather have corn than apples when presented with both.
What I found out.......unless deer are raised near apple trees, they pretty much won't touch the things. They would hammer the corn and leave the apples. I got more pictures of squirrel and raccoons hauling off with the apples than anything. EXCEPT one yearling buck would come in EVERY evening and eat about half a dozen apples or so, and that was it.
Granted deer might not act like this everywhere, but I found out real quick that the deer in my area would much rather have corn than apples when presented with both.
The deer at my place don't care for corn they like the sweet feed and they seem to like cheap maple syrup. I pour it on stumps because I am to cheap to buy very much of the other dear baits.
First hand taste test done in my garden says that deer prefer pears to apples but will eventually eat every dang fruit tree I have down the the stem.
Well it is the corn husker state.
I always have one of these by each one of my feeders...http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...parentType=index&indexId=cat600356&hasJS=true
Last year I put one out in august it was gone before black powder season so I put another one out and it was gone before the bonus Christmas doe seson...I'm a believer and here is a little proof...
Last year I put one out in august it was gone before black powder season so I put another one out and it was gone before the bonus Christmas doe seson...I'm a believer and here is a little proof...
