Feeder questions

[kirk1978]

I have never used one (just sat on trails) but this year I'm going to put one out. Forgive my ignorance if my questions are dumb.

What time do you set for feeding?

Once or twice a day?

How far off existing trails do you set it?

 

[dlbleak]

I set for twice a day. Usually 30 min after sunrise and 30-hour before sunset. I rarely shoot deer over a feeder, mainly use them to keep track of the does. My mature bucks almost never come to the feeders.

 

[dennishoddy]

I think it depends on the terrain and local food sources about mature deer coming to feeders.
I will say they come in at night primarily until rut when they hang around feeders because it’s a magnet for does.

 

[kirk1978]

All of the plowed land will be wheat, The deer basically run the creek (tree lines). I usually hunt where I put the red dot and have had great luck but was looking for a way to help hold the deer on the property as the terrain to the East and west is basically the same for miles.

 

[dennishoddy]

All of the plowed land will be wheat, The deer basically run the creek (tree lines). I usually hunt where I put the red dot and have had great luck but was looking for a way to help hold the deer on the property as the terrain to the East and west is basically the same for miles.

View attachment 141009

Looks looks like my area. Huge agricultural area with fingers of trees and creeks with a few yards of timber or brush alongside.
Somewhere in a thick corner or oxbow of the creek there will be a bedding area. Never violate it by walking through it.
Set your feeder several hundreds of yards from it and set your stand in between. Create several stands so you can work the wind to your advantage. That’s been my strategy for many years.

 

[retrieverman]

I agree with Dennis on where and how to hunt the feeder.

I can’t speak for anyone else’s places, but on my 360 acres along the Salt Fork in the 15 years I’ve been hunting it, mature bucks most definitely do frequent feeders, and in my experience, early to mid October is a prime time to catch them there. By mid to late October, the bachelor groups are starting to break up, and they start venturing out looking for hot lovin’. Not that mature bucks quit coming to feeders, but the frequency is less and more erratic.

 

[SnowCamo]

I usually set them about 1hr after sunrise and 1hr before sunset. I also bump up the length of time it throws a few seconds during deer season.

I’m with retrieverman on the mature bucks coming to feeders. They seem to come to mine fine but I’ve had a feeder in one spot for 14 years, they’ve grown up on it.

And like Dennis said, put it in a spot you’re not constantly walking thru. My main one is on a tree line that the only time I walk into is to drag a deer out.

 

[dlbleak]

I’ve got a couple places I’d love to feed at or even put a feeder. I’d be walking through them though and have to make do with the areas I have.

 

[SnowCamo]

I’ve got a couple places I’d love to feed at or even put a feeder. I’d be walking through them though and have to make do with the areas I have.

I’d do it to it. It may not be ideal but it’s crazy how used to you they get.

 

[AKguy1985]

I use a gravity feeder made from 4" PVC pipe and spray painted it camo. Nearing deer season they can empty it in two days or less.