I've recently aquired access to a 50 piece of land fairly close to home. It had a feeder and tripod stand already in place that the owner said I could use. I went about a week ago and got the feeder going (new battery and full of corn), put up a couple of camera's. The place is very thick cover with only a few open area's that would be "huntable". There are hog and deer tracks, although not a lot. The question I have is how long will it take for deer and/or hogs to really find the feeder and begin using it regularly? After a week of having the camera's out I've only got pictures of one hog, several coons, and tons of crows/blackbirds. No deer so far.
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It just depends on the spot. It sounds like it is an established spot that may have been throwing corn in the recent past. If so, not long at all. For instance, I don't feed corn year round. But when I start throwing again in July I usually have deer the next day. I set up a new spot this year in an area that has never had feeders (as in there hasn't been a feeder within 2 miles of this spot........ever. It took the deer a couple of weeks to find it and that was with me taking a few bags and trailing some corn for several hundred yards in each direction (I don't know if that really helps but I've always done it when setting up a totally new spot). -
Couple of weeks..Feed and they will come!Comment
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I set up a feeder over a month ago in a spot that has never had a feeder ever and had deer on it that same night, BUT I set it up in a sell extablished travel route. That said, I only had a max of two deer on cam at any one time until this week when I finally saw as many as 4 at once. I now have a minimum of 8 different deer coming to the feeder that I can identify as different deer (mostly does so they are hard to diferentiate but not impossible). I plan to feed it all year as well as set up some PVC tubes with protien or some other feed/attractant that will increase the numbers on this tiny property for next year since my season is over now.Comment
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I'd ask if I could move the stand and feeder to a new spot...
If that's the only stand and feeder on the place, it's probably been hunted and that means that there's been pressure on that spot.
I think if you move to a different spot, you may start seeing more animals.
But To answer your question, if the animals are using that area, it shouldn't take long.
Especially the hogs. But if all you start seeing is hogs on every shot of your camera,,, you probably won't see many deer.
That was my problem last year, and I eventually hand to just start randomly picking spots to hunt and just hand scattering corn to stop the deer as they came thru.
Good luck to you and I hope the activity picks up.
Just a little advice, on a place that size, I'd stick to bow hunting only! If you start firing guns, then the neighbors will start seeing more deer. JMO.Comment
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I've set up feeders and blinds and had deer eating as early as an hour or two after set up. This year I put up a feeder and it took two months before I had pics of the first deer under the camera. I was going to move the feeder one day to a new spot and there were 500 pics of deer there over a weeklong period.
If you've got a stand set up already, then throw some corn in the feeder and put up a camera and see what comes!Comment
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I'd also add that I'd wait til spring.
Give it some time.
Go out the day after a hard rain and look for were the deer are traveling.
Find their trail and the paths that their using and then move your feeder just off the path and set up the TC to see what comes in. If you like it, set up your tripod, if not, return and do it again. Leg work my friend, that's what'll find em.
Good thing it's not but 50 acres of thicket! Could be worse. Lol
Good luck again.Comment
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Actually, it's just short of being a 50 acre thicket. There's very little area open. There are trails in the grassy areas but not much in the way of a "beaten path" to actually see tracks. I can move the feeder and tripod. The owner is a good friend and has told me that I can do whatever I want as far as stands and feeders go. I've got a couple of spots picked out that I'm thinking about moving the feeder to, but it's also close to the fenceline of the property. There's still a lot of "legwork" to be done on my part, but I've got a pretty good idea on stand placement, etc.Originally posted by Mac... View Post
And bowhunting is pretty much all I'll be doing. Thanks for the input, keep it coming.Comment
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Give it a couple of weeks and see what happens.Comment
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