Bigger Deer and Feeder Pen Question

[Abcdj]

Man, that big wheat field was like a deer farm late season.

I have a buddy that did away with all of his spin feeders and swears it's a direct result of seeing more mature deer. He took everyone off his place. CD actually played for him, ironically enough. He uses tree feeders only now and claims it's the best thing he did. I know this isn't pen related, but might be something to consider.

Those were the good ole days on the big field It comes and goes depending on the army worms, plowing, planting, and rain. This year it was 4 strikes and we were out

Does he have a coon problem with those tree feeders?

[Truckman]

Here’s my theory. It seems that every time I move a set up I see different deer. I know deer get spooked at feeders for no reason. I have a video camera out. One deer freaks out they all do. Get scared enough times they stay away.
New sets are like new restaurants, every body got to check it out.

[Bayouboy]

My best deer or always at hand corn or gravity feeders.

[Abcdj]

My best deer or always at hand corn or gravity feeders.

Hand corn questions.
1. How often do you put it out?
2. How much do you put out?
3. Do you put it on trails, fence crossings?
4. Do you spook the deer off putting it out?

We use tail gate feeders on our fields everytime we go out. That works. Seems like when
I ve put hand corn out in particular spots the hogs take over.

[mikemorvan]

It's my belief that the deer in the N. Central Texas jurisdiction are lazy. Between native browse, cultivation, and hunters, they have little to no reason to expend the energy to jump a fence to get into a feeder pen. Some do, yes. But the big, fat, lazy bucks won't. And i chalk it up to being big, fat, and lazy. Some people may say they're smart. Maybe so.

No feeder pens is ideal. But, then you have to be willing to suffer swine damage. I'm not. I use road feeders around feeder pens beginning in September, where possible. That seems to help bring in more of all types of game.

[Snowflake Killa]

That corn would last about 2 days

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[Still Hunter]

Over the years all deer tend to eat the scatter corn first over the pen corn. I have not shot a deer inside a pen in years. All are shot on my scatter corn spots. I scatter corn every hunt. I also see more deer around a feeder with no pen but then you have potential cattle and hog issues If they are on the place

[DaveC]

With this being an extra green year our sightings at the feeders are significantly down.
I’d hate to go through all the pain of moving the pens only to realize they were just enjoying native browse in such a green year.


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[BolilloLoco]

Remove a few panels from a couple pens and see what happens. Deer are most likely eating in the woods.

[Swampa]

Our entire lease felt this way this season. We were seeing half or less the normal numbers at feed pens. Made for long and boring hunts.


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[Hoss163]

Hand corn questions.
1. How often do you put it out?
2. How much do you put out?
3. Do you put it on trails, fence crossings?
4. Do you spook the deer off putting it out?

We use tail gate feeders on our fields everytime we go out. That works. Seems like when
I ve put hand corn out in particular spots the hogs take over.

Yeah hand corn is great but if you do have a lot of hogs they definitely will take that spot over . But if you do put it out I have always put it on a good crossing are trails and put a 50lb sack out as often as you can if at all possible like every 3 days but if you can’t put it out that much just do it every chance you can .

[Arrowflinger84]

We took all our spin feeders off and use cattle feeders. We just pour the corn and protein in those and the deer feed like cattle from.them. we see more deer than when we had spin feeders. We have to put out 50 lbs of corn every other week.

[BonesandArrow]

Try moving a couple feeders 100 yards from the pens and see what happens. Ive have a weird scenario going on at the ranch. Three years ago, I put up a big feeder pen made with 15 or 16 pieces of cattle panel that is 36” tall. Ever since, I have seen more deer and have had the best 3 bucks caught on camera at this feeder. The crazy thing is the feeder is 160 yards from camp! These are not city deer either, the ranch is in the middle of nowhere in deep south Texas. I think the huge feeder pin gives them a since of security and yes that even sounds dumb to me.

[Abcdj]

Well this has been interesting. Lots of good advice and ideas. Thanks for the input. I agree totally on the pastures being greener longer this year. But its been 3 years since we have killed a 160-70 deer. Just thinking outside the box. Heck, I ve even thought for 3-4 seconds about putting the feeders away from the feed pens and the blinds! We are way to soft for that! It gets cold real quick now.

[bowhntrmatt]

My feeders are penned due to cattle. Deer seem very leery. Plenty of pics of them eating in them, but try to hunt one and you will get busted more often than not.

I hand corn a spot about 100 yards from the feeder, and am covered with deer and pretty much never get busted.