Feeding dilemma

[huntingfanatic]

We got on a large new ranch this past season and are trying to begin our feeding program. When we got on the landowner told us there were some red stag and elk on the place but he wasn't ready to shoot any as he wanted the herd to grow. Well it ended up there was more than he thought so we will be allowed to shoot some. The problem is they take over the feeders and we are unable to free feed our whitetail. If we raise the panels and fence and let the deer underneath now we can't keep the hogs out and have the same problem. Anyone with bigger exotics on their place have the same problem ?? At first it's cool having them then it gets to be expensive and a real pain real quick

[KactusKiller]

Yep thats a tough dilemma. You may have to decide what the worse of two evils is.

[Truckville]

Had the same dilemma on a 3k acre ranch near Telegraph. Landowner finally fell out of love with them. We ended up killing out all the red deer. Had to use a chopper to get the last of them. Fixed the feed problem.

[Cull hunter]

Feed em and shoot them.

[hot_rod_eddie]

Short term remedy. Two fences, one to sort out bigger exotics then one to sort out hogs.

[Sippy]

Not much hope. Anything they can't get into, whitetail can't get into. Only thing i would think could help would be adding more protein feeders to spread them out and give the deer more of a chance to hit a vacant feeder.

[Kdog]

I see 3 options.

1) Landowner needs to change his mind and allow you guys to hunt them.

2) Move on and find somewhere else to hunt.

3) Feed the elk/red stags that you are not allowed to kill. Feed the crap out of them and put more feeders out so there is plenty to go around.

Personally I think options 1 and 2 are your only safe bets. I don't think I would want to spend my money feeding an animal I cannot hunt.

[huntingfanatic]

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[huntingfanatic]

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[freerange]

Good problem to have only real option is to kill them or set up a maze to keep out hogs and let whitetail in. Short fence to keep out hogs then raised panels to keep out stag and elk. Your whitetail need to jump then crawl to get shot by you in the pen. Good luck

[unclefish]

To heck with a whitetail when you have a good chance of shooting an elk. That would make the lease worth it regardless of feeding protein. Elk > deer. [emoji1]

[deer farmer]

I would improve the native food that grows on the place, spraying and fertilizing. I would start food plotting. If you can afford to feed elk and etc, I would think you might be able to afford to drill a well for irrigation, and plant a lot of green forage for all.

[El General]

If you cant shoot em, shoot over them and spook em away from the feeders?

[huntingfanatic]

Well here is my attempt at a solution On our old lease we used these drop tubes. Hole is 7/8 inch but the deer could drain a 1500 feeder in about 2 1/2 weeks. I'm hoping that because the elks tongue is bigger like a cows that it will be too much work for them and they will lose interest. Just going to have to train the whitetails to eat out of them

[huntingfanatic]

Well getting a few deer trained to the hole. Elk are still working at it but they are not staying around as long. Im hoping they will eventually figure out its not worth their effort