What's everyones opinion on the use of cornfeeders for deer? There seems to be a lot of opions on this on another forum.
This thread....http://www.okshooters.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66949
Entertaining to say the least....
If a person wants to shoot deer at feeders, have at it, but that IMO is not hunting..
The topic is alot like BBQ, what most people do is grill... Real BBQ is low and slow....but hey not everyone can know how to BBQ correctly either....
Entertaining to say the least....
If a person wants to shoot deer at feeders, have at it, but that IMO is not hunting..
The topic is alot like BBQ, what most people do is grill... Real BBQ is low and slow....but hey not everyone can know how to BBQ correctly either....
The way I see shooting at feeders is this:
If I was forced to retreat to a bug out location and was going for survival. I'd use the feeders for bait. BUT, you have to remember that doing so will make others less likely to use said feeders. 1 deer should provide enough food when supplemented with fish and veggies/fruits grown on location for a long time.
IF hunting at feeders must be done, do it. Otherwise it's cheating.
If I was forced to retreat to a bug out location and was going for survival. I'd use the feeders for bait. BUT, you have to remember that doing so will make others less likely to use said feeders. 1 deer should provide enough food when supplemented with fish and veggies/fruits grown on location for a long time.
IF hunting at feeders must be done, do it. Otherwise it's cheating.
I have a corn feeder up. But,..the place I hunt is only 10 acres. I use it to keep the does interested and hanging around. If I can keep does around, the bucks will be show up sooner or later. Just because a person has a feeder up doesn't mean they have to hunt off it.
One positive thing a feeder can do is lure deer in for a picture from a trail cam. That is mainly what I use mine for in order to get an idea as to which bucks are using the peice of property and which ones I want to take.
One of the biggest bucks I've seen taken in a long time was shot this morning coming to a feeder. I picked up a nice 8 pointer to do a euro mount on and the 8 pointer fit inside this deer's rack. Massive.
Unless you stockpile corn at your established location I really don't see the prudence in hauling 200 pounds of corn to said location to "bait" deer. Second, why would one want to waste said amount of edible food (cornmeal) to feed 70 lb. does that will yield about 30lbs of meat each which will not last long at all.
I really don't see a difference in using a corn feeder or hunting a wheat, soybean, or alfalfa field. Its all food source setup hunting and one of many food sources. I've hunted deer in Oklahoma for 15 years and never have I seen deer live on one food source alone. Most of the deer that I've killed have been roaming between shin oak mounds eating acorns.
I also believe people have become too dependent on corn feeders as an ambush point. I know some people that think their hunting area is worthless if they don't have pics of deer coming to their feeder and don't try to even get out and scout for the best hunting area. Its all science. If the deer are there you're likely to see them. If there arent many deer in the area you could put up a corn feeder every 100 feet in a grid formation and it still wouldn't yield an advantage.
I bought two of those 25lb feed blocks for 5 bucks at atwoods, put one in front of each of my stands last weekend. This morning I killed a 5 point then saw many other deer, so did the guys hunting over nothing. Dont know if the blocks made any difference, but it looked like there were a few bites out of the block. I have hunted both ways, been using a little more bait in the past few years, so i dont know, im kind of lazy though
I just drive on the highway at night, the dang critters just seem to pop out of no where..
Probably road hunting my area
