How many feeders on how many acres?

[retrieverman]

Me and my lease buddy were on a new place this year and it was tricky getting the deer figured out. We had one large feeder pretty much in the middle of 160 acres. All of our shooter bucks, about 3 or so, came between 9pm and 5am. Only twice did we have one at the feeder during shooting time. We tried setting up on trails hundreds of yards from the feeder to intercept them traveling, but no luck. My partner is convinced that we need more feeders to pull them off the neighboring properties, which I'm certain are hunted and also have feeders. I think our one feeder was too much in the open and deer did not feel comfortable coming to it. View attachment 335910Deer traveled and bedded on the north side in that timber on the north end.

How many feeders do y'all run and on how big a property? Do you think we should run more feeders, closer to the north end next year?

In rereading your post, I got to thinking about drawing deer from the neighboring property, and I’m not sure more corn feeders is necessarily the answer. In my opinion, food plots and a protein feeder would probably be better.
As I said previously, I’m going to try to keep my two protein feeders running all year this year, and I think I can do it due to having timers on them now. If they were still free choice, there’d be no way. The deer were emptying my north 1000# feeder in 12 days and the south 1000# feeder is a little under 3 weeks. For some reason, the deer on the south have never “camped out” at the protein feeder like the ones on the north. I try to come up at least once a month, but I have the timers set where I think they’ll run for two months without going dry.
My Texas and Oklahoma deer seem to really like the Tractor Supply 13% Natural All Stock, and it’s only $12.49/50# (if you buy 20 bags, there’s a 5% discount too). If you want to do food plots, I’m planning to offer that service again this year using BFO’s and DeerSlayer’s 4x4 mix.

 

[perfor8]

Does taste better.

 

[TedKennedy]

I run two feeders on 160 acres. I have the feeders in the middle of food plots, that are located in places where deer were already frequenting. They run from around Sep 1 until the end of the year or after.

I get some big, big bucks in, but I rarely shoot a buck, as I'm meat hunting, not trophy hunting, but the opportunities are certainly there!

It took a few years of plots/feeders to really see big changes in the deer herd, but man, it's made a difference!

 

[BobbyV]

We're currently running 4 feeders on my brothers place of 740 acres. It's spread out and has a county road that cuts through it with 2 feeders in use on either side of the road. The northern most feeder is in a low spot of a bottom amongst some pecan trees and behind a pond dam. It's just over a mile away from the southern most feeder with 2 scattered in between. I've got pictures of the same bucks on all four at various times throughout the year. One of the feeders is on a cleared pipeline right of way down in between some thick timber. The other two on the south end are just off the tree line in a hay field. I was out last Saturday and watched 20 doe roam around one of them.

My brother is planning to run cattle on this new place so we're going to need to fence the feeders off for sure and figure out if we need to rearrange something. But the guy he bought the place from had been using them for several years so we basically left them where they stood.

 

[kroberts2131]

Don’t have much to contribute for placement but I picked this up yesterday at the academy on 41st in Tulsa. I checked several websites to make sure it was actually 220 somewhere else and it was, along with lots of good reviews.

Along with a gift card, it was hard to beat for that price. They had two left.

 

[meatGrinder]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
I would gladly take some does, I love filling the freezer. Past few years we had a couple in the freezer by the time rifle opened. Problem is, we really don't even get that many does consistently moving through either. I like having a lot of meat, then getting to take it easy shooting ducks for the rest of the season.

I think a food plot or two is the way to go. Maybe move the main feeder north or add another.

 

[undeg01]

I don't think of it in terms of feeders per acre, but as feeders per those particular bucks range. The more feeders you have for bucks to visit within their normal range, the greater the odds they may go to a different feeder than the one your sitting at that particular day. I have two places a mile apart where I dump feed starting in about August. I can only think of a couple of times where I've seen the same bucks on both cams and that was during the rut. There's been a couple of times where I've seen a Hoddy buck and he's seen one of my regulars and those cams are a little over a mile apart. I've never been sitting in one stand and had a buck show up at another at the same time. I'm not a fan of giving them options, I want them to come to one stand every time if possible. That's worked pretty well over the last 25y. I'm in pretty open country, both feed sites are in the edge of timber. About 45 miles away, I've got another actual feeder that's on the edge of a small food plot but not far from the timber. Couple other guys occasionally hunt it also, both have feeders, and it's a random crap shoot on when bucks will show up there at mine, it's anything but consistent. Just happened to be there at the right time this year though lol.

I agree with this to some extent. When bucks are in feed mode, bringing them to one spot consistently is the way to go. For that reason, I only run one protein feeder up through muzzleloader season. When bucks are cruising, however, I like to have several corn feeders going to hold those resident does close to their home areas. Since the bucks cruise anyway, I want them bebopping between the doe groups rather than leaving the property to cruise someone else’s does.

 

[Valhallajack]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
I would gladly take some does, I love filling the freezer. Past few years we had a couple in the freezer by the time rifle opened. Problem is, we really don't even get that many does consistently moving through either. I like having a lot of meat, then getting to take it easy shooting ducks for the rest of the season.

I think a food plot or two is the way to go. Maybe move the main feeder north or add another.

Put out a summer plot of iron and clay or red ripper cow peas you will have the does.

 

[Preacherman]

Try mixing strawberry jello mix with the corn. They like it and can smell it from a long way off.

 

[SoonerP226]

Put out a summer plot of iron and clay or red ripper cow peas you will have the does.

Heck, plant red oaks. The security cameras at my place have been recording dang near all night over the last few weeks, and the only thing those five does and two bucks could be eating is the acorns. I mean, unless they have a thing for 1/2" crusher run gravel...