Something I think is interesting, and I will admit I have not read through this whole thread, is the difference between a feeder and a pile. I've been experimenting on this with the yard deer behind the house this fall. I've got a hanging feeder with a motor. I had it set to feed roughly an hour before dark and an hour after sunrise. So in other words, the corn is on the ground in daylight. I'd still not very often see deer at the feeder during daylight. And I've got a camera there, so I'm not relying on visual sightings. If I take a bag of corn out there and dump it, within a day or so, I start seeing a lot more consistent daylight deer. It's like there's a bigger draw to them, knowing it's on the ground and they can see that it's there. Maybe I'm giving them more credit than they deserve, but I 100% see a difference between loose corn on the ground and a feeder mechanism delivering it early morning/late afternoon.
Baiting Mature Bucks.
- Thread starter Jackalope
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What I found with spin [timer] feeders rather than gravity feeders is the spook factor, deer within a certain range go on full afterburner away within 200 or so yards or so of a spin feeder when it goes off.... seen this visual and cameras.
Got pics and vids of bucks and does feeding close to a timer and then it goes off - fur blur - bigger bucks take a long time if ever coming back from that negative experience.
Got rid of spin feeders and no similar issues with gravity feeders. Also much less waste feed going to secondary species like coons and such relative to putting it on the ground.
Just my $.02 and observations.
If OH would just get the stones and outlaw baiting I'd be much happier overall.
Got pics and vids of bucks and does feeding close to a timer and then it goes off - fur blur - bigger bucks take a long time if ever coming back from that negative experience.
Got rid of spin feeders and no similar issues with gravity feeders. Also much less waste feed going to secondary species like coons and such relative to putting it on the ground.
Just my $.02 and observations.
If OH would just get the stones and outlaw baiting I'd be much happier overall.
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You're not wrong. I think a lot of people have had this same observation. Even though a pile of corn is unnatural, it's way more naturally familiar than a spin feeder. But gravity feeders don't seem to have the same spook factor.
Just picked up a custom blended deer feed from our local mill. Similar blends are $18 at TSC, but I got out the door at $13.60 a bag.
300#s of shelled corn
100#s of sweet feed
50#s of black oil sunflower seeds
50#s of roasted soybeans
The sweet feed has oats, cracked corn, and molasses flavored protein pellets. I had this made specifically for the feeder behind our house where the girls will be hunting. There's a regular old corn pile on every property in the square mile (at least 6 guys other than me running bait in a 640 acre block) so a man needs a competitive advantage and I see this a chess, not checkers
300#s of shelled corn
100#s of sweet feed
50#s of black oil sunflower seeds
50#s of roasted soybeans
The sweet feed has oats, cracked corn, and molasses flavored protein pellets. I had this made specifically for the feeder behind our house where the girls will be hunting. There's a regular old corn pile on every property in the square mile (at least 6 guys other than me running bait in a 640 acre block) so a man needs a competitive advantage and I see this a chess, not checkers
Yeah, I've seen that before. But from the reading I've done, they would need to eat large quantities of nothing but sunflower seeds to reach a toxicity level that causes damage. Kind of like selenium in minerals - it's toxic in volume, but it would be hard for them to selectively feed on just that. Probably more on par with us eating sugar in terms of how it impacts our gut biome. If we had 10#s of sugar, we'd die, but we can eat it in small doses without obvious toxicity issues. Certainly willing to change my opinion though.
I've done it before I knew. But if we are truly trying to help the deer...I'd rather stick my money on the grape drank mafia mix. Also, it attracts squirrels and I really dislike those things.
I put a custom mix together last year with some sunflower seed. In the wide open, it attracts too many birds to make it worthwhile IMO. But in a timber stand, I could see SF seed being a great addition.
I bought some of this on clearance at RK last year and the deer absolutely pounded it during January. I basically made my own version minus peanuts, and will add grape drank when I fill the feeder.
