Legal baiting can make folks lazy. They go out and put out a bag of corn a week or so before opening day. They may or may not kill a doe or button buck. This ain't what I am talking about. We are going for killing does, shooting mature bucks, and somehow benefiting our deer herd. I bait to kill deer but am also talking about helping raise big deer.
Start baiting and/or feeding at least 3 months in advance. Sometimes, I feed all year long. As I have grown older and realized my limitations, I put bait stations near food plots to keep them in those areas and benefiting from the food sources I plant. I love clover and try to have clover growing to keep horns growing and baby deer with weight on.
LET THEM EAT WHERE THEY WANT TO EAT. You heard it. It can look like the perfect hunting setup. You can have the perfect set-up to get in and out, but if the deer don't like it ---- none of that matters. I have a spot that seems perfect. It is right off a field at the perfect wind for a stand that I have but the deer will not eat from that pile. I have numerous pictures of nothing but crows and coons. Moved it over to another trail and we are on. I have even placed feeding off of know deer trails and had them reject it. From my reading, research, and life lessons, deer want cover and just like a little security when they eat. That being said, I have seen guys stick a feeder in the middle of hay field with a shooting house in view of it and have deer visit it regularly. That's not on my hunting properties however.
Think of access and how you will hunt it. You have to feed the feeder or just bring it to a spot and pour it out. How are you going to get in and out? I try never to hunt a pile the day I feed it and have heard of some guys that will not hunt it two days after they feed a corn pile. One of my buddies states that he would rather hunt an empty station than hunt just after it is filled (I have to agree with him.) Under an ideal situation, you could replenish a feeder in the middle of the day just before or after a rain and also put enough feed out that you don't need to visit it for a couple of weeks.
I have however had a spot that I just parked the truck, walked a few feet and spread corn. It was real nice for me, but the deer didn't visit the stand during the day. I did get deer at night but not that good. Again---they didn't want to eat there. You have to find that spot that they like.
FEED CLOSE TO A SANCTUARY Feed in an area that you can see from a distance but just away from an area that he can bed up. Give him an area that he will bed up or be cruising and checking out the ladies. Put you a feeding station off that pile in a favorable wind that gives you a chance but also still gives him a chance. Boys---they aren't dumb. If the cards are too stacked in your favor, he will catch on to it and leave it alone. I have a killer stand that I sit 100 yards uphill from a feeder that is off of a trail. Of course the road he crosses is planted. There happens to also be mineral supplements right off of the pile. This is a nice place and took me a few years to find but is a known winner and right off of a bedding area.
A CUP WILL NOT WORK! Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't know if that ever worked back in the day when nobody feed deer or planted stuff for deer-----but it don't work where I hunt. Sure, sometimes it may, but you have to get your deer patterned to that pile. 50 pound minimum. Yes you heard it. A mature buck likes your property for either food, bedding, or sex. He will however leave all three alone if there is no security. He will perceive there is no security if you are feeding a bait station more than once a week. I check cameras when I feed stations. I change batteries, camera cards, etc all with at least 50 pounds of corn on my back. The more the better. Deer will go to where its better. If the guy next door is putting out a truck load at a time, then your 50 pound bag better have some luck. I promise you somewhere that its happening. Once hunted with a guy that ran it in a feeder then just spread it with a cyclone spreader from a tractor. Have talked to friends who only check feeders once a month. These same individuals are feeding 300 to 500 pounds at a time.
WHAT TO FEED? What it's not. The law may consider salt as bait, but I however do not. Deer need calcium and trace minerals and I supply that to them with salt as an attractant. My deer don't however use these during these during season. I usually am more concerned with feeding these right before horn building and right after the end of season. For my mineral licks, I was given a recipe of mono calcium dicalcium sulfate mixed with trace mineral salt that the deer love.
Protein Pellets. I would love to feed them and have tried. I mixed it 50/50 with corn and 20% protein pellets and got the deer to eat it. I however realized that you can go broke quickly feeding this way. Yes it works, but you need big pockets to really help your deer. One day when I get big money or big money help, I would like to have a year round supplemental feeding program. That is however a wish at the present.
I have heard good things of Rice Bran. I know in areas close to ports that it's more reasonably priced that isn't in my part of the world. Yes the numbers are better for your deer than corn but rice bran or any commercial feed are usually cost prohibitive if you are really feeding deer the way they need to be fed. I only commercial deer feed product I even consider is Deer Cocaine and as stated earlier I don't consider that bait but rather supplemental feed.
Corn is King. Acorns rock but its hard control them.. I Have heard of guys getting buckets of acorns and putting them at their stand and yes I have done that from the back of yard------------------but DEER LOVE CORN. Deer will eat it on the cob or shelled. I feed allot of corn on the cob because it's cheaper for me to get, but results tell me that they love if off the cob. The benefit of feeding corn on the cob is that you can put it on the ground and the turkeys will not eat it.
Deer concentrate near your corn I hunt allot of small parcels. That being said, I usually feed around the corners trying to draw deer in from surrounding properties to mine. I try to give them sanctuary within my property so they bed there. I use this philosophy with bait as well as my fields.
On large properties the idea is different. You want to concentrate deer within your property and try to keep them from wandering off and being shot by the neighbors.
I have had the luxury of hunting both scenarios and know they work. I love to consider myself a deer farmer and yes I raise deer. I currently however don't have enough property to really pass bucks and know they will have a chance of growing till next year. When I pass a buck, it is going on the old phrase "If I don't let them walk, then nobody else will."
I once went on a pay hunt in Kentucky and the outfitter sent me to a stand in a head of woods to sit near a corn pile. He had me carry a climber into the woods and hunt downwind of a pile. The pile had obviously been recently put there and it looked like the first time. I felt like we advertising ----YOU ARE BEING HUNTED. I saw a big buck that day but it didn't go to or near that pile. I didn't think that was the proper way to corn.
Scent Matters! Anything you do while hunting, prepping, scouting, or thinking about deer hunting needs to be scent free. Watch the wind when you feed stations and think of that before you set one up. Spray down when you feed feeders and check your cameras. Remember that less is more when it comes to being around a feeder.
I love to over check my feeders and cameras around the house and I have to force myself to leave them alone. Yes I do also check them bare foot and in shorts at times but you have to get serious about scent the closer season gets or the more serious you are about actually seeing deer.
But I have a buddy who will say "We smoke cigarettes in the stand and kill deer". Yes you do, and I have seen 8 points in the past doing it with you. It is however hard to fool a mature deer doing everything right, and I believe you have to watch your scent even when feeding your deer.
Final Thoughts Feeding corn can be horrible. It adds allot of work to hunting and can make you lazy. It is also an added expense to hunting. I however am not the person just to go hunt. I love to hunt food sources and yes that means natural as well as man made.
Many people are against baiting and I respect your opinion. I have killed big bucks with and without it. I however like to supplement my feed plots and some of my stands with it to help out my odds.
A buddy and I were talking and we agreed that many times you will never see a big buck eat from a corn pile. Yes they do eat corn, but more than often they are checking out a pile or feeder and never eat from it. My cameras prove they eat but also proves that many times they are just lurking around. I theorize that maybe it's a social thing that bucks are just checking it out. I know it's not always a rut thing but maybe it is related to breeding, dominance, or something.
Hope this article was thought provoking for you. Good luck with your hunting and deer watching!
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