Has anbody ever used any ? old school stuff like apples, corn, salt blocks or Biologic and other plantable stuff or the stuff made by Alpo ? just wondering how it worked for you ?

 

I use corn and salt. Now before someone gets on here and claims how "unethical" it is....there are valid reasons for using it. I have not shot any deer over bait. In fact the only deer shot last year near a feeder was my boys. It was his first deer ever at 10 yrs old. Awful proud of him. He shot a button buck about 70 yds from a feeder. I have ALOT of video tape of deer aournd our feeders, but not one has been harvested while eating or even near a feeder. I got into video taping deer last year. It is almost as much fun taping as it is harvesting one. The buck that I have in my pics(in my signature) was taken probably a 1/2 mile from a feeder. There are many different reasons to use bait or food plots...not just to kill a deer. Didnt mean to go off....but this topic always brings up controversy.

 

Wow those are some awesome bucks Okie ... are the deer in your area use to eating corn other then your feeders or did you introduce it into there diets? last season i tryed spreading corn out in a field and surrounding woods where i was hunting it was about 1/4mile away from a corn field so i figured the deer would have no problem recognizing it as food and coming to it especially after harvest time but it seemed to have lil or no effect in some spots, im trying to find where i went wrong, Today i spread 100lbs of hole and cracked corn near a swamp bottom far back in the woods miles away from any argaculter,its 2 months earlier then i started last year and a totally different area, think theres any chance ??

 

Thanks for the compliments on the bucks. To answer some of your questions. Yes deer in Oklahoma are familiar with corn here. It is grown almost everywhere here. I am by no means a biologist on this subject, but let me share my ideas with you. I believe you have to feed from a feeder to set a pattern. Sure, deer are gonna eat the corn you throw out, but the main idea is to get the deer coming back to the feeder consistently. They will form habits if the corn or food is there all the time or put out in regular intervals. I watch videos and try to read any literature I can on this subject. One guy said that it takes 2-3 YEARS of feeding from a feeder all year round for the mature bucks to visit it on a regular basis. So if you plan on feeding the deer, I believe you need to keep a feeder going during the whole year if possible. You might get deer eating the corn you throw out, but they wont develope any routines feeding like that. If you do buy a automatic feeder, dont over feed, meaning dont put to much out that it starts to mold or get old. You want the deer to eat fresh, clean, dry corn. Hope this helps. Sorry its so long.

 

personally we don't feed them but I know a guy down the road that feeds then hay out of a feeder and holy jeez do they ever come in I passed there like a month ago on my fourwheeler and there were 2 fawns in side the feeder eating it looked to be a 6 point and a 8 point eating in the front and about 5 does eating there too so yeah I think we might start feeding deer hay

 

One other thing to keep in mind is how far is it to other food? Here in Indiana, there are fields EVERYWHERE so the deer really don't have a reason to visit a feeder on a regular basis. I know guys who put them out but mostly for setting up cameras and try and see what deer are in the area. As for Bio-logic and food plots, I know that they work, but again, here in Indiana, it is hard to compete with soybeans. They are all over the place and we would be wasting money if we put out bio-logic in plots. We were even told this by one mfg when we asked what would be best in our area. Now we just plant and maintain strips of beans and corn on the edge of our lease for the deer and cameras.

Legal disclaimer: Check you local laws about feeders and food plots. Some states don't allow them or say that they have to be removed ahead of hunting season. Might also give you an idea of how far away you can be and not considered "hunting over bait."

 

one thing to keep in mind is that deer crave salt like any other animal everything needs to have some salt in it's diet. if you go into my pictures on here you will see 2 pics from our cottage up in canada and well you can feed the deer right out of your hand and we found that deer are garbage disposals they will eat about anything. last weekend there was one that was just wild for chocolate chip cookies and they love potato chips, peanuts, bread, and marshmallows. i am going up there right now i will make sure i take some more pics i did have one that i couldn't get on there of a nice 8 point buck eating oats out of a 5 gallon pale but there was an error putting it on for some reason. oh and up at our deercamp we dump out mixed stuff for the deer seems like they like whole corn compared to cracked corn maybe a lil oats in there and pellets. keep in mind like said above we don't hunt or shoot over food plots it is against the law and well would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

alright I found something that works, if u want to try find an old sock,apples,and syrup. Cut the apples into small chunks and then put apples and syrup into the sock. Then when your all done, clear a spot so there is mudd showing under a tree, and tie the sock to a branch.

come back to where u put it and u should find some tracks under it in the mud

 

works great!

 

my buddy convinced me human feces works. I pooped in the woods, and I think it had the opposite affect. No kidding...don't try it, waste of time.