Well bought a protein feeder and fill it with fresh pellets. Returned 9 days after setting it up and while I had bucks visit the corn feeder nearby, none of the of protein pellets eaten. How does a novice get those bucks to appreciate the value of chowing down on pellets?

Mix corn with your protein the first two times you fill it. Sometimes they jump right on the protein, when they don't really need supplements it can take awhile though.

Put some corn or cracked corn in it. I use hen scratch and it also gets my turkeys excited

Mix a little corn into the feed tubes, be patient, and don't worry. Took my deer two weeks to find it since no one around us feeds protein. But, once they get a taste for it, look out.

My experience is that deer eating protein varies from one area to the next. I'm sure deer population and available natural browse all plays a part. Currently I have game cameras showing the deer on my home place to be hitting the corn feeders, but mainly only the does and fawns are hitting the protein feeders. I normally start seeing some bucks hit the protein after they lose their antlers. In another month or two the bucks will really start to hammer it. On the other hand, the deer on my deer lease out in west Texas will eat more protein than I can put out year round without stopping. Do like they say in the replies above and mix some corn with your protein and then just be patient. My bet is that your bucks will start eating the protein when they are ready. Good luck!

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Nailed it...

Thanks much for the advice. Sure hope the mixing of corn does the trick.

It might take a little time for them to figure it out. For the first several weeks they didn't touch it at my place. Then they found it and started going through 250-300 pounds per week.

First off I never recommend filling a protein feeder full of protein to start if the deer have never been fed on the lease/ranch. When starting a new feeder like this I would always mix one 5 gallon bucket of corn with one 5 gallon bucket of protein in a new feeder. That is the most I would put in. If that is gone in a week or two then I would put in straight protein, if it takes longer than 2 weeks then I would mix 1 bucket of corn with 2 buckets of protein. When that is gone then put in two bags of protein or more depending on how long they took to eat the last 3 bucks of mix. Worst thing one can do is fill a protein feeder completely full and deer not eat it. It goes bad in the feeder. I would take a bucket and pull feed out the feed ports, then add in that much corn in the feeder. Pull more feed out till you get a mix of corn and protein. Corn will works its way down from the top of the feeder.

I got on a new lease this year in March. I set up a corn and protein feeder, the corn feeder had does at it the first night....... nothing, not even coon even touched the protein feeder till September, then it's 6 bags a month.
Not sure if the deer have never had protein pellets or?