Am I nuts? 4.5 hours drive for hunting - first deer blind in over 35 years

My father in law owns some land near Paris and I'm 4.5 hours away. Am I nuts thinking this will work?
Anyone else have drives that far and how many times do you get out there practically?

We have relatives in the area and my family may be spending time with them some of the trips up there and I have a brother 90 minutes away who can take care of the equipment and scouting and nephew that can fill feeders that lives on the land.

I'm pretty excited because I have not shot a deer in 35 years. I've stalked and hunted out there a few times without shooting anything but this will be the first year setting up my own feeder pen and blind.

Please help me out here.

Place has cattle and occasionally hogs. I selected a site near a creek that crosses the property in a natural clearing that has a small grove of trees that holds water and attracts hogs when they are in the area. The creek about 75 yards from feeder site, and 180 yards from blind site and is about 20' deep and 40' wide with steep banks.

Current plans are to put a feeder pen and feeder out in September
Going to use eight 16' hog panels and T posts to create a pen.
Have not selected a feeder yet. Thinking I want one with a ladder platform or only 10' high so I can fill it from the bed of a truck.

Has anyone had success leaving a panel hinged to open on a feeder pen like this? Was thinking I might use a half panel as a gate.

First year plan to hunt from a pop-up blind in a tree line. Want to see if I can get it where I can hunt both sides of the tree line(used to have a fence line there) and see two pastures.

I also don't have a trail camera yet. I'll probably hide it near the feeder pen and won't tell anyone except my brother it's there. Neighbors have been known to steal them. They know of another blind set up close to their property line but this is another 500+ yards towards the center of the property and two pastures over.

First, my BIL thinks I should hunt the feeder a friend of his set up close to the neighbor. I don't know that guy but I feel like it will come with extra restrictions and less flexibility. If my brother and I want to go out on the same weekend we'll also have 2 blinds

Second, my FIL and BIL think I'm nuts for building a feeder pen. Think the deer won't jump it and too much work. The first location has a feeder without a pen (don't know how often it is filled or timer settings) the cattle rarely visit because they have a base area closer to where I am setting up. I know I'll need to exclude the cattle and probably have more hog activity there being closer to the creek and bottom land areas.

Third, the land has not been brush-hogged in a while since my FIL sold the brush-hog a few years back (don't ask me, everyone thought he was crazy) so I mentioned I'll be taking out some small cedars and bois d'arc. The cedar I plan on just cutting, but I think I need to treat the bois d'arc stumps with Triclopyr. I'll create a few brush piles.

When I'm done I should have decent sight lines of 100-180 yards and be able to hunt a 45 degree wedge on two sides of the blind. I'm a very accurate shooter out to 300 yards so 200 is in my comfort range for taking game.

If cows are on the property, build a feed pen. Use 10 panels minimum and it will be big enough that the deer will hop in. I've yet to figure out a gate on my two feed pens that I will soon build, but leaning towards a cheap 4' galvanized gate from TSC.

I used to make a 4 hour drive every weekend. I would think anything less than 5 hours is reasonable. I know people who have way worse drives and make it probably every other weekend like 8-9 hours one way.

I got tired just reading about the work you're gonna do.

I think the feeder pen is a good idea and will work.

My drive to the lease is further than yours and those Louisiana boys don't even blink at a drive like that.

I'd go with a winch down and up feeder if you have the funds.

The relatives/friends/neighbors situation sounds a bit complicated.

In any event, 'hope you have fun setting up and hunting it.

We bought a place 3.5 hours away. We make it at least once a month all year. Not uncommon to go every weekend during deer season other plans permitting. Depends on how much you like hunting.

also use a bigger gun and shoot them in the road where a tractor can get to them

The distance is why I have not done this before. Been married for 11 years to the joint heir to the land and only duck hunted the ponds a few times and sat in the other guy's blind once each of the last two years. He's only been out there about 4-5 years.

The things that have changed are that my brother moved to N Dallas area and is 90 minutes away and he can take care of stuff for me 1-2 times a month like make sure pens are tight, feeder works, pull pictures from camera, etc... He'll do this to be able to hunt it too.

My two nephews who live there are older (high school and middle school ages) and can fill feeders. One drives the ranch truck and the other might be able to but definitely can drive the ATV down there to put a couple bags of corn in. They'll do it to help me out and get some spending money and the older one will be able to hunt it, younger one doesn't care to hunt.

BIL was not interested in helping with any of that stuff when asking him about it years ago, he is just too busy and doesn't care for deer hunting much. He gives a lot of advice but not sure about his knowledge when he says things like" why are you going to put up a pen?" and later says, "the cattle will tear a feeder up."

we used to hunt in leakey when we lived in Houston and it was close to a 5 hour drive when it was all said and done. we went about every weekend. hunted the mornings sunday and came home

Ranch I hunt now is about 5 1/2 hours away but I plan my trips to stay for a little while before turning around and heading home.

in 3 weeks I'm gonna make a 22 hour drive to go hunt. its all about how passionate you are about it

we drive 3.5-4hrs to get to our place. it was a big change from hunting as little as 15-30min from home. we love it. what its meant for us is that we don't make any spur of the moment half day trips. that when we go we go for full weekends, or full weeks where possible.

it makes it a destination though. I don't see any problems. keep your vehicle in good maintained order though. car trouble at night in BFE is a real bummer.

What he said. If you like hunting as much as a lot of us then that drive is nothing. I drove 8.5 hours one way for 15+ years and now drive 6.5 one way. Many times I go up to fill/check on feeders and come straight back.

Feeder pen for sure and I'd handle that thief of a neighbor sooner rather than later.

Great, you guys are making it sound doable since I will not have to do the feeder filling or stuff like that.
1-2 trips to get everything set up and have some help keeping feeder filled and checking the camera.

I'm glad I typed that out as a list of what needs to be done and how to get it done.

Now I need to educate myself on Feeders and cameras.

We picked September to set up the feeder so that we can dove hunt the morning and put up the feeder in the afternoon. (different areas, not baiting dove.)

my advice is to spend the money on good feeders.

we buy all seasons or hang'em high and put all seasons control units on them, fill them up and set them off once in the evening for 3 seconds until a week before season then we switch to 6 seconds morning and evening.

Solar panels keep batteries charged. your that far away last thing you want to worry about is equipment. I'm busy so I don't get to make it to the ranch as much as I used to so depending on equipment is easier when its quality.


IMO, just about everything you need to do on an avg. lease (not having to worry about stock and water lines, etc.) can be done in a few weekends from late sept. thru mid October. save for filling protein feeders (if you choose to do so) once every thing is set up and in place.

I feed very little from my spin feeders, I let most of my corn loose from the tail gate feeder

IMHO I think your making a mistake putting up a pen in September thinking your going to has deer in November. You would be better off buying a 12 volt hoist type feeder that will cast the corn 10' to 15' out. Cows won't mess with it and the deer will be more likely to start coming into it sooner if they don't have to jump into a pen.

I don't think I'll be corning the field too much due to the cattle. The place is several 80-90 acre pastures but the interior fences and gates are not cattle proof at the moment. It would take a lot of work to gate off the cattle for hunting and the grazing lessee might not like that too much.

There is another pasture on a remote tract across the creek the cattle don't seem to graze but you have to drive around on the road to get to because the creek is not crossable. I might take that on as another site next year. I think the lessee moves the cattle there by trailer in dry years when he wants it grazed. Not a problem this year.

2 months isn't early enough? How early do you think it needs to be?
I might be able to get it done in mid-August but the heat...

Another thing is that this area does not seem to have high density hunting pressure. We currently have one feeder two pastures over and the neighboring properties do not seem to have a lot of feeders or blinds up. A mile or two away you see deer hunting operations but not in this particular area.

It's also adjacent to a hardwood creek bottom and between the creek bottom and a wheat/milo field.

It might take them a month to find the corn. Typically, deer just don't go jumping into a pens. You have to train them over time that there will be feed in there. The whole point of a pen is to keep the cows away. Cows have a hard time picking corn up off the ground and will give up if the corn is spread out over a 30' diameter area. As long as the cows don't associate your feeder with a food source they won't stick around.

Don't put too much stock in any of us Internet experts. Work when and how you want to and can. This is supposed to be fun and it ain't rocket science.

It's not rocket science. Lots of deer are killed with not a lot of effort

I would set up as soon as possible if it were me. I would be curious as to what is out there....and I would build a pen out of panels to keep the cows out.

never say never; i just bought a new place - setup a gamecam & threw a couple handfulls of corn out - 2 days later have 2 bucks and a doe coming by daily.
used to drive 6.5 hours one-way to family land.
Build it; they will come!

I set a feeder pen 3 weeks before opening day last season because the cows had been moved to my pasture and were literally camped out under my feeder. Of the 2000 photos I had on my camera I bet 1990 of them were of cows. I built a 40' by 40' pen and had photos of deer inside the pen within a few days. By opening weekend the deer were completely comfortable in the feeder pen. So, I think you're original plan of building the pen and putting up the feeder in September will work fine.

with it being so green right now in most areas deer aren't coming to feed anyway. you put up a trail cam on a feeder your gonna be disappointed with what your gonna see

350 miles to one lease and 425 to the other and rarely miss a weekend during season, every 3-6 weeks during the off season...

Can't shoot them sitting at the house

TexasEd- Your just getting warmed up at 4.5 hours. We drive 6.5 and wouldn't trade it for nothing. It's well worth it when we get there.

As far as the feed pens we've had to leave them open (one Panel) to get the deer used to coming in them, then close it up completely.

If I do 8 and a half panels that will make a circle roughly 40 feet in diameter. Smaller than a 40x40' square in area but should be better against hogs from what I've read.

The Bermuda is high and barely been grazed by the cattle I don't think deer eat Bermuda but there are plenty of green things to browse right now.

With the cattle I don't think I can leave an open panel. probably be downed the next day. I can try it while we're there for the weekend. Might also put a mineral block in the pen

3.5 hrs would be a dream for a lot of guys

I live on the South East side of Houston and our lease is in Pipe Creek. If I'm by myself and really moving, I can get there in just under 4 hours. With the kids and the required stops at Buckey's, HEB, Home Depot, Walmart, McDonalds ..., it can run anywhere between 4.5 and 5.5. After the first few trips, you get used to it. During the season, I will probably get out there at least 5 or 6 weekends and I will usually spend some time before Thanksgiving and Christmas getting things ready for the post holiday trips with the kids. Off season, we probably go 4 or 5 weekends to fish or just hang out.

My first hunt this year is 9 hrs
second hunt is 7hrs

Everything else is 3-6hrs depending where I go

that sounds about right, kids and wives can turn a 5hr trip to 6.5hr real quick

if wanting to keep hogs out, build a pen.

on my lease in Llano county, there are cattle and all my feeders are open (no pen) and yes the cattle will come by frequently when up in the area but usually don't hang around very long, leaving corn for the deer and hogs. I have them staked down with t-posts, so the cows don't tip them over. I have given thought to building a fairly large pen using 2-3 strands of barbed wire to keep cows out but deer & hogs could easily go under or taking the 20'x50" cattle panels and cutting them in half lengthwise to make a low pen but would have to raise some sections if I wanted to attract the hogs.

out in Ozona, I have pens on all feeders as there is little to nothing for the livestock (cattle & horses) to eat and they tear the heck out of feeders even staked down. I am guessing pushing/shoving/fighting under the feeders. There aren't any hogs out there on our portion, nor do I want them if they are there. The last pen I built, I used 20'x50" cattle panels (7 or 8) and cut a couple in half lengthwise but raised them about a foot off the ground (top being about 34-36" high to keep livestock out and low enough for deer to jump. At one location around the pen, I put 2 t-posts about a foot apart, running a twisted wire about a foot high and another about 4 foot high, as an opening for the fawns/yearlings to pass thru with ease but not big enough for a cow's head. I also cut one of the panels in half, leaving a 10' section as a gate to where I could open and back the truck in to fill feeder from tailgate.

of all my running feeders (~10), they are all straight leg that I can fill up from the truck bed except one. That one has a ladder/platform and the bottom of the barrel is at least 10' high. That one gets torn up the most by coons as the ladder doesn't slow them down and they use the cage as a trapeze and have ripped it off the barrel more times than I can count. I do more repair on that one feeder over all the others combined. Hopefully I have that cured with enough self tapping screws holding the cage in place. In other words, I would highly recommend NOT getting one with a ladder ... straight leg or winch up would be my preference and leaving a path/gate to fill from truck bed (on straight leg) or small gate for winch up.

as for the drive, most of my hunting locations are within an hour to hour & half drive ... but the place in Ozona is roughly 5.5 hours one way to the gate. During the off season, I do a day trip out to check/fill feeders, leave about 6:30 am, hit the ranch around noon to 1:00 (depending on if I stop to eat/fuel), fill/work feeders/pens, leave around 3:00-4:00, back home 8:30-9:30. Yes, it makes for a long day and a lot of driving. I do this about every other month during the off season. During Season, I usually go out 3-5 times, leave home after work on Friday, puts me to camp in time to get some sleep, hunt all day Sat. & Sun., leave after dark and get home before midnight. I usually will make a 3-4 day hunt during the first week of season, sitting multiple stands merely checking out what is out there and their patterns (more of a mini vacation) not really expecting to kill anything, just scoping things out.

anyway, in a nutshell, if you want to keep hogs out, build a pen. Get a straight leg or winch up feeder (12vdc with solar panel & good timer), leave gate (walk thru for winch up, 8'+ for straight leg), and enjoy your time out in the woods...

Thanks, PMK.

I think I'll build the pen with one panel open and see what the cattle do that first weekend. Thanks for the advice on the straight legs too. I was just about set on the ladder type feeder.

11 hours one way, wouldn't trade it for anything.

LOL ... if you are going to the trouble to build a pen, build it complete, full circle/square. Just leave one panel where you can unwire one end to open as a gate to back the truck in to fill. I just leave a small opening, like 10-12 inches wide between 2 t-posts so the little ones can get in to eat. Little hogs will get in there too though.

TexasEd, if I were you, I would go simple the first year and then you will know what to do based upon your scenario - it'll be obvious. I would spend the money for a good crank-up. I doubt if you'll have many problems from cows. If so, you can always adjust as needed.

You'll likely have more issues with coons, hogs, and relatives. Especially relatives.

While am i big believer in cams, in your case as soon as relatives/neighbors find out you have a good deer coming - they'll shoot him for you. I would play my cards very close to the vest.

Nothing will aggravate you more than to spend all the money, time, effort, corn, cams, etc. building up a nice little place to hunt only to have a friend, brother, friend of a friend of a friend, sneak out there and shoot the deer you've spent all the effort to take care of. Don't think it won't happen. Or worse yet - shoot ALL the deer.

I've heard too many sad stories on small family places like this that are only a few hundred acres and people shooting 10-15 deer off them of all sizes and ages/sexes and in a year it two get completely shot out.

Yeah, the plan is to put the game cam in a lock box and not publicize that it even exists. just my brother and I will know.

I was once on a lease that was 4-4.5 hrs, got to be a drag after each season for me. Some of the guys that sat behind a desk all day didn't seem to mind, so I think it will depend on how you tolerate a longer drive. I made the drive for 3 years before I burned out and the lease price almost doubled, was one of the best leases I have ever been on as far as hunting is concerned.

It does seem like you get more days alone when everyone has to drive that far though, especially if you can go during the week. One thing I learned real quick, don't forget anything LOL

This is my advice as well. You don't realize how easy it is to hit a cattle panel until you try to shoot through one.

I drive that each time I go to the lease. It all depends on what your driving to. I enjoy the property and roaming around and letting the stress out as much as the hunting itself. I can't say that about all the leases I've had. That's why if you find one that's worth the drive you'll know and live with it just fine.

I agree Western, for me it depends a lot on whether I'm driving myself or have company. Making that drive each and every week/weekend would get old inside of a season or two. Currently have a two hour drive ea. way and that for me is how I like it.

This assumes just myself going each time, with some good buddies it'd be easier to tolerate..

I had a lease that was 326 miles from my door to the old camphouse on the lease. The first year I hunted without any feeder at all. The lease was fairly large so I did a lot of glassing and walk/stalk hunting. I ended up killing 24"+ inside 9 point that year. I hunted the opening weekend then the week of Thanksgiving. The second year I drove up and hunted almost every weekend by myself, still did not have a feeder out. I saw a lot of bucks but did miss an offhanded shot at a huge buck at 160-170 yrds. My last year I hunted 21 days and put up 2 feeders. I hunted most every weekend by myself except for Thanksgiving week. I killed an old 7 point that year. The only part of the drive I hated was the drive home. I never really wanted to come back home...lol. I know hunt about 7-7.5 hrs away, but usually make one trip out and stay all of the mule deer season.
If it were me, I knew it was a long term lease I would invest in the feed pen and feeder the first year. I would probably hunt out of tripod at first so I could move it if needed. The feed pen will keep the cattle and hogs away. Just make sure it is large enough to keep all the corn inside the pen.
Most of all, have fun. The anticipation of the hunt can be as fun, if not more fun than hunting. Having fun will make those long days between trips more tolerable.

I live in Houston and have a lease 1/2 way between Abilene and Ft. Worth. Takes me right at 4hr 15min to get there if I haul. I don't mind the drive. I make it out probably 4 or 5 weekends during season with 1 5-7 day trip mixed in. That's usually plenty to fill my tags and get the kids some hunting as well. Hunting isn't the tough part, it's making the trips this time of year to put in the work. It sucks to drive that far to work your butt off, but I don't mind too much since I know what it means in October-January.

FYI - in my instance, there's not much closer that's affordable or any good. I looked for a year with no luck.

Keith

Build a great pen and put the best feeder you can afford in it. Don't skimp with a drive like that- it's not worth it.

My drive is about 4:30, I can make it in about 4:05 if I crowd it and only stop once (quickly) for gas. If I add the dogs and wife it pushes to about 5:00, not to mention the extra hour to pack and load for the dogs and the wife (she takes FOUR EV ER). I don't like getting there late on Friday night and getting up in 5-6 hours to hunt, but that's what it takes. My 'lease' is free so getting something closer is not an option and you can't beat freefittyfree.

Your absolutely nuts, that is the point.

We're all nuts

An honest man!

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." - Dr. Demento

We made a 4-4.5 hour trip every weekend for years from the DFW metro to Mason...... not sure I would do it another season

I drive 12 hours to my ranch in Oklahoma to hunt, 11 hours to my farm in Missouri to hunt and 10 hours to my family farm in Kansas to hunt.....so, 4.5hrs is nothing!

yep, me too... I have a 4.5 hour drive out to northern Glasscock County to some remote raw land that's been in the family for almost a hundred years. For sure, it's a long boring drive, but to me, it's the whole hunting experience I'm after. Filling and maintaining feeders may seem like work to some, but not to me. I first started going out there 2 years ago and set up 2 decent feeders and a couple cheap blinds. I get motivated and head out there every month or 2 to check the cameras and fill the feeders.
There are some frustrations... like when I had a camera stolen the first year... or when a blind gets blown over... or when the raccoons tear up a timer box... but the time spent out there is such a big stress relief to me, it's all worth it.
Now if I can only get my first whitetail this year...

3.5hrs for me. It's a hobby, so it's how you want to spend your time. I use the truck time to think about how I am going to do all the work when I get to the ranch.

I drive just under 4 hours.

I drive 8 hrs there and 8 back.