Hand corning spooking deer

My hunting spot is set up with a stand and 2 feeders with shooting lanes in different directions. I always hear of it being beneficial to throw out corn away from your feeder to get the deer that won't come to the feeder. If I ride down my shooting lanes before a hunt with a tailgate feeder would that spook the deer? I also hear how some people like to walk to their stands silently from far away when they go hunt. Does the benefit of hand corning outweigh not being stealthy and keeping your noise/scent out of there? Thanks.

Do it the night before.

I've considered getting a road feeder bc I either have to drive very close to a couple of my stands or park and walk a very long way. Neither is ideal. I hunted with a guy in San Saba who started using one every time he went to his stand. He said the deer quickly learned to come to the corn and we're often eating happily by the time he parked and was climbing the ladder. I've also been told that it makes deer fear a vehicle less if they associate them with food.

in many areas the hogs would have it gone long before morning!

I have debated this same thing many times. My educated guess: you'll see more deer if you corn the shooting lanes with your truck. But I'm convinced mature deer have figured out that a truck means a hunter will soon follow. So for hunting mature deer, I believe the best bet is to sneak to the blind and hunt over a feeder that has been up and going for a while.

Only use deer corn! Duh...

Throwing by hand for years and never had an issue shooting mature deer. Went to the road feeder this year and had even better results. Saw more deer and more bucks.

It also is very locally dependent. I've hunted areas where someone could come through checking wells and the deer would ease into the brush, then be back out before the dust settled, and other places where a truck could drive down a neighbor's road and the deer would run until they were out of sight.

i hand corn because of some of the neighbors that watch me come
and go and hunt my place as soon as i leave. i have a cheap daypack
and put about 15 pounds of corn in big bags or in canisters (like
oatmeal comes in) and walk down in the dark and corn my way up from
the treeline up to my blind, then get put and stay put and still
and quiet. the deer in the region get road hunted and atv hunted and
night hunted so they're fairly wary and you have to be still and quiet.
i never drive down during any of the seasons unless there's a dead
deer to be brought up to the house.

It depends on their getting used to a vehicle. We can drive the pasture in out pickup, and rarely see a deer, but I can ride along with the guy that rents the pasture for grazing, and we will see a deer almost every time, but drive his wife' pickup, and not see a deer, They are used to his pickup and do not associate with any dangers.

Same will go for a 4 wheeler, if they see it often and nothing happens, then they won't scatter as fast. But change 4 wheelers in mid season, and the same may not be true.

It worked for us last season. The deer and hogs figured out that feeders can be dangerous. So we corned some places on the road and added rice bran. Two big bucks and some hogs were taken that had avoided feeders during the daytime.

If you do it enough and ways the same they will meet you in the road for their treat.

I would remove one of your feeders and hand corn that shooting lane as often as you can. Hand corning a lane that has a feeder on it 50 yards away may not be as beneficial as you think

I did a three year survey on a 700 acre heavily pressured East Texas piece of property and the results were 100%: They did not like feeders and did not come to them during daytime hours.

Exactly 6 times in three years did I get a daytime picture of a deer NEAR the feeder (only one of the deer were actually eating at the feeder)

Hand corning the exact same spots resulted in 6 months of EVERY morning and most evenings deer activity.

The same unspooked feeding was seen after stringing up a bucket feeder roughly 15 foot in a tree.

Every property is different, but those results are undeniable in my situation

If you are already using a feeder, Then a road feeder will work even better.

Have hand fed corn and put cameras on it and seen deer that we have never seen before or after at any of our blinds, or year round corn or protein feeders.

In general have found hand and road feeders to both be effective.

Wonder if the guy who started the thread looking for hunting secrets is reading this...

Our does respond better to tailgate feeders than they do to timed feeders in pens. I believe the reasoning is they don't have to jump in a pen and be in close proximity of a buck. We see lots more deer using a tailgate feeder.

Most likely depends on where you hunt but I've road corned with great success.

I think the chance that hand feeding bringing new deer is low. Generally hand feeding helps getting deer in a better shot position.

Alternative I have two small feeders that are set up to throw just a couple of seconds in the morning to get the deer moving. But getting a mature deer out of the tree lines can be difficult

In my opinion, both work...the feeder and the hand feeding. But if I was having neighbors hunt my stand after I leave, I may go just to hand feeding. Spread the corn out the night before and the deer will be there in the morning......most of the time.

seen it work and not work on various properties, no explanation on why or the difference. But for the most part it works. I hand corned using coffee cans on the way into my stand and by the time I was in it, there was deer within 50 yards eating.

Thanks for all of the good feedback. I'll try it and see what happens.

Rancher up the road does it all of the time and does will coming pouring out of the woods right behind us.
I do it periodically if I do not get enough activity at the feeder. The feeder is a 145 yards away at the back of a 3 acre square food plot. Only corn the roads around the back of the field and it helps. I drive the truck around the field and sprinkle it out the window during the middle of the day (12-1) and don't put to much put there

We've hunted the same ranch for 7 years in Val Verde County and we all have Rangers/Mules as well as ranch hands. Our deer are never shot at or spooked . We virtually have the tamest whitetail deer. I had a couple of doe last year that walked up the road from a draw and walked around the feed pen as i tested the feeder. I stood and took video. They get used to you.

You've hunted the same ranch for 7 years and never shot at a deer??

pick up, 4 wheeler ect, deer gone, tractor does not bother deer at all

Depends on what they are accustomed to. On my place a tractor spooks them as bad as a ny other human activities, i.e. a lot!

Man, I've never done it and you guys have definitely convinced me that I've been missing out. Gonna start road feeding when I visit my hunting place

we have a tailgate feeder that will hold 250lbs and use it regularly....very effective.

It certainly can't hurt, that's for sure.

Gotta have a road feeder where I hunt, the deer will eat off the roads before they jump in a feeder pen.

I corn all of my shooting lanes when I!m hunting.

I do it in east texas, then the hogs found it. No more deer. Dog hunter came in and we haven"t seen hogs in a while. Will try it again this year. First time I did it, I was shocked at the number of deer out there. fawns, does, young bucks, mature bucks. It worked great and I"m talking about within a week. In my opinion, if you can get any type of critter like coons, squirrels, armadillos, crows etc... (except pigs) deer will feel comfortable enough to brows on out. I see more critters feeding with the deer after I throw out corn than I do under the feeders.

Our deer, especially does, come better to tailgate feeders than to permanent feeders that are set up in a fenced in area. Not that I am hunting does, but where the does go, the bucks will eventually follow. I think part of the reason is that does don't like to be in a pen with bucks, especially right before the rut. We also try to hit the feeder anytime we are out driving and see a deer. This would include when we are just looking at deer before the season or when we are out filling feeders, or even when we are driving to a blind. This has really tamed down our deer population.

I don't use feeders, I hand feed everything and will have deer come up before I can get back in the truck.

That's awesome

Will the deer get used to it if I'm only at lease about 6 times a year?

Is there a rancher, ranch hand, or other lease members that could help you. If not, yes the deer will still come to it, just might take them longer to find it.

There are some guys that are there quite a bit. Prolly even have a road feeder there already. I'll hit em up and see.

the place I have in Ozona, there are feeders in place and I fill every ~2-2.5 months throughout the year. during hunting season, I take one of the large coffee cans full of corn or when I have the road feeder with me and corn the roads around the stands. The deer will be all over the corned road even before heading to the feeders.

My 2 cents. Road feed with the same vehicle that you are going to use during the season. I road feed and drive right by my stand stop unload hunting gear and then drive off 100 yrds park walk back, deer will be there in 15-20 mins. If I dont road feed the deer might show up or not 15 mins before dark. I have two blinds that I do this with during rifle season and 1 I do this with during bow season. For me it is a proven winner. I rarely get skunked.I see deer or pigs every time I go, even when the acorns are on the ground this works well. I start my road tailgate feeder 2 weeks before the season every time I go to the lease I feed a 40-50 pound bag in the road. My auto feeders run from Aug-end of spring turkey season.

I had deer in the corn I poured out of a zip lock bag the first time I did it on my lease a few ear ago. We dont have many roads visible from blinds to do it on. They had never been hand fed before and they didnt care. They bypass the feeder but will stop at any corn laid out. It doesnt make them appear but if they walk over it, they will eat it all. They will follow the 200 yard line I lay out lightly. Usually an hour after I put it out so scent isn't an issue.

I think it all depends if it is a new area and if they are pressured. A couple years ago on thanksgiving we bush hogged some shooting lanes with the tractor because it was real thick, and took all morning until about 3 o'clock. My dad put a stand there after we got done working threw some corn out and ended up shooting a buck that grossed in the upper 140s an hour after he got in the stand. It was eating the corn. It didn't care that we worked all morning there.

I use a tailgate feeder after every morning hunt in 4 directions and the deer are on it on a regular basis. Mostly does and younger bucks until the rut heats up and then the mature bucks start showing up. Regardless of wind direction the wind is in my favor in one direction or the other.

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An update to my OP. I’ve been corning my shooting lanes and sometimes by the time I can get the truck parked and walk back to my stand the deer are on it. It’s working great for me.

Been road corning for 30 years, have a tailgate feeder on both my truck and mule. I don't go to the stand without road corning. Works great and will keep deer in your area longer.

I basically hunt the end of a ranch road that goes through my spot. I have a blind setup with a feeder 200 yards to my North and another feeder about 150 yards to my South. I typically take a bag of corn and pour out half between blind and each feeder. I have a lot more activity in my area than just the feeders alone by spreading out the corn away from the feeders.

I bought a tailgate feeder for my ATV but figured I didn't drive through there often enough to get the deer used to it and never set it up.

I'll start by saying that I think it depends on the deer in your area. However our best blinds are areas where we can look down a feeder but also down a road in a different direction, which I will hand corn. I frequently see deer on the hand corn that I have never seen on the camera over the feeder even though the feeder is only about 60 yds away. In my opinion a mature deer feels more comfortable eating hand corned areas over a feeder, those big boys are not stupid.

I personally hand corn heavily before my first hunt and it will last a few days (yes even with hogs) I do believe that hand corning also helps deer become more comfortable with any vehicle you may have to drive. That being said, if I can i would rather carry a bag of corn in from a ways off and do it by hand rather than driving right over a spot.

Good Luck!

Completely agree with this

Our deer respond better to tailgate feeders than they do to pen feeders. If it is pretty dark when you are throwing out of a tailgate feeder in the morning, they will follow you pretty closely to get after the corn. I have used the tailgate feeder on the evening hunt and hurried to park a few hundred yards away and had as many as 21 deer feeding on the corn when I walked/ran back to the blind.

Had 9 deer come out the other night and 7 of them ate the corn on the road. The only 2 that went to the feeder were yearlings. We corn the roads with tailgate feeder after the morning hunt and then in the mornings we hand corn from an old coffee canister before we get in the stand.

I've been hand corning an area since a week before gun opener. I've seen 13 different bucks, many that have never been seen at a feeder. I'm a believer.

I routinely corn the roads and cuts watch deer run off usually they are back by the time I can get in stand. It is the best way to stop a big buck while he is walking through been doing it for years really works for me. I have speeder on back of my jeep all season.

I think the hogs are starting to eat deer corn? What to do?

My father in law throws out corn before almost every hunt and has never had an issue.

In fact he will hamd corn a lot of areas away from stands and feeders, sit under a tree and see more and better deer than we may see at the feeders.

After hand corning for years with his dr in Eden his dr finally caught him throwing out corn and scolded him saying it spooks the deer. He told him it didnt spook all the deer he has shot over the years over corn my father in law threw out for him. He never had a clue that he was doing that every trip after parking the ranger.

Corned this cut yesterday seems to work!

Got secret ingredient sprinkle raspberry jello powder on corn in tailgate feeder can't say it don't work this buck stayed 15 min.

Same spot but this morning