As an old man who has been deer hunting since 1966, my opinions are usually considered as coming from experience or dementia. Your opinion dictates which it is.

I find it both humorous and sad when I see posts talking about how acorns have ruined a deer hunt. Is this generation of deer hunters so conditioned to sitting in a box watching a feeder that they don't know how to hunt? That's the way it appears.

I had never even seen a deer feeder till 1991. Nor had I ever sat I a box to hunt. I seemed to have killed my fair share of deer somehow. I scouted. I watched deer. I knew where the sweetest acorns were. I knew where the deer bedded down and what routes they travelled. If I sat for a day and didn't see deer, I had a darn good idea where they were. Hunting the Post Oak Savannah, my entire lease was Oak trees.

Instead of whining that you have too many Oaks to hunt them, try Still Hunting them (some of you may have to Google that). You may be surprised at how many deer you see. Or you may be surprised at what a mediocre deer hunter you are when you don't have a box and a feeder.

Well said sir

You are correct. But I do both. Still hunting is much easier on the wallet as well.

I agree. I have a feeder and a blind, but still kill 9 out of 10 of my deer just sitting on the ground by a tree or bush without a feeder in sight. I don't have oaks but when the neighbor's wheat starts getting hammered it gets fun.

You have some valid points but reality is there are usually more than one hunter on a lease and if I'm out moving around I'm not only disturbing another person I'm creating an unsafe situation. I enjoyed a lease I had with just a few friends where we had mobile stands, ladder and tripod stands, we moved to take advantage of acorn drops and movement patterns. Unfortunately that lease is history and I haven't gotten one like it since. It is sad, but unfortunately it's as much a sign of what circumstances are as much as it is a sign of the times.

In order to still hunt safely it really has to be on your own land. Your right that you only have so much land you can cover on a lease before your into another persons area. And you don't know what kind of jack wad is sitting in the national waiting to shoot at whatever moves

That's a valid point. Where I hunt now, we have 9 hunters (actually 7 because two don't hunt) on 2,500 acres of heavy brush and timber. We don't have any feeders or permanent stands. Moving around on a place where there's one hunter per 100 acres probably isn't a good idea. Then again have one hunter per 100 acres probably isn't too good of an idea either.

You have to remember that most people are on leases. Leases only give you 1 or 2 spots and you are usually not allowed to move freely throughout the pasture as you please. I'm sure a majority of folks are on that type of lease. The circumstances dictate their situation not because they don't want to hunt more effectively.

x2

What you talking bout... you just gota know when everyone is not going to be at the lease and dodge the game cameras

Noted. But you are a "primitive hunter"....(joking aside). I was thinking about that the other day while I was watching the Bronco game and "hunting". I like to relax and sit and enjoy nature and listen to the leaves just like anybody else. I've said from day one that if the deer don't come to the feeder, it's a good thing in that they don't need our supplemental food. Over the last couple of years, I've hunted pinch points and trails and have not taken a deer in over two years. I enjoy the woods and watching the animals and reacting to them .

Well said overall, PH.

Great post!

I'm putting up extra tc's

I agree with these posts. It seems a lot of hunters are content with letting the deer hunt them and not hunting the deer. TC cameras are a great tool for finding deer and paterning them. The only limiting factor would be lease size or lease restrictions.

I'm on a new lease and plan on hunting from my blind over my feeder, but will also hunt other areas of my property as well. I'll sit up on a hill and glass the most open sections of my area and hope to see deer moving about.

Good post.

I was thinking the exact opposite.

We hunt the way we have to. Who's to say your way is better then mine, or mine is better then yours. We all love to hunt, period.
I have my own opinions, but they are just that.

Great Post PH
As someone of approx PH's age and length of time on the ground with a rifle in hand...I wanna know how or why everbody but guys our age past Medicare Eligible ...TEXTS?!?! while they "hunt" ??? or thinks they have to be able to shoot MOA @ 500-1K yards to kill a deer???

One of the "hero's" of my misspent youth, Elmer Kieth, now theres a name to Google for the I Phone Crowd ... was famous for saying foolish things like "Bring or Shoot Enough Gun" and "Get Closer" that get no respect these days. Just Sayin
Ron

The day is coming when the non-hunting majority is going to notice what has become of our methods and the result is not going to be in our favor. We should be ashamed that we teach our kids that preparing for a deer hunt includes taking the right smartphone game and not forgetting the portable heater.

Commercialization has always been the worst enemy of wild game hunting, and it continues today.

arent internet forums great?

I've been hunting with a bow since the early sixties shooting small game as hunting deer wasn't a season yet in many counties back then.
I learned to hunt trails and hunt the oak motts. Corn feeders were usually a 5 gallon bucket with a hole punched into the center of it with a cedar stick wedged in to restrict the flow of corn. It worked pretty well but I always had better luck in ambush along the trails leading from bedding to feeding areas.
I've grown old and lazy and hunt feeders in box blinds now days, but I also get just as much of a thrill watching the deer than I do killing one. I don't care much for the work part, so I let a lot of deer walk until the gun season comes around and it gets colder.
It's no secret,....Don't get hooked on the corn feeders, if you are looking for a trophy buck especially once the acorns fall because the deer prefer steak over candy any day. They still come in, but that is mostly due to habit, until the acorns sour, and then when the rut kicks in feeders will draw the does as well as feeding the senderos. From my own experience, the bucks prefer to eat the corn scattered in a sendero rather than approach a feeder if given the choice.

We agree more than you may think. You say "We hunt the way we have to." That agrees with my post regarding "What Deer Hunting has Become".

When I was a teen, I learned important things like 'ignore deer tracks in a two-track. They're made at night'. And 'pick a spot where deer tracks are going both directions'. Figure that one out for yourself. And 'NEVER go into a bedding area'. Can you recognize a bedding area?

Some of my best memories are sitting on the ground in some brush with my parka and gun completely iced over; and loving every second of it. When my Son was young, we slept on the open ground by a fire in sleeping bags. Me waking up every few hours to add wood to the fire. Today, who is living those adventures? Worse yet, who even wants to?

Yep i really dont care for the feeders very much myself but we do feed all year long .....mostly to keep them healthy if there is lake of other food sources . I dont hunt on a feeder duing the season but maybe a few times to get a doe if i am not seeing any just cruising by