Giants at the feeder

Over the years, I’ve always heard, ole timers say “you’re never going to kill that big (giant) buck over a feeder”. It’s gotten me to thinking, I hunted a giant and was able to get him a few years ago, but not at a feeder. Over a 4 year span, I only got pictures of him at a feeder 3 or 4 times. We have another guy that hunts with us, an older guy and he will NOT us a feeder, saying he has never seen old big buck use or eat at them. He lives about 2 hours from out lease, and has the time to go every few weeks and pour out 100 to 150 pounds of corn on the ground; every time he goes he has pictures of big giant bucks and kills one every year.

I was only about to hunt opening week (the first of September) no I do not hunt in Texas. And just got back to the lease over the weekend to pull cards a check my camera, out of 2800+ pictures I have and old very large buck that pass about 50 yards behind my feeder 3 or 4 times a week but never stops. My camera is set to take 2 pictures every 5 minutes, so I know he is not stopping, eating and leaving before the next set of pictures.

My question is, has anyone else experienced this. Please do not get offended, but I’m referring to low/no fence free range buck, that both age between 6 to 8+ years old and that score 160’s or bigger.

Thank you

IME bucks have to be raised eating at a corn feeder from the time they were a fawn and 365/yr for the rest of their life.

Doe can make them do stupid things at certain points in the season.

I don't have any confidence that I will kill a big one at a feeder but it does help make the hunts more interesting by bringing in other deer to pass the time.

not much inta the scoring thing. hunted leases for years, 1 buck county, tis why so cheap if buck came ta feeder, it usualy was en & chillen. it educates the other deer. archery took an 8pnter. started light rain whin shot. no feeder. had heard deer crash ta me left rear. was gonna wait. then figured rain wash away sign. started ta get down whin seen a buck staring at me. first thought twas the deer i shot, then realized it was bigger. fund one hit were heard crash. all the bigger older deer ive seen, never cam ta feeders, they may have after dark, my cam's set day. their was & has been nice buck that checks feeders from distance, usualy get just a glimps. some wrre on here mentiond the big buck that got away by jumping fence. twas chasing two does, beat me fair an square. i got cheap posts, this side of Mississippi anyways

This one showed up this year. Stayed for 2 weeks at this feeder and then vanished. I seen him bedded down 131 yards off of a lease road but I was already tagged out.

This is LF in wheeler county.




And yes I can show you this same deer at the feeder at 12:00 pm in the afternoon.

Never know about a big buck, this one showed up for 3 years in the Summer and around Christmas, the Christmas times were always for 20 minutes or more between 8 and 8:30 am. He was found dead post season in the creek on a neighboring property and scored 167 and change. Not bad for a low fence small place.

I have 2 shooting lanes at my stand!!! One I hand feed corn and the other one has a feeder and although the feeding spots are only about 40 yds apart as the crow flies the older bucks tend to stay away from the feeder(until the day after the season's over )!!!

Even bucks born and raised around feeders know they mean death. Feeders are good for concentrating doe and young deer. During the rut when a big buck has cruised in and cutting the doe herd may hang on the outskirts of feeder or may even get a bite or two if he locked on a hot doe but the odds are better to hunt in thicker brush/woods about 50-100 yards in the predominant down wind so de of feeding area for the "big" bucks. I took a bruiser this year on my place that I only had couple pics at feeder at night. I have pics of him running doe at feeder but not eating except at night. You know the photo burst you get, doe eating, doe head up, doe running, then him chasing.....can't kill em if you ain't hunting no matter where or how you set up.

Eh, the buck I had all summer which was one of the absolute largest LF deer taken in the county (2nd biggest that I'm aware of) was a corn eating feeder whore.

All summer.

The autumn breezes found him chasing more than corn, and he vanished only to be shot dumbly walking across a hay field after a female, the cause and solution to each of life's problems.

We have killed a 156, 160, two 163s, 165 and a 173, all at feeders.

We bought our place and it was literally shot out. We only saw 3 deer the first year (on camera with feeders) two does and a 3 pt. We put out 4 corn feeders and 4 free choice protein feeders food plots and water stations and didn't shoot a deer for 2 years, didn't shoot a buck for 3 years. At that point we had several bucks in the 4-5 year old range that were regulars at the feeders. After 4 years of shooting bucks the 3.5 YO plus group is no longer a common sight at all on feeder cams or blind hunts.

A sack of corn in an unexpected spot with a camera drew in 3-4 bucks in the 4-5 YO range for two weeks.

what he said: leases been on. twas opening weekend, days off, & if not tagged out closing weekend. person may have 2 months rifle hunt, but time tis limited for most. as pappy once said: deer learn ta pattern hunters i just dont type as perdy as most 3

last year 2013-2014 season. thought this area was shot out. it went 4 deer.county couple yrars back. was seeing bucks & does. last year 2013-2014 seen 1 doe on two different sits. after season ended, started seeing does, bucks in velvet, then Sept.- Oct. some nice bucks, not GIANTS antler size, 3.5-4.5 not an expert opening rifle season- end, seen 0 deer. dought place is shot out. on your success. i gots cheap posts

Used to hunt on a lease in hondo about 15 years ago and same group of guys hunted the lease for like 10 years. There were 10 guns on 1300 acres but some guys hardly ever pulled the trigger on anything, not even pigs. We Didn't shoot anything that wasn't mature and fed protein yada yada yada. But all the feeders had hog panels and one of those guys that hardly ever pulled the trigger out there killed two biggest deer off of that ranch in the that time span. Shot a 163 and a 168 about 3 years apart from the same blind an both of those bucks were shot and died inside the feed pin. Lol I never let a shooter get that close to the corn or had to be Johnny on the spot and shot em as they passed through. We didn't have any game cameras back then to see if they were visiting the feeders regularly, I hunted hard on that lease when I was young sometime for 2 weeks straight and never saw either of those big ones. Sometimes you get lucky and they serve themselves on a platter for you, but I think for the most part the big boys get a little smarter than walking out and standin under the feeder for you

Some great points from all of you guys. At times, a feeder is the only reason that you might see a deer. I don't put the feeders out as much for bucks as I do for keeping the doe around. Come to think of it, I've never shot a mature buck while he was eating corn. Of course it happens, there are exceptions to just about any rule. What I'm saying is the feeder brings in the doe and the bucks come cruising by looking for love. Every buck on my walls was killed during the rut, and not eating corn.

I've now killed three in your age and score range over feed (low fence archery). Get lots of daylight pics too. I think it depends a lot on pressure but even more on luck and timing. Simply put, you have to be there when they show. I haven't been able to hunt near as much this year as in the past, but it's better to be lucky than good!

Had them at feeder during non shooting light but day time whole different story

just catching up on every ones post, thank you for your incite. maybe I just need to get into the woods a little more. did not hunt much the last 2 years.

That is one awesome buck! I would do a shoulder mount of him like the bottom picture.

When I was a young boy in the 60's, there were almost no deer at all in Wheeler County.

Really nice to see them come back, and look so nice.

Thanks for posting that. Really made my day.

Sorry for the small picture, this is taken from about 200 yards away.

6x6 that went 182"

Wow! These pics are awesome. These bucks are what you dream about. Thx to all that shared.

I used to a hunt a 800 acre place that had smaller places around it (20-50 acres) with a lot of hunting pressure, had feeders out and I would see deer back in the woods behind the feeder but they never came out to feeder.

I got tired of that so I went into the woods about 75 yards and found a good spot to sit down in some cedars and I started to see the deer.

In the morning the deer would wait till about 9:30 or 10:00 to come in and they would skirt the edge of the trees around the feeder and stand, I think they were looking and smelling to see if anyone was in the stand before they would go in too the feeder.

In the afternoon about 30 minutes before the feeder went off the deer would stay back in trees and do the same thing and then wait till dark to go in.

I told the other guys on the lease what I was doing and they all said that wouldn't make any difference and stayed doing their normal thing.

I ended up being the only one able to see a buck and to shoot a buck for the two years I hunted there. The deer were small not trophies but for that place any deer was a trophy.

Try changing things up a little from what you've been doing. I think the deer are smart and figure the normal thing out.

All deer will react different but its very possible to get them at feeders. Year round feeding is what helps the best imo. Also the amount of feed available... an old buck isn't going to make a trip to eat were you want him to unless he knows there will be feed there. Ill put out a lot of feed around the feeder by hand the weekends im hunting to help. but also the feeders will be slinging for 15-20 seconds.

don't think hes old prolly just sick but meh