East Texas Hunters: alternatives to hand thrown corn for mature bucks

[Sinkey]

I have 2 Redneck gravity feeders that Big Bucks LOVE. I just moved them to a TPost mount because the dadgum squirrels eat the plastic...but 80 lbs corn will last 3-4 weeks and the hogs cant get to it. I just moved to tpost last week so I have not been able to see if keeping varmits off will make corn last any longer....the amount they could get was pretty limited anyway.

How high off the ground do you have it? The pics and videos Ive seen of these seems that big pigs can still reach it.

[Antlers86]

I have 2 Redneck gravity feeders that Big Bucks LOVE. I just moved them to a TPost mount because the dadgum squirrels eat the plastic...but 80 lbs corn will last 3-4 weeks and the hogs cant get to it. I just moved to tpost last week so I have not been able to see if keeping varmits off will make corn last any longer....the amount they could get was pretty limited anyway.

Squirrels still try and get in them but this is how I set my Redneck Feeders. Great product

Place inside a Handcorn pen and no worries about hogs.

[U.S.ArmyRetired]

I have 2 Tripod feeders in Harrison County. No food plots. I live almost 5 hours away. I get up there about about once every 2 months. It is always growed up so bad I cannot tell if anything is hitting the corn. I mow the shooting lanes and fill the feeders till next trip.

Don't see many deer but it is what it is.

[JayB]

How high off the ground do you have it? The pics and videos Ive seen of these seems that big pigs can still reach it.

They recommend 42" above ground. The deer will work hard on just a few bits of corn. I followed the website guidelines for a PVC leg covered with a bucket upside down then the feeder, to keep squirrel and coon away. I will see what the camera shows on the next trip.

.....and God Bless America.

[JayB]

How does t-post mount keep squirrels from eating the PVC?


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Basically, they can't get to it. I wish I would have taken a picture before I left. You can look on redneck feeder website and find it.

.....and God Bless America.

[Black-N-Red]

A 5 gallon bucket would be gone before he got home with only the bucks eating.

It maybe but it works for great me in Houston County. Here’s few bucks over the last few years. Also about 200yrds from where I hunt there’s a feeder with camera & never seen any of these deer at the feeder.






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[bmac]

We put up a quite feeder and hung from chains between two trees. Piston open, corn drops, and nothing for them to stand under.


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[ByronB]

I’m going to try running big&j blocks. I can’t keep my hand corn out more than a day or 2 because the hogs mow it down. Hopefully they’ll stay off the blocks just a little better.

I put some big & J blocks out and the hogs demolished them. Hope they do not do the same to yours. Put a camera on them.

[GarGuy]

[QUOTE=Black-N-Red;14966437]It maybe but it works for great me in Houston County. Here’s few bucks over the last few years. Also about 200yrds from where I hunt there’s a feeder with camera & never seen any of these deer at the feeder.


If you followed any of my threads I'm sure you know I do that in a dozen places. Johnny is 100 miles from his spot. He goes up and pours 500 lb of corn in two pens. Deer...mostly bucks....eat all of it in 5 days.

[hardtner]

I am sure I have a similar setup, but your deer might behave differently and my place is 20 minutes from the house. Here is my corn $$ saving plan that I employ...I only start feeding a week before the season. I haven't found that it has a negative effect on us killing mature bucks.

I used to do the whole feeding year round deal, but I found myself burnt out before the season began and really dreading driving to the feed store to get corn. I can't think about deer hunting year around like I used to. Feeding deer in the spring/summer severely cuts into my fishing time. Some of the deer I used to feed all spring/summer would disappear anyway when velvet dropped and often we kill deer that we see daily during the season for their whole life but neighbors 1-2 miles away feed each summer. In my case, I think I draw those deer the same during the killing time whether I bust my butt all summer feeding, or not.
Most importantly, I keep out however much corn it takes in each spot to make sure that there is corn available at all hours of the day from the time I want to start my season until I'm done for the year. For me, that is usually 2-3 bags per spot every 2-3 days.

[Black-N-Red]

If you followed any of my threads I'm sure you know I do that in a dozen places. Johnny is 100 miles from his spot. He goes up and pours 500 lb of corn in two pens. Deer...mostly bucks....eat all of it in 5 days.[/QUOTE]

I didn’t see he was that far away. Sorry for that. I’m only about 30 minutes from where I hunt.

The feeder hanging on a chain is probably the best idea I’ve heard. I think the best thing would be the feeder hanging high between 2 trees with an auger style dispense system with some sort of cone made from something soft under it to spread the corn out.

I’ve also heard of folks using like a 5 grain chicken scratch, smaller pieces of corn, sunflower seeds, oats wheat, milo & barley. With the smaller pieces they hang around longer & don’t eat as much. I’m gonna try the chicken scratch in a couple of places this year & see what happens.


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[JamesM]

A one way 100 mile drive once or twice a week would take a lot of the fun out of hunting for someone who also works a full time job. My drive is 50 miles, there's no way I could do 100 miles for any length of time. A high hanging ghost feeder sure sounds like a good idea. I may try one next year.

[deerslay3r]

The price for the "ghost feeder" is absolutely ridiculous. Just get a winch up 30 gallon feeder and turn the spin speed to the lowest setting and spray any metal with a rubber coating, same thing.

[Pineywoods Paul]

I hunt East Texas and we only harvest 5.5 yr old bucks if 9 points or more and some 4.5 yr old 8’s on occasion.
We have very mature bucks jump in our pens and hit corn from broadcast feeders with zero hesitation. The same pens are where our protein troughs are so bucks are used to jumping in them year round.
They don’t feed either in pens with feeders or on broadcast corn not in pens except at night-except during pre rut and rut in October-November.
We don’t like broadcasting corn except in Fenced pens because it attracts hogs off neighboring tracts. But I don’t think feeder vs hand spread corn makes a difference if you’re using fenced pens/which is an imperative of you don’t want hogs running your deer off.

[Johnny]

Great ideas. I just got home after making the drive to the lease. It was an hour and 20 minutes one way. I feed in pens and for the most part, hogs stay out of em. I have 2 locations where I corn and poured 250 pounds in each spot. This will give me about a week or so to decided on what I need to do. Definitely can't make the drive over there once a week and throw out corn.

Looks like the deer were waiting on me. Already got a doe on corn. I appreciate everyone's input and will update after I set something in concrete.



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