Hunting deer feeders

So lets look at the big picture at the deer lease in Grayson County. We have seven feeder's that each have trail camera's (tc) and stands. The feeders throw corn out two times a day, 7:30 am and 5:00 pm every day. The pictures we have been getting for the past 8 weeks or so are showing that the majority of deer are hitting the feeders in the dark. From looking at the pics and putting the info into a data base it is simple to see the big picture and that is, with the abundence of natural browse and acorn crop, corn cannot compete with with mother natures food source. The acorns size range from that of a an english pea to the size of a man's thumbnail and they appear to come from white oaks.

So sitting in the stand this past weekend and not seeing any activity haa caused me to reevaluate the whole feeder hunting thing.

I have been hunting for 28 yrs and for 26 yrs i have hunted over feeders spinning out corn, this is a legal method to hunt in Texas. I believe I have been conditioned to hunt feeders. In other words if there is not a feeder put one.

Hunting in the hill country of central Texas will spoil a hunter. Most time when a feeder goes off it is like a dinner bell and the deer will show up and feed till the corn is gone. The deer are plentiful, we would always see deer, I have counted as many as 17 deer feeding at a fenceline salted with corn.

So now we hunt in Grayson county, which is a county that borders the Red River and it is nothing like hunting the hill country. The deer are few and far between, there is tons of natural food and there are lots of creek bottoms full of hardwoods.

So lets back to the problem, no deer seen in the daylight. We sit over the feeders week after week , getting frustrated at not seeing anything because from past hunting we have always hunted over feeders. Maybe its time to rethink hunting over feeders.

I think that the feeders are as big  a magnet for hunters than wildlife on our lease. It is really hard to break from something that has be ingrained into a person habits for so many years.

I have has the opportunity to hunt Hagerman National Wildlife Refugee. This place is known for monster bucks, hunters put in for the draw hunt and feeding is not allowed, we adapted for the weekend and maybe thats what we need to do here, have a Hagerman frame of mind.

Beautiful weekend for a hunt

We got up to the lease last night, which was black Friday and for the hunt this morning we had perfect weather. There wasn't any wind and thank goodness as it was in the low 30's. My coke was slushy after i opened it till i finished it. Seen a lone deer walking to my north about 150 yds or so, then as we were going to meet Charlie at the barn, he was walking towards us and pointing to one of the ponds and there was a buck on the tank dam, him and Morgan tried stalking. It is the afternoon hunt and there is a slight breeze from the south and the temp is in the high 50's. I added a little burlap to help conceal my stand, I was feeling a little exposed.  

Windy weekend

This weekend was a bust I shall just blame the lack of animal movement on the wind blowing 25 to 35 mph. We are getting plenty of nighttime pics on the tc's but the movement drops down to 10% or so. I hunted in my stand Sat and Sun night and didn't even see a squirrel. I hunted the pop up Sun morning and saw a rabbit.

A change in the weather

A cold front blew in this morning around  9:30. Maybe a freeze will follow it and all these acorns will sour. These deer do not have to move to find food. The white oak acorns are so much bigger than last year, then they were the size of a baby's thumbnail and this year they are as big as a nickle.