Deer don’t like feeder

Russelville

Four Pointer
New property to hunt. 100 acre cutover -cut 7 years ago. Built a box stand and put it up in March.

Bit the bullet and purchased a feeder that holds 600 lbs of corn. Put it up in July. Set to feed twice daily. This will keep my trips into property minimal.

Checked camera 3 times since then. Deer still seem spooked all to pieces over feeder after 4 months.

Deer are in this cutover. Great area.

Put 200 lbs of corn scattered on ground on a different shooting lane before cold snap last week.
It is still there.

Gonna change my strategy with hunting the cutover - but my question is....


Will the deer ever get used to the feeder? Or should I pull it and rethink my plan for hunting this property?


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mrnoshootemaintgood

Four Pointer
New property to hunt. 100 acre cutover -cut 7 years ago. Built a box stand and put it up in March.

Bit the bullet and purchased a feeder that holds 600 lbs of corn. Put it up in July. Set to feed twice daily. This will keep my trips into property minimal.

Checked camera 3 times since then. Deer still seem spooked all to pieces over feeder after 4 months.

Deer are in this cutover. Great area.

Put 200 lbs of corn scattered on ground on a different shooting lane before cold snap last week.
It is still there.

Gonna change my strategy with hunting the cutover - but my question is....


Will the deer ever get used to the feeder? Or should I pull it and rethink my plan for hunting this property?


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My feeder always seemed to freak the deer out. They never came to eat From it.

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jug

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have had 2 of those big feeders. They do not work good here in NC. First I found the batteries run out when it starts to get cold. Second only fawns and does will go near them but if they go off they spook . The hanging feeders work but they have to be above their heads. Bears will tear them up if given the chance.
 
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LawDog

Ten Pointer
Never had much luck with feeders. I tried them again last year and all I was getting was does...pulled the feeders, starting corning on the ground and the bucks showed up.
 

Russelville

Four Pointer
2 of my properties I have nice bucks on gravity and spin feeders. This particular spot - a feeder seems like deer repellent.


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Homebrewale

Old Mossy Horns
Some deer like them and some don't. I've had bucks on camera looking up at the feeder. They appear to be hoping more fall from the sky.
 

CRC

Old Mossy Horns
If you spent the money on it you might as well use it even if it spooks the bucks away.
 

Eggman

Twelve Pointer
I have lots of activity around my feeders. Seems strange they will not use your feeder or corn dumped on the ground.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Not surprised they don’t like the feeder, but if they won’t eat it on the ground in a different lane, then they aren’t going to eat it.

The feeder shouldn’t be affecting the other lane at all.

smh at CRC...
 

koszman

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Switched 3 of my feeders to a 3 port gravity feeder from academy sports. Have nice bucks coming to them without a problem. They went to them within a couple days.
 

cowgirl

Four Pointer
We had good pictures of very nice bucks under 3 different automatic feeders on our lease. Day as night time. We kept them running year round though
 

Slong

Four Pointer
I had spin type feeders and found out that bucks didn't come around them. So I took off the spinner and put gravity drop/feeder on bottom and problem solved. Bucks came back and actually have more bucks eating from them then does.


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30/06

Twelve Pointer
I hate spin feeders, so do the deer in most cases. Gravity feeders seem to work much better at least for older bucks. If they're not eating corn on the ground probably have a lot of acorns around your cutover. They haven't really been hitting corn hard for some time now. Between bucks looking for does and does knowing that a buck will probably swing by a corn pile looking corn isn't a great draw at the moment. If it gets cold later they'll be back on it.

I'd either change your spin feeder to gravity or stop using the feeders all together.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
the only deer call used in texas is an electronic call that simulates a feeder going off. :)

they love feeders out there for sure.
 

mattharris0414

Guest
Imo it takes 3+ years to get deer used to and regularly using a spinner type feeder. The young deer dont care and as they grow, they get used to it. You need to take the spinner off and build a gravity feed design for it that gravity feeds down to 3 or 4 "troughs".. all the deer will use it then.
 

genbud78

Ten Pointer
Switched 3 of my feeders to a 3 port gravity feeder from academy sports. Have nice bucks coming to them without a problem. They went to them within a couple days.
Do you happen to have pics of the gravity feeders you are using?

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koszman

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Hey genbud I don’t have pics but if you pull up academy.com it’s on their site. I then attached I️t to 55 gallon drums. I️t the game winner gravity feed tube. Bought them at the end of season mark down for 19.99.
 
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