Feeders draining your pockets?

W

Wild Bill Bucks

New member
Automatic, programable feeders will save you a bunch of money, and will yeild the same results on game.

If your like I am, my feeders are 50 gallon barrels, and will hold 450 lbs per unit. You are probably feeding 3 lbs of feed per feeding, at a rate of twice a day. This equals 6 lbs per day for 365 days, for a total of 2250 lbs per year, per feeder. This will figure out to about 5 or 6 trips to the feed house and out to your feeder.

By setting a programmable feeder to feed 1 lb, three times a day, from March through September, and feeding 6 lbs a day from October through February, you will only be feeding about 1548 lbs per year, and will cut your trips down to 3 or 4 trips to your feeder. Thats a 702 lb savings plus your gasoline. That's a lot of dollars. The more feeders you have, the greater the savings, and the result you are after is to keep the deer drawn into your area for hunting.

During the months of March through September, there is plenty of food for the deer, and as long as there is a little something for them every time they come to the feeder, they will stay around pretty close.

I feed a High protein feed mix through mine, and they don't need as much through these months, as they do from October through February. With the price of my feed and the expense of my fuel, I see about a $550.00 per year savings. Not counting my time and trouble.

The programmable feeders are a little more expensive, but you can do the math on your expenses, and see whether they are a good idea for you or not.

Hope this idea helps:)
 
I use hen scratch to keep my various birds and little critters happy. The price is up around 50% over a few months back...

Art
 
Good Idea Art. My 50-50 mix of soy bean and corn went up about 3.15 per 100 since march, and probably going to take another hike about October.
 
Uh its really cheaper and i think youll find, more challenging to not have feeders. If you figure that you may get two or three deer in the fall and then figure out how much that cost in feed per pound of meat you are paying a whole pile for your venison.

I think that hunting is costly enough just hunting a few weekends in the fall every year by the time I pay for the gas and whatnot.
 
Jseime,

I don't have the feeders up to hunt over, I have them up to help with the protein level of the existing deer around the property. When I started feeding about 10 years ago, it was rare to even see a buck, and when you did, they were of the 4 to 6 point range, 80 to 90 lbs. Every year, with 8 of us hunting, only 1 or 2 guys would get a buck. We decided that with the limited amount of deer we had to pick from, that if we were ever going to be able to really enjoy the season, we were going to have to help the deer population along. After we started feeding, we noticed a definite increase in the population, as the feeders brought in more deer, we started feeding a high protein mix, and in the last few years we have noticed a lot of difference in the quality of deer. This last year, all 8 guys took home a buck, and the least of which was a 8 point that weighed in at 105lbs. I took the biggest deer with an 11 point rack at 120lbs. One of my sons took an 10 point that weighed in at 135lbs.

It seems like a lot of money to spend, but when you consider that we are building a place where my grandkids will be able to hunt, and really enjoy themselves, the cost is worth it.
I don't think anyone really hunts deer to save money, because if you figure the cost of gear, gas, time,and tags, it is probably the most expensive pound of meat you will ever eat. When you look at it as a place to spend a week or two with your family and freinds, then it doesn't seem such a high price to pay.
 
I have a year-around clock feeder about 50 yards from the house (hen scratch), and a hanging feeder ("wild bird seed") under the eaves at my front porch.

So, dove and quail and tweety-birds. Rock squirrels and antelope squirrels. The occasional fox, coyote or bobcat.

Tossing leftover food out into the front yard has a pair of ravens hanging around, and sometimes a buzzard or three.

I like being able to sit here at the computer and watch critters.

People ain't the only ones who go for welfare.

:D, Art
 
When I started feeding about 10 years ago, it was rare to even see a buck, and when you did, they were of the 4 to 6 point range, 80 to 90 lbs. Every year, with 8 of us hunting, only 1 or 2 guys would get a buck. We decided that with the limited amount of deer we had to pick from, that if we were ever going to be able to really enjoy the season, we were going to have to help the deer population along. After we started feeding, we noticed a definite increase in the population, as the feeders brought in more deer, we started feeding a high protein mix, and in the last few years we have noticed a lot of difference in the quality of deer. This last year, all 8 guys took home a buck, and the least of which was a 8 point that weighed in at 105lbs. I took the biggest deer with an 11 point rack at 120lbs. One of my sons took an 10 point that weighed in at 135lbs.
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Very interesting wildlife experiment you got going there WBB - can't argue with that dramatic shift in results. The key of course is the high protein mix. Corn alone ain't gonna cut it - it's mostly all fat with little nutrition beyond that. I'm planning on starting to use (when I start running my feeders again), a mixture of whole corn, cracked corn, soybeans, wheat, sesame seeds, alfafa, and couple other ingredients that ol' boy up there by James Collins sells (not too far from you) - it's supposed to grow huge racks. But first I've got to pay for a fence to keep the trespassers OUT before I invest that much $$ in the deer herd. :)

People ain't the only ones who go for welfare.
Click to expand...
:) Art, you need to get you a deer feeder, too!
 
FF,

Thats where I buy my feed. When we first got the lease, we had the same problem with trespassers, so I printed up some bright orange cards that simply said: "You are on a private lease, please remove yourself and any equipment you have from the premises. This is your only chance to remove your stands, before we turn them in to the Sheriffs Department."

We would put them on any vehicles we would find or on any stands we would come across, or any place we saw where a guy had cleaned him out a ground blind. It took a couple of years, but by the third year, word had got around, and we have not had any problems since. It's a good way to get the message across without having any confrontation with anyone.

It took a little while, but was worth it in the long run. Most guys will give up hunting in a place that they are not wanted simply because they want to hunt rather than spend all day in a confrontation with someone.

Our biggest problem was the guy who checks on the gas wells that are scattered across the property. He would come in right at the crack of dawn and check the wells during the best hunting hours. We finally caught him one morning, and over a cup of coffee at the camp sight, talked him into coming on the property about 10:00 instead of 6:00. We explained to him that it was for his own safety, as most of the hunters come in for breakfast about 10:00, and there was less chance of him being hit by a stray bullet.:eek:
 
Well, then set up a feeder, and when you see the lions stalking your deer under the feeder, shoot them. Or put C4 around the perimeter for the lions, with a detonator button by your computer, and when the deer are safely inside the perimeter at the feeder, watch for lions & yotes sneaking up. :)
 
Aw, it's easier to just soak a rag in bacon grease and tie it to the fence, down toward Cigar Mountain in the south pasture. Park the truck some 50 or 75 yards away, downwind in the brush, and just sit. Easy enough to just hang an auto brake light bulb nearby to make night time scoping easier.

As long as you can put up with "just settin' and watchin'".

:), Art
 
jseime, hunting in arid/transistional arid climates is far different from hunting in canada...some years it's a necesity to feed just to keep your existing heard, or lack there of alive. Second, most land down south is private. We don't have the luxury of hunting vast public woodlands you have up north. As much as I hate feeders, they are an unwelcome necesity in our region. If you don't feed, the neighbor is, and guess where the deer and hogs are? Well if you're not feeding, they're next door...:mad: It just is what it is...You feed to keep deer on your property. The big bucks don't come to feeders anyway except at night, so you still have to know how to hunt if you want to get one...
 
Wild Bill and Castnblast:

I definetly understand feeding to keep the population healthy thats a good idea because it preserves the deer for the future.

I just see these guys on TV in a fully camoflauged treestand 50 yards away from a feeder with a .338 Win. Mag. with a 26 inch barrel and a 4-16X scope on it. Then they brag about how big their buck was. I was really hoping that thats not what hunting has become everywhere and I'm really glad to run into some people with some common sense between their ears.

I guess I'm just lucky because we have a lot of land and the deer have more food than you can shake a stick at. Big deer are just a couple miles down the road.
 
People are predators, right? Ol' Big Cat, he hangs out near a water hole when he's hungry, looking for that thirsty antelope. A fella, he hangs out in a deer blind, watching a feeder. What's the difference?

But a lot of us prefer to walk and stalk. It's just different strokes for different folks.

And what's shown on TV is "some", not "all".

Art
 
I know a lot of guys who hunt over their feeders, but what I have found by listening to them is that when you shoot a deer under your feeder, you very seldom see any more deer from that bunch for the rest of the season.

Most guys that hunt over their feeders only have 1 or 2 days to hunt, so they go for the first thing that comes along. I can see their point, but I have all week to hunt so I hunt the trails further away from the feeders. Most of the time the smarter bucks will hang away from the feeders and let the does and dumb little bucks go the the feeder first, so it gives me a better hunt if I'm away from the feeders.

I agree with Art, we are predators, and we are prone to take the easy way out. But generally the more effort that you put out on a hunt gives you a much better result in the long run.

Don't beleive every thing you see on TV. Most of the time these guys are pushed by a deadline to get film in the can, and are willing to do just about anything to get it quickly, but it ain't really hunting, it's TV hunting.:D
 
Wild Bill hit the nail on the head: "it ain't really hunting, it's TV hunting". What goes on before the TV crew shows up is enough to make you puke. You probably need an entertainment lawyer and a PR agency to decipher the contracts. There's the video to show you have enough big bucks tamed so they're sure to see one no matter when they show up and how much noise they make. If you have cattle, they've got to be moved out of the area so they don't run the deer off. Accomodations for a small army. The "sponsorship fee" to sponsor that episode. The list goes on for a mile, but if you've got the goods and the story gets told right, the TV exposure can sure make a big difference in your income for the next year's hunt. I doubt there is any advertising anywhere that has a better return on the dollar than a widely aired hunting show. Of course, you have to do your part too and be sure you know who watches the show, how much they spend on hunting, etc. It is easy to make a costly mistake. One carelessly edited scene can blow the whole deal for you. Most of the outfits you'll see on TV are operations on the scale of "military-industrial complex" and their preferred hunter is just killing time between safaris.
 
To all those feeding tweety birds etc-How do you keep feral (or neighbors) cats from dining on the birds or dont it matter?
 
Coyotes are known to act as Disposalls for feral cats. :)

Never known anybody to make cougar chili, but Big Kitty sure does taste scrumptious when barbecued.

I'd scattered some grain in front of my porch and was idly watching some doves (mostly whitewing) and the local blue quail pecking around. A coyote wandered up. The doves flew off, but the quail just backed off into a group and watched from maybe ten or fifteen feet away.

Ol' Wily walked away, and over toward my clock feeder. A repeat; the doves flew away and the quail gathered off in a bunch and watched.

The quail then started walking toward the coyote, fanning out into a semi-circle and screaming at him. The coyote just stood there and watched for a moment, and then turned and walked off down the driveway past the garage.

Art
 

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