Deer Feeders and growing antler inches

[omicron1792]

Yep. You have to dedicate to feeding consistently. But if you do, the bucks will be bigger. Of that I have no doubt.

Up north there isn’t a bunch of native browse. But there are fields and fields of beans and alfalfa. So that’s what they eat. And they get huge in it.

In south you just don’t have big fields of food. So they eat the native stuff out of 4.5 ph soil. And they don’t get as big.

 

[SwampCat]

You perfectly make a point I'm trying to make on another thread on this site. In the Deep South it is all but impossible to grow large antlered bucks on native browse of green briar , dew berry and such.

I live in the West Gulf Coastal Plain - primarily piney woods managed by commercial timber interests - where a hardwood tree is considered a weed. Our average 5 yr old buck gross scores 113”.

The Mississippi Alluvial Valley is row crop country - corn, beans, rice. Their average 5 yr old buck averages 130”. There is no question food quality, whether natural or man provided, benefits the deer. If you dont have beans and corn, you can help to make up the difference through a supplemental food source.

I dont know how much supplemental feeding in a wild, free choice system adds to antler growth. But the fact it does add weight makes one think there may be some - maybe small benefit - to antler growth.

 

[omicron1792]

View attachment 68865

I live in the West Gulf Coastal Plain - primarily piney woods managed by commercial timber interests - where a hardwood tree is considered a weed. Our average 5 yr old buck gross scores 113”.

The Mississippi Alluvial Valley is row crop country - corn, beans, rice. Their average 5 yr old buck averages 130”. There is no question food quality, whether natural or man provided, benefits the deer. If you dont have beans and corn, you can help to make up the difference through a supplemental food source.

I dont know how much supplemental feeding in a wild, free choice system adds to antler growth. But the fact it does add weight makes one think there may be some - maybe small benefit - to antler growth.

I think most can’t afford or can’t stomach to feed like what is needed. Spending thousands knowing others will reap alot of the reward is hard for most of us.

But if you put 2000 pound feeders on property full of protein and fed year round for ten years, I have no doubt there would be bigger bucks running around.

 

[bwoods11]

Just for chuckles.....

View attachment 68864

Those bucks will be nice in couple years !

 

[SwampCat]

I think most can’t afford or can’t stomach to feed like what is needed. Spending thousands knowing others will reap alot of the reward is hard for most of us.

But if you put 2000 pound feeders on property full of protein and fed year round for ten years, I have no doubt there would be bigger bucks running around.

In our case - increased deer quality is just one piece of the pie. Before we started summer protein feeding, we only killed one of the biggest bucks on camera about once every three years. Since we started summer protein feeding, we usually kill one a year. That said, we dont usually kill them over a bait pile - although we would if I could get my hunters out during early season. Most of our bigger bucks come from around the edge of a food plot - checking for does. But our extensive feeding program seems to keep them on our property just a little more - and we offer a food choice that is more preferred than corn. Our fawn recruitment is also higher and we have been growing our doe herd. Our deer herd and deer hunting is the best we have ever had. It isnt cheap or easy.

 

[omicron1792]

In our case - increased deer quality is just one piece of the pie. Before we started summer protein feeding, we only killed one of the biggest bucks on camera about once every three years. Since we started summer protein feeding, we usually kill one a year. That said, we dont usually kill them over a bait pile - although we would if I could get my hunters out during early season. Most of our bigger bucks come from around the edge of a food plot - checking for does. But our extensive feeding program seems to keep them on our property just a little more - and we offer a food choice that is more preferred than corn. Our fawn recruitment is also higher and we have been growing our doe herd. Our deer herd and deer hunting is the best we have ever had. It isnt cheap or easy.

Same results I have had my man.

 

[Foggy47]

I do believe the results I am hearing. What is surprising is all of the feeding that is happening. Here in MN.....we have not had that "culture" as feeding has been illegal and / or frowned upon for so many years. Still....after saying that......the feed stores and big box stores sure seem to sell allot of corn to guys in camo pants. IDK.....but I doubt all those guys are feeding the squirrels. Same goes for mineral licks.....here in our CWD area minerals are illegal.....but they sure sell allot of blocks and trophy rock at the farm stores.

 

[Turkish]

I do believe the results I am hearing. What is surprising is all of the feeding that is happening. Here in MN.....we have not had that "culture" as feeding has been illegal and / or frowned upon for so many years. Still....after saying that......the feed stores and big box stores sure seem to sell allot of corn to guys in camo pants. IDK.....but I doubt all those guys are feeding the squirrels. Same goes for mineral licks.....here in our CWD area minerals are illegal.....but they sure sell allot of blocks and trophy rock at the farm stores.

It’s a drug. One little bump and the instant gratification is the new tradition. It’s sad.

It’s powerful enough to make smart people swear that mere pounds a day measurably increases deer antler size in free range herds. :)

 

[omicron1792]

I think feeding to improve heard health isn’t the same as a corn pile

 

[omicron1792]

It’s a drug. One little bump and the instant gratification is the new tradition. It’s sad.

It’s powerful enough to make smart people swear that mere pounds a day measurably increases deer antler size in free range herds. :)

I guess I’ll have to clean my lying eyes from bakers pics then!

 

[Foggy47]

I guess I’ll have to clean my lying eyes from bakers pics then!

I suppose there is little doubt that we can domesticate the deer herd (or most any other critter) and make them larger / better by most standards. Lot's of definition on what is a "wild animal".....and what is domesticate livestock. My 2 cents.

 

[Foggy47]

I suppose there is little doubt that we can domesticate (or semi-domesticate) the deer herd (or most any other critter) and make them larger / better by most standards. Lot's of definition on what is a "wild animal".....and what is domesticate livestock. My 2 cents.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I think most can’t afford or can’t stomach to feed like what is needed. Spending thousands knowing others will reap alot of the reward is hard for most of us.

But if you put 2000 pound feeders on property full of protein and fed year round for ten years, I have no doubt there would be bigger bucks running around.

Yeah no doubt it will add inches….if they get age to them. All that money is truly pissed away when everyone is shooting the beautiful 3 and 4 year olds. That, combined with dispersion is why i believe feeding on anything but a large property should be done under the motivation of attraction first and foremost with a potential for inches as a byproduct.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I suppose there is little doubt that we can domesticate the deer herd (or most any other critter) and make them larger / better by most standards. Lot's of definition on what is a "wild animal".....and what is domesticate livestock. My 2 cents.

Agreed. Something Steve rinella said one time stuck with me and took me a while to process. He said he would have a hard time shooting an animal that had been tagged. He explained in his mind that animal was now “tainted” because it had by captured and handled by humans. At first I thought he was crazy but the more I thought on it the more I understood where he was coming from. So for me/us to domesticate this magnificent animal by teaching it to stick its nose in a cotton bale or a giant 2000lb metal tube to pluck little pellets out is gross. In my trout fishing days we called those unnaturally fed fish pellet pigs. If I was king of the world it would be severely illlegal, but it’s not so I have made the choice to play the game in the name of preservation.
And for anyone who says mature bucks avoid feeders or bait or the pressure dissuades them from using that areas, that is flat out wrong. Had a 160’s deer using feeder this am. 2 hours later I was there changing batteries, 5 hours later I was back overseeding the plot, 3 hours after I left in daylight he was back.

 

[SD51555]

For the guys that feed deer in the wild, what keeps every deer from within 3 miles from hitting that pile? Up north, deer herds can go north of 100 on a field very easily, and I've seen it. Maybe there are so many feed piles at once that the deer simply can't keep up, and they don't consolidate around one. But doesn't that also raise hell with with the native landscape?

 

[H20fwler]

For the guys that feed deer in the wild, what keeps every deer from within 3 miles from hitting that pile? Up north, deer herds can go north of 100 on a field very easily, and I've seen it. Maybe there are so many feed piles at once that the deer simply can't keep up, and they don't consolidate around one. But doesn't that also raise hell with with the native landscape?

Nothing keeps them from doing that.

3 mile sq area might be 20 or less deer, unless snow is deep and it rarely is not more than a half dozen or so are at feed at once in winter. I'm also in a crazy high agriculture area with 90% or more of ground in crop production.
All that said there is still a good chance for a 150" if you hunt hard and to at least see a booner every couple of years.

The thing is most "hunters" here dump a bucket of corn or apples the week before season and stop as soon as they shoot a buck or whenever they are going to quit hunting for the season.

 

[BenA]

Even in the deep south, I have witnessed bucks growing to B&C caliber consistently over years on nothing but native forage and age.

 

[sandbur]

For the guys that feed deer in the wild, what keeps every deer from within 3 miles from hitting that pile? Up north, deer herds can go north of 100 on a field very easily, and I've seen it. Maybe there are so many feed piles at once that the deer simply can't keep up, and they don't consolidate around one. But doesn't that also raise hell with with the native landscape?

I fed one winter, about 30 years ago. The native vegetation around the feeder was stripped.

The same thing happened two winters back when about 45 deer tried to survive on my corn plots and apples.

This spring, I had lots of corn left.

I am not sure what my point is….

 

[SwampCat]

Agreed. Something Steve rinella said one time stuck with me and took me a while to process. He said he would have a hard time shooting an animal that had been tagged. He explained in his mind that animal was now “tainted” because it had by captured and handled by humans. At first I thought he was crazy but the more I thought on it the more I understood where he was coming from. So for me/us to domesticate this magnificent animal by teaching it to stick its nose in a cotton bale or a giant 2000lb metal tube to pluck little pellets out is gross. In my trout fishing days we called those unnaturally fed fish pellet pigs. If I was king of the world it would be severely illlegal, but it’s not so I have made the choice to play the game in the name of preservation.
And for anyone who says mature bucks avoid feeders or bait or the pressure dissuades them from using that areas, that is flat out wrong. Had a 160’s deer using feeder this am. 2 hours later I was there changing batteries, 5 hours later I was back overseeding the plot, 3 hours after I left in daylight he was back.

That may be area specific. Rarely do I have a mature buck use a spin feeder - day or night. I have eight bucks in one place on another type of feed, poured on the ground. Four of them are mature. They are 300 yards from a spin feeder that runs 365 days a year. Not one of those bucks has ever been to that spin feeder, or any other spin feeder I have. The day I poured out the first bag of protein in June, two of the four mature bucks showed up along with several others. Within 48 hours, there were 8 bucks feeding at the protein on the ground - none of which had ever been to the spin feeder 300 yards away - or 3/4 mile away, or a mile away. I have had, but rarely, a mature buck or two get on a spin feeder in the past 20 years. Was much more common 10 or 15 years ago.

We started feeding protein about seven years ago. In the first 15 years we owned our land we killed a 154, and two right around 148. The biggest deer in 15 yrs weighed 182. In the past five years, we have killed a 141, 149, and a 158. The next door neighbor has killed a 152 and and 153 - for which he thanks me. I feed them all summer long. We have weighed a 195, 200, 205, and 225. I know of most good deer my neighbors kill - but for sure not all.

These deer eat a lot of protein. I do believe it is just more than coincidental that a few years after we started feeding protein, the bucks were weighing 20 lbs more. Folks I know three miles away did not see an increase in weight of their deer over the same time frame. It is not unrealistic to believe if the deer body weight is increasing - so might its antlers. We arent talking increases like Baker sees - we are talking maybe a few inches. Also during that time fawn recruitment has been slightly higher - but I have noticed where there are a lot of bucks, does feed very little at the protein - they stick with the corn. It is also obvious that if a buck is visiting a feed site three times a night, he is spending less time roaming on your neighbors - a big part of why we feed, also.


This deer above is at least 6.5 yrs old. He roams all over the place. All the neighbors have pictures of him. He lives in my protein until about mid Oct - then goes on walkabout all over the place. Yes, my kids and my grandkids would shoot him with his head in the feed - as would everyone of my neigjbors. We have been trying to kill him for two years - this will be yr 3. In this area, having multiple feed sites is no guarantee of killing anything but a doe.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

That may be area specific. Rarely do I have a mature buck use a spin feeder - day or night. I have eight bucks in one place on another type of feed, poured on the ground. Four of them are mature. They are 300 yards from a spin feeder that runs 365 days a year. Not one of those bucks has ever been to that spin feeder, or any other spin feeder I have. The day I poured out the first bag of protein in June, two of the four mature bucks showed up along with several others. Within 48 hours, there were 8 bucks feeding at the protein on the ground - none of which had ever been to the spin feeder 300 yards away - or 3/4 mile away, or a mile away. I have had, but rarely, a mature buck or two get on a spin feeder in the past 20 years. Was much more common 10 or 15 years ago.

We started feeding protein about seven years ago. In the first 15 years we owned our land we killed a 154, and two right around 148. The biggest deer in 15 yrs weighed 182. In the past five years, we have killed a 141, 149, and a 158. The next door neighbor has killed a 152 and and 153 - for which he thanks me. I feed them all summer long. We have weighed a 195, 200, 205, and 225. I know of most good deer my neighbors kill - but for sure not all.

These deer eat a lot of protein. I do believe it is just more than coincidental that a few years after we started feeding protein, the bucks were weighing 20 lbs more. Folks I know three miles away did not see an increase in weight of their deer over the same time frame. It is not unrealistic to believe if the deer body weight is increasing - so might its antlers. We arent talking increases like Baker sees - we are talking maybe a few inches. Also during that time fawn recruitment has been slightly higher - but I have noticed where there are a lot of bucks, does feed very little at the protein - they stick with the corn. It is also obvious that if a buck is visiting a feed site three times a night, he is spending less time roaming on your neighbors - a big part of why we feed, also.

View attachment 68873
This deer above is at least 6.5 yrs old. He roams all over the place. All the neighbors have pictures of him. He lives in my protein until about mid Oct - then goes on walkabout all over the place. Yes, my kids and my grandkids would shoot him with his head in the feed - as would everyone of my neigjbors. We have been trying to kill him for two years - this will be yr 3. In this area, having multiple feed sites is no guarantee of killing anything but a doe.

Must be location specific but every single mature buck I’ve ever gotten on camera on my place has visited the feeders in daytime during the season.