Ok here it is. I have a new lease that we have been on for two years. It had not been hunted for 4 years before we got on it. i thought it would be awesome but found out the deer are not just running us over. This year has got a little better. I just met some hunters that hunt about 1 mile from us. They were showing us some pictures and a deer they just shot. WOW, they have trophies compared to us and alot of deer. They said they fed year around and protien most of the year. This place was not a high fence either. If you feed year around what do you feed and how? Also, is there anything other than protein pellets that work? Thanks, Chad

i find that a new lease takes 2 years before i start see more deer at the feeders

we have always been fortunate to have longer term leases. so we have always fed year round. we are now on a ranch that we own, so we feed year round there as well. what feeding year round does for you is establishes deer habits. when your blind and feeders are always there and always running, the deer become acustomed to them. we feed corn year round, and protein supplement from feb-sept. when antlers are growing.

we are 322ac low fence. it is exensive if not impossible to feed deer enough to make up for the shortcomings of the native range in a dry year. but it can help if you are dedicated and willing to put in the expense.

you will find that mature bucks will often still avoid deer feeders as they are places where people frequent more often and where more numerous younger deer congregate.

on our place the older bucks will only show at feeders occaisionally during the rut when following does. we put our protein feeders away from the corn feeders though. they will visit and dominate those. or if you simply corn a road next to a dense thicket, they will at times come out for that.

also there are a lot of other things that can make a difference. like hunting pressure. we do nothing with our ranch except groom it for deer hunting. we removed all cows, we do no shooting there except that which is done to actually harvest a deer. we do our best to not drive in the pasture more than necessary. so it all stays quiet and un-inerupted. we have a couple of about 70ac pastures that we do not venture into for any reason. only around the exterior to check fences, and we hunt on the fringes of those thick areas. we see more and better deer than our neighbor pastures do.

on a lease, some of these things are not your call. you may have no choice but to deal with cows or other human disturbance from the landowner. but you can do some things to keep the place quieter. like dont shoot any more than necessary. dont visit your feeder every weekend just because. dont trim more brush than absolutely necessary. keep things as natural as you can and deer will recognize it.

we hunted on a hill country place where cows, goats, and land owner drivin in the pastures were all present. as well as other paying hunters. we easily saw twice as many deer as the other hunters and got better bucks just by going out of our way to keep our stands as quiet and natural as possible.

Feeding can make a difference. Do you have livestock? How large a place? All thick or some openings? There are other alternative feeds other than corn or protein. Those are the most readily available though. Alfalfa hay, whole cottonseed, soybeans, and peas are used also to hold deer and provide great nutrition. Problem is availabilty and sometimes cost associated with these feeds. Size of the pasture, roads around it, hunting pressure around it can all dictate what you can expect to see over time. What age class of bucks are those guys killing down the road? 1 mile is not that far and depends on how many ranches are between the two of you. Ask them to allow you to come over and visit with them when the season is over. Offer to pay them for their time or invite them over and cook them some steaks. Most guys will help you out from what I have found.

Thanks for the response's. Stsranchman, we have almosty 600 acres with 5 hunters in Menard. It has liveoaks and mesquite, mostly level terrain with a few draws going through it. I dont know what age they are shooting just got a quick look at some they were shooting. I could not believe the differnece that close to us. with that said, it seemed like they have been putting in the time and money to get all that I guess. I just could not believe that protein would make that big of a difference. We do pretty good about not driving around and disturbing our area during the hunting season. We do have cows though.

Eric, why do you put your protien feeders away from the corn feeders? Thanks guys for the answers?

You do not want to hunt over protein feeders. Let them eat freely when they want to on protein 24/7. Hunting pressure will move them or make them feed at night at the least.

Well here is my ! If your neighbors slaughter every deer with horns then it will not matter what you do. At our place in West Texas we used to feed 4x4x8 bales of Alfalfa, protein & corn year round. Well the neighbors come put their feeders up a month before season and the stupid deer must get excited about having a new restaurant because they all go try it out and the little bucks get . Had one guy sitting in tripod on the fence line that shot 2 8 points the same day, one was 2 1/2 the other 3 1/2. Needless to say his tripod just vanished one night by aliens . It really pizzes me off when you spend so much money & time only to have the "shoot it if it has horns" mentality. Thought about hf but it'd be a mile of solid rock drilling nightmare. Anyways there is no gaurantee in this hunting hobby that says if you feed them they will stay.

See, your post pisses me off more than the other guy did.

1. You just admitted you tresspassed and stole another mans property.
2. You act like you are the lord of the land

Remember you do not own the deer. The state does. If you went over and talked to the hunters you get more accomplished than resorting to thievery

2 things if you are referring to me. #1 I don't give a piss about you or what you think. #2 I never said I trespassed (spell it right next time) or stole his property! I said it was abducted by aliens .

Gemlin, see if this helps you a little better. I spend about $5k a year with the hay, protein & corn. I drive out to the property every month to the tune of $150ish in fuel just to run the well (which cost $22,500 to drill) to fill 5,000 gallon water storage tanks (580 mile round trip). So I feed the deer, water the deer and the neighbor who does absolutely nothing, has no water and turns the feeder on right before season is supposed to be rewarded by sitting on the fence line and shooting anything with horns? Now I would be fine if they would kill does since we have way too many of them but no sir, it has to have horns. No, I don't own the deer but there sure wouldn't be any around if I didn't keep them watered.

Well in your situation I would be a blessed neighbor...all you’re doing is keeping the deer close to his property too and he has the right to shoot deer with horns or without. IF I see a doe and a nice buck come out ill shoot the buck most like all other hunters that don’t have to manage their own land and deer. if your that mad just make your property high fenced that’s all I can say. But you can’t stop him from shooting deer that walk on his property even though you feed him year around and he only feeds them when he wants to hunt. Also it sure did sound like you implied to taking his stand...I’m not saying you did but that’s what it sounded like to more than just me...

4ever, yes you are correct about everything you wrote and that's why you see some people get so on the topic of sitting/hunting on fence lines. He does have the right to shoot what ever he chooses, do you think he will be happy if I hf his side? Should I tell him I might hf his side? How would you handle the situation if you were me? Stop feeding & watering the deer?

As far as the tripod goes it may have sounded like I took it but we are very close to the border, lot's of illegals cross every month out there.

Let the popcorn munching begin....
Grout-Scout, you might look at purchasing all of the land within 3-5 miles that borders your lease and do nothing on it(no food or water) so as not to groom big bucks for your "new" neighbors.
Also, if big racks are that important to you, quit wasting your money on your lease and go buy a canned hunt on a high fence property or hell, safari hunts.
Look, I understand your frustration because I am in a similar situation... Most of us all have neighbors that hunt and we are always worrying that they are killing too many deer or too young of deer, etc. Talk to them. Develop a game management plan and hope everyone likes it, agrees to it and sticks to it.

I do see your point but there is nothing really you can do. You can talk to him all day long but at the end of the day he will still have a feeder and stand on his side of the land and will shoot what he wants to harvest...you’re a deer manager and want your deer the best that they can be and he is a meat hunter as the way it sounds and yall both think totally different.

Here is another example. I have a friend that lives in Iowa and he has 3 acres of land he hunts on that is surrounded by 2 different hunting ranches with 180+ trophy whitetails. He has a stand set up and a small food plot on it about the size of 1/2 an acre. Is it wrong for him to hunt it and he kills a trophy deer every year?

No sir and I say that because, one at least he tries to help the deer with a food plot and two he lets the deer actually grow to be a trophy. Heck even if they aren't trophies at least let them get the chance to get older. That's what bugs me, it's when people kill 2 1/2 year old 8 points just because it has horns, if they want meat then kill the 18 billion does like I do. Now if your buddy killed every buck he saw then I'd feel very much differently about his situation

Didn't you tell me to go choke on my popcorn the other day? Or was it don't choke on my popcorn?

Now don't you go and try to make a bunch of sense of this whole converstion! I'd be all over a hf canned hunt in a minute if ol' STX would invite me on one.

If its my land, I will shoot what I want so long as its state legal.

Quit trying to be Hitler on someones elses land

Ummm, Hitler seriously? Are you in high school? Be glad you don't own land next to me.

think this one needs to be reported to tpwd.

Don't you have some +++++++P to be loading?

Could be he took his tripod home with him after the lil buck slaughter? Not sure, it just dissappeared!

I / we feed year round about 6 sec during season and down to about 3 sec off season (we also run 2 feeders at each blind incase one gets colgged or needs a battery). We feed corn mostly.
It makes a LOT of difference in the number of deer you see!