For you old timers

Ok, Im 47 and can never remember hunting in places that didnt have corn feeders. My first experience was hunting in the Hill Country near Garner State Park. We hunted over feeders in the morning and evenings and spent the day still hunting. Anyway do any of yall remember when corn feeding started in Texas and did it start in one region and then spread to others?

First corn I can remember feeding was in the late sixties. Dad would pour it on the ground every few days in areas we had blinds. Sometimes that meant next to trees we had platforms built to set in. Sometimes blinds consisted of tree limbs and plywood stacked to conceal hunters. I don't remember using feeders until maybe the late seventies or early eighties and they were all the daylight and dark feeders that were very unpredictable and unreliable to say the least.

I can remember! I too am 47,went hunting with my father in the late 60s,I was less than 7,to a day hunt outside of San Antonio. Well nowadays it is the area near Sea World and Loop 1604. As we exited the drop-off truck and entered the ground blind we were assigned, the "guide" spread corn on the road, around the blind, and next to some trees. All this corn was less than 10 yds from us. My father became agitated, asked the "guide" if he had a baseball bat. ??? He tells the "guide" , hell if they come that close, I will just knock them over the head and save the bullet. My father had many years hunting experience by then, around Del Rio, Amistad, Dolan Creek etc. Were not going to fool that guy!! Corn has been the bait for many years.

I never even heard of a corn feeder until I was grown. We threw out some corn from time to time, but a hundred pound tow sack of it (that's all it came in back then) would easily last an entire season.

The first corn I saw used in East Texas was in th late 60s. We took 5 gallon cans made a 6 inch cut about 2 in from th bottom and bashed it in so the corn would be exposed. We then hung it from a tree. a short time later we came up with a 3/4 in piece of pipe that had a frame welded to it that the bucket would fit in. Drive that sucker in th ground and walla a state of the art feeder was borne. AAAAAAhhhh those were th good old days th first forked horn buck that stepped out was shot. Hardest thing I ever did was to let that first small buck walk. That day I shot at the 3rd buck I saw that day and harvested th 5th. It just so happened each buck that came by was bigger than th previous. yep that day was th day I actually stopped getting excited when a buck came by. Since then I can take em or leave um and still love it.

I am 44 and started deer hunting when I was thirteen. hunted 500 acres in Gillespie County until I was in my late teens. we had one feeder on the whole place that the rancher owned and kept full. we only hunted the feeder late in the season or if we brought a guest. we would harvest does from it. that was in the day when you had to have a doe permit and the rancher would leave two in the camp house next to the log book at the first of the season. not as many feeders out there as these days but i do think it is a good thing despite some of the critics of hunting over a feeder

Well since I am the oldest old timer to post so far at 54 I will. First corn we fed was in the early 60's out of large coke bottles or 7 up. We would shell corn and fill them up during to the day to put out. Deer would roll them around to get the corn out of them. No hogs back then and cattle could not figure it out. We also used the wooden coke cases from 12 oz bottles and filled it will shell corn and the deer could eat it but cattle could not. The first feeder I had seen was a 15 gallon grease drum that was mounted about 30" off the ground with 3 openings cut in the sides with a baffle inside to keep the corn from free flowing out. First bought feeder was the old 5 gallon hanging wind feeders in the late 60's to early 70's. First timered feeder I had seen was in the early 70's. My first one was one of the Texas Hunter solar eye timers with D cell batteries.

Not the oldest. Your just young enough to still have a good memory.

Did I just post this?

I remember being on some leases in Young county in the early 70's and the folks I hunted with just laid out lines of corn.

Didn't start seeing feeders until early to mid 80's.

Killed my first deer, a small 8 point buck on a 160 acre place I subleased from a man I knew in Graham Texas, Gilbert Webb.

He let ,me on that place for $25.00 for the season. At that time the limit for Young county was one buck.

That was in 1970, I had just turned 20.

I am in my 60's, first time I am pretty sure it was 1970. Nothing more than some corn spread on the ground.

I started hunting on a lease in '65 with my dad and I was 23 and they had been using hanging feeders from Sweeney for a while. I still have two of the feeders with digital timers in them. I'm 69.

61 here! Ditto stxranchman, dogcatcher, cool_hand....

Spend most of my early years doing "spot & stalk" in New Mexico & Colorado. Here in Texas we made our own hanging feeders with the old metal 5gal buckets. Put a rod thru sides near top, attached a spring and a long piece of wire. Cut a hole in the bottom & hooked one of those round fishing bobbers at the bottom. Attached a piece of 50lb mono below the bobber with a piece of tin on the other end. Wind blow, bobber wiggles, corn falls on ground.

First timer I saw was also one of those dusk & dawn photo cell jobs sometime in late 60's early 70's. Also did the family size glass coke bottles full of corn. Still do that with the plastic 2 ltr things. Deer are sorta fun to watch kickin that bottle around!

Killed first one in 1958 walk, stalk, shoot. No corn until the late 60s. Used glass 2 liter coke bottles and a small square of hay to lay the bottle on. Deer would paw and nuzzle bottle and spill corn in hay. We would also sprinkle corn along roads leading to tree we were sitting in. I am now 70 and hunt in a warm stand with a feeder 50 yards out.

I'm 61. The first corn feeder I ever saw was in Llano county on an excellent day lease in 1969. The landowner had put it up just to keep the deer in the area but had not told us about it. I saw it when I walked by it. It was a 55 gallon drum up on legs with something bolted onto the bottom of the barrel that was ticking. I walked up to it and looked it over top to bottom but could not tell what it was (there was no corn showing anywhere). I turned to walk away and a loud roaring whirling sound filled the air and something started hitting me all over my back from head to foot. Scared the heck out of me. I almost needed a clean pair of shorts and a roll of toilet paper. When it stopped, there was corn all over the place and I realized what it was and had to laugh at myself. I had heard of these feeders but had never seen one until now. Five seconds earlier and it would have gone off right in my face, mainly eyes, because I had been looking into the timer and motor trying to figure out what it was. Live and learn. Main thing I learned was, if you find something and you don't know what it is, leave it alone and ask someone. It almost cost me my eyes.

Wait uh minute i forgot to post my age I am 64 and I had completly forgoten th coke bottles and wooden crates now that is clasic memories thanks for th memory jog. We also poured it in hollow stumps and holes in th ground. I found one of those grease drums a few weeks back that years ago had been fastened to a tree and only about 8 or ten inches off th ground. I will take a pic of it next weekend and post it

I can remember when if a hunter saw a deer during the season and killed it he was lucky.

Now days, people start getting worried if they don't see a dozen or more deer every time they get in their stand.

I'll be 49 in June. I'm with stxranchman on the wooden coke cases. When I was a kid, my Dad bought part of a ranch east of Graham in Young County. We buried coke cases all over that place. My wife and I were someplace a while back and they were selling those wooden coke cases for $55-$65. I told her I wish I had all those that we buried. My uncle used to make bump feeders out of chicken wire and screen.

Guess old the old timers went to bed.

I remember the Coke cases, I also remember having to dig the darn hole in caliche.

About 1978 I found a set of plans for making a timer and then used it with a heater motor from the wrecking yard. Sucker would eat a battery about every 2 weeks. Then about 1980 I built a sunup and sundown timer and found a motor from RC car, we really thought we were up town. Back then the commercial versions were high dollar, but I could make one of these for about $10, motor, controller and the box. Spent a summer making them for everyone on our lease and other people I knew.

first baiting I can remember was not with corn.....we poured rocksalt in an old hollow stump all summer long.....checked that stump every 2 wks for a coupla months....nothing...I had really kinda forgot about it by the time deer season rolled around.....when it got wet that winter I went by the area and that stump was half eaten up.....went straight home and grabbed a climber stand and fred bear bow and killed my first deer that afternoon looking over that salted stump....I only wish I could get the same rush now as I did when that arrow shot thru that spike.....he might as well have been b&c ...in fact to me he was......first corn feeder for me was not till the 80's.

In the early and mid sixties we hunted the Juno area southwest of Sonora. We would take axes and cut the soto plants and expose the inner most core. The deer would flock to them like they do a nice grain field. If we didn't have an axe we would try and bust them up with the front grille guard on a jeep. I'm not sure that was the real name for those huge yucca plants but that what the older guys called them so that was their name to me. We didn't have blinds so they would pick a small canyon and bait the bottoms by busting these big plants up for them a few plants every week or two. Fine times

Man, those are all great stories. Thanks for sharing and keep them coming. My first deer hunt was when I was 12 so that would be 1975 and that place we hunted near Garner State Park had motorized feeders then. We hunted them but did not see much. We so more deer walking around during the days. I shot my first deer there, a doe, but she was not at a feeder. We got our own place in the early 80s and we had a few homemade feeders but mostly we dumped corn by hand. We had several 55 gal barrels of corn in at the camp and you just scooped out what you wanted for that hunt and took it with you. I remember back in those days of just dreaming about shooting any 8 point buck. Took a long time before I accomplished that feat.

Since you got the old timers reminiscing, My first deer hunt was a day lease south of Sweetwater at the astronomical price of $5 per day and the ranch owner let us hunt a full day and a half. 30-40 Krag open sights and only a pocket knife, Dull pocket knife. And it was true if you even saw a deer you were pretty successful, but I did kill a small 8 point(seemed awful big back then). Then the feeders started showing up and as they say the rest is history.

my uncle killed a pretty big buck back in 1970 in cotulla. he shot it while him and a few other guys were pushing a pear flat, buck jumped and he got him.

he had the buck mounted at the insistance of everyone in the group including the landowner.


deer maybe had 115 inches of antler on top of his head.




funny how things change over time

My first deer hunt was in 1958 spot and stalk. Any buck you killed was a trophy. Never hunted with a feeder untill 1967. It was a five gallon bucket with a hole in the bottom and a paddle sticking down. The would move the paddle and it would release corn.

Yup x2!

Thought you would like pic of my Grandfather (on left) after a deer and turkey hunt in 1949 close to Rocksprings. My Grandfather worked for Texas Highway Department and contractors/engineers would get together to hunt and play poker on these trips.

I love these old time hunting pics!!

Heck yea, strap'em to the hood. Awesome.

X2

Strap em on th hood even if they had a pickup. Now this is uh great thread for us old timers. keep it coming guys love n it

Won't give age but will say that this Aug. my licenses will be 1/2 price. Grew up on a ranch in Hill country, SW of Enchanted Rock so some of land was granite outcroppings and some was where the hills and ravines begin. Started shooting deer in mid 50's. Only bucks legal then. Best hunting at oat/wheat patches. If u used any bait it was cottonseed meal and sweet feed (horse & mule feed). Also you could knock missletoe out of mesquite trees and that drew deer to the spot. The blind was a 2x4 or 2x6 in a tree or logs piled. Aboout then the screw worm was eradicated, deer population exploded and you were allowed to shoot does but u had to go to check station and get a metal tag put in their hock. About that time feeding corn started but no auto feeders. U fed the deer while checking the cattle and deer pens kept the cattle out. If u had a loud truck, the deer may be waiting near the blind for u. Then early 60's wool and mohair market went south and deer population exploded more as ranches sold of the goats. Built high fences to keep deer out of crops and increased number of cabins and paying hunters. Hunter brought box blinds, fed more and eventually auto feeders. Ranchers were issued doe tags in Gillespie and Llano counties at rate of 1 per 25 acres. Hunting became big business as the kids left home for cities and careers. And now the baby boomers are retiring. They, their kids and grandkids like to hunt and enjoy a cabin. And Mr. Hunter hopes to get 1 gun per 300 acres at $10/acre of land valued at $4 to $6k/acre. Good luck, it's supply and demand.

A man who don't lie ain't got nothing to say...

the buck on the left looks to be a pretty good one!

all I have is the low resolution version my mom sent, next time I'm back home I will scan a highres and get a better look. Appears to be very wide and long beams, but don't see many points.

my Grandpa only had one shoulder mount, not of a giant I'm told, but nice symmetry. Grandma wouldn't let in their Brady house, so he had it at his office at highway or maintenance building in Brady. It was there late as early 80's when he retired. Let me know if anyone was ever in that building and saw it. My mom and I have made some attempt at finding a picture or the actual mount. He didn't remove it after retiring. Thanks.

Being from East Texas, I only remember feeding the dogs we used to run the deer with. The most fun you could ever have is lining a log road with hunters armed with shotguns (about 150 yds apart) and listening for the dogs. If a deer of any kind came across that road you took the shot and ducked if the other hunter shot. Most of the time, the man that was making the drive got the deer. They(the deer) would usually double back. the next day, if you didnt get the deer, they would be right back in the same bedding ground.

I remember sitting in a hole next to an oat patch on our place in San Antonio. I had my Dads 250-3000 savage model 99. A small buck came out and in those days you shot any deer. It was the first buck I had ever seen while hunting. I emptyed the savage on that deer and never even got close to him. Worse case of buck fever I ever had. I was about 13 at the time.

Back in 1977 I was in the 5th grade and was hunting with family and friends at Sanderson in Terrell county. We would take a pick axe and cut that soto bush open for the deer to get to. Did this just off the ranch roads and down in the canyons,it worked great. In the early 80"s I was hunting in Brown county and started using PVC pipe feeders and right after that my firt timer was a home made job out of a ammo box and heater fan motor with a 24 hour clock. Could still get a lease then for 250 to 500 dollars. Times have really changed.

Here's some old timers for you guys... my great uncles back in the 1920's





Whack'em and Stack'em

When I was 11 or 12 my first deer I shot was with my dads 250-3000 savage model 99, It was a spike buck with 6 inch horns.