New to deer lease/hunting.

Looking for recommendations on what to do on my first lease. My lease is down by Stephenville. I was planning on getting a corn and protein feeder. Do you feed corn and protein all year long? Salt or mineral blocks, do you recommend them? What about a very easy food plot? I do not have any farming equipment.

Thanks.

Yes on the year round feeding. If your protein contains trace minerals (most do) you won't need the mineral block.

set up a 10 panel round feed pen using hog panels....T post every 8 ft and get one of the corn and protein dual feeders from Dent Express in Stephenville ( http://www.dentexpress.org/wildlife-feeders.html )....install a game cam and you should be good to go

Always hated the newcomers. Made us older members look by bad because of all their energy and excitement.

Agree....I was just thinking darn darn darn because I have to go fill the feeder this weekend.

Get out there a few days after a rain when the tracks are fresh in the mud. Find where the deer are moving, feeding and bedding down. Set up your feeders where they want to be. Stephenville area has some good deer in spots but none in others. When you have spotty populations you can't always force the deer to feed where you want. My brother manages a cattle ranch that is spread out half way to Dublin. One 400 Ac place will have deer all over it and the next one won't have a one. A lot of people hunt where they think is the best or prettiest place instead of where the proof of deer is actually at.

Deer can be spotty, but good quality. I've hunted Erath since '99, when we bought our place. Lots of pigs, not a high deer population on our property. More bucks than does though.

I have 10 hog panels around my feeder. If you can, make your feed pen a big circle and wait until after a rain or whenever the ground is moist to drive your T-Post, its a whole lot easier



Also put your blind as far away as you are comfortable shooting, try and position the blind where the prevailing winds will not bust you. I like my blind to the N.E of where my feeder and the deer activity originates from.

Good luck

Stub not saying it wrong just curious why to the NE of the feeder. We always put most of our blinds South or slightly SW that way we can hunt a North, North East or North West wind. What direction does most of your fall and winter wind come from?

Great question! The N.E setup works best for me because I only have a north to south entry into my hunting area so it is a logistics situation for me to begin with, remember I hunt only the east side of 80 acres.

The deer mainly bed south or southwest of the blind and feeding area, the winds during November can fluctuate from any direction but seldom from the SW or West. Usually the winds are from the south or S.E which puts it in my face and down wind from the deer, or Northwest and any scent blows S.E where I have little deer movement.

Everybody setup is different and lot of it has to do with what access you have and where the deer travel to and from.

You hunt in Cotulla where the country will do 3 things to you. Stick, Sting or Bite you
I have hunted Cotulla a couple of times back in the 90's, lots of deer, dove & quail

Bottom line is you want to be down wind when you are hunting and you do not want to traverse across your targeted hunting area to get to your blind

Many feed protein Feb. thru August then corn Sept. thru January.

I feed corn and protein year around. They slow down on the protein in the spring when it is green then hammer it summer through the winter. I can tell it has attracted more deer to my place since before I only slung corn year around.

Agree with others. Don't skimp on building a solid pen around your feeder/protein equipment. Build as big a pen as you can (at least 8 panels but 10-12 even better) and lots of posts and wire. Even if no cattle/livestock; hogs will eventually aggravate you, cost you more feed and equipment repairs. They will still be around to shoot but just not inside your pen.

Corn year around and wish I could do protein the same. Just switched over a couple 1000# corn slingers to protein with "TheHammer.com) and started protein. Will increase the flow on those later this summer and winter.

Good luck sir. Save and 'cry once' on quality feeders/equipment as it will pay off in the long run.

Are the hog panels 8 or 16 feet in length? 36 inches tall? Thanks for all the suggestions!

They are 16 feet long. If you use 8 panels your pen will 40 feet across. Easy to measure 20 foot from center point. If you have stock on your place you need the 52 in tall panels to keep cows and horses out in my opinion.

If you go with the 52" panels, then where you want the deer to jump into the pen cut down the top row or two of squares for a lower jump in spot. I do this in 2 locations on each of my pens also helps so younger deer/fawns can more easily jump in. Also be sure to make your self a gate area with one of panels large enough to drive in with utv/truck (even if you don't plan to back into the pen) over time you make upgrade to larger feeders or have a friend with a utv/ranch truck and you'll want the ease/convenience of pulling next to feeder for easier filling (assuming you don't go with stand and fill.

We've never had a cow get in a pen with 36 inch hog panels. Also run a strand of barb wire on top. The deer however are less likely to jump a higher pen.

I use hog panels from tractor supply for my feeder pen. I believe they're 34" tall. I haven't had any trouble with hogs or cows. I've even cut the top square out in the front of my pen because my feeder is about 6' higher in elevation than my my stand, so my stand floor elevation is only 2' higher than the ground under my feeder. I only set one t-post in the middle of each 16' panel and wire the panels together where they meet. No problems with hogs or cows getting in pen this way and half as many t-posts. However, my landowner is responsible and doesn't run too many head of cattle. My pens were 10 panels in a circle, but I just expanded my primary feeder to 16 panels in an oval shape since I added a protein feeder. I still feed corn year round but turn it down march through august.

I feed protein year round now. Another hunter on my lease was doing this and seeing a ton of deer, so I added protein to my Location.

Most importantly set the stand and feeder up to put you downwind when you have the primary wind. It'll most likely be a south to southeast wind. Put up a secondary stand or a completely different setup to hunt the opposite wind. I like having my primary stand northeast of my feeder. I always try to put my feeder in a natural travel route of the deer in my area.