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The blight of feeders

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Eric Krewson:
Alabama passed a law this year allowing hunting over feeders. I suspect they have proliferated in my neighborhood, last year my neighbor put one down in the hollow about 150 yards from my little 4 acres. Before the feeder my place was a natural travel path for the local herd. After he put the feeder out my deer sightings dropped by 90%.

With the new law I suspect there are feeders behind every house that houses hunters in my neck of the woods. So far this year my deer sightings have dropped to very few.

I plant a little food plot about 25 yards square about 75 yards from my house, although it also feeding the deer I have never killed a deer off it or on my property for that matter. I keep an electric fence around the plot until it gets lush with growth. In the past when I take the electric fence down the deer are in it mowing it down that day. I have had the fence down for 2 weeks and have only seen two fawns in it on a regular basis. The wheat still looks almost untouched, in the past it would be down to bare ground in a few weeks.

I guess the deer like corn better. Rest assured, I will never put a feeder up on my place because I don't consider shooting a deer under a feeder fair chase hunting.

Having had 19 years of watching the deer patterns and natural movement on my place, I find this move to baiting and the disruption of everything I held dear as a hunter, scouting, patterning and watching the rut unfold disappear because of piles of corn depressing.

OK I will get off my soap box. I am 72 and came up through the deer hunting ranks actually learning to HUNT deer and am pretty good at it.

bradsmith2010:
Eric,,they can cause a problem,, I grew up in texas and lots of feeders there,,
I hunted in Alabama too,, and we hunted acorn trees, with success
same in Tenn,, a good white oak could produce some deer for the freezer,,
I hunted a place in texas and put corn out in the middle of the property to keep the deer moving into the place,,
and hunted trails coming into the place,, without havin to hunt the feeder,, I like to shoot at them where they dont think I gonna be,,,, (SH) Im sure they gonna come to the food plot at some time,, best to you and your hunting,,

PEARL DRUMS:
I wonder if your neighbor is on another website griping about your food plot changing his hunting for years and how he finally got the upper hand? 

WhistlingBadger:
I get it, Eric.  I felt the same way when Wyoming legalized crossbows during archery season...

Hawkdancer:
Don't know much about whitetail habits, but I think the feeders will have detrimental results on the deer herd as they grow more dependent on the feeder.  Baiting is not allowed in Colorado.  We just had an incident involving a "domesticated" mule deer buck actually attacking people who didn't feed it.  What happens when the feeder is empty?
Hawkdancer

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