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The blight of feeders

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Eric Krewson:
I live in a subdivision where everyone has about 5 acres, some lots are open land, on my street and the next one our land drops down into what I call the "grand canyon". Many of the neighbors have privacy fences around their yards and could care less about deer movement. The guys that hunt are all in nice hunting clubs but will shoot a deer out the back door if the freezer is getting low.

The grand canyon;



The deer movement down the hollow has remained unchanged for the ten years I lived here before I made the postage stamp sized food plot and after. It is a natural deer travel path between the 100s of acres of woods and fields 1/2 mile to my south and the 200 acres of fields and hardwoods woods that adjoin my land to the north. Then came the feeders.

My plot has no effect on the deer, my neighbor to the north has about 30 acres of fields alongside his driveway and down by his barn. I can see about 20 deer in his fields after dark any time I drive down his half mile long driveway.

I have a 3 acre vacant lot alongside my driveway with a virgin timber white oak fence line down the middle, the deer like this place much more than my place. I mow it like it is my own to keep it from becoming overgrown. It is covered with centipede grass that the deer love, they congregate there every evening and night. I can hunt it but it but haven't so far.

I put my camera on a tree facing the 3 acres to see what was showing up, they hit the oaks in the winter but don't feed in the field as much because the grass is like zoysa and turns brown in the winter. Here is a typical evening dinner party on the 3 acre vacant lot, the oak patch is in the background.



So far the only one to take a shot out of my ladder stand is a 77 year old great friend who has health issues that have slowed him down a bit. He has just recovered from a badly broken neck that he sustained when a woman ran a stop sign and T boned him, this caused him him a year of misery, he is being treated for prostate cancer as well. I asked him to come over and shoot a deer off my plot if he could, I would much rather him get a deer on my place than me. He missed one with his crossbow but I would invite him back in a heartbeat and have. It would have been a chip shot getting him a deer before the feeders turned on.

Eric Krewson:
Another thing or two, I have a trail cam but only use it for monitoring deer around my house to see what is eating my flower beds and garden but don't use it where I hunt, I hunt mostly on my neighbors land. I do have it up on my food plot right now to see if any deer are on the plot in the early morning so my buddy can take crack at them, he is strictly a morning hunter, I only hunt evenings.

I have developed a thing I call archers neck from 65 years behind a bow, I am 72 now. I can shoot a light bow a few times but not enough to feel good about taking a shot at a deer, I didn't bow hunt this year for the first time in my hunting career.   

bradsmith2010:
I had a friend ,,,his bow got too heavy..he had been a great shot,,,he said he could only pull it one time,..I put him in stand by the creek,,where I had seen deer sign,..that morning he shot a nice buck,,.that was a great morning,..just pulled the bow one time

Eric Krewson:
I twisted my ankle a month ago, it is still a mess and yes I have been to a dr but can't walk on rough ground like in the woods yet so no hunting so far.

My neighbor told me not to kill any buck on his place I am not going to mount. I am not enamored with deer mounts, never was so it is does only on his place.

I won't put up a trail cam where I plan to hunt but did put one up at the end of his orchard. This is a stretch for my so called "ethics" because I do hunt a 100 yards down the ridge and off in a hollow below his orchard.

This is the top dog of the area, I had him on the orchard cam running off the lesser bucks and chasing does. He is after one in this picture but she is out of the frame.

Eric Krewson:
On a positive note; I had two does on my little plot yesterday evening and a doe and a button head down there right now (2:30pm), they ate for a while and are bedded next to plot at the present.

Just looked again and there are 3 button heads and 4 does either feeding or passing through the plot.

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