American Hunter R-50 50 LB. Capacity hanging feeder, Analog clock timer and guard, feeds 1 to 24 times per day, Adjustable feed rate, pre-wired for accessories, portable, provides easy relocation, 50 lb capacity metal hopperw/Realtree Hardwood Camo, R-Kit with built in Varmint Guard, easy to installPrice: $69.99
Deer HAVE to eat all year round. Even during the rut, which is prime hunting season, deer must eat. Here is an awesome tip I am going to share with you... There is a rhyme and a reason to where deer eat, how much deer eat and what deer eat based on the time of the year. Use this to your advantage in bagging that trophy buck you have been after.
Every combined hunting season has three distinct periods:
1. Early Season
2. The Rut
3. Late Season
Early Season
Early season is the premier "feasting" period. Early season to a deer is food heaven. There is so much rich, delicious, ripe and abundant food available, they can literally gorge themselves. And guess what... they will! Deer instinctively know that they have to build up their fat reserves to get them through the winter, when food sources are scarce, and lowering temperatures require more energy to stay warm. During early season bucks do not have breeding on the brain so their mental focus is on eating and staying hydrated.
Here is where the magic of nature kicks in.
Think about what happens when you bring out the watermelon for a family picnic. Seconds later, bees start buzzing around, ready to get their piece of the action. Drop a piece of food on the ground and the ant colony rounds it up for dinner in a couple of minutes. Fill up the bird feeder and the birds swoop in for an afternoon snack.
Deer are the same way. They know when and where to find that acorn tree dripping ripe nuts all over the place, or the fruit tree ready to drop its harvest on the ground.
Remember this when that monster buck you've been eyeing suddenly VANISHES. Granted, he may have switched to nocturnal dining, but more likely he simply switched food sources. Deer switch to acorns or the next ripe fruit in a blink of an eye. Bottom line... finding the food source of the day and knowing when other food sources are ripe is the key to hunting the early season. Early season hunting is always more productive if you watch for that oak tree dropping its acorns, or the apple tree with the ruby red fruit.
The Rut
If you are an average hunter, you switch to hunting rub lines, scrapes or rattling exclusively when the rut begins. This works but you may be over looking one key fact. Big bucks are after one thing... a doe in heat. But does are still after… RIPE FOOD. They could care less about finding a randy buck because food sources are becoming scarce. Usually a frost killed the green leaves from forage, and many of their favorite crops have been harvested.
Bottom line... find what does are feeding on and you will find the bucks.
Late Season
I used to believe that the best time to hunt for big bucks using feeding patterns was early fall. Late season is actually the most productive time to use feeding patterns for taking the really big buck. This is true for two reasons. First, all deer are in survival mode at this time of the year. It is extremely cold and they flat out need to eat on a regular basis in order to stay alive. Second, nippy air has cut down on hunting pressure. Many of your fellow hunters are tucked in safe and cozy by their fire, which increases your odds of spotting the monster buck. Late season hunting creates more opportunity for you to hunt prime feeding areas that are high in protein such as grains, corn and soybeans. What's even better is that your monster buck has to concentrate on food all day long, so you will have hunting opportunities throughout the day.
Bottom line... find the high protein food sources in the late season and your next big bucks could be ripe for the picking anytime of day!
Regardless of whether you prefer to hunt early season, the rut or late season, there is one prime directive when it comes to bagging your next big buck…
Follow that Food Deer Eat!
Copyright (c) 2011 Todd Jensen
Todd Jensen holds the current non-typical whitetail P&Y Record for the State of Montana. Get his free Special Report "17 Killer Whitetail Hunting Tips Every Bowhunter Should Know!" These tips will help you take that dream buck of a lifetime. FREE Special Report:==> http://www.whitetailbowhunter.com
Summer is a great time to feed birds. But it is, also, a problematic time. Other animals such as bears, raccoons, deer, mice and rats may think the food was meant for them. In addition, summer heat and humidity can spoil the bird seed. To counteract some of these problems below are a few tips of advice:
Check to see that bird feeders are in working order without broken hinges or loose parts. That would invite other creatures to come and have a free meal.
Put out enough food only for a day or two. The feeders should be put into a garage or shed at night to keep away other animals. In the daytime, keep feeders in a shaded area to minimize spoilage and help keep birds cool when feeding. This encourages them to feed longer and visit more often.
Check seed frequently for spoilage, clumps and mildew. Keep feeder s clean in order to prevent disease from spreading to other birds and, even, humans.
Cats should be kept indoors so that immature fledglings and ground feeding birds can feed in peace without being disturbed.
A greater variety of species of birds can be attracted by decreasing the amount of cracked corn or millet. The millet and cracked corn will attract, mostly European Starlings, brown-headed cowbirds and house sparrows.
Positioning feeders correctly and using techniques that make windows more visible from sun glare will prevent birds from striking windows.
By providing a bird bath near the food source you will be able to attract feeding birds and, additionally, other species that need water but are not frequent visitors to feeders.
With the right summer bird feeding techniques, bird watchers do not have to travel great distances in order to enjoy the beautiful songs and whimsical games of these marvelous creatures.
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Do you really know where and how to set up a ground blind? When preparing for your hunt, there are a lot of things that need to be done before setting out in the woods, securing a good location for a deer stand is one of those. Picking the wrong location can leave you empty-handed at the end of season. Learn how to pick a perfect hunting location by following these steps.
First, you will need to scout an area for deer before choosing a location for your blind. Choose a well concealed or heavily wooded area with water and/or a food source (such as acorn trees, rye grass, soybeans, oats, corn feeders etc) available. Look for deer trails, tracks and rubbings on trees. You can begin your scouting process for deer months to a year in advance depending on how detailed you want to get.
Second, choose an area to locate your ground blind after you have found all the signs you where looking for. Make sure you are able to reach the area without making a lot of noise and that it is easily accessible. Many times you will arrive at the stand in the dark, the deer might still be bedded down and you don't want to scare them off and risk the chance of losing that good buck.
Third, if you have the means, plant a food plot in the summer months of May and June. Planting a food plot of corn, soybeans or field peas will invite deer to keep coming back for the food during the year. In the winter you can plant rye grass in the plot to keep the game interested in the area. Have the plot clearly visible from your deer blind, but make sure the stand is not visible to the passing deer. If you choose not to plant a food plot, you may need to set up a feeder and the most common feed slung from these is corn. If you have other wildlife on the lease (i.e. cows, sheep, goats), you will need to build a feeder pen in order to keep these unwanted animals from getting to your corn and knocking your feeder over. The feeder pen should be big enough so the deer has plenty of room to move around and not feel crowded, they will never jump in if they feel they don't have enough room to maneuver. I use t-post and barbwire to make my feeder pens but you can also use cattle panels or similar materials.
Lastly, place your stand 10 to 30 feet away from you food source or trail so you have a good view of your hunting spot and so you're not crowding the deer's "personal space" so to speak. You want the deer to come in and eat and never know you are there, if you're too close, they may hear you draw back on your bow or smell you before you get the shot off. Make sure there are no limbs or brush to obstruct your vision or shot in any direction. Place the ground blind in your desired location as early as possible in the season so the deer can get used to having it there. After awhile, the deer will consider it a permanent fixture and you will have a better edge as long as you remain quiet and they don't catch your scent. Now that you are armed with all this knowledge, you can set out, set up correctly and prepare for the hunt of your life. With the proper ground blind, hunting equipment, and maybe a little target practice, nothing will stand in your way of harvesting that mature buck we are all waiting to find.
Happy Hunting!
I hope you enjoyed this article and I hope it helps you in your future hunting ventures. I myself am a hunter and I am always looking for ways to improve or get the edge over that big buck and I think putting in places the steps mentioned in this article will help us get one step closer. If you would like more resources and/or to view our full line of Archery and Bow Hunting equipment, please visit our website at http://www.rutandstrutdepot.com/
As always, we love to hear from our visitors, please stop by, leave feedback and let us know how we are doing and how we can help you Hit Your Mark.
Thanks for taking the time to read this information,
Jason Payne
After this weekend's four-day muzzle loader season is over, that will end whitetail season in Ohio for another year. Whether you bagged that buck of a lifetime or came up empty-handed, chances are, you're already anticipating next year's season. Either in your mind or in discussions with your fellow hunters, the "what ifs" arise. "What if" I had placed my stand in a different spot? "What if" I had gone out earlier? Or later? "What if" I'd been stand hunting instead of still hunting on the day I spooked that monster buck? While you can learn from these reflections, you can't relive them, but you can focus your efforts on next year.
What role does your scouting camera play in these efforts? It gives you information, and information is essential to successful hunting. Many experts recommend that hunters begin scouting for the next season immediately after the end of the current season. At that time, big bucks will still have their antlers and your camera will let you know which ones survived the season. Imagine your excitement and anticipation when you have captured an image of a trophy buck that is available for you to hunt next season.
The best place to get these photos of big bucks is at a food source. But at this point, especially if they have been subjected to hunting pressure, they will be primarily nocturnal. That fact was demonstrated to us very clearly last week as we tried an experiment with one of our cameras. We placed the camera over a feeding station and set the delay for 30 seconds, knowing that we would get multiple images of the same deer, but also aware that those multiple images would be taken from various angles, giving us a better idea of his true build and rack. Over an 8 day period, 640 photos were snapped. They showed a couple of coyotes and some rabbits, but were mostly deer. Of those 640 pictures, 3 were taken during legal shooting hours. It was interesting to scan through the images that had been downloaded to our computer and note the time stamp on each photo. They would show deer every two or three minutes from about 6:00 p.m. to around 5:30 a.m. and then nothing until 6:00 or so that evening. This pattern was consistent over the eight-day period.
Armed with this visual record, we sat down with the landowner, a hunter and wildlife management enthusiast, to determine why we were seeing this and what could be done to remedy the situation before next year. We had suspected for some time that while food plots were more than adequate on the land, bedding areas were not. It was clear that the deer were coming onto the property to feed and going elsewhere to sleep. The goal now is to encourage areas of thick underbrush to develop so that these animals can find everything they need in one area.
One final thought on camera placement at feeding areas. I've written before about entering pictures from your scouting camera in wildlife photo contests. If that is of interest to you during this post-season time period, you should consider placing your scouting cameras over bait piles rather than feeders. The deer really don't care and you avoid unsightly metal or plastic containers in your photos.
For more articles and scouting camera images, please visit my blog at http://www.escoutingcamerablog.com FREE SHIPPING on orders over $200.
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The TH-225D 30 Gallon "Monsta-D" Poly Barrel Feeder has a 225# hopper capacity, digital power control unit, Extremely durable polypropylene design, a Built-In Funnel Reduces Feed Waste, the dome-style lid effectively sheds water – prevents unnecessary build-up, a Heavy-Duty hinged lid design to prevent multiple trips up and down the ladder when filling the feeder, a lid with lockable latch, an Easy to Assemble Three Piece Design with a Heavy-duty 12-piece powder coated extension leg kit. Heavy duty metal power controlhousing for lasting durability. Feeder comes with Trophy Hunter™ Model# TH-6VD Second Generation digital power control unit technology. Four available daily feed times, each programmable from 1 to 20 seconds per feeding. Adjustable (Lo/Medium/Hi) motor speed control for use with different feed types. Exclusive timer “Jam” and “Short” protection and respective error messages. Includes in-line fuse protection to help guard against power supply overloads. Circuit board is fully-enclosed in a weather-resistant housing with a protective rubber gasket. The hopper junction comes with a silicone seal to prevent moisture from affecting your valuable feed. Large, silicone rubber buttons are weather resistant and easy to use. The wiring harness is molded into the gasket to insure a weather-tight seal. Comes with operational manual – In addition, the operating instructions are clearly printed on the back of every timer. 4 year warranty. 6V battery not included – Recommended to be used with a rechargeable type battery for peak performance in all climates.Price: $99.99
A healthy deer herd is one of the most important factors contributing to a successful hunting season. Many hunters don't realize that the key to harvesting big bucks is nutrition. Look at the record books and tell me where all the monster bucks come from. Most of the highest scoring bucks ever have been taken from the midwest. These deer are able to grow large antlers and size because of nutrition. The midwest is covered with farms and the deer use this as their major food source. With all the nutrients comes an increased weight and antler growth.
That is how they do it, so if you don't live in the midwest, can this still be done? The answer is yes, but it involves some work. If you want to harvest large bucks then you will need to follow some QDMA standards. That is only harvesting bucks that have at least four points on one side and are at least fifteen inches wide. This is simply for starters, if you want larger bucks then up the standards and nutrition program.
If you want to grow large bucks then you will have to keep an available food source open to deer all year long. Most hunters will feed their deer before the season and will leave them alone after. The winter months are when deer need food the most. So what happens? The deer will go looking for food and will probably find some on someone elses property. If you want to keep them on your property then you will need to leave food for them. So try to either plant a food plot or keep a feeder full of some nutritional feed.
Thank you for reading this article on Deer Hunting Advice.
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Every year when study his flock, adequate inventory of precise deer and record-keeping are essential to the implementation of a successful deer management program. The data collected during a survey deer should include production Fawn, development of horns, density of deer and buck DOE ratios. Understand the impact of masculinity is an important tool in the management of deer. A balanced relationship guarantee makes a healthy season routine with only the bucks stronger for breeding, production of deer of quality year after year.
The ideal proportion of buck DOE will vary depending on the philosophies of size, the region and the administration of property. In general, a good relationship of buck DOE's 1: 1. 1: 3 is acceptable, and there are several tips to achieve this balance.
One of ways mangers have been able to produce the kind of older deer is through the administration of a relationship 1: 1 instead of a more typical 1: 5 ratio. For the examples listed below, assume (1) the deer herd starts in capacity, (2) it is relatively healthy with a 100% crop Fawn and (3) no natural mortality.
To see the effects of a ratio 1: 1 will use the scenario that the capacity is 120. Starting in the spring population would be 60 bucks and 60 makes a vintage 30 fawns Fawn 100% men and 30 women fawns. Once again, if the desired DOE buck ratio is 1: 1, it would be necessary to reap 30 men and 30 women. If only the old men and women were harvested, would be to the rest of the population of 30 adult males, adult females 30 to 60 fawns. Under this scenario with ratio 1: 1 buck DOE, the herd would be "around" every 3 years.
The effects of a scenario of 1: 5 with the same capacity of 120 are markedly different. The population of starting in the spring would be a growing 100% 50 fawns Fawn males and 50 females fawns, 100 ago and $20. To ensure that population carrying capacity, should reap 50 men and 50 women. If only be harvested more male and female, it would leave the population with no males and adult females 50 leaving 30 deer carrying capacity range. Under this scenario with a ratio of 1: 5 buck DOE, the herd "become" the realization of every difficult year raising the age of the flock. When there are wide variations in the relationship, it is more difficult to manage the property of older, mature bucks.
In a perfect world, they would always be develop mathematics and nature would be balanced accordingly. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't work that way and course of nature is often one of ebbs and flows. However, through the hard work and good management practices can create balance and sustainability.
Deer management: their Stock of prospecting, deer season is around the corner the 13-inch rule Debate, deer culling causes controversy, nutrition and feeding of deer habitsPublished on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11: 42 am in News of Hunter.
Acquiring the head of a big deer is not enough for a seasoned hunter. The animal needs to possess a big rack and meat. Training it to go to the feeding area is one option to achieve an immense rack. Feeding stations came in different sizes from a small can to five hundred-acre timed deer feeders.
MATERIALS NEEDED IN CONSTRUCTING A DEER FEEDER
The materials needed are wood, feed and nails.
TOOLS
The tools needed for this endeavor are saw, hammer, tape measure, posthole digger, pen and paper.
STEPS IN MAKING A DEER FEEDER
One of the considerations when building this kind of project is how many animals are in your care. If you wish to possess a big herd, you should build a feeding station that is more complex compared with a standard feeding area. If you want to teach just a few animals, building a yard feeder might be the right option to choose. Whether you are constructing your project in your yard or a big paddock, you need to get a trough for the food.
It should be big enough to accommodate your herd and ordinary enough not to capture the attention of predators. When building the trough, make sure that the walls are tilted and the base has some holes. You also need to build a roof to protect the food from bad weather. Place 2 pairs of posts in the trough for the roof. Build longer posts on one side of the feeding area for bigger deer.
Adjust the measurement of the roof accordingly to protect the whole set-up from rain. Your herd needs to approach the feeding area without feeling any apprehension. A quick feed is ideal for a yard set-up. In this situation, your herd will be fearful of other animals and will move through the feeding process very quickly. You need to construct a fence for a bigger feeding area. It can accommodate twenty to fifty deer at a time.
You also need to make sure that the base is strong enough by using cement mixture, sand and H20. The animals will stay in the area for quite some time so creating a timed feeding station is also an excellent idea. If you are creating a herd area in your yard, you can use a can, hanger, tape and peanut butter.
A hanger placed over a branch is a good substitute for a base. You can use the clips to connect the feeder's legs to the base. You can unclip the legs if you want to place it in another location.
Please click these links if you want to know more about how to build a deer feeder or how to build a deer feeder in general.
The TH-270D2 Mega-Monsta-D 40 Gallon Digital Poly Barrel Feeder has a 300# hopper capacity. Features a digital power control unit, extremely durable polypropylene design, a built-in funnel reduces feed waste, a dome-style lid effectively sheds water and prevents unnecessary build-up, a heavy-duty hinged lid design that prevents multiple trips up and down the ladder when filling the feeder, an easy to assemble 3-piece design. The hopper junction comes with a silicone seal to prevent moisture from affecting your valuable feed. The unit comes with a heavy-duty 12-piece powder coated extension leg kit. Assembles in 3 easy steps, all hardware is included. Feeder comes with Trophy Hunter™ Model# TH-6VD Second Generation digital power control unit technology. Four available daily feed times, each programmable from 1 to 20 seconds per feeding. Adjustable (Lo/Medium/Hi) motor speed control for use with different feed types. Exclusive timer “Jam” and “Short” protection and respective error messages. Includes in-line fuse protection to help guard against power supply overloads. Circuit board is fully-enclosed in a weather-resistant housing with a protective rubber gasket. Large, silicone rubber buttons are weather resistant and easy to use. The wiring harness is molded into the gasket to insure a weathertight seal. Comes with operational manual – In addition, the operating instructions are clearly printed on the back of every timer. 4 year warranty. 6V battery not included – Recommended to be used with a rechargeable type battery for peak performance in all climates.Price: $109.99
