Deer baiting

[Ata83]

do you use a Feeder type of thing for baiting deer ?

how much food do you leave usually ? and has anyone baited public land ? or is it mostly on private ?

so I got 40 KG of corn, carried it to where I wanted to set up stand and set up a camera.


well 2 days and 2 nights in and it looks like the corn is fully gone. I have does coming and eating from 7 PM till 7 AM ... maybe 5-6 different ones [I think] every night.

I have a salt lick under the corn, so hope they come back to lick that. but was thinking of making a PVC feeder, to hopefully make it last time Nov 1st when ill be in the tree ... or someone else taking my spot lol

any thoughts ? is it worth going back to bait more ? its a 3 hour drive each leg

[Sam Menard]

I use bait as an attractant to bring deer to my trail camera. I use a homemade feeder made from 4” PVC pipe and cost about $35 to make. I fill it with deer chow which is available from the feed store. A bag of 25 kg costs about $15. It’s a mixture of corn, grain, and sunflower seeds do has a strong sweet smell to it. I also bury a brown mineral block near the feeder. It’s my experience that deer won’t pay much attention to the block until it’s dissolved in the ground. Many of my licks turn into small pits with salty water in them which the deer find attractive. Good luck with your setup.
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[Ata83]

thank you, yes I saw your setup on the other thread, will make something similar and take it up there in coming days, does it also prevent racoons from eating it ? I see alot of racoons hanging out over night by the site.
the corn costed me alot more, ill try the deer chow for this session.

[js4fn]

Corn only brings in coons and skunks
I wouldn’t make special trip but get some sugar beet crush apple crush or just white granular sugar put out night before you hunt
Raspberry jello powder
One guy here swears by fruit loops

would have said apple till I seen one doe just gobble them all up

[canthitathing]

You can try putting a "skirt" on the tree/post you mount the feeder to, and trim overhanging branches from adjacent trees to prevent them from climbing out on the adjacent branch and getting to the feeder from above. When I put one feeder up, I had a running battle with the raccoons. I even had to enlarge the skirt after my initial sizing.
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[huntnmachine]

I use bait as an attractant to bring deer to my trail camera. I use a homemade feeder made from 4” PVC pipe and cost about $35 to make. I fill it with deer chow which is available from the feed store. A bag of 25 kg costs about $15. It’s a mixture of corn, grain, and sunflower seeds do has a strong sweet smell to it. I also bury a brown mineral block near the feeder. It’s my experience that deer won’t pay much attention to the block until it’s dissolved in the ground. Many of my licks turn into small pits with salty water in them which the deer find attractive. Good luck with your setup.
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I tried the same PVC feeder. I figured it would be a good idea to fill it during bear season and double ratchet strap it to the tree to get the deer coming in. Bad idea....the bears ripped it off of the tree. The ratchet straps were shredded. In a non bear area I believe they would work great.

[Sam Menard]

thank you, yes I saw your setup on the other thread, will make something similar and take it up there in coming days, does it also prevent racoons from eating it ? I see alot of racoons hanging out over night by the site.
the corn costed me alot more, ill try the deer chow for this session.

There are raccoons up in the Rainy River, but not many. Mostly because we don’t have a lot of big hollow trees. I got pictures of a few raccoons, but the deer ate most of the bait. Bears are more of a concern for eating the feed than the raccoons. I suggest that you place the opening of your feeder about 3’ off the ground to make it a bit harder for the raccoons to get at it.

I use metal strapping and stove pipe (bailing) wire to fasten the feeder to tree. The bears will bite the feeder, but I’ve never had one rip it off the tree … yet.

[huntnmachine]

Stove pipe wire or metal strapping is a better idea than ratchet straps....I will try that.
Thanks

[Fenelon]

I'd advise you not to dump full bags of corn unless you want to kill the very deer you're hoping to harvest. It's a death sentence for a deer who's rumen is not "acclimitized" to eating such a high starch and sugar forage. You'll get rumen bloat, and if it's real bad from gorging on a big pile from a 50lb bag of corn, the acidosis will probably kill the animal. You're better to use a feeder on a timer, or reduce the amount of bait you put out each time if you're using grain. I scatter about 10 cups of full kernel corn , along with about 30 apples, each time I bait, usually every 2-3 days. Has always worked well for me. I prefer whole corn. I found the deer feed mix with the molasses costs more and drws more raccoons.

[greatwhite]

We dump feed bags of apples.