not saying they are bad, but in my area I only see a few deer coming to them and they are very skiddish. Now, when I put corn on the ground I see more deer at one time feeding. I still use em b/c like you said not everyone has the luxury of being able to feed every other day b/c of distance from hunting grounds or cost of gas. one thing I did this year and it seemed to pay off a little better was to have the feeder go off in the middle of the day that way the corn was on the ground well before major movement in the afternoons. I find deer in my area move to corn better in the afternoons than mornings too. I have seen some deer stand and wait for the feeder to go off and others like a really nice buck this year trailing a doe run like heck to get away from it when the timer went off. after seeing him skiddadle I decided to do the noon feed time that way everything was quiet when the deer started moving good. food for thought.