falcon

Yep, he is sponsored by Pioneer Powder. Shockey has done pretty well with it too. i have killed over 225 hogs with muzzleloaders anddo not know a great dealaboutsabots either: Could care less that i do not know. Many of my hogs were killed with Jim Shockey's Gold powder. What i use works for me. What Jim Shockey uses works for him. That is the only thing that matters.

1eyebuck

Hey guys you both have some really good points. I say one thing, food separates real hunters from a hunter. What I mean is since food has been legalized in almost every state you can simply put out a feeder and set the timer to your schedule. Almost certainly you are going to get the biggest buck in that area the first day of hunting. You don't need anything but aim at that point. I've hunted in areas where this is legal but haven't done it. I was very successful because I know how to read the land. I've been hunting since I was 10 and learned first hand from hunters that were out there every chance they got. From well before sun up to well after sun down we sat and waited and when that didn't work we pushed from sun up to sun down never taking even a lunch break. I usually always got dear because again I learned the patterns of a deer. Each week I would see the deer just a little bit out of range from where I was an move over adjusting for the next time but would always seem to be not enough. They it would be too much, go figure right. Well I got smart and started playing the what if’s and that really helped me. Now I can simply put out food and yah I have the pick of them! I don't frown on any type of hunting because one may be right for others and not for me but I figure hey if you like what you're doing then do it, beets the heck out of sitting around all day. I love hunting and learning from others what they have learned if they are willing to share their experiences. I can't say I don't envy the people being paid to do what I wish I could do because I do. GOD blessed them with that as their source of income and he blessed me with mine. There is one difference, I'm not at anyone’s disposal if I don't get one ... I love seeing nature at its best, I had a squirrel come into a blind with me and when it realized I was in there too it went ballistic trying to get past me. Jumped on me to get past me when all it did was walk past me to get in. LOL! What a blast, keep it real, keep it fun and most of all just do it!

spaniel

If only it were that simple!!

Baiting is now illegal in at least Michigan, I am sure more of the state with high populations will follow suit. I grew up there and toyed with it when I was younger; both myself and everyone I knew who fed/baited shot nothing but does and yearlings off those sites. The big bucks were too smart to get suckered in. If there was no food there in the middle of the night once gun season started, they weren't interested. During bow season there was too much available crop for them to care about going to a specific location to find food.

Semisane

Exactly right Spaniel. I have three small food plots with feeders on them that throw corn in the morning and evening. They are great for harvesting my two yearly meat does, and for watching deer -lots of does and oneand a half year old bucks. But don't expect to see mature bucks out there during the day. Last season I got manypictures of several mature bucks on those plots at night, but never saw one during legal shooting hours. I have amuch better chance for a mature buck by staking out a producing white oak tree (nature's feeder ) in the woodsthan watching a corn feeder on a food plot.

1eyebuck

I'm not cordoning feeding deer.And please don't take this as an insult. Also don't take this as a weakness. Feeding is an easy way to get meat and I have no issue with it. I do have an issue with someone saying feeding only attracts does and yearlings. This is a complete lie! Bucks only do what comes natural to them, and an empty stomach speaks loader than a yelling person or danger! I know a buck will break his own rules to eat. This isn’t common knowledge, this is fact! I hate to go down this road but since others are saying food isn’t an impact for getting deer, prove me wrong. Show me proven history where deer will bypass food to save their own lives. Deer are like kids, bring them to a food store and they will reluctantly select what they think they want. Bring them to a candy store and they will take what ever they can get! Food sources are like a ShopRite, eating the necessities are necessary, but eating what you like is a fact of life. If you put out what they like, nothing else matters “daylight – people – danger” they will do things they normally wouldn’t and that’s called an upper hand or loading the deck.

Semisane

Well 1eyebuck,I can't argue with that. There's hardly a week end that goes by during the hunting season that I couldn't take a doe off of one of my plots, or a young buck ( 1 & 1/2 year olds). I have no problem at all taking my two or three meat does each year.

But your description of buck behavior sure hasn't been our experience in my hunting club. We have nine guys on 900 acres of pine tree plantation with an intermittent creek through the middle of it. Every member has two or three food plots with corn feeders on them. We've had this lease for ten years and keep detailed kill records, including age, weight, kill time and kill site of every deer taken. We see darn few mature bucks on the food plots, and when we do it's not that they are coming to the corn feeders. It's only during the rut thatthey "might" enter the plot during shooting hoursto check out the does. More often though, they stop about ten feet inside the tree line off the edge of the plot and sniff for the ladies.Now, if you happen to get a "hot" doe feeding out on your plot the big boys will sure come out. I can't tell you how many times I've had a nice buck come out of the trees at a trot and chase a doe around the plot a few timesand into the woods. Problem is, they are always moving and you seldom get a shot unless you're willing to shoot at a moving deer (I'm not). I swear, you can yell at them at the top of your voice and it's like they're deaf. Got nothing on their minds but nookie. But you can bet we'll get pictures of nice bucks out on those plots in the middle of the night scarfing up clover.

Bye the way, we also notice that older does - like 3 years and over - are likely to be as skittish as bucks. Just about all of the old does we have taken came out on the plot right at dark, even though there may have been three or four other does that entered theplot30 or 40 minutes earlier.

I don't know where you're from, but our experiences regarding feeding and bucksmay be different because of geographic/environmental differences. We have lots of green brouse in the woods throughout the winter, so a shy buck does not need to hit the plot or corn feeder for his daytime feeding.

Not to worry. I'm an old fart and hard to insult. And I enjoy sitting over a food plot with a feeder and watching deer just about as much as I do "sneaking and peeking" through the woods.

1eyebuck

Yes you are correct with everything you have said, and I agree. Where I live the big boys come out to play the first hour of light and the last 15 minutes of light. However you can alter this by changing the feeding habits. Don't offer them food every day and limit it to daytime hours only, meaning, take the food away at dark when you leave. I bet you will discover in winter months you will have the pic of the litter. Thank you for sharing your experiences with me, I enjoyed reading them J.

spaniel

Well, I'm not sure what type of "proof" you are looking for. Everything we share here is "experience" you state yours is "fact" but I submit it is nothing more than your experience, just like we shared ours. If it were "fact", our experience in baiting would be the same as yours.

I've been hunting deer for about 20 years and toyed with baiting for the first 5 or so of them. Friends of mine who still live in the area that I grew up with baited right up until it was banned last year. While a ton of does were shot over bait, none of us EVER saw a decent buck over bait, much less took one. That is "proof" enough for me.

Just because deer don't come to bait doesn't mean they are starving. Perhaps your area is different, but where I hunt there is plenty of food around everywhere after dark. They go nocturnal at the first sign of hunting pressure, stuffing themselves after dark and then hiding during the dangerous daylight hours. The only way to typically take a good buck during gun season is to push where they are bedded and try to get them out and running, spot one in a bed and stalk it, or catch them chasing does (which is aboutthe only natural urge that will get them to forget the danger).

My second season ever hunting, I nearly got to shoot the trophy of a lifetime (huge 14-pointer) that the entire neighborhood had been after for years. I glimpsed him down a trail in otherwise heavy cover, but my bow shot was blocked by a branch and I passed. I was the only person EVER to see that deer in the daylight, he was most often bumped feeding in open fields 2 hours before light as hunters walked in to their stands. He NEVER showed himself in daylight, and believe me people baited for him everywhere...including me.

The property I hunt now, I've scored 2 nice bucks in 2 years. The first was bedded down in a ditch with a bunch of does in the middle of an open 300+ acre field, I crawled 400 yards to get within 20 yards then jumped him and shot him on the run. He had no intention of leaving that bed during daylight, I watched him several hours. This year I saw two nice ones running does hard, got one of them at 200 yards as he came back looking for more does after running part of the group off. One of the local farmers saw a real MONSTER, he was bedded down in the middle of an open 300-400 acre field with a doe and would get up once per hour to breed her then lie back down, laying his head on the ground to hide his rack better (I saw a monster doing this in MT this fall too).

Moral of the story is, in MI and IN where I've hunted, does are the big buck's only weakness. Food does nothing as with all the farming around here they are never hungry until well after harvest when seasons are over anyways. A pile of corn means nothing when there are hundreds of acres of it everywhere.

How many big bucks have you seen/taken over bait? I don't know where you are located so maybe they act differently there.

Semisane

My feeders throw two pounds of corn 1/2 hour after daybreak and 1 hour before dark. The usual pattern is that one or two does with their new yearlings come out on the plot shortly before or right after the feeder goes off. What normally happens is the yearlings head straight for the corn and clean it all up within a half hour, while their mommas tend to favor the wheat/oats/clover growing on the plot. The does do eat the corn, but not as much as the yearlings. There's no corn on the field overnight.

1eyebuck

Nice stories. I know, I know I'm a real man and feeding doesn't help! LOL. Well someone better tell all the tv shows that feeding stations don't bring out the big bucks. I watch them taking huge bucks on so many shows feeding them.