cabage

I for one commend your self control and ethics!! I 100% agree with your reasoning. Shooting any animal off of a timed feeder is not fair chase as far as I'm concerned. Food plots and other man made food sources are there all the time where as with the feeder you can control when it drops. Where's the sport in that?? Don't get me wrong that is surely one heck of a buck and way bigger than anything that i've harvested, but I would have done exactly the same as you did, and done it with pride. Shooting that buck from under a feeder is some **** that Ted Nuggent would do...

Breechplug

Falcon, the next time you see that Buck give him direction's to My House so I can hang him on the Wall and eat some Tasty Tenderloin's. After all the Snow we've had in the last 48 hours Im not gonna pass on one like that, if I do I'll bend over and you all can kick me in the AS%, LOL
(BP)

Breechplug

Hey now Ted's Cool...Wack em Pack em and Stack em. But in all Seriousness a Good Buck Seldome and vary rarely approache's a Feeder in the Daylight, there just too smart for that. Doe's, Fawn's and Yearling Bucks will, but the Older Smarter Bucks almost Never do.
I've been on a few Hunts to Michigan years back when all they did there (then) was Hunt over Bait Piles. While I was there you'd see everything but a good Buck show up during light. If that Buck showed up at Falcon's Feeder he MUST be Removed from the Gene Pool, you cant have a Buck that stupid pass his gene's on.
Again and in all seriousness, you did good Falcon, I appalud you. But Im still waiting for you to give him directions to My House.
(BP)

SmokeSeeker

That deer would have been shot weather ur aloud or not or Bait. IMO.

Semisane

That's about the way it goes Breechplug. If I set a climbing stand fifty yards back in the woods next to a foodplot I can watch bucks cruise the perimeter of the plot ten yards back in the woods sniffing out the does that are on the plot. They seldom enter the plot unless there's a hot doe out there. They don't go to the feeder.

Cabage, I don't know if you have any personal experience using timed feeders. I do. I have three small foodplots and have operated them without feeders and with feeders that throw a pound of corn one half hour after first light and one hour before dark. I have cameras on all three plots that tell the tale.

The normal pattern is that does and yearlings enter the plot about the same in the morning and evening regardless of whether there is a feeder on the plot or not. Sometimes they don't enter the plot for several days. When it's like that they don't seem to be going to any of the plots in the area. When they are using the plots I get pictures of deer on every plot during the same time frame. They are either moving and feeding at a certain time, or they are not.

If there's a feeder, the yearlings will go to the corn almost immediately. The mature does sometimes eat the corn, but usually stick with the wheat and clover. Over the last dozen years I can count the times on one hand that a mature buck went to a feeder during shooting hours. But if one does you can bet I'm going to take the shot.

grizzly 2

When the freezer is empty, I don't cut the deer much slack. When the pressure is off, I can enjoy the hunting more and am more likely to pass certain situations. I've never lived where baiting was legal, so I'll admit it turns me off.

Couple of weeks ago I had the biggest deer ever offer a shot. I'd strained a back muscle earlier that week and the old body groaned too hard when I tryed to pull the bow back. Rather than risk tearing something, I just enjoyed seeing a really big one up close. Beautiful sight and I had no regrets other than I'd wished I'd followed my intuition and taken the lighter pulling recurve hunting that weekend instead of the compound. I think I could have pulled that sweet old 40# er that
Dad owned back in the 60's. But I'm glad I was able to enjoy the moment rather than be filled with negative regrets.

I'll bet you enjoyed seeing that buck too.

rafsob

If the feeder was loaded and in the woods, it must be legal there. Here in Virginia, it is illegal to use any type of feed or food atractants in the woods during hunting season. We can have food plots only.

cabage

In all truth I have zero experience with timed feeders. It just seems wrong to me. I do use food plots, but not for hunting over like a bait pile or feeder. They just don't work like that around here. Where I have hunted with food plots here in Wisconsin the hunting pressure far outweighs the attraction of the food. The deer simply readjust their patterns and visit the food plot after dark.

I would kinda think that I would like a buck that stupid to pass his genes on!