When do you guys start your feeders up for the Fall hunting season (for those that can do so legally)? I generally do it in September, but I wonder is there is a benefit to doing it earlier.

Seeing how your season I think still doesn't open up until Sept 15th I believe. There is still a bunch of food around. There is benefit to having feed out all years round because the herd just keeps getting bigger and bigger that comes to the feeding. I don't know if you saw the lady or even if it's still there by Seneca Park. Ever since they began using snipers at night, the hunting has never been the same. She was second row in with fencing around the houses but had about 100 deer a day year round coming to eat. That does get expensive.

So it depends what you want to do. If its meat hunting, of course you already know you can do that anywhere and anytime of the day. If it's trophy, get it out there at least by the end of September and set the feeding clock briefly in the morning after first light and in the evening around 45 mins before dark. The deer will come running when they here that little chow bell.

Yeah, good point about the abundance of food. It's more of a habit-building thing anyway.

I would love to hunt in September, but it's moot to me if it feels like summertime still. I gave up on trophy hunting a while ago. Just doesn't excite me. There were a few nice bucks running around the woods by the gorge, and they needed one to two more years. I think someone took them out..

I'll probably just start up the feeder around late September unless we get a cold spell in earlier.