Pro Tips Blog

Set Up a New Deer Feeder

book today
I have literally watched guys, although inebriated, throw darts at a map in order to determine feeder placement. That'll make me puke quicker that any amount of booze.

Book Your Hunt Today!

book now
How to Share With Just Friends

How to share with just friends.

Posted by Facebook on Friday, December 5, 2014

A question that legitimately has an exact science to it but usually gets nothing more than a little redneck intuition or even worse, a proximity placement.  "We'll set it up here so it'll be easy to get to from that next feeder over".  I have literally watched guys, although inebriated, throw darts at a map in order to determine feeder placement.  

That'll make me puke quicker that any amount of booze.

Step 1: Feeder placement starts on the map.

The perfect habitat includes food, bed, and water.  Your job is to find an area on the map that has bed and water, and bring the food into the area by way of your new feeder.  Can you determine all this just by looking at the map?  Nope!!!  However, you can give yourself a pin pointed area of your property to go explore on foot.

Step 2: Get in the trenches!

The most heavily trafficked areas will usually be the low spots.  Drainage area, ditches, creek beds, etc.  Start here to begin tracking your deer trails.  Follow the trails both direction.  Learn your terrain and see how the deer use it.  Where does the trail come from (bedding/water).  Where is it going to (bedding/water).  What is the most applicable spot throughout the travel corridor that could be used to congregate for a bite to eat (deer feeder placement). 

Step 3: Set it Up!

Throw up the feeder, fill that bad boy all the way up.Add a solar panel(make sure it's facing the sun lol). Set your exact time.  Set your morning and evening feeding times.  Set the duration in which you want the feed to be slung.  And then and probably most important, set up a trail camera...Out of the suns path and without any obstructions in between itself and the feeder.  

Step 4: Vacation!

Get the heck out of there and don't come back for at least 2 to 3 weeks.  You have a camera there and you're obviously intelligent enough to set up a feeder, don't be a little kid and run back to check on it every day.  Let nature take back over, the wildlife calm back down, and give the process time to become routine before you go back in and screw it up.  After 3 weeks, go back in, refill the feeder, swap out your camera card, and get back out of there again.

If you will follow these steps and take the process more serious that my writing, you will notice a significant improvement in not only the amount of animals you are seeing at your feeders but also the quality of bucks that happen to be in that area.  My most recent feeder placement resulted in 5 new shooter bucks showing their face on camera that we had never seen before on any other part of the ranch.  

Life in the hunting business is good.  It's even better when you take the time to study the patterns of nature and play the game within the game.  Good luck out there and be sure to come hunt with me sometime!

About the author

Sky Watkins

Owner, Lead Guide

Owner and Lead Guide of Black Water Guide Service. Sky has lead thousands of hunters through some of the most amazing experiences of there lives. Read Pro Hunting Tips from an experienced Texas guide who's been through it all.

Want something more?