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Author
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Topic: Corn scorn forlorn
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The Outdoor Tripp
Knows what it's all about
Member # 619
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posted October 15, 2006 03:59 PM
Corn Scorn Forlorn
One more slam on hunting over corn feeders and I’m going to lose my lunch. One must ask: "Feeder scorn, feeder ignorance or feeder envy?" I find it no odd coincidence those forbidden to partake, more often than not, are those who decry the practice. Before my gurgling gut goes to town, let’s examine this "unfair" activity.
The first manmade projectile capable of out-running its target made hunting unfair, not the corn feeder. The repeating rifle, hunting optics, trail cams and the climbing tree stand then piled on until the four-legged entrée didn’t “stand a chance.” If the corn feeder has made things any less fair, during my thirty years of hunting I’ve yet to figure out how.
The main advantage gained hunting over a feeder is time. A feeding target provides time to judge an animal for maturity and avoid snap decisions and snap shots. Time to control buck fever, time to decide whether to shoot or pass, time to wait for a broadside target and time to execute a calculated, well-placed shot to dispatch quickly and ethically. Unfair what?
Yes, corn feeders do lure animals to the gun, there’s no denying that. However, last time I checked, oat patches, cornfields, food plots, watering holes, attractant scents, rattling horns, and mouth calls did pretty much the same thing. Texas corn feeder bad! Minnesota bean field good! Unfair how?
Feeders also ensure the hunter a near-stationary target. With which are you more confident of a quick kill – a still or moving target? For those undecided, ever trailed a poorly hit buck through a half-mile of cactus, briars and fire ants? Think it might be painful? Newsflash – it’s less so for the trackee than the tracker. Unfair when?
"Corn feeders shouldn’t be allowed. Animals must eat – they are an unfair advantage." Okay, let’s follow that logic: Deer have to drink so hunting over water is unfair. Deer have to walk so trail hunting is unfair. Deer have little reason to look up so hunting from tree, ladder and tripod stands is unfair. Deer are unaccustomed to human-shaped trees so camouflage is unfair. Unfair why?
"It’s just like shooting fish in a barrel!" Sorry. As anyone who’s hunted over a feeder will attest, trophy bucks don’t get that way sauntering up to corn in broad daylight. Odds are your desired bruiser will hit the Niblet buffet after hours, making sure your "sure kill" will take patience, perseverance, and no fewer hours on-stand than your feeder-less critics’.
Those who must curse the corn slinger – don’t take my word for it, come to feeder country and do it your way. If you can find a mesquite or live oak tall or straight enough to hang your tree stand (telephone poles do nicely in a pinch), stalk through machete-thick brush without spooking the next county or locate deer in country where they rarely move beyond dawn or dusk, you’re better than most.
Just don’t pass on the first split-second chance you get for an off-hand shot at the fleeting unjudged. We wouldn’t want you coming all this way to go home without the head mount or memories and grip-n-grin photos of you and the underage, coyote-gnawed forkhorn you gut-shot and tracked two days through the eighty degree heat. It would just be… unfair.
Tripp Holmgrain is an avid outdoorsman who has no problem with corny hunters. Email him at tripp@theoutdoortripp.com.
[ October 15, 2006, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: The Outdoor Tripp ]
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The Outdoor Tripp
www.theoutdoortripp.com
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
Posts: 805 | From: Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted October 15, 2006 05:37 PM
It's just that,... all of that corn that could have been used for sour mash..........kind of sad.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7594 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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TA17Rem
Hello, I'm the legendary Tim Anderson, Field Marshall, Southern Minneesota Sector
Member # 794
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posted October 15, 2006 06:03 PM
Got to draw the line somewhere and not every one is going to be happy about it either way. But hey why stop at baiting, why not just fence them in, and we can have can hunting then.
[ October 15, 2006, 06:05 PM: Message edited by: TA17Rem ]
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What if I told you, the left wing and right wing both belong to same bird!
Posts: 5090 | From: S.D. | Registered: Jan 2006
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The Outdoor Tripp
Knows what it's all about
Member # 619
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posted October 15, 2006 06:32 PM
Mouth call, howler, or corn... you're still luring them in.
I've hunted over feeders for days at a time and not seen anything worth a crap. I've hunted staked out over trails or on foot for days without seeing anything worth a crap.
Not sure how a feeder has anything to do with a canned hunt.
[ October 15, 2006, 06:34 PM: Message edited by: The Outdoor Tripp ]
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The Outdoor Tripp
www.theoutdoortripp.com
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
Posts: 805 | From: Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted October 15, 2006 06:49 PM
I like that Tripp. Good points all around. AT least when those deer come to the feeder, they get fed. When those coyotes come to a call, they're getting smoke blown up their asses in more ways than one. Now THAT'S unfair!
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
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Andy L
HI, I'M THE NEW MODERATOR OF THE CENTRAL MISSOURI FORUM, PULL MY FINGER!
Member # 642
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posted October 15, 2006 07:42 PM
Never hunted over bait, we cant. I would if we could? I dont know. Havent thought about it that much.
I know of a guy that did it illegally. It worked good on a timer. Seemed the animals had the schedule down pretty good. Deer and turkeys. That guy never did kill a big buck off it though. Killed lots of does and small stuff.
Seems like its got your goat though?
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Andy
Posts: 2645 | From: Central Missouri | Registered: Apr 2005
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The Outdoor Tripp
Knows what it's all about
Member # 619
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posted October 15, 2006 07:45 PM
Never shot a goat over a feeder... yet. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Got my goat? Not really. I've got a weekly newspaper column that needs constant feeding.
[ October 15, 2006, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: The Outdoor Tripp ]
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The Outdoor Tripp
www.theoutdoortripp.com
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
Posts: 805 | From: Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Andy L
HI, I'M THE NEW MODERATOR OF THE CENTRAL MISSOURI FORUM, PULL MY FINGER!
Member # 642
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posted October 15, 2006 08:05 PM
LOL, never thought of that.
I got my pet peeves too. Not long ago I made a post that caused a little stir. Imagine me doingn that. LOL. Anyway, it was misguided. I shouldnt have said anything to begin with, but it wasnt gory pics that I dont like, its people hangin coyotes on fences.
Anyway, as for the feeders, I dont know how you guys would hunt that gawdaful country without something like that. What I have seen is thick. It would have to be feeders in clearings or, what do you call em, senderos? I call em roads.
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Andy
Posts: 2645 | From: Central Missouri | Registered: Apr 2005
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The Outdoor Tripp
Knows what it's all about
Member # 619
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posted October 15, 2006 08:11 PM
Andy,
Folks who knock hunting over feeders usually change their tune once they visit south Texas.
Take away our feeders and two things would happen: Remington stock would take a nose dive and the south Texas whitetail population would get even more ridiculous.
Personally, I do less than half of my hunting over a feeder. I do have several places along major trails to ambush from. Actually prefer that method but as my place is flat there are dozens of trails for the deer to travel to any given place and my odds fall off quite a bit.
[ October 15, 2006, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: The Outdoor Tripp ]
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The Outdoor Tripp
www.theoutdoortripp.com
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
Posts: 805 | From: Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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TA17Rem
Hello, I'm the legendary Tim Anderson, Field Marshall, Southern Minneesota Sector
Member # 794
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posted October 15, 2006 08:17 PM
We can't hunt over bait here, but if a farmer spills some then its legal. And it just so happened a few years back a farmer had his gravity wagon tip over and he left it there. I hunted a hundred yards away from it and seen deer of all sizes come every day to feed. the big bucks where always the last to show up. At first they would show up right at quiting time and as the days went by they started to come in sooner. I shot a nice one on the way to the corn pile. It was'nt much of a challenge more like easey pickings. You are proably not seeing any big deer cause there are not any in youre area. But hey if baiting is legal there have at it. Canned hunting is controlled hunting, you shoot the deer when you are ready and you have control over it. Like the deer that came to feed on the corn pile, i had control over them also and shot when i wanted to and shot the one i wanted, was'nt to hard.
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What if I told you, the left wing and right wing both belong to same bird!
Posts: 5090 | From: S.D. | Registered: Jan 2006
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The Outdoor Tripp
Knows what it's all about
Member # 619
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posted October 15, 2006 08:26 PM
Big bucks in my area? Thick as fleas.
It's just catching them in the crosshairs that's difficult.
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The Outdoor Tripp
www.theoutdoortripp.com
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted October 16, 2006 04:47 AM
Here you can hunt over any kind of "bait" that occurs naturally in the deer's environment. If you want to put out a feeder full of corn, have at it. Fill it with something synthetic and attractive to the deer, no-go. I guess to me, there's no difference between a corn feeder that's five feet across versus one that's a quarter-mile square and has hedgerows on three sides and a creek on the other. Tripp's article raises some very valid arguments to everything I've heard to refute the use of feeders. Good job.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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TOM64
Knows what it's all about
Member # 561
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posted October 16, 2006 05:48 AM
We have 500 acres of red cedar, timber and overgrown hay fields surrounded by overgrazed pastures on the west, haygrazer and wheat on the south, wheat, soybeans and peanuts on the north and sparse timber and pasture land on the east.
We have 8 corn feeders scattered around the place that we keep full year round yet rarely kill a "good" buck over them. We do have about 30-40 does that tend to bring out the big boys during the rut. So if you want to talk unfair talk about rut hunting not baiting.
We do try to manage our place for mature deer and I did miss a 140" class (or bigger)buck at 12 yards 2 weeks ago at a feeder, my arrow caught a twig and flew over the deer's back by a foot. Now that's unfair!!!
BTW, that's the first good deer I've ever seen at a feeder and he had 3 other smaller bucks with him that I watched for 30 minutes until he came out to join them.
Posts: 2283 | From: okieland | Registered: Feb 2005
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The Outdoor Tripp
Knows what it's all about
Member # 619
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posted October 21, 2006 09:25 AM
Many ranchers in these parts hire wildlife biologists in choppers to fly over and conduct aerial surveys to estimate the whitetail population on their place.
Standard fare is to photograph a good number of deer from the air.
Same old story -- tons of pictures of huge, monster-racked bucks that are never seen at feeders... or on plates or walls.
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The Outdoor Tripp
www.theoutdoortripp.com
"All great truths begin as blasphemies."
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TOM64
Knows what it's all about
Member # 561
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posted October 21, 2006 05:54 PM
Stopped at a store last year on my way home from calling and the owner tells me to come take a look. He had a picture from one of those game cameras at a feeder of a 175" or better buck, I mean a monster. You guessed it, it was about 3:00am when he came by to feed. Worse part was he said the pic was taken within 2 miles of the store and the owner nor anyone else has ever seen him in the daylight.
Posts: 2283 | From: okieland | Registered: Feb 2005
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