There are certainly exceptions. Is any ALDEER member killing more due to corn? Maybe everyone in my area was already using corn so not much has changed.

We use it to keep deer on our farm so they do not go get shot by neighbors somewhere. Could we kill more off of it if we wanted, sure thing. I could go dump 50 lbs, sit in the truck and watch it for an hr and shoot a deer off it, move to the next spot and repeat the process 4 or 5 times a day.

We do use spin feeders though simply as a means of keeping the cost down. They would eat 500 lbs a day if it was just on the ground. It is more effective on the ground though.

Corn has definately doubled the post on aldeer.

On properties with a lot of deer, I see a lot of deer at corn feeders. On properties with a low population, I see very few deer at feeders and limited use of them. Basically, I think the benefits are minimal as long as you have any other natural attractant on your property (food, bedding, and/or travel routes). Corn does not hold deer on a property in my opinion. I stopped supplemental feeding years ago and have noticed no difference.

I think it keeps them around during the summer, but the ones I’ve used don’t get touched once the acorns fall until they dry up around Jan.

Contrary to CNCs opinion, your situation is also true for most of all of Alabama. The volume of corn on the ground/size of the piles has definitely increased simply due to people no longer having to be sneaky about it but, I doubt that the actual needle on the number of deer killed, has moved much at all as a direct result of it now being legal to actually buy a permit to "hunt" over corn. Any actual increase in harvest numbers would've occurred when they started the "100 yards and out of sight BS for the CAB guy that ran the high fence operation". Tons of people were baiting prior to that, but once that decree came out, that's when I think that the real harvest increase would've occurred. Once that was announced, every 100 yard greenfield, powerline and gas line in the state had a feeder sitting at the 101 yard mark hidden behind a tree or bush and this was before you had to buy a permit to "feed" so it was free. When the baiting permit came out, the feeders were just moved out into the middle of the fields and the shot distance shortened up for everyone.

Makes it much easier to kill a 3.5 year old buck and almost impossible to kill a 5.5+ year old buck in most heavily hunted areas. Different story when strict age management or light hunting pressure is in play. My hunter I guided in South Texas last week killed a 8.5 year old buck that we had never seen and had no pictures of. He messed up and showed himself some 150 yards down a sendero from a corn feeder. The point there is he grew to 8.5 years old in an area with lots of feeders but stayed out of sight of them.

I have a buddy that’s been more productive since corn became legal.

A buck can be in major trouble during early bow with corn/feed being legal. You can literally find you a shooter during the summer, feed him up all through the summer, up into bow season and have a legitimate chance of taking him opening week. They are way too predictable that time of year on feed.

I would agree with this on the bucks, right up until the first acorns start falling. Corn definitely helps the bowhunters, all season long, especially with getting the young bucks and does patterned and in a specific spot to kill.

And pulling that buck to a spot you can shoot him is a big deal for even a good bowhunter, which most aren’t. I know bow hunters that kill a good buck almost every year now, that would go several years between killing anything.