We are looking to get a feeder to put out in about 10 days. I am thinking the 1200 pound Boss Buck feeder and just wondering if anyone has used this feeder and has any input? Also if there are any comparable feeders any one would recommend? The reason I want the 1200 pound feeder over the 600 or 750 pound feeders is our lease is a 3 hour drive each way and if I can fill it every 6 weeks instead of every 3 the gas I save will cover a bunch of protein pellets.
I love our Boss Buck feeders, can't say enough good things about them. I ran 7 through 2015 and we have another seven I'll be putting out for 2016 here in the next couple of weeks. Never touched one of the bigger models but I like the way you think. I'd also just throw this out there for thought: I don't know how many acres your lease is but a feeder to service every 100 acres is a decent rule of thumb. It keeps the pressure off of fewer feeders. If you just have one to cover more than a hundred acres then deer will concentrate at the one and over crowd it. Ours just have three feeder tubes and the larger ones have four so that would help but only to a certain extent. My point is if you have several hundred acres I'd consider a couple smaller ones vs one big one.
The way our lease lays out with the bluffs I have a hard time spreading out the feeders. It is somewhere between 400-500 acres but if I put feeders in the other areas where deer spend there time I would be putting feeders near the property line and the thought of doing that bothers me. I like having the food in the center and trying keeping them coming back to the middle of our property. I think that is how I was able to keep Rocky in the center all year. I am going to try to pick up more ground to the west and if I can do that I would definitely add more feeders.
I'd buy a couple of the 600 LBs before I'd buy one big one. I couldn't imagine filling the 1200 LB without a grain cart / auger on it. I have 2X 350 LB feeders and will be purchasing a 600 LB this summer.
With just 400 - 500 acres you are more than likely drawing them off the neighbors already. I would consider the lay of the land and try to add at least one more feeder to your lease.
Yeah I'd definitely not get them near the borders. I'm more concerned with feeder space though and servicing numbers rather than acres. Every minute a deer spends hanging around a feeder that has no space available for it to feed is hard for a deer to make up in the cold of winter. Even if you have to put two feeders a hundred yards apart, I'd contend the deer and your needs will be better served than one large one that's causing a waiting line. But...really that's getting into more of a philosophical, nit picking arena...one is better than none the way I see it so do what is convenient and season to taste.
There will be a 1200 pound bale of third cut alfalfa spread around the feeder so there will be food for deer that can not get to a tube if it is crowded.
Don't know about your area but around here once winter sets in and the deer change over to feeding on browse, their systems can't digest and utilize legumes and although full physically, will starve to death not being able to use the alfalfa.
Lol, not to be an @ss ( I'm just naturally gifted) but we have over a hundred acres of food plots and they still crowd our feeders at one per 300 acres. The feeders are an easy and fast food source of concentrated goodness, they'll wait on the grain (or pellets) for a long while before they "settle" for munching on other stuff. But like I said, one is better than what's there now so no need to be picky about it. My experiences here are probably going to be different from yours anyway just due to being in different areas. Our deer densities are probably higher per square mile here so as they say, mileage may vary.
I know this can be an issue in some areas especially if they are not used to eating alfalfa but we have a couple of alfalfa fields and we have never had a problem. Did the same thing a number of years now.
As long as their diet hasn't been interrupted from grain or alfalfa then their stomach bacteria ratios haven't changed and they should tolerate it just fine. Heard and read stories for years about this effect from feeding grain but anywhere that it's already a large part of their normal diet, they never seem to have a problem with it. If you're going to be feeding pellets than most now have probiotics in them to help their digestive systems maintain a healthy biota anyway.
Not trying to hijack your thread but I have a 500lb all season feeder and I can not get those stupid deer to eat an ounce out of that thing to save my life, I've put corn it to start off so they would be transitioned to protein over time but it's been 3 weeks not one deer has ate out of it. Anyone else have an issue like this?
I moved a broadcast feeder right next to it and set it to throw just a bit so they will eat then hopefully look up lol for more
