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Message
Deer Hunting Advice
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:12 pm
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:12 pm
For the last 20 years or so, I have done very little deer hunting. Maybe 2 or 3 times per year, mostly just when someone invites me or my wife asks me to take her. I really enjoy bird hunting a whole lot more, but I do enjoy the occasional deer hunt too-and like having meat in the freezer when I can get it.
Having said that, a close family member from out of town recently purchased 80 acres that is 15 minutes from my house and 10 minutes from my office. They will eventually move down here and build their retirement house on the property. In the meantime (next 4-5 years), I have free reign of the place. Other than them, I have the only gate key. I will have access after they move here too, but I'm mainly thinking about the next few years right now.
The property is mostly woods with a cypress swamp. There are already two clearings or fields, one with a makeshift blind, which is made out of an old peanut wagon. I assume that the clearing was a food plot in the past. I'm not sure I want to get into the time and expense of planting food plots, but I bought a couple of cameras and would like to purchase at least one feeder. Back when I was deer hunting a lot, feeders were illegal in Alabama, so I have exactly zero experience with them.
I don't want to spend a fortune on the feeders since I will likely only deer hunt a handful times throughout the season (the ducks are in trouble though!). I also don't want to buy junky ones or something I will need to refill every third day either. Any recommendations on one that's a good value and dependable?
Also, is the $18 per month Moultrie cellular plan sufficient for somebody like me? Can it be activated only for hunting season or is there some sort of contract? I have not cut open the package yet to read the instructions. They are new, but I got the 2 pack of cameras for $16 at a local lost package bin store. I can swap the cameras for something else if I need to. It's not like I have a bunch of money tied up in them.
Having said that, a close family member from out of town recently purchased 80 acres that is 15 minutes from my house and 10 minutes from my office. They will eventually move down here and build their retirement house on the property. In the meantime (next 4-5 years), I have free reign of the place. Other than them, I have the only gate key. I will have access after they move here too, but I'm mainly thinking about the next few years right now.
The property is mostly woods with a cypress swamp. There are already two clearings or fields, one with a makeshift blind, which is made out of an old peanut wagon. I assume that the clearing was a food plot in the past. I'm not sure I want to get into the time and expense of planting food plots, but I bought a couple of cameras and would like to purchase at least one feeder. Back when I was deer hunting a lot, feeders were illegal in Alabama, so I have exactly zero experience with them.
I don't want to spend a fortune on the feeders since I will likely only deer hunt a handful times throughout the season (the ducks are in trouble though!). I also don't want to buy junky ones or something I will need to refill every third day either. Any recommendations on one that's a good value and dependable?
Also, is the $18 per month Moultrie cellular plan sufficient for somebody like me? Can it be activated only for hunting season or is there some sort of contract? I have not cut open the package yet to read the instructions. They are new, but I got the 2 pack of cameras for $16 at a local lost package bin store. I can swap the cameras for something else if I need to. It's not like I have a bunch of money tied up in them.
9
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:23 pm to alduckhunter
I'd stay away from using a 410
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:25 pm to Bama and Beer
quote:.410 with some TSS bawwwww
I'd stay away from using a 410
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:28 pm to Bama and Beer
I will keep that in mind. Thanks.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:31 pm to alduckhunter
quote:
Also, is the $18 per month Moultrie cellular plan sufficient for somebody like me?
quote:
15 minutes from my house and 10 minutes from my office.
If you want real time pictures then yes, but being that close I'd use traditional cameras and swap SD cards every once in a while.
My place is an hour and 50 minutes away and I have a hard time justifying the expense for a cellular camera. I still use traditional cameras and it gives me something else to do each time I show up for a hunt.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:33 pm to alduckhunter
Hunt it as-is. Fk cameras and feeders.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:33 pm to alduckhunter
Feeders are constant upkeep and expense. Nothing wrong with them, I’ll be filling up a dozen this weekend, but you will be signing up for it when it sounds like you’d rather not. If the place is kept quiet, a low maintenance plot combined with a salt lick will get you a lot of what you’re looking for with a fraction of the work.
Borrow a sprayer and kill the plot now with glyphosate. In a week top seed it with any mix you can find that contains oats, wheat, cereal rye, and some kind of clover. It’s not gonna break the bank so plant at least 100 lbs per acre. Fertilize with 13-13-13 in a month.
Dig a hole near the edge of the plot and put one 50lb sack of stock salt. Aim your cam at the salt but also looking out over the plot.
I would recommend tactacam if you want a low number of cameras that will just work.
Leave the area undisturbed and you will have really good odds to have deer in it every evening and a great shot at a buck during the rut.
Borrow a sprayer and kill the plot now with glyphosate. In a week top seed it with any mix you can find that contains oats, wheat, cereal rye, and some kind of clover. It’s not gonna break the bank so plant at least 100 lbs per acre. Fertilize with 13-13-13 in a month.
Dig a hole near the edge of the plot and put one 50lb sack of stock salt. Aim your cam at the salt but also looking out over the plot.
I would recommend tactacam if you want a low number of cameras that will just work.
Leave the area undisturbed and you will have really good odds to have deer in it every evening and a great shot at a buck during the rut.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:33 pm to alduckhunter
Posted on 9/16/25 at 1:55 pm to alduckhunter
quote:
15 minutes from my house
If it's that close just go pour out a bag of corn and a bag of rice bran, then set your cameras up on it. If they clean it up repeat every 4-5 days until you hunt.
You will find out real fast what you got.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 2:00 pm to unclepeanut
quote:
Stick with the moultrie feeder if you want to go relatively cheap.
I think I've had this one for 8 or 9 years. I replaced the spin assembly last year. The squirrels do a number on it but I patch the holes with JB Weld Steel Stick putty. With a 3 second spin morning/evening the 200 lbs will last 2 or 3 months.
One thing I've noticed as far as bucks go that dumping a sack of corn pulls them in way better than a feeder. I rarely get buck pics at a feeder but if I put a camera on acorns or dump a sack of corn in a thicket I think they're using I'll get bucks.
This post was edited on 9/16/25 at 2:02 pm
Posted on 9/16/25 at 2:34 pm to Loup
Thank yall for the replies and suggestions. If I could get a feeder that will last a few years and only has to be filled up once every month or two, then I wouldn’t mind that.
Pouring a sack of corn out on the ground a few days before I planned to hunt would work fine too.
The cameras I bought are the Moultrie Edge cameras. Does anybody know if you can use them old school with an SD card? If so, that would be fine with me also. I didn’t buy them because they were cellular or because I specifically wanted those particular cameras. As I said in the OP, they were new in the sealed package and $16 at the bin store. They are just what I ran across. Multiple people in the store tried to buy them from me, so I figured they must be ok.
I could quite literally put out the corn and swap the SD cards out on my lunch break very easily.
Pouring a sack of corn out on the ground a few days before I planned to hunt would work fine too.
The cameras I bought are the Moultrie Edge cameras. Does anybody know if you can use them old school with an SD card? If so, that would be fine with me also. I didn’t buy them because they were cellular or because I specifically wanted those particular cameras. As I said in the OP, they were new in the sealed package and $16 at the bin store. They are just what I ran across. Multiple people in the store tried to buy them from me, so I figured they must be ok.
I could quite literally put out the corn and swap the SD cards out on my lunch break very easily.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 3:02 pm to alduckhunter
Few things.
-If nobody has been hunting it or actively visiting it then the place has been getting hunted.
-Those Cameras are fine, not sure about moultrie plan but most minimum plans have 500-1000 pics or so if you put them out on corn it will exceed that in a month. If you put corn hogs will show up almost 100% of the places in the south.
-Just know that 80ac is going to be severely impacted by neighboring properties.
- on a place that small I would plant the clearing with oats and wheat ( spray with round up and cut the grass with a lawnmower then spread seed heavy before a rain) .
-depending on layout of property only set up one stand that you can access easily without walking the whole place so that you don’t push all the deer of your place to the neighbors
-If nobody has been hunting it or actively visiting it then the place has been getting hunted.
-Those Cameras are fine, not sure about moultrie plan but most minimum plans have 500-1000 pics or so if you put them out on corn it will exceed that in a month. If you put corn hogs will show up almost 100% of the places in the south.
-Just know that 80ac is going to be severely impacted by neighboring properties.
- on a place that small I would plant the clearing with oats and wheat ( spray with round up and cut the grass with a lawnmower then spread seed heavy before a rain) .
-depending on layout of property only set up one stand that you can access easily without walking the whole place so that you don’t push all the deer of your place to the neighbors
Posted on 9/16/25 at 3:08 pm to alduckhunter
quote:
could quite literally put out the corn and swap the SD cards out on my lunch break very easily.
The best thing about a cell camera is for 10-15 bucks a month you don’t have to go making noise and getting scent everywhere every week. A Tactacam is gonna be more than what you got those moultries for, but with a solar panel pointed south you can set it and forget about it, and you really only need one cam. On 80 acres, that hopefully no one trespasses on, your strategy needs to be keeping things as quiet and untouched as possible. When pressure ramps up around you, the deer are going to go where people aren’t and will be regulars those few times a year you want to hunt it.
A feeder that doesn’t need to be touched for over a month is going to cost some money. If you have deer density like most of Alabama a 350lb (55gal drum) gravity feeder is gonna be empty in a week. A spin feeder could work if you set it very low, but at that point the plot is pulling them as much as anything and there is always something going wrong with any spin feeder, just the nature of them. You have built in attraction just keeping the place quiet, and it’s free, just have to use it to your advantage.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 4:17 pm to TheDrunkenTigah
I can guarantee that there has been trespassing and most likely hunting going on on the property.
The hunting most likely by the realtor, who I know. When looking at the property we found a fresh “campfire”, and a pile of beer cans. I figure some kids were using it as a party spot. After the locked gate went up we haven’t found any more evidence of that. The realtor offered to haul off the peanut wagon blind at no charge. Lol.
We got permission to visit the property early one morning to watch the ducks come in. They came in so thick I told my sister if she didn’t buy it I was going to.
The front of the property is pasture road frontage. Somebody would have to park or get dropped offf on the road and cross a large creek to gain access to the main part of the land. Eventually a bridge will have to be put in to access it from that road. The back side, somebody would have to come in across the cypress pond, most likely by a boat of some sort. The only real “easy” access is through the locked gate.
There are definitely deer and lots of ducks there. I have seen them even with no cameras. As far as “managing” the property for trophy bucks, I have no interest in that. In fact, I may never pull the trigger on a deer myself. If my wife can get a fat doe or a two year old 6 point each year, we will be plenty happy. One deer in the freezer will be just fine.
Other than my son and me going in there every couple of weeks to shoot 6 woodies, there will be very little activity or pressure on that property.
The hunting most likely by the realtor, who I know. When looking at the property we found a fresh “campfire”, and a pile of beer cans. I figure some kids were using it as a party spot. After the locked gate went up we haven’t found any more evidence of that. The realtor offered to haul off the peanut wagon blind at no charge. Lol.
We got permission to visit the property early one morning to watch the ducks come in. They came in so thick I told my sister if she didn’t buy it I was going to.
The front of the property is pasture road frontage. Somebody would have to park or get dropped offf on the road and cross a large creek to gain access to the main part of the land. Eventually a bridge will have to be put in to access it from that road. The back side, somebody would have to come in across the cypress pond, most likely by a boat of some sort. The only real “easy” access is through the locked gate.
There are definitely deer and lots of ducks there. I have seen them even with no cameras. As far as “managing” the property for trophy bucks, I have no interest in that. In fact, I may never pull the trigger on a deer myself. If my wife can get a fat doe or a two year old 6 point each year, we will be plenty happy. One deer in the freezer will be just fine.
Other than my son and me going in there every couple of weeks to shoot 6 woodies, there will be very little activity or pressure on that property.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 4:20 pm to alduckhunter
Hang a stand on the south side of that cypress swamp and get ready.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 8:24 pm to alduckhunter
quote:
As far as “managing” the property for trophy bucks, I have no interest in that. In fact, I may never pull the trigger on a deer myself. If my wife can get a fat doe or a two year old 6 point each year, we will be plenty happy.
There’s not much management you can really do with 80 acres but your expectations are perfectly reasonable and should be easy to achieve, feeder or no feeder. You might even be surprised when she kills a mature buck that everyone around you has on camera, and your plot was the one he felt comfortable stepping out in daylight on.
Posted on 9/16/25 at 9:32 pm to alduckhunter
Throw you some Delta Magic on the ground a few days before you hunt it. You’ll fill your freezer.
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