In August, I loaded my feeder with feed corn and set my game camera. In early September I had pictures of pigs, deer, racoon, birds and neighbors cows that were eating the corn at my feeder.
I reset the camera and left.
A couple of days later, I called the owner of the cows to ask that they be brought back to the owners place. The owner apologized and said he would move them to a new better fenced pasture.
Three weeks later I went back to check my feeder and camera. I found that my locked gate had been winched out of the ground, someone had entered my property and my camera had been stolen. As bad as that was, I now saw that the corn was no longer being eaten. There was about an inch of corn spread over a 10 foot circle.
One friend said the thief may have sabotaged my feeder.
Has anyone heard of such a thing?
I would think that even if someone had "crapped" under the feeder, after a week or so, the pigs would have come in at night and eaten all the corn that was on the ground.
Note: The top of the feed barrel is 10 feet up, and chest high when I stand on my SUV to load the corn. The barrel is on fixed legs and cant be lowered.

When the acorns fall, the deer lose interest in the feeders. My feeders have barely been hit for the past month. I expect the deer to return to my feeders in a week or so.

Acorns was my first thought, second thought is are there any grain fields in the vicinity/with in a mile or so from your feeder location?

Around here, Archer & Young counties, many of the grain fields have got fairly good stands of young wheat in them and the deer will stop or reduce their feeding activity around the corn feeders.

Sorry to hear about your game camera. While visiting one of the camps on some of the property my boss manages, the Game Warden dropped by and advised the hunters to really be mindful of their equipment that they left in camp when gone. He reported that one group during Archery season had some of their bows and other gear stolen while they were out of camp working on and filling feeders.

The thieves either saw them leave camp or simply drove by and didn't see anyone in camp and grabbed everything they could and took off.

One thing I have noticed over the years and have been trying to come up with a better system is the placement of game cams. Everyone places them around their feeders and the thieves know this. I have been considering placing them along heavier used trails instead of at the feeders.

One thing some of Robert's hunters have started doing is setting up cameras at the gates going into the property and in locations around their camps. There will be a lot of unimportant pictures but if just one leads to the recovery of gear and the arrest of the criminal would make the added expense and effort worth it.

Sounds like you need some more cameras to catch the thieves. How awful, people really suck.

Some have been known to spread hair around a feeder. It will run the deer off. It is also hard to see.

That does not work. Deer in Texas are too used to the scent/sound/sight of humans for pissing/shitting or dumping hair from a barber shop to deter them, same with hogs.

Depending on where this is happening, deer numbers may not be all that great, acorns or new growth vegetation, including grain crops, are probably causing the lack of activity.

An other possibility, is with the game cam stolen and the location of the property, other people may be hunting the spot.

Depending on the OP's schedule and location of the property it is not that uncommon for land owners to allow family and friends to hunt such properties, knowing that the folks leasing the property are only there at certain times.

I have even heard of property owners doing mid week day hunts.

From personal observation since Thanksgiving Day, the deer are acting strangely. Out of 6 or 7 trips to the stand, we have seen deer on 3 occasions. Before that I was seeing deer every time I was in that particular stand.

I have seen Landowners in Wis spray some motor oil or even diesel on illegal stands, deer won't go near it for years, so any type of toxic material will have the same effect

quote:

I have seen Landowners in Wis spray some motor oil or even diesel on illegal stands, deer won't go near it for years, so any type of toxic material will have the same effect

That doesn't have any affect on hogs as they will wallow in and eat corn soaked in diesel fuel.

My property is isolated by privately owned land managed and owned by a paper company, with access to their property via an always locked gate. (Only authorized persons and I have keys to their gate.) Also, to get to my property, a person would need to go through the gate and then drive 2-1/2 miles of dirt road just to get to my gate.
By the way, my property is in Cass County, about 15 miles North of Jefferson, TX.
I understand deer being finicky, but thought the pigs would eat just about anything that resembled or smelled like food.

I would suspect that someone else that has access to the property, legally is the culprit as far as the game cam goes.

However, with your stating that the gate post was winched out of the ground, that indicates someone knew you had equipment on the property and had a key to be able to get the 2 and 1/2 miles back into your hunting area.

How long have you been on this property?

The reason I am asking is that I know of properties in this area that change hunters yearly due to the same type happenings you are describing.

If this is a new lease you are on, this type stuff has probably been happening for a long time. These folks are pretty organized, they pattern the folks leasing the property, figure out when they are going to be hunting and when they won't be. They get to knowing what vehicles the folks leasing the properties drive. They have their own network of folks watching.

In this area it works out to sort of revenge. The locals that grew up hunting the properties are forced out, so instead of striking back at the land owners/lease holders, they take it out on the folks that can afford to lease the property.

Sorry that you are in the situation you are in.