Very well said Larry. Animals get "acclimated" to a specific area and everything in that area as to what is "normal' or not. If there are normally 40 mile per hour winds then they take that as normal and have no problem. If they are used to only slight breezes and get a prolonged wind event, they will bed down and not move. The thing to remember is that they are slaves to thier stomachs and no matter what they will eventually move to eat. This holds true for any animal out there. However, they may go nocturnal in an attempt to feel "safe" to eat. All you can do is try to watch the weather forecast and go at a time that works best for you as the hunter. If you can only get out when it is less than optimal for you, then there are things you can do to help play it down. One is hunt in the most "protected" area where you are hunting. This could be something as easy as down in a creek bottom where the trees protect or something more complicated like using a topo map to find areas that will help deter your scent. Another thing you can do is that if you know the bedding areas general location, it would be a good time for spot and stalk from the downwind side of course. The wind will remove your scent and make it harder for the animals to hear you coming. Hope this helps a little

Whoa, whoa whoa! Let's just everyone take a step back and take a deep breath and relax a little.

Let's not all jump all over Yankee for his beliefs. This site is not about fighting, it's about the outdoors and how we all enjoy getting out and do so ethically. Everyone has a right to their opinion. Yankee makes some valid points. I think most would agree that lease prices have gotten out of control but it is supply and demand along with costs related that are driving these prices. Also, there are many of us, me included, that think it is wrong to high fence except under very specific circumstances.

 Yankee, you have to realize that things are done differently down here and as a matter of fact in a lot of other areas around the country today. I do understand what you are saying. I grew up in Arkansas and didn't even know what a lease was till I moved down here. However, things are changing. Greed rules the world and so some people are beginning to take advantage where they can. Others actually need the extra money to live and just use what they have that they can make money off of i.e their land.

As for hunting under a feeder I would ask you to put your opinions aside and think of this rationally. A feeder places a food source in a specific area and yes, the animals learn where it is and come to it. If you hunt a food plot or a field or an oak grove or anything like it, it is the same thing. The animals learn where the food source is and go to it. Either way, you are counting on an animal to come to an area where they know a food source is. The ONLY DIFFERENCE between these is that you can move a feeder. Thats it. If you still don't like the idea of a feeder, by all means don't do it. Just don't tell someone that does use them that they are wrong. It's like telling someone that drives a Ford that they are wrong if they don't drive a Chevy. It's all about preference.

Let's all get along please. The animal rights nuts and all the other tree huggers just look for things like this so they can come in and cause more devisions.

Good hunting and fishing to everyone and remember leave the outdoors as good or better than you found them so everyone else can enjoy them too.

Ashley,

Hardy has a lot of good insight. Mixing corn is probably the best way to get the deer to the feeder. As a matter of fact, you might mix more corn than protein for a while and slowly bring the mix ratio to more protein than corn. Hardy is right in a couple of other areas. Some people have gotten the wrong ideas about protein feeding and food plots. The deer are supposed to eat native vegetation. That's a built in instinct. They were doing it a long time before feeders and food plots. These are only meant to help in times of drought and other natural problems that may occur from year to year. Size of deer and antler mass really depends on what type of vegetation is growing in your area as every plant has a different amount protein and water in its greenery.

Now, to the hog problem. HUNT THEM, HUNT THEM, HUNT THEM. You will have to thin them out by hunting before you will make a dent with traps. They are a very smart and wary animal. As for the hogs in the feeders, I would use some "cow panel" wire on 4 sides with t-bars driven VERY deep. You might even think about concreting some posts into the ground. Hogs are tough and will do everything they can to get to food including destroying a fence. You can use barbed wire too but I would double the strands from ground level to about 3 foot high and make them nice and tight.. Again, pay attention to the posts.

I can understand Waco oso's argument. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I understand it. Let's use an example. You have a ranch owner with a low fence ranch. He feeds protein year round. He plants food plots and creates ways to irrigate his land to grow both food and cover greenery. He doesn't allow any hunting on the ranch for 6 years. After that period he still controls what is taken as far as trophy's and management bucks  and how many does to keep the ratios at an acceptable level. Now here is where people get upset. While this land owner did these things, he doesn't truly own the deer. He didn't birth them, bottle feed them, bathe them, de-louse them or take to the vet for shots. I know that this is a simple example but it is a valid point. While the land owner certainly has a right to charge for people to hunt his land, does he really NEED to charge that $5,000.00 for a deer? Let’s say he has some really nice deer, and he can part with 4 in a week. That's $20,000.00 in a week. Now let’s multiply that times the 12 weeks of season (gun season only) and that comes to $240,000.00. Almost 1/4 Million dollars in 12 weeks time for animals that don't really belong to him. Even with a high fenced ranch the argument would be that the deer do everything themselves, all the land owner does is feed. It all boils down to what is a "Fair" price to charge. Your arguments above are very well thought out and are accurate. But again, even if a person creates a private lake and stocks it, the fish do the rest. It again comes to what is a "Fair" price. Let's say this landowner I mentioned owns 1000 acres. He spends $30,000.00 a year on feed. His payments are $4,500.00 a month coming to $54,000.00 a year. That's a total of $84,000.00 a year. Let's add unforeseen costs of another $20,000.00 and that gives us a grand total of $104,000.00 a year. Subtract that from the $240,000.00 above and you have a difference of $136,000.00 or a 130+% markup of costs. Is that "fair"? That is where opinions and arguments come in. In my opinion that's not a fair price per animal or a fair mark-up. If that same land owner only charged $3,000.00 per buck he would still make $144,000.00 in that same 12 weeks time and have a profit of $40,000.00 or just under a 39% mark-up. Can't a person live on $40,000.00 a year? The answer is yes they can, I do it with a wife and 2 kids. As for your arguments about how many people are willing to pay such prices, yes there are a huge number that can and are more than willing to do so. But, imagine how many more hunters and money that could be made with lower more "reasonable" prices. Wal-Mart proved that selling more items at cheaper prices equals more money than higher prices and not selling as much. Remember because someone CAN charge a certain price DOES NOT make it right. If you want to think that way you should have no problem at all with $4.00 a gallon oil and the oil companies $30 billion dollars profit. after all they CAN charge that and they have a ton of people that are paying it.

Dwight,

The hunting laws in Texas only say that you can't hunt with rimfire ammunition so you can hunt with just about any caliber legally. With that being said we now come to the "what's morally and humanely right" question. The .40 S&W is not a bad round, as a matter of fact that's what I carry for a "hog gun" in the field. The questions you need to ask yourself is: 1) At what range will I be shooting at the animal? 2) What type of rounds will I use? Most importantly 3) How good of a marksman am I with this weapon? If you choose a good round, let's say the 165 gr. jacketed hollow point, keep the shot at 40 yards or less and can make accurate shots at that range then you could use it for deer. I would honestly suggest a different weapon myself such as a .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum or .44 Magnum. That is unless you want to invest in the singleshot pistols that shoot rifle calibers. You have a lot of different choices there. I hope this helped somewhat.