Luv this thing, gives me something to watch all winter... Looks like they fired up the cameras at 08:00 ET this morning... They even had a countdown...8^) I guess this is their 16th season of running the cameras...
I noticed at least 2 of the bucks have already shed...
https://www.youtube.com/@BrownvillesFoodPantryForDeer
Curious- why the long uncovered trough?
Zbone's Link
No need for trough cover, they re-stock the troughs daily scooping out leftover feed remnants and pour fresh feed, it's kind of a big family operation and seems they add new elements annually... They usually re-feed daily around the 9AM hour and can see them doing so on the web-cams...
Would imagine it takes a lot of work... Attached video of their property: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqPNcchaSIw
You can choose what web-camera view to watch if you go to the main site: https://www.youtube.com/@BrownvillesFoodPantryForDeer
There is a lot of information on their channel/site...
itshot's Link
Curious- why the long uncovered trough?
Later in the winter with slimmer natural browse and deeper snow, deer will be lined up all along all the troughs...
I've been viewing it a few years annually now and there are a couple returning bigger racked bucks, one the call "Lefty", the other they call "Vincent"... I guess both showed up yesterday... I don't remember what Lefty looked like but they were throwing apples off their deck to so-called Vincent ... He's a main frame 4x4 with 3 stickers this year...
As for the open trough, as said above "they re-stock the troughs daily scooping out leftover feed remnants and pour fresh feed" using a mule type ATV with a grain bin... They have an apparatus hose type thingy they position and pour the grain from the bin while the ATV is moving... "They usually re-feed daily around the 9AM hour and can see them doing so on the web-cams"
Since my time viewing the over the past couple years, I haven't ever seen any real giants, although a couple might score pretty good, there's Vincent and a nice 5x5 with right side broken brow tine and growth on the main beam, seen him yesterday with a nice 4x4...
Can't wait until one of those doe fawns come into estrus and game on...8^)
I remember him from last year... I think it's neat to be able to get close-up photos like this of a wild buck of this caliber, even has good lightening....8^) What do you think he'll score?
"The Brownville Food Pantry For Deer feeds up to 800 pounds of native oats and at least a bushel of apples per day to help sustain the white-tailed deer population through rough winters here in Brownville, Maine. Feeding happens daily around 08:00(8AM) to 09:00(9 AM) Eastern Standard Time starting December 16 and continues to around the beginning of April. These are wild deer and this is not a deer farm. Some of the deer have been coming for more than 10 years. At times there are 200+ deer at the pantry. Wild turkeys also come and eat the native oats along side the deer. There is no Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD in wild deer in Maine. Please don't complain about it in chat. These deer are all very healthy and there has never been any type of disease spread among these deer. This "Yarding" of deer happens in Maine every winter, even if they were not being fed. You may see deer that are lame. Experts tell us that leaving them alone is the best thing we can do for them. Thank you for watching!"
When I think of hunting whitetails in the Northeast brings back memories of reading magazines as a kid growing up on the Benoits tracking big bucks in the mountains with their Remington 760 pump action 30-06s...8^) Fresh out of high school, I went to work for an outfitter in Montana and bought and took a Remington 760 with me...8^)
I did work in upstate NY's Adirondacks (beautiful country) one year back in the mid-80's... Pristine area, reminded me of "On Golden Pond", and we actually lived on Long Pond road... Anyhow, my wife and young daughter spent some time up there with me and a local family who was kind to us (even took me salmon fishing) showed me pix of their local deer that yarded there which they feed through the winter and it was interesting how they had sheds of returning bucks year after year... There was no agriculture in the area and these bucks were all big woods bucks and even the older ones didn't have any giant racks, they all just seem to have the base 4x4, 5x5 characteristic racks like the bucks at this pantry...
"With the heavy snows, deer yard naturally in Maine so it wouldn't matter if the feed them or not, they are still going to be congregated in winter... From their site/channel:
"The Brownville Food Pantry For Deer feeds up to 800 pounds of native oats and at least a bushel of apples per day to help sustain the white-tailed deer population through rough winters here in Brownville, Maine. Feeding happens daily around 08:00(8AM) to 09:00(9 AM) Eastern Standard Time starting December 16 and continues to around the beginning of April. These are wild deer and this is not a deer farm. Some of the deer have been coming for more than 10 years. At times there are 200+ deer at the pantry. Wild turkeys also come and eat the native oats along side the deer. There is no Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD in wild deer in Maine. Please don't complain about it in chat. These deer are all very healthy and there has never been any type of disease spread among these deer. This "Yarding" of deer happens in Maine every winter, even if they were not being fed. You may see deer that are lame. Experts tell us that leaving them alone is the best thing we can do for them. Thank you for watching!""
And an up and comer 5x5...
I’ve been watching this for several years and some nice ones this year!! The most interesting thing is the interaction between deer and age classes.
You can rewind/arrow back the web-cams for I think about 12 hours back...
I got some decent screen shots of that tall tine 4x5 from early this morning... Viewed from his side, he looks like a giant, but has a cockeyed rack with not much spread... I guess they are calling him "Big G", why Big G, I haven't the slightest...
Talking about interacting amongst them, he sparred with a smaller buck for a few seconds... And then there was also another buck running around a doe in tending posture, but the other bucks weren't paying much attention... Speaking of, we got a nice little snow here the past 24 hours and was out a little this morning and seen 3 bucks trailing a doe this morning single file about 30 seconds apart, one was a 2-year class, a dink, and a spiker taking up the rear...
