Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Advice on setting up a deer feeder

Greetings all,

First time trying to use an automated deer feeder. Bought a Moultrie pro hunter spin feeder kit and am going to rig it to the bottom of a 55 gallon drum. Was wondering what kind of timing I should use for the feeder meaning how many seconds or pounds of corn per day? Also I was wondering if y’all had any thoughts on what time of day. I was thinking an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset.

Bears will rip up a feeder on the ground so I will be suspending it in the air on a cable between two trees. Also mounting a boat winch to a treated 2 x 6 and then to a tree to hoist it up. Any advice y’all have would be great thanks

Scott

Not rocket science. I might set it closer to dawn and dusk but be sure to use the sun rise and set times during the season. Time depends on how often you can fill them and how much you want to spend. I think most people run them too long. Just 3 or 4 seconds is good enough for starters and then you can increase the time before hunting season if you want. If you feed too much here you will invite hogs, javelina, bear or what have you. If feed is staying on the ground reduce the time. During antler development times usually March-September a higher protein plus mineral mix is beneficial. Corn isn't really that good for deer.

We have 3 feeder's and we stagger the times. Usually 1 will go off at 1st light, 2nd around early afternoon and last about an hour before dark.

We always mix corn with minerals to help out. During warmer times, we use a goat feed. To wet and thick for when it gets cold but deer here atleast love it.

We run ours for about 4 seconds.

Appreciate the replies thanks

Ours are generally set for daylight or just before and then a few hours before dark. In theory I prefer they go off before deer are around.

But thats just me.

Other than that, if all you want is to attract, corn works. But we use soybeans often during the summer so the does have good milk, the deer have feed, etc... as the summer is our worst time, similar to winter in many places on the toughness scale.

We feed all year round one way or another.... to me its not right to just attract but thats me. YMMV.

As to how much, we put a mineral tub up and spin it to weigh corn for the months we are not allowed on the one area, so that it lasts the whole time, at home, it varies, depending on the needs..... sometimes 2-5 seconds, sometimes 30 seconds..... and how much that is depends on tube diameter and how far below the tube the plate is and how strong the motor is.

At home its easy to see what the conditions are and know if they need to add soybeans or just keep corn or use creep feed or protein etc... and how long to let em run from Month to month more or less. Once the feed piles up, you are feeding too much.

also be aware they will eat corn like candy almost all year, but there are times they won't eat anything including protein because nature is providing, hence the difference in amounts at differing times...

IE I had 1000 pounds of protein in a feeder since last August or Sept IIRC, it was a wet fall and winter and just NOW they have eaten almost all and this week or next I need to add 10 bags, but at times they can eat almost a bag or more a day.....

If you have it hanging you may not need a Varmint guard for squirrels and coons. It needs a metal lid, squirrels will eat through plastic lids. Keep some wasp spray, bastids like feeders. I like mine to go off just before daylight and a couple hours before dark, so you are always adjusting the times. Put a solar panel on it. Your batteries last much longer. Keep a spare motor and timer, plus tools to work on the damn thing. Put anti-seize on the spinner set screws, cause sooner or later the motor will fug up. You need a lid like this below, the clamp on barrel lids leak. There is nothing finer than rotted, molding 🌽 corn. Keep a spare battery too.




A metal lid like the one here is the only way to go in my opinion. I welded a third from another barrel on this homemade feeder. All I have to buy is a ammo box, motor, timer, lid, forty feet of 1” pipe. It holds 400 lbs. I feed 2 seconds until August, then 3 seconds. I scatter corn up and down roads when I’m hunting. Don’t mind the dead pigs, feeder pen has a trap gate I can set if I want.

I have a couple hanging feeders too. I rig the wench up like this. I make a u-bolt out of 3/8 all thread rod. I made it so I could put it on different size trees.
Use stainless cable, the cheap cshit from ace hardware rusts out quick. I like having two or three feeders at a stand. Nothing more disgusting than going out to hunt and damn feeder doesn’t go off. If you have two, maybe at least one will be working. Between two leases I have ten feeders that I fool with. I really like being on a hillside, a feeder on top and one below. Bottom pic is a feeder I built in 82. It holds 1000 lbs. it’s 225 yards away. Another feeder is a hundred yards on top of hill where I am.







There is a dead pig eating corn just down from stand. There is a hanging feeder in tree just past that damn pig. If you have a feeder on the ground, it has to have a feeder pen, because of cows. Cows will jack a feeder up.

I've had a couple of automated feeders. First thing would be to check on the spinner plate. If plastic, see if there is a metal one available. Squirrels chew them up bad. I had a 55gal PVC barrel suspended between two cables , and found it difficult to fill and raise. So I added a third cable just above it and used an extension ladder to add corn, by hooking the ladder on the horizontal cable, and left the barrel in place. It takes 8 40lb bags to fill one feeder.. I also tried a kenco straight shooter (throws it one way) and strapped the barrel to a tree about 15" up. Much easier to fill. I used rechargeable batteries and a small solar panel to keep them topped off. Just mounted the panel further up the trees.
Both failed too quickly to suit me, and I use strictly gravity feeders now, and use acorns harvested in-city for free deer candy. (I have a couple families that supply me with acorns from thier trees, and I drop off a chunk of venison as a thank you)

I’ve never seen s plastic spinner plate. That really wouldn’t be worth a damn. If squirrels can get to spinner, you would have to have a Varmint guard. I take a guard like this apart, bend the five pieces a little, connect the five together with hog rings, use 1” square wire for bottom. The five fit bottom of 55 gallon barrel perfect. Coons can reach in the way it comes from manufacturer.

I have a recent data point in all this, that y'all might find interesting.

My neighbor on the north side moved in about 2003. Wally owned 100 acres to my 200. Down in the creek bottom where all our properties came to a point, he put a feeder. I think he said he was putting 700 lbs of corn into that feeder a year. Yes, he got some good deer of that property over the years. However, he was the first to admit that mostly he was feeding my deer. They'd come over to his place in the middle of the night and load up.

His overall harvest off that property was okay-- nothing great. In fact, he and his group mostly went to another property and only used the house he built there as a base camp.

Last year, he sold out to a young couple. The new owners stopped the feeding. I'm not sure they're even hunting the property.

It's amazing what the loss of that feeder has done to the deer. We're seeing a lot more deer overall, and a lot more bucks. The loss of the corn has moved them away from the feeder and they're now relying on natural forage and normal crepuscular feeding times.

During this same period (2003 - 2015) I experimented with supplemental feeding. What I found was that it ate up a whole lot of corn with not a whole lot to show for it. For October bow hunting, it seemed the deer were more interested in acorns than anything I could give them. In November, they hit it hard, but always at night. I gave up-- probably around 2006 or thereabouts, and concentrated on food plots and other habitat improvements. The result was I had much better results for the money I spent.

I'd be the last guy to get on an ethical high-horse and condemn supplemental feeding-- whatever works. However, the past year's experience tells me there are unexpected consequences.

Thanks all for your replies. Great advice much appreciated

Did you get a feeder up?