Who has them? who uses them? What would you recommend.
I am a member of a hunt club, we are planting several food plots through out the year to help with the nutrition.
Supplemental feeding (ie feeders in the fall) are each persons individual responsiblity.
I'm looking for suggestions on cheap but effective feeders.
Here in NC you cannot hunt over bait until after the bait is gone and the allotted time has expired. I'll probably feed one week then hunt the next week.
I'm probably looking at feeding Golden Nugget or Record Rack supplemental feed.
Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
When your ship comes in. ... make sure you are willing to unload it.
PAYPAL, sucks and I will never use them again. I recommend you do the same.
Use a barrel type self feeder IMHO. OF course you'd have to remove the food, but we put them out all year long, and if in your shoes would have them from the end of season to the start of season with protein in them at all times. The deer dont' eat it like candy, they only use it when they need to.
I've had a regular power feeder at the house for years, and at the deer leases too, when going to self feeders I've seen many more deer and a variety of deer that I have never seen before. But not on a reliable schedule of course.
We feed Record Rack protein. I tried to keep 2 large bucks in the area last fall by switching to the candy of Golden Nuggets when the acorns fall, but true to life, they left for nuggets and did not see them after those fell. So they truly only use what they need.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
Barrel feeders are great. They'll hold around 300-350 lb of corn. I use a Sweeney feeder. Its timer, battery & motor is interior with only the spinner plate exposed. You'll need a varmint cage or some means to keep the gluttonous coons from emptying it.
Not all feeders are created equally. I prefer to spend a few extra dollars on a quality unit that will last me for the life of my hunting career.
Enless somthing is differnet in your county then mine(halifax NC) we can use feeders year round and hunt over corn feeders for deer. The only exception is that we have is that you can not kill a bear around them. It real took about 2 years to get the deer using them like they do in Texas. I have 14 feeders set up on what I hunt here and have fairly decent luck with them. Most of the time we will not kill a big deer at the feeder but you will see the big deer come to the down wind side and check for hot does and that is when you will get a chance at them. I postion my feeders to where I have a shooting lane 30-50 yards on the down wind side I also try to put them near cover.
Another option is a homemade PVC gravity feeder, especially if cost is a big concern.
If you hang it with a thin single strand wire or small diameter cable the coons can't climb down to it, and it can be hung high enough to keep hogs out. Squirrels and birds will get to it some, but that will usually be minimal. I've used oats and corn in mine, but it would be great for protein.
I'm rechecking the feeding laws here agian in NC. Maybe my memory is wrong on the rules. (been known to happen before. ) I may be crossing the rules with another state's as I've hunted in several diff states lately.
I'm wanting to get some nutritional food out there for the deer as well as get them moving from place to place looking for food. I'll likely try to hunt the path they take to the food instead of the food plot/feeder itself.
Gravity feeder may be the ticked for the moment, good idea!
Thinning the does and letting the little bucks grow is my plan. No matter how long I've boiled them horns they still don't taste very good.
Last edited by blammer; 05/19/10.
Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
When your ship comes in. ... make sure you are willing to unload it.
PAYPAL, sucks and I will never use them again. I recommend you do the same.
i keep 4 feeders running on my place starting Aug 1st, and run them through mid january or so.
great tools to get deer on camera to get ideas of what kinds of deer i have running the place. i run the feeders well past deer season to see what deer have made it through to next year.
i used a mixture of 1/2 corn & half protein feed, deer & turkeys liked it. felt a lot better going into deer season knowing which deer to pass up. didnt take the coons long to figure out where the grub is, and also a few hogs have made their appearance. but all in all, coons have not made too much problems, they prefer the fish feeder i have over my pond.
i set mine to feed several small batches daily, instead of one or 2 big dumps, greater likelihood of there being food on the ground that way...got pix of deer standing there watching the feeder as if waiting for it.
mine are moultrie...been happy with them. i have solar panels with rechargeable batteries, no maintenance other than filling them.
they dont take the place of food plots, but they made good scouting tools for me.
All these guys have good ideas, I personally use the gravity feeders so i dont have to screw with batteries or timers, and i also throw out a cattle mineral block and a salt block from a feed store at each one, I have had deer come up and lick the salt or mineral and never even smell the corn.
You can hunt over bait in North Carolina, we put out alot but never really killed a big un' over the corn. I use it mainly for my trail cams. I live in Halifax Co but hunt in Northampton,Halifax,& hopefully Hertford this year.
Sorry I got away from this thread... we use gravity self feeders for the protein, and I went to nuggets because they are more like candy hoping to hold a couple of 155 class bucks for bow season.... Normally they are nuts for nuggets but protein is much better for them.
There is a VERY simple way to make a self barrel feeder if you are anything handy yourself. Its really only adding 3 legs to the barrel to get it up about 6 feet in tall to the lid. Then you cut 3 slits in the barrel, beat them to the inside of the barrel, and then weld or screw a small rain lip over each one, and or caulk well. Drill a few holes on the bottom of the barrel under each opening for moisture and away you go.
Send me an email again on PM and I'll send you some photos one day when I get time to go check mine at the house.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
after some research, it has been determined that on state and federal gamelands you cannot bring bait or food, private lands a different matter and there are no rules for hunting over the bait/feed. Yea!
rost, good idea! I'm presuming that the deer will eat directly out of the barrel feeder? The feed won't be 'spread around' on the ground.
I'll have to get some salt licks too!
Last edited by blammer; 05/21/10.
Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
When your ship comes in. ... make sure you are willing to unload it.
PAYPAL, sucks and I will never use them again. I recommend you do the same.
The lick/eat it right out of the barrel, of course some spills to the ground, and some deer stop and pick that up too, others leave it, some new show up and eat that first then the barrel, sometimes only coons eat the stuff on the ground.
CHEAP way to make a self feeder.
We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
Who has them? who uses them? What would you recommend.
I'm looking for suggestions on cheap but effective feeders.
I use supplemental minerals, including salts, year round. But my reason for feeding deer is to pile calories on them post hunting to get them through winter. If, like most, your reason for feeding is more along the line of attracting for viewing or hunting only, you are better off with a timed feeder that is chincy with the food. Keeps 'em comming when the timer is set to feed (that is: hunting hours). And of course, the bears are sleeping when I'm feeding, and we have no pigs around here, so a free-standing feeder is pretty safe from destruction. You might want to go with a steel barrel and chain and wire and cable and....... if you have lots of pigs or bears....
So, my feeder may not work for you, but it is certainly easy to keep clean, cheap, and easy to build.
Its a garbage can with the bottom cut out and on stilts (gravity feeder), placed on a piece of plywood. I mostly feed whole corn and 15% sunflower seeds; very clean feed, and they like it better than commercial recipes.
If your only planning on feed nutrition/protein for a couple of months and sparingly at that then in my opinion your wasting your time and money. It take alot of protein to make a difference in a deer herd. I mean alot. If your planing on just using this as something to attract deer for hunting purposes then just go with corn if it's legal where you hunt. Best thing going here in Louisiana right now is "rice bran". It also comes in a pellet form that can be used in feeders. Shelled soybean are great for attracting deer. Like I said if your jsut using it during hunting season then stick to something cheap and pretty easy to get. Problem I had with feeding the high dollar stuff is that you pay so much for such a little amount and the deer eat it all at night. You really get no benefit out of it.
We use 30 gal and 50 gal feeders in areas we want to shoot does. We also use these gravity feeders on game trails. They are simple to make. A comode flange and some sewer pipe and you have a feeder. We also put out trophy rocks and mineral blocks.
Molɔ̀ːn Labé Grandpa:the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Dad:son you have 2 choices for supper eat or don't eat.
Deer feeders come in a variety of contraptions..Been using a deer feeder for some 43 years or so ..I have had the high end ones- Spincast - Sweeney etc etc- I will tell ya this -
The best control unit timer is this one pictured- and the best motor set up is - The All Seasons - you cant go wrong with this set up-
I just spent three days in a conversation with a young man on another forum - about "baiting"
We use feeders for supplemental feeding - not to "bait" deer - if you shoot deer under a feeder or in a feeder pen - I could see why someone would use the word "baiting"- The young man was from Iowa - he hunted on the edge of a cornfield - I told him he was "baiting" the deer with the use of the cornfield to shoot his deer - If I shoot a deer under a Oak tree - am I baiting the deer --becuz there are acorns everywhere- messed that boy up so bad he dont even post no more. regardless heres some pics- Sorry for the rant - just got off that horse yesterday ..