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.

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.

so the Golden Nugget is not very nutritional for them?

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.

www.sweeneyfeeders.com

Nope. But they love it.

We feed protein pellets during bad times at our places. Just a little extra to help them when food is short.

They will attract hogs and coons without a doubt.
This mechanism actually works as advertised, but there are many good brands here in TX.
http://www.spintechspreaders.com/products/profile/deer-feeder-225-lb-capacity-poly-barrel-tripod



stumpy

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.

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.

ditto on the blocks...i top them with persimmon flavor buckjam, keeps the deer coming in all year.

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.

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!

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.

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.

The burning question is..... do you have a lot of bears?

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 ..

heres the motor out of a All Seasons - 7 years and still works

If you do decide to go with a feeder - get yourself or make yourself a good varmint cage - damn Coons.Also some cooper tubing for the wires etc for the solar panel.

we've been using all seasons for yrs never had a problem with them. have them set up with the solar charger.

I've got a Cables feeder which holds close to 400lbs.

1) It's got a built in ladder so I can load it without issue

2) It's 12 volt vs. 6 volt so it throws much further than other feeders

3) It costs more but given the added capacity I save money on gas driving out to fill it up which I can do half as much given the capacity.

4) I put on a solar pannel to keep it charged so it can go well more than a month without me showing up and still run.

I did have to weather proof the thing to make sure it didn't leak.

Spot

I know one thing- I ownt have nay other timer except the one I mentioned from now on.Hands down the best there is .

The solar panel All Season puts out aint to bad either .Usually the first thing that happens to a solar panel is the sun cracks them - then they get water in them ..have not had that problem with the All Season solar.

was looking to supplement feed before the season, during and after the season to get them through the winter. It's rough mountainous country for around here and the deer have a hard go of it. We are trying to help build the herd too.

We are planting spring and fall crops a for the deer.

I like the gravity feeders with the bucket on top. What size dia pipe is that? 3" ? 4" ? I'd rather spend a few bucks on the feeder and more on the feed.

Now somebody understands the use of a feeder - good job blammer

hogs got this one but it still works

Metal T-post there buddy !! takes care of the hogs and cows..

Roger - how the hell are ya keeping them damn Coons off that solar panel - I had to put a varmint cage and then run the wires from the solar panel through cooper tubing just to get the squirrels and coons from eating them up...

never have had to much of problem with coons. we got them staked with t post now.

Consider yourself lucky !! Ive hunted every section of Texas ..and always had a coon problem...feel free to pm me your lease location - I would really like to know what part of Tx your in with no coon problem.

duval county. we see one one on occasion

I suppose you wouldnt see to many Coons around the
Golden Triangle area - wish we could say the same !

don't know about the bears or not. I think we have a few, we also have a few bear hunters in the club.

If one is ravaging a particular feeder during season, I'll happily let him/her hunt it for the bear.

Rodngun,

We have a bad coon problem in North La. They can tear a spinner up in short order and they are much stronger than I gave them credit for. I built a varmint cage out of 2x4 dog wire for one feeder and the little pest broke all of the welds on the wire and still got to the spinner on that feeder. I have pics of as many as 7-8+ at a time under some of them with quite a few of them hanging from the spinners.

I learned the last couple of years that they can't get to the spinner on hanging feeders, they'll just slip off of the bbl. They still eat some of the feed from the ground, but at least they don't tear up the spinners.

Just had another spinner (On Time) on a 55gal tripod torn up this year by the little pests. I stopped by Academy and bought a varmint cage for around $14. It is about 12-14" square, screws to the bbl around the spinner, and has an access door. Hopefully it works.

I have several hanging feeders and may end up converting several others. They are definitely easier to fill.

Have a good one,

loder

Short piece of 4 inch PVC suspended around each leg with string or thin wire cable... they can't climb the legs that way....

BTW I have not put my battery back yet and hence no photos of the gravy easy 55 gal self feeders YET....

Wish I had a closer photo, but you get the idea of the self feeder, and you can see the corn in the one cut out on this side almost covered by a fence post....

I"ll do better whenever I get to the other side once...

rost, what's the diameter of your hog fence?

I have a bad hog problem on one of the properties I hunt, so I'm going to put a similar pen up. I was thinking of just buying a 100' roll of 3' tall hog wire and building a 31.5' dia pen with t-post every 8'.

Thanks,

loder

Don't let em hunt for Bears over the bait......they will burn ya a new one in NC for Bear hunting over bait.

Ah, thanks for the bear tip. I'll double check the regulations to make sure everyone's legal if they go after them.

We just use the Moultrie programable timer kits with 30 gallon steel drums. Make three legs from 3/4" thin wall metal pipe (electrical conduit from Lowe's, etc) and bolt to the sides of the barrel through the outside "rings". Make the top from 3/4 plywood with either metal flashing to keep the water out or the thin plastic foil type insulation stapled to the top and pulled tight to the cut top of the barrel. Hold the top in place with coated wire pulled through two eye bolts, one on each side of the barrel. Finish off with a rechargable 6 volt battery and a solar charger. Total costs @$100/ unit. Ours have pasted eight to ten years, batteries three to four.
We place mineral blocks out on opposite side of our 100 acres with trail cameras set to catch what we have moving through the area. This really helps with the "regret" at passing a sure shot on a smaller buck. It really opened our eyes to what was actually going on with our area. Including the trespassers that were hunting our stands! The local DNR used the full face pictures to good effect.

a few pics of a SIMPLE to build self feeder... it gets a TON more attention than my auto feeders, I may eventually just get rid of the auto feeders.... I see more deer come around to the self feeders anyway.

55 gallon drum, 2 inch conduit, actually from this guy I am sure its muffler tube as he has a muffler shop. Flattened on one end to weld easy to the ring... you can see the height with the tape there. Simple cut and beat in, weld or screw and seal a lip over for rain... and the photo of 3 small drain holes on the bottom right under each feed opening... just popped in with a torch, appx 3/16 size. 3 feed slots on the barrel.

Hope that helps someone, Jeff

My bad, 2 drain holes....

nice! thanks a lot for the pics! very helpful!

VERY simple... you can see you simply make a cut, can do that with a drill bit and a jig saw even, about 5 inches long, beat the metal inward above it, some drain holes, and some kind of weather strip along the top... 3 short legs and presto..

At a point last fall the local deer here were nailing me for 250 pounds of protein about every 5 to 6 days since there was nothing much other to eat... right now the mothers are hitting it hard for the fawns and they have trouble as the bucks take a liking to the feeder and guard it and try to hog it...

Barbed wire wrapped around each leg will keep the coons off too.

Interesting, we tried barb wire years ago... along with grease on each leg too... never slowed them down that we could tell.

I zip tied carpet tack strips to the legs of mine. If a coon wants to climb the legs not he better have some serious gloves on. Squirels are our worst problem now.

Rost495,

How are you keeping the coons off of the self feeders?

Two of our self feeders only have legs about 30" tall. They may be so short they could jump to the troughs anyway.

Thanks,

loder

To keep coons and squirrels off your feeders, drill a pair of properly spaced holes in a few large rat traps. Zip tie a couple of the traps to each leg. You will have to reset them fairly frequently for the first month. After that, you might not have to set one a month. They keep them away!

Loader, look at my earlier photo, you'll see PVC tubing on there. Never saw a coon around that feeder ever. I don't have it on the one in the last photos at home... I should but we actually don't have much of a problem with them here. But they are a big problem in the hill country for us.

I have them at my auto feeders in the hill country.. but they can't get up the leg with that pipe on but every once in a while the fishing line is snapped and they'll get up the leg then... I need to replace that tarred line with light fishing cable and crimps..

They make a product that is super sharp and works well.
Boss Buck Shark Teeth

Repels Raccoons & Squirrels

Set of 3, 3 foot strips

6" break away increments for unique mounting
http://www.ultramaticfeeders.com/accessories.html

I hate coons.

stumpy

Our biologists in our wildlife mgmt area,told us a deer needs 1 1/2-2lbs of protein every day to do them any good.We hunt on low fenced ranch so we're not going to feed protein so they can go
across the fence and get shot.We do feed corn year round with salt-mineral blocks at every feeder.

ours is a NO fence operation, on 1100 acres, neigboring leases feed too, so they'll move around for the feed. That's the goal, keep them moving and looking for good food.

I have to hang mine because of the bears. They will sure tear up a feeder. They are not hunt-able in FL. I use any type of container, many time a galv trash can, cut a hole in the bottom and add a feeder kit, I like the digital programmable Moultrie. Works out great. I use the handles to hang it and to hold the lid down. I hang a wire between trees, add a pulley, and use the truck to raise and lower it. I use a feeder rope to tie it off.

It seems the squirrels chew through the plastic containers then everything gets wet and mouldy.

Yep thats the attitude.. worry about the neighbors, that way you KNOW you won't do you any good... or you can feed, and if they shoot one, congratulate them. Its what we do... and gently spread the word about how much better the deer are since we feed and poke them towards starting to feed too...

BTW if you are trying to keep them moving looking for better feed you can do that up to the rut, after that ALL bets are off... the bucks more or less no longer eat much and get the food where ever, when ever... but look into golden nuggets. They seem to just love those.. they ain't cheap though and its 40 pound bags instead of 50... if I was simply worried about attraction thats what I'd feed. I don't care so much about attracting, but more so about helping the quality of the food for all the deer.

yea, nutrition is really lacking up here so that's the goal

Went to the lease yesterday to hang the feeder, but first I needed to find a spot. Found a good spot but then was too tired and hot and bug bitten to bring it all down and set it up. I'll head down in a few weeks and set it up.

Saw a racoon in the area I was going to set the feeder. I suspect I'll be fattening up some racoons too.

I may have to get one this winter and make a hat out of his fur. Payment for all the feed he'll be robbing I'm sure.

Are there any timers you can program on specific days you want to broadcast feed or suppliments? Not just time of day?

Yes there are... Can't recall the brands that do that right now.. but there are some that you can program to feed specific days only.

Yep, most of the various digitals are day programable.

This one can be programed for certain days and is coon proof.
I installed a cage anyway!
http://www.spintechspreaders.com/products/profile/deer-feeder-400-lb-capacity-deluxe-feeder
stumpy

We have wild hogs and hungry bears around here and any feeders that are used other than the ones you hang between trees with steel cables will be torn down and ripped to shreds in short order.

We hang them a little over 8ft high with steel cables and a boat winch.

Supposedly soy beans won't attract bears but I'm pretty sure they'll rip apart any feeder they find just to see what's inside so cables and trees are our only options.

We can't shoot our bears except to protect our own lives and playing cute with the law and saying that you were attacked is pretty sure to get you a free stay in the gray bar hotel and a loss of hunting privileges.

Our hogs can be "hunted" year around on private land but they're too easy to be fun when you have feeders and not good enough to eat to make us want to hunt them for the meat. Sometimes they're given away to people that need the meat and sometimes they're dragged out into the clear cuts for coyote bait...

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