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While we were up filling feeders I found one that was used back in the 1960's. Hand made by one of the original hunters long since passed away. Simple and worked. Nowadays it's a 55 gallon drum with a motorized slinger. Funny, but they are both called automatic, except one of them needs some help in order to feed the deer "automatically"

puma guy wrote:While we were up filling feeders I found one that was used back in the 1960's. Hand made by one of the original hunters long since passed away. Simple and worked. Nowadays it's a 55 gallon drum with a motorized slinger. Funny, but they are both called automatic, except one of them needs some help in order to feed the deer "automatically"

Automatic, except the older one has no moving parts.
The guy is the first picture looks like he could be your twin.

I like to make feeders out of 6" pvc by drilling holes in them. The holes gotta be about 9/16" or 5/8" so the corn comes out slowly only when the feeder is tampered with. Two holes for bolting a small chain to hang from a tree. The pvc makes alot of noise when a buck uses his antlers to try and shake out corn. I glue the bottom end cap and leave the top one free. I also paint the green.

Cheap and easy to make. Its also fun to watch the deer use them.

Unless you have cows on the property. Then you need a hog panel perimeter around anything you use or it WILL be empty in a week.

Javier730 wrote:I like to make feeders out of 6" pvc by drilling holes in them. The holes gotta be about 9/16" or 5/8" so the corn comes out slowly only when the feeder is tampered with. Two holes for bolting a small chain to hang from a tree. The pvc makes alot of noise when a buck uses his antlers to try and shake out corn. I glue the bottom end cap and leave the top one free. I also paint the green.

Cheap and easy to make. Its also fun to watch the deer use them.

If you really want to see an obsessed deer trying to get at something do the same to a 2 liter soda bottle. They will look like a bunch of soccer players kicking and beating the bottle to get the corn.

Another trick to distract them is to take a food block, drill holes in it just a tad bigger than mint candy canes. Stuff the holes with the candy canes way deep. Deer love candy.I gutted a buck once and you could see pieces of the red and white canes in his stomach.

mcneyens wrote:Unless you have cows on the property. Then you need a hog panel perimeter around anything you use or it WILL be empty in a week.

I feed for the hogs as well. I love to watch them. There is a potbelly that has been bred by the feral hogs out here and her offspring are a bit tame or just tolerate me I guess.

WildBill wrote:

puma guy wrote:While we were up filling feeders I found one that was used back in the 1960's. Hand made by one of the original hunters long since passed away. Simple and worked. Nowadays it's a 55 gallon drum with a motorized slinger. Funny, but they are both called automatic, except one of them needs some help in order to feed the deer "automatically"

Automatic, except the older one has no moving parts.
The guy is the first picture looks like he could be your twin.

You noticed that. Yes we were womb mates! I booted him out (I was breech) and then stayed as long as I could because I knew that was the last time I'd have a room to myself. I could only hold out 15 minutes, so he's my older brother by a quarter hour.

Javier730 wrote:I like to make feeders out of 6" pvc by drilling holes in them. The holes gotta be about 9/16" or 5/8" so the corn comes out slowly only when the feeder is tampered with. Two holes for bolting a small chain to hang from a tree. The pvc makes alot of noise when a buck uses his antlers to try and shake out corn. I glue the bottom end cap and leave the top one free. I also paint the green.

Cheap and easy to make. Its also fun to watch the deer use them.

It would be nice to be able to use gravity feeders like the ones you make and the old one here, but we have cattle on the lease and they'd make short order of anything at deer level. We have one guy left who has been on the lease since 1962 though he was teenager back then. His father, mother and uncles (one uncle made the old 5 gallon feeder) were all members. The owners have promised never to lease to anyone else as a result of the hunters being good stewards of their land.

Javier730 wrote:

mcneyens wrote:Unless you have cows on the property. Then you need a hog panel perimeter around anything you use or it WILL be empty in a week.

I feed for the hogs as well. I love to watch them. There is a potbelly that has been bred by the feral hogs out here and her offspring are a bit tame or just tolerate me I guess.

Yep! The ground is too rocky to be able to put up fencing around the feeder so we have to use tripods with motorized slingers. The deer have to compete with the cows, but such is life. We've even had a couple of tripods knocked down by the cattle. We dog have hogs YET, but they're getting closer and closer.

Here is one of the prototypes.