1.) Jon - 08/10/2015

I had some help from my welder buddy for the legs but built this feeder for under $100. 55gal drum, spinner/motor box, battery and solar panel with plastic funnel inside. It holds 300# of corn. I have extensions for the legs to get it 8' high but I don't think I need it that high.
Came out great, now to get the deer to come out of the 700ac of standing corn and find my feeder!

2.) Hunter - 08/10/2015

Looks good.

3.) Swamp Fox - 08/10/2015

Nice job.

I haven't found a high need, so to speak, for elevating feeders much past the point of a deer' backline. I have plenty of pictures of deer, even racked bucks, under Moultrie EZ Fill feeders where the bottom of the motor might be 4.5 feet off the ground.

I have found that it might take a while for deer that haven't been accustomed to feeders to hit them regularly. My second year with feeders on my current lease was noticeable better than my first. It has done nothing but improve since then, especially for bucks. I'll put some of that down to the original position of one of the feeders, but I think most of it was acclimation.

BTW, I found that Moultrie sells a semi-dome-shaped barrel top to prevent water from pooling and eventually rusting the top/wetting the contents. Pretty handy item for older barrels particularly. Now they need to come up with a barrel insert with integral funnel to combat the feed-saving flat bottom, LOL.

4.) Jon - 08/10/2015

The plastic funnel I purchased for the barrel was only $20

5.) Swamp Fox - 08/10/2015

So not just a little funnel that attaches to the bottom?...More like a big maybe barrel-width funnel that allows the corn to slide down and not sit on a flat bottom where eventually it can't get to a little funnel sticking out the bottom?

6.) Jon - 08/10/2015

Exactly, the funnel is made of plastic and it is the width of the barrel. It tapers down and ends up about 3" diameter and then tapers with a flat shelf to 2" that protrudes out the bottom of the barrel about 1". It makes it so there's no leftover feed at all.

7.) Swamp Fox - 08/10/2015

Huh. I never knew they made them. I've only seen homemade contraptions. It's such an obvious accessory I should have known I was living in the dark, LOL.

:tu:

8.) Jon - 08/10/2015

Slip fits pretty tightly, I thought I was going to have to secure it with some sheet metal screws but I'm confident that it's not needed.

9.) billy b - 08/10/2015

I have had it happen Jon, the weight of a whole bag hitting the side will push the funnel sideways, then you have to empty the feeder to straighten it back up. If the bottom lip goes thru the bottom of the barrel you might be all rite, but I wouldn't take a chance.

10.) Jon - 08/10/2015

Thankfully, the hole I cut in the barrel is almost the same size as the piece of the funnel that protrudes through it giving it little room to move around. I dumped 4 bags into the barrel without incident. This is my first attempt at a feeder on my own property.
On the farms I lease, we did feeders (stopped since it ended up costing so much to keep them filled) and I setup the local ones because I'm so close. I set the timers to go off right at sun-up and just kick out about a cup of corn then about 45 minutes before last light with the same amount. The idea was that the corn wouldn't sit very long making the deer come out quickly before something else took the corn. I found that if there was corn still there after dark, the deer would just wait and feed in the dark. It sorta trained them to come out in the light.

11.) Deerminator - 08/10/2015

Only reason to come out of a 700ac corn forest is for a drink.:tu:

12.) Swamp Fox - 08/10/2015

That's similar to how I've run feeders. Seems to work best the closer the feeder is to a bedding area. On the other hand, there are some places farther away that deer just seem to like to come through early. But absent knowing where those places are, I think minimizing the corn output and creating a sense in the deer's heads that if they don't get it early they'll be SOL is a smart move.