Trough feeders

Just wanted to get some feedback from the guys that have built these and see how tall you made the roof and how high off the ground you made the actually trough. I'm going to make one and was thinking I would make the roof about 6ft tall and put the trough about knee high or a little over knee high. As far as the roof goes I wanted to make sure I made it high enough that a buck couldn't damage his horns on it but I didnt wanna make it so high that it let rain blow in from the sides.

mine is eight feet X two feet, it is two feet off the ground. Roof is seven foot high, 10foot wide X 12 foot deep. Sides are solid to prevent blow in rain. Metal roof.

I built 11 trough feeders like that years ago at the club. The only other thing I did was a fine mesh screen bottom to help if moisture was possible.

I had mine built with top board 31 inches from ground to top of board to keep the hogs from eating out of it.

The coons will love you

I got 2 my big one is 4x3 foot 8 in deep and the roof is 4 foot above the trough. It holds 500 get some dog proofs traps which you need anyway. I keep it full year round usually get a month or 2 out of a full feeder

Normal size Deer chin some where around 40 inches from ground - so lower than that on the edge they lean over to feed

Think i put my redneck feeders 40-41 inches from ground to feed point

Had one trough where the camera was taken down and film pulled out. It was the coons that did that. The pics that were developed from the partial roll showed the coons.

I don’t use the trough feeders for this reason. On the Outdoor Alabama website, they link to a book about deer management in Alabama. On page 140, there is a picture of a trough feeder with over 20 coons eating.

I feed with a trough feeder only, but then I don't have coons. Only a skewerl or two.

https://mossyoakgamekeeper.com/hunting/equipment/how-to-build-a-trough-style-deer-feeder/

Look at this article and blue prints. -- These are great

If you have a lot of deer you will rapidly go broke keeping very many trough feeders full.

Trough height needs to be 28-30" if you have hogs they will get on their hinds and get in it

As of right now I dont have any hogs at this property and hopefully it will stay this way.

I built a couple. Both were 4x6 roughly and about a ft deep. My roofs are about 5ft high at the lowest point on the edges

heres what they look like

Yep that's bout what mine look like I won't ever use anything else to feed

I was feeding back when corn and beans were $3 & 3.50 a bushel. I can’t imagine now. I guessed around 3 k a year back then.

I am buying 50 lb bags of 20% protein deer feed for $13.50 a bag. Been using this feed for three years. We have 24 feeders. This price is about the best per lb that I have found for high protein deer feed.

Where are you finding that at?

I get the 20% Protein Deer Feed in a 50 lb bag from Casey Feeds in Hope Hull Ala. I have been using it for three years now. It has minerals and vitamins in it and a very good smell to draw deer.

This one was just slapped together with scrap wood. Still works after 12 years (may be older)

JAS -- PM sent

I would suggest putting one up right after season and not right before. Alot of times, deer dont like change.

Trough feeder will make a feller go broke.

I just picked up a lease that has several trough feeders around the property. Thinking of using spin type feeders. What are the advantages of trough over spin feeders?

Spin feeders usually deer take longer to get use to - the humming nose wigs bucks out - i hav gravity but hav stopped my summer feeding and plan to eventually switch some spots to spin to save $$$

I hav had 6-7 year old deer hit my gravity - not sure they do that on spin n daylight. When i hunted other states where corn was legal for years - resident hunters said u almost had to raise a buck on a spin. I agree. W that said - deer act diff in different areas but i think they can acclimate to gravity faster - never had trough - if i did i would hav strong trap program for coon

Trough feeders with roofs over them protect your feed. Spinners throw feed on the ground and after it rains can turn bad. Coons can eat feed from either one, but when deer get use to trough feeders they come to them just as well as spinners with no noise to scare them

Mine is10' L x3' W. About 30" off the ground. I fill it w/

200lb Corn
150lb Triple Grip (Roasted Soy bean, peanuts, corn)
150lb of 16 point protein pellets
200lb of Deer Draw.

700 lbs fills it up level. It last 2 weeks. There will not be a cornel, pellet, etc in it after 2 wks. They absolutely love that mixture. Cost about $400/mo to keep them fed. I have some coons but they don't just camp out in it. I move mine around with my pallet forks.

I have a couple, mine are thrown together using a split 55 gal drum for the trough and scrap wood for the structure and trough. I can't remember how high off the ground but it's pretty low. Mine have long legs on the bottom like skids, I can tip them over then back up and slid/tip them over in the bed of my buggy or flatbed truck. I think mine hold like 4 or 5 5-gal buckets. I feed whatever I can find cheap at the time. I run DP traps year-round for coon and don't have any hogs.

It took a month or more for the deer to get used to mine.

Just filled my five troughs up today. They were empty and took 600 pounds apiece to fill up.

From June through September the deer will average over 3000 pounds a month.

You can google search 55 gallon drum single post feeder. I made one of those but haven't begin to feed out of it yet. I plan to start this weekend. Very easy to build and install and easy on the budget

I'd be careful using trough feeders too much, especially here in the south. When it's hot and humid it doesn't take long at all for aflatoxins, a type of fungus, to build up in the bait piles.

While not necessarily super dangerous for deer, it's certainly not good for them to be eating out of a pile full of aflatoxins. However, it doesn't take much at all for it to kill a turkey. This goes for just throwing bait on directly on the ground in piles as well. With turkey numbers declining across the country, I always recommend against the practice as it is particularly fatal to turkeys. It's definitely more expensive to go other routes, but with the potential damage to wildlife populations considered, it is worth the extra cost.

It’s interesting I found this. I built a trough out of scrap wood and filled it with corn. The deer will not touch it. Any of y’all deal with a time period for the deer to get use to them?

For the most part it took mine a couple weeks to get used to it. I spread corn on the ground around it then started putting it in them and then they started to take to it. I did have one place though after two months they never touched it so I ran it over with the tractor and bushhog.

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Like how u handled that JD