Gravity or Spin Feeders?

This is probably a topic discussed multiple times but what does everyone prefer? Pros and cons for both...Thanks in advance

Spin, so you can control feed times and minimize how much the coons eat.

My feeder experience has been only 1 but I've been pleased enough with the $135 Moultrie timed feeder I bought.

I'm still after the coons though, bastards are greedy.

I like spin, I like to control the amount of flow. The noise it makes going off is a dinner bell. Be advised, as soon as you shoot one over it they will get Leary of it for a little while before coming back. The deer will clean out the gravity feeders and you’ll have to stay on top of them to make sure they stay full. Some folks don’t like spin because they make the older bucks shy because of the racket they make. I haven’t experienced that.

It's hard to keep a gravity feeder or trough full. Pricy too.

Are any of you running anything other than corn in your spin type feeders?

I've tried deer feeds but they just clog up my moultrie feeders.

I had good luck with timed gravity feeders, seems like the better deer like the fact they can get more then a few kernels

Gravity costs to keep filled but no hassle of batteries, clogged spin feeders,leaks, etc. I used to only use spin feeders because I also believed it was like ringing the dinner bell. After a while they become nocturnal whether spin or gravity. You may ring the dinner bell with a spin feeder but the deer may not eat it until after dark. I wouldn’t buy any Moultrie products as garbage. I have more metal and plastic Moultrie feeders and cameras in the gear graveyard than any other Manufacturer. Metal moultrie leak and plastic are chewed by squirrels and raccoons. My old Metal flat out feeder worked out well for a gravity with little maintenance other than refilling. If I buy another spin feeder it will be an all seasons or a judge.

I was thinking exactly the opposite on the gravity feeder. Deer around here will eat 50-100lb a night on the ground. I switched to a gravity feeder to cut down on coons a little. It didnt stop them but I bet it cut down what the coons were getting by 95%. Very little waste. Not every deer is going to eat out of a gravity feeder. It took a few weeks for my deer to acclimate. I get dozens of pics every night now, just like the spinner. Never had a trough feeder

We have had spin feeders out for many years. I have kept game cameras at all of them for most of that time. Most of what I have gotten pictures of at spin feeders were does and small bucks. If I got a picture of a good buck it was typically very late at night.

On the other hand there was one place near my fathers cow pasture where he used to just pour out some corn every day after he got through feeding his cows. I have an album of buck pictures from that spot going all the way back to when you had to have film from game cameras developed. I got 10 times more pictures of big bucks at that spot than at all the spin feeder sites combined. Why? Can't say for sure but it just seemed as if the really old bucks were more leary about coming in to the spin feeders.

If you go spin route, I’d advised building your own. If you don’t you will pay a pretty good price tag for a quality unit. 55 gal metal barrel and a high quality spinner and your good to go. I feed mine twice a day for about 5 seconds each. I’ll fill up before bow season and fill up again in December. I use to have gravity feeders and went to spin. Equally got pics of bucks utilizing each in the days and at night. I was refilling the gravity every two to three weeks. Doing the math I saved a ton of money and the deer weren’t complaining.

That is what I found to be true Todd - when I use to live in both FL and Arky - those guys have fed deer for years - we are just starting legally. They all commented in the clubs I got In - good bucks do not like the electrical noise of a feeder - you will get pictures of does and small bucks but nothing good In daylight. What I also learned - good bucks don’t like electrical!!!! When I pour on ground especially in the woods - you will see what you got on your place - May take several weeks - but good buck show up when I pour it on the ground. Some guys may get good bucks on the camera with electrical feeder on here - but I Never had luck with it. They use to say you had to raise buck on the electrical feeder to get him to come to it when he is older. I never gave it that much time - don’t do electrical for the scare factor. Everybody is different and whatever works for you though.

During season last year I spread 250lb of corn over a greenfield with a cyclone spreader every four days. If youre wanting to draw deer in, thatll do it. Some deer wont eat at a feeder or even a pile. If you sling it out and allow them to graze on it, theyll all do that. It doubled my deer sightings most days

Soo... Good post. I have a hanging spin feeder. Last season I bought the permit to hunt around bait. I never had a big buck on film. I had a spike and 6 does with yearlings feed constantly under it,but the only big bucks we're about 200 yards away where I scattered it on the ground. Even then they usually didn't come to it the same day I put it out.
I did have a spin feeder on a tripod leg set. It lasted about a week. Then one night I got a pic of a spike running under it. The next day I found the feeder turned over with one leg broke off..LOL. I think it came on while he was feeding and it spooked him.
I didn't bother putting it back up.

I'm going to install a couple of elevated feeders, where they are hooked to a cable and by using a boat trailer winch elevate them up 12ft or so. No legs to spook deer. I'm thinking it will be like just pouring it out on the ground. We'll see if it works on mature bucks. Feed at daylight only, and throw for 20 seconds. Should keep coons away from the spinner.

They might take to it and they might think its a trap. Ive seen it work both ways. I think some of them are afraid a nets gona shoot out of the bottom of it.

My local co-op has some stuff called rack attack I like to use in mine. It has Whole roasted soy beans, peanuts, protein pellets, and corn. They love it! It doesn’t get stopped up in the feeder either.

Must've just started adding roasted soy beans to the mix recently, cause i don't recall that being in the mix ( I'm referring to the one G&D mixes themselves) when i first started using it.

Gravity. I trashed the timer and spinner and made my own out of pvc. Toilet bowl flange reduced to 2” to a wye that splits off to two elbows turned up about three feet off the ground. The deer dont burn through the corn too fast coons and hogs can only get whats on the ground. Timers are loud and a pain in the arse.

I don't feed year round,my neighbor takes care of that.I do run a few spinners to get some pics before season. For actual hunting I am with JWalker. I have a 300 yard long 40-50 foot wide lane through 6 year old planted pines and last year during season I would run down it on the Polaris with the spreader flinging corn a couple times a week.Actually did not have to put out a lot cause they had to look for it, but I have never ever seen as many deer on my place as that lane last year.I had never really used corn prior to last year mainly because I just did not want the hassle of worrying about the man, but I am a true believer now in the power of the golden nugget.

Ive used my atv spreader in my back yard I call it chummin em up and it does. Going to try it at the lease this season.

I like 55 gallon drums and spinners ..

Gravity in the summer and spinners in the fall

Both. Protein in the gravity feeders and corn in the spinners. Start the protein early spring and stop around October. Corn in the spinners year round. Protein can be pellets or natural (think roasted soybeans). Cottonseed is like steroids for antler growth but it requires a special feeder that is neither gravity nor spin feeder. All of this in conjunction with year round food plots. Of course a feral hog infestation will destroy all of this.

I would rather run spin feeders and save some money on feed but I have yet to find one that will last through 2 seasons. I'll just keep on over feeding them with gravity feeders.

It may not be roasted but it is for sure whole soy beans. This is St. Elmo feed and seed where I get mine.

Judge feeders

It may not be roasted soybeans but it is for sure whole soybeans. I get mine from St. elmo feed and seed

Gravity feeders are cheap to build/buy and they're easy to implement. The only barrier to entry is laziness or procrastination. Bag feeders that strap to trees are cheap, only $20 and they hold 80lbs +. PVC feeders are a few more bucks but they're indestructible, whereas the bag feeders can be chewed through by raccoon or squirrel. Spinning feeders require equipment to get them setup and to refill. If there's a tree nearby or you can hammer a T-post in the ground, then a gravity feeder will fit the bill.

The camo on these PVC 4" sewer pipe feeders was made using a Primary Arms Multiterrain stencil and they hold 35 lbs of feed.

I have both but the problem with gravity is that you always have a couple deer that just hang out at the feeder and eat. All the time. And most of the time they are a cull buck or a stupid doe. And you have 10,000 pictures of their dumbarse to go through every single time you pull a camera card and on picture #4003 there is a good buck.

Not a serious problem but less of an issue with spinners in my experience.

Gravity if you have hogs.