Protien feeder update (vs spin feeder)

We decided last year to try and stop feeding non deer critters.

We purchased 4 of the banks 300# gravity feeders from sportsmans guide for about $225 each shipped and put them out before season opened on a block of land at 4 established spincast feeder and camera sites.

After 5 months of them being out now I think it would be safe to say that we reduced the amount of "wasted" feed going to non target critters by much more than we thought we would. We have used this year probably 30-40% less total feed than we did in this same spot last year.

With the spincast we were getting a lot of crows, blackbirds, dove, hogs, coon, and turkey getting some if not most of the morning throw. We eliminated most of the birds feeding by going to no morning throw and just one longer in afternoon about a hour before sunset.
When we did that though the daytime pictures/travel by feed sites decreased a good bit.

With monitoring the new gravity feeders with cams its clear that the deer are now getting id say 90% of the feed we put out. ( with +/- 10% drop on ground from deer feeding)
Before with the spincast id be surprised if they were getting 50% of it.

With the gravity feeders daytime and night time usage is about the same so it hasnt turned them nocturnal only with it being there to get whenever. But these feeders are in areas where we arent pressuring them so im sure that helps on their daytime usage.

Deer of all sizes are using them. The 2 largest bucks we know of on the property use them.
We started with straight corn, then went to one bag of protein pellets mixed into 4 bags of corn... the next fill was 2 protein, 3 corn, and now its about half and half.

Im very pleased that we tried these.

Thanks for posting. This is good to know. Last week, I ordered the lower units to make 3 of these from plastic drums.

I'm looking at making one this year myself.

the coons on my place climb up and sit on top of the tube the deer eat out of and rake the corn out until its empty so all of his buddies can eat it too. spin feeders are the way to go in my opinion. you set the deer on a schedule and if they don't get there in time they don't get to eat. My big bucks wont even come close to a gravity feeder. funny how its the complete opposite, we've had ours out for roughly 2 years

The banks sit on a single 4x4 post. We wrapped the post with aluminum flashing and cut down on most of our climbers. The rest of them the DP traps have taken care of. The dang birds is what got most of ours. We had groups of 12-20 crows on a schedule making the rounds at all 4 spin feeder sites. They would be on cam for 30 minutes or more at each one.
We seem to have more bucks than does using ours. Started out with the spin feeder right beside it so they had to walk all around it. Put corn out at the base of it. The first bag of corn we put int he gravity feeder was apple corn so they could smell it. Some were hitting them the first week. Others still wont eat from them but will stand almost up under to pick the fallen corn off the ground.

We arent hunting over them so we werent real worried about getting them on a schedule. We spaced them out across the property in hopes of getting them to move thru the hunting areas back and forth some.

Are you using exclusion fencing to keep the hogs out?

No sir. As of now the hogs will come by and ck for whats dropped on the ground but their frequency is much less than when we had the spin feeders. Im assuming thats because instead of a couple of # on the ground each time there is just a handful or less now.
We thought we may have problems with the hogs bumping the posts but so far have not. We put about 6 ft of post in the ground and 160# of concrete so they are pretty stable.

Other than a few small birds that land on the tubes and feed the only other who has learned to get any out of it is a coyote.

He will stand on his hind legs with paws in the tube and eat. We have him several times on cam coming to do that.

It is ironic. I have videos of coons climbing up the EMT legs of my spinners and hanging from the spinner motors to eat. I also have a picture of a trough feeder with a dozen coons either sitting in it or around it. I've pretty much grown to think raccoons are going to figure out any type of feeder. They have to be trapped.

I have had similar experience with my Banks feeders. I wrap the 4x4 with stove pipe and it has kept most of the raccoons off of the feeder. Hogs have not been an issue. I would recommend these to anyone.

Great post.....very interesting and helpful. Has anyone tried these "squirrel funnels"? If so, are they effective or just a gimmick?

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Boss...jAhIEAYYASABEgIYG_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Read the reviews. Those things don't work. The pictures in the reviews tell the tale. Those little small disks, they just them as seats.

Thanks, ALFisher.