Depends on how many deer ya have. What I found is they eat more if its straight corn. With pellets mixed in they don't seen to empty a feeder so quickly. I don't know if those fill them up faster or what. Co op protein pellets are $2 a bag more than corn. So we do about a 80 %pellets 20 corn mix and it lasts longer.
We didn't use PVC we wrapped tin (flashing) around the posts of ours. Make sure and start at the bottom and wrap up so you don't leave a lip with each wrap for the coons to get grip on.



We had does eating out of them almost from day one. Bucks came a little slower. Maybe a month or so. But I will say I have a buddy who is less than 3 miles from my spot who bought one of the banks and his bucks wouldn't even get near it the first year he had it up. Its on year 2 and all his mature bucks will now eat from it so, some are slower to adapt to it. He used apple corn to finally get them started on it.


Tip …. If you ever think you may want to move this feeder or take them down in the off season to prevent theft. Knock the sharp edges and corners off the end of the 4x4 that's facing up so that the end is a little smaller. The inside of the feeder is tapered and the 4x4 will wedge inside and you cant pry it off. We took probably 1/4" in x 1" down the sides tapered off our 4x4's