Homemade deer feeder

[gridironcoach]

Anyone ever made a pvc deer feeder before? I made one from 5' tall 4" pvc. I'm going to drive it in the ground about 7". I made a hole about 8" from the bottom. The hole is big enough for me to fit 3 fingers through it. I wear XL gloves. Will this hole be big enough for the deer to feed through, or do I need to make it a little bigger?

[Phoenix_Tom]

I just cut a notch at the bottom and set it on the ground and tie wrapped to a tree. I use a cap on the top. The cap can be used as a scoop. The way your doing it there'll always be a bunch at the bottom. Besides being more work, that leftover feed at the bottom can rot and cause problems.

[awshucks]

I have some pvc ones, w/ 45 degree piece on bottom, short piece of 4" and cap w/ holes drilled for drainage. The one I keep wanting to try is a 5 gal bucket [w/ lid] that has a hole drilled in bottom, a wood dowel sticking both up in the bucket some, uses two nails in drilled holes to keep it from falling out. As the story goes, a little peanut butter on stick gets them to move it and corn falls out. I think it's about an inch dowel and inch and a half hole, not sure.

You hang it in a tree and don't feed the coons or end up w/ hand fulls of moldy corn.

[one shot scott]

http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2 ... er#p293267

[bbbwb]

Just a question about these feeders i.e the 4" pipe -- any problems with the corn bridging and thus not falling down due to the temperature variation?
Do you feed all winter or is this just a fall time feeding program? I assume that whole corn is used over cracked?

bbbwb

[the elf]

bbbwb--I use the 4 inch pipe--and I have seen the deer bump the pipe with their head
---but no--the corn does not clump up--as the cap on top keeps the rain out--and where the Y is --is kept open by the constant feeding of squirrels--blue jays and deer.
The feeder works well.

[Shotnbeer]

I throw a half a coffee can of corn out a day and that keeps them coming. They hear me open the shed door and they are standing there waiting.

[Grizzly Adam]

No feeders on this farm.

Wouldn't last a week.

Bears won't leave such a thing be.

[chris4570]

I've made a couple of the feeders One Shot has shown. They are easy, inexpensive, and most importantly they work.

I try to put them out in January so I can capture , on trail cam, some bucks with headgear feeding from them. So far I've been unsuccessful, but I've also tried to place them in a cluster of trees where a buck may knock off one of his antlers.

[wabi]

I tried several designs of PVC feeders (4" & 6"), but decided I wanted something that held more corn.
This fall I took an old 30 gal metal drum and drilled a couple 3" holes in the bottom. I then tilted it at a 45º angle (with the holes up) and put some mortar mix in the bottom to make the corn flow toward the holes. (A few long screws through the drum keeps the mortar in place.) Turned out to hold 100# of corn perfectly, and the corn flows out the holes just like I wanted. I also put some mortar in the lid to add weight to keep the critters from getting it off.
The feeder is heavy enough to stay where I put it, and the critters (deer, turkey, squirrel, birds, chipmunks, raccoons, and probably more) enjoyed the feast while I kept it full. I stopped feeding in early December because it's difficult to haul feed in in the late winter and I wanted the critters to find alternate food sources before the weather got really bad.

[gridironcoach]

The feeder seems to be working well. I put them up Saturday, and I had to fill them back up today.

[Raymond]

Love the idea of making feeders. Will surely be making a few. Does it make a difference if you use cracked corn or whole kernel corn?

[gridironcoach]

I used whole corn. I don't think there would be a difference. The deer will eat it up. Had a small doe come to the feeder this evening. She ate for a little bit, got wind of me and took off. It sure was fun watching her.

[wabi]

Love the idea of making feeders. Will surely be making a few. Does it make a difference if you use cracked corn or whole kernel corn?

About the only difference I've noticed is the deer make more noise chewing the whole kernels. I've sat many evenings and listened to CRUNCH - CRUNCH - CRUNCH.