How to build an easy deer feeder

[samh]

Several folks have asked about how to build the feeders I have in the pictures I've been posting. So I thought I put a "how to" deal here.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/3006/DGC_0102r.jpg

The feeder above is a 4 1/2 foot piece of 4 inch PVC, with a street L 90 on the end, then put a street 45 on the end of the 90, bore a few 1/4 inch holes in the very lowest part of the elbows for drainage. Put a PVC cap or a plastic bottle with the bottom cut off over the other end for a lid. Bore a hole all the way through the pipe about 10 inches from the top to run a wire through to swing it by or you can just tie it to a tree or post.

You can make the feeder any length you want, it'll hold about 5 pounds to the foot. If you swing it length doesn't much matter, if you tie it solid to a tree or post about 4 feet is as long as you need it because if you tie it 18 inches or so off the ground you need to be able to pour feed into the top of it.

As to what I feed, I've fed lots of whole corn over the years and it works good, but the last 6 months I've been using a mixed feed we have made to feed our cattle. It's a 16% protein feed thats made of :
Ground corn, soybean hulls, cotton seed meal, corn gluten feed and a mineral mix. The deer like it better than the corn, I ran out of feed a few weeks ago and went and bought a couple of sacks of corn to fill the feeder till I got a load of feed in, they ate about 1/3 as much straight corn as they do the mix.

One tip on buying corn, don't buy deer corn, you're paying extra for that picture of a deer on the sack. Go to a feed store or farmer's coop and buy whole feed corn, same thing but should be cheaper, also watch a lot of "deer corn" is in 40 pound bags, feed corn at the feed mill will be in 50 pound bags. It's all #2 yellow corn, that's the standard feed corn, just cheaper if its sacked for cows.

Hope this helps, good hunt'n.

[Bayoubear]

Great info, had to rep ya for that.
Very similar to a design Ive used a bit for a long time. I used a 90 deg. bend, a foot more of pipe cut like a trough and another end cap. Yours are easier to make. One comment tho I'd like to add.

If in a place you cant hang one up, take the PVC and get three or four small "L" brackets. screw them into the bottom end of the pipe and then screw that to a 2 by 2 ft sq piece of heavy plywood or similar with the pipe suspended about an inch or so above the wood. use a removable end cap or pop bottle as a lid. keeping the pvc pipe to about three or four feet ive never had a problem with them getting knocked over. you can cammo these up also i think a bit better than the ones that hang from branches but then again, its situational as to which design may do better for a given situation. oh yhea, samh's design.... if you dont want to suspend it, take the same feeder and use some bungee cords and strap it to a tree.

keep it in the ten ring...


chad

[bubbasmouse]

Thanks for the info. Keep the deer cam pictures coming. I enjoy looking at them.

[copycat]

Just gotta love a great idea!

[PeZ]

man that will save alot of money over buying a pre made feeder with timer thanks for the great idea rep for this one for sure:big_smile:

[samh]

I'm lucky that I live and hunt here on my farm and can check my feeders everyday if I need too, for some of you who put feeders out on a lease or can't check them often, you could build one out of 6 or 8 inch PVC and reduce it down on the bottom to 4 inch so it would have the same feeder on it only it would hold a lot more feed, that way it wouldn't need checked so often. I do think you'd need to use 4 inch for the bottom, the bigger stuff is expensive and that big a hole for the feed to come out of would make for more waste. An 8 inch should hold 3 times what a 4 inch does so that would make it about 15 pounds per foot, where a 4 inch holds 5 pounds per foot.

[blackhorse83]

Thanks for the information, looks like it works really good for you, enjoy the pictures, thanks