Game feeder recommendations?

[E.Shell]

A buddy has some shore property and I'd like to buy him a game feeder or two.

Need one with a plastic barrel (salt marsh) and solar recharge (long walk to swap heavy batteries).

Because the salt marsh eventually eats everything, it would be nice if it was less than $200 or so, but maybe I'm not being realistic...

I would appreciate hearing any recommendations or horror stories.

Thanks in advance!!
Ed

 

[Doco Overboard]

The inexpensive feeders are ok, per se but not up to demand for capacity especially if you’re feeding sika deer.
Eventually as you already noted the salt environment will get the best of the legs and then secondary to that coons and fox squirrels will work the lids by chewing but, it will take some time for that to happen.
Height is another concern.
Wt’s will become sketchy around the feeder itself because they’re not real keen on the profile of them.
What we do is use steel barrels sometimes hoisted up in tree about 20’ and use a boat winch and fabricated gin pole fastened to the tree.
This will allow you to get a decent load out per trip however theirs some fab work and effort involved managing the rigging.
The plus is you can camo the barrel with cedar or tree limbs and it will not be as intrusive. Use some long limbs ratchet bound to it and keep it filled as best as possible to restrict movement.
For regular barrel feeders we fab stainless 12 ‘ steel poles on our owned properties.
Feeder motors , just as you mentioned solar charging and rank and file moultrie spinners.
The feeder motors need to be high to prevent sika from spinning them out. They figure that out pretty fast.
Between a few properties , it’s not hard to dispense 4-6 ton a year for recreational hunting.
Last year or so I tried one of those auger fed feeders which didn’t appear to alarm very many white tails after concealing it well however they wouldn’t stand up to the salt environment very well due to the materials selection process I would think.
For one or two economical feeders I would probably just go slim and make certain it has a varmint gard on it otherwise once the sika start to pile in they’ll gorge themselves continually until the feeds gone. Sometimes in as little as two or three days.
They’re tough to keep happy and will soon learn to only come out in darkness.
Other places we’ll build a small deck for sika and make them work for it a bit.
It’s tough to keep too many bait sites efficient.
Need an Argo for way back or some phrag next to field that’s easier to traverse for small feeders.
They were trying to bait up the past few days running teams over to the Nanticoke, high tides, heat bugs and the whole nine yards.
Slippery ass board walk ,someone fell in. One wussed out could carry enough weight.
Gotta love it.
Those tall stainless poles have legs welded to them to get the height.
Then you have to get the feed up and dumped in without killing yourself or destroying your remaining soft cartilage.
By boat is your next best bet if you can walk some of the cripples to get to the dam feeder with a few bags of corn.
For stags I think it’s best to one good bait site and hunt the ancillary trails coming to it.
They’ll lurk out around it mostly when the Hinds pile in so it can be easier with planning to get out past bait site site that’s easy to maintain closer in if you ask me.
Idk if that the best strategy but we killed few here and there.

 

[outrider58]

I used to use Wildgame innovations feeders and they drove me absolutely nuts. I put all upgraded parts in them along with solar chargers and I could never get them to work consistently. I supposed they've gotten better since then, but it was enough to make me give up on feeders all together. I used them mainly for keeping deer coming onto the farm I hunted.

 

[TwinTurbskis]

I have a Moultrie deer feeder unlimited. It works well but it seems like every other year I am having to replace the lower unit at like $45/$50 a pop....

 

[Doco Overboard]

Some where I have a video of a spike sika I think spinning a feeder out.
Driving them is the way to go I think.
One of these days I going to mount a tower stand to an old aluminum boat that can just be stood up and pinned once it’s beached.

 

[10xclean]

i have problems with bears. have the feed 10 ft in the air, on a 55" arms to keep it away from the tree... but the bears climb the tree and reach out and swap the spinner/dispenser and knock it off and the feeder pays out for them for nothing. Notice I said BEARS with an S... not a mom and cubs... 2 full grown ones in the same time. driving me crazy. tough to bear proof anything.

 

[Archeryrob]

I like the Moultrie feeder also. Works great and the last one I got has the shocker on it to keep them from reaching in to it. Coons are the worst for that, those spike strips on the center leg section keeps them from climbing it. If you haven't been killing squirrels they will chew the lid off the feeder or large enough hole to leak and mildew corn in 2 years

The best way I have had dealing with bears is a tow chain between trees and having a crank and a pulley in the middle. The chain is too wobbly for them to feel comfortable climb on.

 

[Derwood]

I also like the Moultrie one I have -- the standard one sold at Tractor Supply, etc. I'm on year two and the only issue I've had is the broadcaster getting gummed up with wet corn dust. A little WD-40 and a towel solved that. I've had coons try their best to get into it and they've not had any success. The battery seems to last for about 2-3 months when set for 3 5-second broadcasts per day depending on how cold it is outside. Best part is they're pretty cheap so if one does get destroyed by a bear or the salt, you can replace it for the price of about 10 bags of corn...the thing that's hurting me this year is the price of corn! Good grief. I remember buying 40 lb bags for $6 just a few years ago and now it's closer to $12-15.

Does anyone have a good source for inexpensive corn?

 

[StantonCree]

Built one then they aren’t hard. A box with a triangle inside to keep the corn gravity.

You’re gonna lose corn to raccoons and squirrels regardless. Squirrels chewed through a plastic one I had so I only buy steel now (also not in a salt environment)

 

[E.Shell]

The inexpensive feeders are ok, per se but not up to demand for capacity especially if you’re feeding sika deer.
Eventually as you already noted the salt environment will get the best of the legs and then secondary to that coons and fox squirrels will work the lids by chewing but, it will take some time for that to happen.
Height is another concern.
Wt’s will become sketchy around the feeder itself because they’re not real keen on the profile of them.
What we do is use steel barrels sometimes hoisted up in tree about 20’ and use a boat winch and fabricated gin pole fastened to the tree.
This will allow you to get a decent load out per trip however theirs some fab work and effort involved managing the rigging.
The plus is you can camo the barrel with cedar or tree limbs and it will not be as intrusive. Use some long limbs ratchet bound to it and keep it filled as best as possible to restrict movement.
For regular barrel feeders we fab stainless 12 ‘ steel poles on our owned properties.
Feeder motors , just as you mentioned solar charging and rank and file moultrie spinners.
The feeder motors need to be high to prevent sika from spinning them out. They figure that out pretty fast.
Between a few properties , it’s not hard to dispense 4-6 ton a year for recreational hunting.
Last year or so I tried one of those auger fed feeders which didn’t appear to alarm very many white tails after concealing it well however they wouldn’t stand up to the salt environment very well due to the materials selection process I would think.
For one or two economical feeders I would probably just go slim and make certain it has a varmint gard on it otherwise once the sika start to pile in they’ll gorge themselves continually until the feeds gone. Sometimes in as little as two or three days.
They’re tough to keep happy and will soon learn to only come out in darkness.
Other places we’ll build a small deck for sika and make them work for it a bit.
It’s tough to keep too many bait sites efficient.
Need an Argo for way back or some phrag next to field that’s easier to traverse for small feeders.
They were trying to bait up the past few days running teams over to the Nanticoke, high tides, heat bugs and the whole nine yards.
Slippery ass board walk ,someone fell in. One wussed out could carry enough weight.
Gotta love it.
Those tall stainless poles have legs welded to them to get the height.
Then you have to get the feed up and dumped in without killing yourself or destroying your remaining soft cartilage.
By boat is your next best bet if you can walk some of the cripples to get to the dam feeder with a few bags of corn.
For stags I think it’s best to one good bait site and hunt the ancillary trails coming to it.
They’ll lurk out around it mostly when the Hinds pile in so it can be easier with planning to get out past bait site site that’s easy to maintain closer in if you ask me.
Idk if that the best strategy but we killed few here and there.

Thank you.

No squirrels around, we're down almost on Bishops Head point. Not many squirrels (or turkeys, WTs or quail) below Andrews Road, which seems to be the high ground<>low ground cutoff point down there. We see a whitetail about once a year, probably lost. A few coons around, but the boys down there are at war with them for various reasons (mostly for raiding terrapin nests and tearing at slough boxes), so they aren't usually too bad.

We can get a 10' flat-bottom up near the spots in a good high tide and we'll take the feeders in that way. We can reach it with a canoe after that except on very low tide and usually use the canoe to hunt it.

No decent trees available, except the hummocks of pines that are slowly dying off due to the salt water inundation from some recent flooding. We'll have to use a tripod to support it and you're right about getting it up high enough to keep the Sikas from spinning it out. We put one in the yard and you could hear them fooling with it after dark.

That 'small deck' idea works and we have some plywood covered pallets that they come to and lay on to get up out of the water.

I used to use Wildgame innovations feeders and they drove me absolutely nuts. I put all upgraded parts in them along with solar chargers and I could never get them to work consistently. I supposed they've gotten better since then, but it was enough to make me give up on feeders all together. I used them mainly for keeping deer coming onto the farm I hunted.

Thank you.

Nice to know what to avoid. I think the feeders will be a necessary evil. Those Sika deer are tough to hunt unless you have feed out. There are plenty around but they seem very nomadic. The spots we have aren't really prime bedding areas and there's not much to draw them. Feeders do seem to be an ongoing PIA to keep running, hence the request for advice.

I have a Moultrie deer feeder unlimited. It works well but it seems like every other year I am having to replace the lower unit at like $45/$50 a pop....

Thank you.

What sort of failures are you getting?

Some where I have a video of a spike sika I think spinning a feeder out.
Driving them is the way to go I think.
One of these days I going to mount a tower stand to an old aluminum boat that can just be stood up and pinned once it’s beached.

We talk about driving them, but as far down the marsh as we are, walking is miserable. Waist-high needlegrass, growing on 10" of soft mud on top of hard clay, interlaced with deep channels and sinkholes. Every time we track deer or retrieve ducks in that mess, I always wonder if I'm getting back out.

i have problems with bears. have the feed 10 ft in the air, on a 55" arms to keep it away from the tree... but the bears climb the tree and reach out and swap the spinner/dispenser and knock it off and the feeder pays out for them for nothing. Notice I said BEARS with an S... not a mom and cubs... 2 full grown ones in the same time. driving me crazy. tough to bear proof anything.

LOL, no bears there that we've ever seen or heard of. Getting to be a few coyotes around.

I like the Moultrie feeder also. Works great and the last one I got has the shocker on it to keep them from reaching in to it. Coons are the worst for that, those spike strips on the center leg section keeps them from climbing it. If you haven't been killing squirrels they will chew the lid off the feeder or large enough hole to leak and mildew corn in 2 years

The best way I have had dealing with bears is a tow chain between trees and having a crank and a pulley in the middle. The chain is too wobbly for them to feel comfortable climb on.

Thank you.

If we have coon trouble, I'll look into using the shocker on them. Not sure we could get one to hold still for that though.

I also like the Moultrie one I have -- the standard one sold at Tractor Supply, etc. I'm on year two and the only issue I've had is the broadcaster getting gummed up with wet corn dust. A little WD-40 and a towel solved that. I've had coons try their best to get into it and they've not had any success. The battery seems to last for about 2-3 months when set for 3 5-second broadcasts per day depending on how cold it is outside. Best part is they're pretty cheap so if one does get destroyed by a bear or the salt, you can replace it for the price of about 10 bags of corn...the thing that's hurting me this year is the price of corn! Good grief. I remember buying 40 lb bags for $6 just a few years ago and now it's closer to $12-15.

Does anyone have a good source for inexpensive corn?

Thank you.

We're hunting south of Cambridge. If you go in through MD-16 and down 335 (Golden Hill Road) toward Hooper's, there's a big farm on the right a mile or two out of Church Creek that had corn & milo last year for $10/bag and the bags run about 60#. If you take Maple Dam Road in, there's a camo-painted bus with corn on the right side about half-way to Blackwater. Honor system payment and seldom anyone around, so take some small bills so you can pay exact change. I think he was $10/50# last year, but I seldom go that way due to frequent flooding further down.

I'll buy some corn next trip down and report back on current conditions.

I buy corn for my "mom's deer" (yard deer in Severn) and usually grab some at WalMart during the off season. It was $10-12/bag, but the bags are only 40#. You can see by the shadows it's high noon and she's out there picking up corn.

Built one then they aren’t hard. A box with a triangle inside to keep the corn gravity.

You’re gonna lose corn to raccoons and squirrels regardless. Squirrels chewed through a plastic one I had so I only buy steel now (also not in a salt environment)

Thank you.

If we were feeding to help them make it through the winter, etc., something like you describe would be fine. We're trying to hunt them and need them to enter the areas during legal hunting hours. Unless you put the feed on a timer, they just wait until the middle of the night. We dump little piles of corn for them year round and they'll clean it up every night without ever being seen. We know it's deer because they leave a slew of tracks and grind up the mud looking for it.


I really appreciate everyone's comments, that you!! I'm going to look at some of the Moultrie's.

 

[Derwood]

I know that camo bus! I go crabbbing down that way a few times a year. I never bothered to check the price since I'm usually there long before deer season. Thanks for the tip!

 

[akalma]

I know that camo bus! I go crabbbing down that way a few times a year. I never bothered to check the price since I'm usually there long before deer season. Thanks for the tip!

This summer the price for corn in this camo bus is $11 for 50# bag but sometimes it does not have any corn left.

 

[Mini14tac]

I have one of the cheap Wildgame Innovations feeders from Walmart. I’m getting ready to put it back out in the woods behind the house. I built a cage out of a crab trap to keep the critters from gaining access and destroying the timer. I snipped every other wire and bent them out on the cage to still allow most of the corn to sling through the cage. Also pokes the bastards if they try to stick their paws through the cage. It works really well. I keep an extra battery charged to quick swaps. Here is a picture of the unit upside down in the basement.

 

[magnumpi]

If you build your own feeder, these can't be beat. I have several on 55 gallon barrels. Only uses 4 - AA batteries, and amazingly they will last all season. I've had many different 6 volt feeders and always had to replace the batteries a couple times a season.
www.amazon.com/Moultrie-Feeder-Timer-Metal-Adjustable/dp/B001EYIPLC/ref=sr_1_2_pp?keywords=deer+feeder&qid=1693265646&sr=8-2

 

[akalma]

If you build your own feeder, these can't be beat. I have several on 55 gallon barrels. Only uses 4 - AA batteries, and amazingly they will last all season. I've had many different 6 volt feeders and always had to replace the batteries a couple times a season.
www.amazon.com/Moultrie-Feeder-Timer-Metal-Adjustable/dp/B001EYIPLC/ref=sr_1_2_pp?keywords=deer+feeder&qid=1693265646&sr=8-2

This Moultrie Feeder is pretty good, we use one on custom feeder I built using the metal trash can. I hang it on a chain between two pines and use boat trailer winch. The winch is attached to 2x6 which is tied to pine trunk using straps. It hangs high so sikas can't reach the spinner plate. Racoons are trying to reach it via chain but end up on the lid only, can't reach he bottom. And indeed four AA batteries last entire season!

 

[magnumpi]

I have mine on legs, up about 6 ft to the bottom so the deer can't reach it. A good coating of vasaline on the poles keeps the raccoons off. I may try the chain and winch in another spot. It would certainly be easier to fill.

 

[Doco Overboard]

Low feeder, getting spun out. Maybe it'll play

 

[akalma]

yep! just like that!