# DIY Deer Feeder?



## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

I was wondering if any has done a DIY deer feeder? I'm looking to make one out of a 5 gallon bucket. I seen one at walmart that was just the bucket with a stick that hangs out the bottom. Was looking to make something like that. Anyone have any ideas?


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## Cudorun (Aug 4, 2009)

I started using feeders last summer, I ended up building 2 feeders for alot cheaper than I could have bought them, it took less than an hour to build each one and they have worked great. I was planning on fabricating a lid and leg brackets but ended up just buying them. 
You can get heavy duty 55 gallon plastic drums for free from places like dog kennels, animal hospitals, factories, 
car dealerships etc.
Any place that buys soap in bulk to clean floors etc. Pike

55 gallon drum = free
Camo paint job by 7 year old daughter = $3.00
American Hunter photo cell feeder kit from Ebay = $20.50
American Hunter leg bracket kit from TSC = $15.00
American hunter stainless steel lid from TSC = $15.00
Three 7 foot stainless steel fence post's from Lowes = $24.00
Total = $77.50


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## Chromedog (Nov 28, 2006)

Horses&Hunting said:


> I was wondering if any has done a DIY deer feeder? I'm looking to make one out of a 5 gallon bucket. I seen one at walmart that was just the bucket with a stick that hangs out the bottom. Was looking to make something like that. Anyone have any ideas?


5 gallon bucket and use a plunger,...should work same as the walmart one. Let us know.


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## ParkerBow (Dec 4, 2006)

since weight isn't a factor I would just hang it from a overhead branch and purchase a photo cell feeder


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## hoyt 07 (Apr 10, 2009)

Cudorun said:


> I started using feeders last summer, I ended up building 2 feeders for alot cheaper than I could have bought them, it took less than an hour to build each one and they have worked great. I was planning on fabricating a lid and leg brackets but ended up just buying them.
> You can get heavy duty 55 gallon plastic drums for free from places like dog kennels, animal hospitals, factories,
> car dealerships etc.
> Any place that buys soap in bulk to clean floors etc. Pike
> ...




I made one last year just like yours going to make 3 more this year for the new hunting club. They really save money on corn


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

I had 5 of those blue drums. But was moving so gave them away. I will have to see if I can find one. If I use a plunger it won't let out too much corn will it? I would just cut a small hole in the bottom of my bucket and then put the plunger through right? Making sure I get it right. Only have one bucket to work with lol. Thanks for the tips.


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## neo71665 (Jul 26, 2007)

We just take a 5 gal bucket, cut the center circle out the bottom (you'll know what I'm taking about when you turn one over) and put a forked stick in it abotu 3 foot long. 

Used them for years before I ever got an electric feeder.


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## oldschoolcj5 (Jun 8, 2009)

you mean one like this one?
http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1665727&highlight=feeder#post1665727


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

Yep just like that. 
I cut the bucket last night and found and new plunger from the old house. Don't worry its not used lol. Should I paint my white Spackle bucket? I was told it would be ok to leave it like that. I plain on using some sweet feed that was left over from the horses. Has corn in it, so it should work. Thanks for all the tips guys.


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## Cajun83 (Sep 30, 2009)

We had a couple of the bucket/stick feeders built out of 5 gallon bucket, a wooden ball knob and a piece of dowel. 

Never thought of using a plunger though...


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

Got my feeder up and going. Only flaw I see is that if the plunger handle is pushed to the left it gets stuck and the feed just pours out and it doesn't stop lol. So not sure what to do about that. I don't want it all emptied out on the ground at once. Any ideas on how to fix that? Thanks


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

Here is a picture I got of my feeder I made myself. Was going use horse feed but FIL got me some corn. YAYA.


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## Newhunter1 (May 20, 2003)

what's the plunger for and how do you use it?


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## neo71665 (Jul 26, 2007)

Newhunter1 said:


> what's the plunger for and how do you use it?


The deer bump it and it knocks corn out the bucket.


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## cs33 (May 7, 2009)

*cheap pvc feeder*

I just made a gravity feeder- got the directions from a friend who got the idea off an old post on here. Here is what you will need a 4" section of pvc (they come in like 10' sections), a 4" cap, a connection that branches off at 45 degrees (think its just called a 45 not sure though), and a drain cap. here is what you do- cut the long pvc in half (now its roughly 5'). On one end of that is where your cap will go (dont glue the cap on-this is where you will load your corn). On the other end glue on the 45. On the bottom of the 45 glue in the drain. Leave the angled end of 45 open- the deer will eat from here. Boungie cord or screw feeder into tree and fill tube with corn- put cap back on top. The drain in bottom will allow any water that may get in to leak but wont allow corn to fall out (keep cap on to help keep water out). Deer will eat from 45 and corn will fall as they eat. I just set mine up last week so havent went back for my trail camera pics yet. My buddy used it last year and had great success he now swears by it. It only cost like $20 and only took like 10 mins to build. I made 2 of them from the one 10' pvc piece and together they held a whole bag of corn. Dont have any pics right now as im in florida and feeders are now in georgia- i will see if my buddy has pics of his so i can get you guys some photos. Hope this helps


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## StixNString (Oct 23, 2007)

Same type principle, use a toilet flange bolted to the bottom, approximately 30 Inches of 4" pvc pipe, leg kit, fence posts, make a disk "7 diameter out of 3/4 ply or similar material and suspend it 1/2" below the pipe with 3 piecesof metal straps 12" long. Secure them with screws but don't tighten them all the way, it should move freely. The deer will shift the plate, they'll eat what falls and will leave very little or no feed for the ***** or squirrels. Holds about 335 lbs.


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

Very cool. So how long does it take til the deer come to the feeders? I made a thread but got no responses. We use to see deer out back all the time. When we put up the electric fence for the horses they don't come around anymore. I put up one feeder in the back where they were coming out from. Have had no hits on that one at all. I put one out front where the doe and fawns were. But no hits on that one. Did I waste my time or does it take awhile for them to find my feeders?


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## Dukie (Feb 15, 2010)

cs33, you got any pics of that feeder ? thanks.


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## oldschoolcj5 (Jun 8, 2009)

Horses&Hunting said:


> Very cool. So how long does it take til the deer come to the feeders? I made a thread but got no responses. We use to see deer out back all the time. When we put up the electric fence for the horses they don't come around anymore. I put up one feeder in the back where they were coming out from. Have had no hits on that one at all. I put one out front where the doe and fawns were. But no hits on that one. Did I waste my time or does it take awhile for them to find my feeders?


sprinkle a little corn around on the ground under the feeder and put a little peanut butter on the stick - you should get some action within a couple days.


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

I'll give the PB a shot. I have corn all over the ground. About the only things that are touching it is the slugs. Thanks for the tips.


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## neo71665 (Jul 26, 2007)

The PB trick normally works. I takes them a bit to get used to it if they haven't ever seen a feed like this before. Around here all the cheap ******** use them so I think the deer are used to them by the time they are walking good.


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## Horses&Hunting (Oct 10, 2007)

Thanks for the PB trick. I put some on earlier. So hopefully they will like it. It is the crunchy kind so lol.


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## KCampbell30 (May 24, 2010)

Another idea for a 5 gallaon bucket is:

Take 5 gallon bucket, and cut four triangles on the bottom edge of the bucket(You'll actually have a triangle cut on the side of the bucket and bottom). you can make the angle as big as you want to allow as much or as little as corn to flow out. Then take a piece of 12"x12" plywood and screw it into the bottom of the bucket. Screw up into the bucket , so the deer don't get stuck in the face with the tip of a screw. tie a rope to the handle of the bucket and hang from a tree. Fill with corn and put on the lid. You now have a "bump" feeder.


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## S.A.S (Apr 28, 2009)

Cudorun said:


> I started using feeders last summer, I ended up building 2 feeders for alot cheaper than I could have bought them, it took less than an hour to build each one and they have worked great. I was planning on fabricating a lid and leg brackets but ended up just buying them.
> You can get heavy duty 55 gallon plastic drums for free from places like dog kennels, animal hospitals, factories,
> car dealerships etc.
> Any place that buys soap in bulk to clean floors etc. Pike
> ...


Any update on how this works? Looked up,the feeder and seen bad reviews. 

Want to build a few auto deer feeders this year and want a good motor system, seems so many have poor reviews.


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## b0w_bender (Apr 30, 2006)

I tried this bucket feeder with my blacktails. peanut butter on the stick a small catch basin on the stick that the feed landed into everything I could think of to get them to bump the stick. Nothing seemed to work. They just would not use it. I don't know perhaps blacktails are just too timid or stupid but after an entire year of trying I went with the dear attractant blocks. they worked really well but I admit they are a bit pricey. 








Also what I found was that although the deer weren't using them within 3 months the rats and squirrels had completely destroyed the plastic barrel chewing holes through them in multiple places. So my deer refused to use it and adding insult to injury the feeders were destroyed. Once the the holes were chewed through the grain got wet and moldy eventually even the squirrels wouldn't eat it.

I suspect that my experience is some what unique because a lot of people are talking about them but they didn't work for me I'm thinking of trying the PVC pipe gravity feaders next:
http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2098899&highlight=PVC+pipe+feeder

The blacktails don't seem all that interested in anything that doesn't have molasses in it and I'm thinking that might not work real well in a gravity feeder. I'b be interested in hearing others thoughts on it.


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## Bullseye31 (Dec 16, 2015)

Anybody got a good way of building a DIY protien feeder. That would be **** proof... I know that's hard to do but.. Thought I'd ask in this thread.. Thanks for any tips in advance!


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

Just thinking out loud to Bullseye31's question:

What if we started with the standard PVC tube feeder. Vertical tube with a Y installed on the bottom. If you use 6", or even 8" PVC they hold a lot and the deer can easily eat from them. See the attached pic. 

Mount the feeder high enough so that deer could still reach, but a **** would have to crawl up on it.
Mount it on a smooth metal pole so the **** can't hang from the pole as easily. 

There would then need to be some type of "cap" that was lever attached to a ring all the way around the feeder opening. Think of it like fixing a toilet cover at a 90 degree "L" angle to the toilet seat. A small spring or even piece of elastic would keep the lid vertical and the seat horizontal surrounding the bowl. 

As the **** tried to climb on the feeder, and the grabs any part of the ring, it would hinge the lid down and cover the feed. 

The deer would eat out of it without any need to touch the ring at all. 

Alright, someone else's turn to chime in, modify or start a new idea. 

Mitch


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## Bullseye31 (Dec 16, 2015)

Mitch.. Good idea.. How much Fred could that hold.. My hinting area is 6 hours away..and would need at least a couple hundred pounds at minimum to b able to keep it maintained.. Also.. What type of lid did you have in mind.. Or rigged lid would do such thing.. I like the idea just having trouble picturing how it would work.. Thanks for the help!


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

I think my toilet seat analogy is the best visual I can come up with. 

Think of the toilet seat going around the outside of the bow. The lid is welded to the seat at a 90 degree angle. The two are attached to a hinge pin right where they are welded together. They basically make a "L" shape. 

The the **** tried to climb up on the feeder, he would grab and pull on the toilet seat. This would cause the toilet seat to swing down and thus the lid (still at the fixed 90 degree angle) to swing down and cover the feed opening. I can try to draw something up tonight and post it. I think it will need to be a little tighter than a 90 degree angle, but the visual is the same. 

A piece of elastic or a spring would return the seat to a horizontal position (lid would then be vertical and not covering the feed) as soon as the **** let go. 

The "lid" could just be a piece of heavy sheet metal, 1/2" plywood, etc. For the ring that goes around, I was visualizing a piece of rebar bent in a U shape, but it might need to be more like the toilet seat. Maybe 2" wide so that the **** can't reach around or under it to get a hold of the edge of the feeder. 

Looking at volume, the options are endless. 

An 8" diameter x 4' high pipe holds about 1.4 cubic feet. 

You could certainly go taller if you had a way of dumping your feed into the top. I don't think I'd want to go larger than 8 for the opening or the **** might be able to sit in the feet mount. That doesn't mean you couldn't use a larger pipe and just neck it down though. 

A 12" diameter by 4' high pipe holds about 3 cubic feet. 

Pie x R squared x height if you want to figure out any other volumes. 

Just for reference, 1 cubic foot of corn is just over #40 and I couldn't find mineral weight, but granular sugar is just over #50. 

Mitch


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## Bullseye31 (Dec 16, 2015)

Man that's some good stuff! Thanks ks for the insight.. I'm looking forward to seeing what you are able to draw up!


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## Toddmann (Aug 6, 2010)

We use PVC pipe feeders


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

I wouldn't call this a technical drawing but it should get the point across. 

The green lid and the blue ring are both attached to the red hinge pin. As the **** pulls down on the blue ring, the whole assembly rotates and cover comes down to cap the feed. obviously there would need to be some type of bracket to hold the hinge pin. 

You would have to play with the location of the hinge and the angles of the connections to get it right. As drawn, a 90 degree and a 45 degree in the bottom of the pipe might work better than the initial thought of a "y" because they would have en even outside radius for clearance on the ring. 

I would be happy to draw up a more technical drawing if someone wants to work with me on it. I could work out most of the angles in a section drawing in CAD that should speed up the trial and error fabrication process. 

For now I just sketched a rough iso that gets the point across, but it useless for construction. 

Mitch


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

And a note: I sketched the original mechanism on a pipe with a Y at the bottom (like the original photo I posted). Then I decided that a couple bends might be better. With the bends, I think the gray verticals that connect the blue ring to the red hinge pin could be eliminated, simplifying the design. I just didn't re-draw it as such. 

I realize the first image is a PDF. Here is JPG for those who may not be able to see the PDF. 

Mitch

EDIT: Thinking to advance the concept, you COULD use a gear ratio on the hinge to lid movement rather than a straight hinge pin. There would be a way to do it so that you got even a 3:1 degree movement of the lid to the ring. That way, the ring would only have to hinge down 30 degrees to move the lid 90 degrees and cover the feed. That might be getting a little too advanced for a home garage fabrication but would be very doable for production. For 1-of fabrication and DIY, the KISS principal rules.


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## Bullseye31 (Dec 16, 2015)

Dang I think that would work.. Don't know if I have the shop necessary to build it... Or the skills for that matter lol... But worth a shot at looking at.. I have friends in low places


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

Still thinking on the same concept"

You could make a square tube, say 12" square by 4 feet high (4 cu. ft.) with an opening in ones side at the bottom. Then make a "face plate" that would go over the opening and rig it to slide vertically to cover the whole. In fact, maybe the "face plate" could be a tube the slid over the entire feeder tube. Then just a spring on each side would handle the up down movement. 

If the **** tired to climb up on the feeder, it would be grabbing the outer tube, which would slide down and cover the feed hole. 

It would be easier to go bigger on this than the PVC and it would just take a piece of sheet metal to bend the outer tube. 

You may need some type of deflector or baffle on the inside of the feeder tube to keep the feed from flowing out the hole, but that would be easy. 

Mitch


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

Here is a quick photo of the new idea. 

I would make the feed hole in the face plate smaller then the one in the feed tube and you would want the face plate to extend below the hole a ways, probably even farther than the drawing. 

The springs on the side keep the face plate up and the feed hole open until the face plate is pulled down on. Adding some ribs or knobs on the front of the face plate the the **** would grab on to might help. 

To facilitate more deer feeding, you cold also have feed holes on opposing sides. 

Mount it on a pipe and put a lid on it to keep the rain out of the top. 

Mitch


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## Bullseye31 (Dec 16, 2015)

So what type of material are you thinking would be used to build this with? Sheet metal? Poly?
I really like this idea!


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

Bullseye31 said:


> So what type of material are you thinking would be used to build this with? Sheet metal? Poly?
> I really like this idea!


The main feed tube could be built out of just about anything. Steel would probably be the nicest (but heavy), but painted plywood should work too. Poly is a good lightweight option but harder to fab and attach things to. 

I would think some type of sheet metal would be best for the outer face plate tube. Just taking a stab, but anything heavier than about 26 gauge should get the job done. That is pretty easy to bend into the box and cut the holes. If you have a break you could get fancy and hem the edges, etc. The key is going to be making sure it slides down smooth and doesn't bind when you pull on one side. Not sure if that would require some type of track or not. 

I drew up a quick section cut iso an colored it. 

I'm open to refining this farther if you want help building one. 

Mitch


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## Bullseye31 (Dec 16, 2015)

Man that's some pretty good stuff.. I'm going to start to at some point maybe look into acquiring a welder and torch.. Either borrowed or bought.. And maybe try building this


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## practice-more (Nov 10, 2005)

Bullseye31 said:


> Man that's some pretty good stuff.. I'm going to start to at some point maybe look into acquiring a welder and torch.. Either borrowed or bought.. And maybe try building this


I would be more inclined to make the main box and baffles from a sheet of 1/2" plywood. A thinner sheet metal could be bent into the outer shield by hand and riveted. That would allow you to try the concept for under $50 before investing any more. 

Mitch


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## Redneckkid91 (Feb 15, 2012)

Never seen the 5 gallon bucket feeders with the plunger until now. I will definitely be building a few


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