Feeder

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Shadowrider

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Be sure to get a good solar charger . . .

My BIL has had to wage war on the squirrels. They love to chew the wires on his charger. He’s been fighting them for about 4 years now. He’s finally brought out the galvanized conduit to beat them. Results to be announced at a future date...


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kirk1978

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I've written before about the rough deer shack that a buddy of mine and I threw together up in the mountains around Wilburton that I'd stay in a week during black powder and modern gun season by myself because he only hunted opening and closing weekend of both seasons.

Anyway, being frugal (cheap :)) we ordered nudge feeder kits and installed them in the bottom of 55 gal. plastic drums that we got from work that bulk windshield washer fluid came in.....when we got to the woods we'd dump a couple bags of corn in them (we built 2) and hoist them up with a rope that was tied to the top and then tie off the rope to the tree and lay a corn & molasses block a few yards from the nudge feeder, kinda like the attached picture but we used 55 gal drums instead of 5 gal. buckets.

Being 2 1/2 hours away from camp we'd drive down on Saturday mornings, fill the feeders, do some scouting, do a little improving on the shack and then head back and home around supper time.

After the first week we drove back down to refill them and apparently we'd hung one too close to the tree or too low and wild hogs had somehow got a hold of one and pulled it down, busted it open and ate all the corn......there were hog hoof prints all around the feeder and the ground was really torn up but luckily the nudge paddle and plate that held it onto the drum was salvageable so we built another one the following week and hauled it down and set it up.

Oh have I mentioned the bear yet ?

Melvin had gone back for the week and I was down by myself and one morning at day break I was up in a 2x4 stand that we'd built really high up in a old cottonwood tree which was about 50 yards or so from one of the nudge feeders and molasses & corn blocks.

Not completely light enough to see well I caught a dark shawdowy movement to my right and thought to myself, "oh crap here comes a damn hog to spoil my deer hunting" but the more I watched the critter move across the bottom towards the feeder I finally realized that it was a bear.

He'd apparently hit the feeder before and knew how to work the nudge paddle because he'd stand about half way up and bump the paddle with his nose till he felt he had enough corn on the ground then get back on all fours and eat that and then do it again.

He did that a few times and then waddled over to the molasses & corn block and laid down on his belly with the block between his front paws and chewed on it for a few minutes kinda like a dog would with a bone, it was graveyard quiet in the bottom and I could actually hear him crunching on the block.....after eating what he felt was enough he ambled off back across the bottom to the heavier timbered the woods.

I don't recall if I got a deer that year or not but just seeing the bear that close for 10-15 minutes really made the whole season for me.

View attachment 163552

Luckily I have no hogs or bears where I hunt....I bet that was exciting to watch!!
 

dennishoddy

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Yeah, the lid might not leak right away, but it's going to. Get the big plastic lid that goes way down over the rim to avoid moldy corn all glued into a big blob.
There is nothing more nasty than a half drum of corn that has spoiled in the feeder. It's not an easy job to clean it out when there is no water, electric or any other way to clean the drum.
I have one of the big plastic lids on one feeder with the big lip over the rim of the drum. Works great but the humidity here goes up the feeder tube and starts rotting it there.
I'm at the point of not feeding in the summer months, just using perennial food plots.
 

retrieverman

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Here’s the lids I use to replace the clamp on lids. These are aftermarket but similar to what FieldPro uses on theirs. After wasting and have to clean about 250# each of rotten stinking corn out of two different feeders, I had to do something to solve the problem.
49Cga7Z.jpg
 

BobbyV

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My BIL has had to wage war on the squirrels. They love to chew the wires on his charger. He’s been fighting them for about 4 years now. He’s finally brought out the galvanized conduit to beat them. Results to be announced at a future date...


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One of the last feeders I bought from Academy has a spot to run the wiring from the charger through the feeder to the motor.

Seems to work great.
 

Oklahomabassin

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There is nothing more nasty than a half drum of corn that has spoiled in the feeder. It's not an easy job to clean it out when there is no water, electric or any other way to clean the drum.
I have one of the big plastic lids on one feeder with the big lip over the rim of the drum. Works great but the humidity here goes up the feeder tube and starts rotting it there.
I'm at the point of not feeding in the summer months, just using perennial food plots.
Humidity and the hot days/cold nights seem to cause me issues when feeders were over half full. I started filling only a 1/3rd full at a time. The air pocket seemed to allow the temp to change quicker to match the outside temp and it prevented the condensation from forming.
 

dennishoddy

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You guys running funnels in the bottom of your drums? I'm not and that may be part of my issue. That corn sits in the corners of the drum while I'm putting fresh corn in the top and never gets used. The rot starts and it evidently takes out the rest of the corn pretty quickly.
 

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