what sized drum would be good for a deer feeder?

Answer 1

Do you wont it to be permanent in it’s location.
Do you wont to be able to move it if the situation changes, as it so often does.
Are you big enough to pack feed up a ladder when needed.
For if you choose a 55 or even a 30 gallon drum that not one you will wont to hoist up a tree when its full of feed.
The big ones like that have good side and down sides.
Good side you add feed less often.
Bad side not what you call mobile, moving it is an investment in time.
Bad side hauling feed up that ladder which is often utilized in refilling is not forgiving.
This year I had to go out after dark and search for a friend,
His wife called me when he did not make it home before dark.
Good thing I felt lazy and took my 4 wheeler, a 240 pound man 6 foot 2 is not easy to get out of the woods.
4th trip up the ladder his foot slipped between the runs at about 10 foot up, the bag of feed hit him in the chest, him, ladder and all came crashing down on his 4 wheeler.
We never did discover what hit the ignition switch and broke the key off in making it unusable at that moment.
Good news 4 wheeler was an easy fix, once my hard headed friend got over all the soreness.
Yes he is still feeding that 55 gallon drum.
I use a 7 gallon bucket why,(I thank 7 I know it’s bigger then 5)
I incorporate a pulley system so when full it is easy to raise with the rope, I don’t have to climb with my feed.
And I if I decide to move it to feel out any changes that may come about , it’s easy and fast.
And filling it more often, that just keeps me in contact with what going on at my feeder.
I chalk that up as part of my scouting, you may wonder about too much human sent.
Well they get use to that real quick for free corn,
I only have to fill it once every 2 weeks, it’s call supplementing not a straight corn diet.
I set it up to feed 1 pound am and 1 pound pm while there is abundant natural food available.
When the weather gets harsh and the natural food is in short supply then I turn it up to what they can clean up in a reasonable amount of time. I try not to feed Crows and Rats by dumping more feed then the deer can keep up with.
Sorry it was not my intention to Write a book.

Answer 2

First, you must determine if the deer will come to the location that you have chosen. To do this, you can hand scatter some feed on the ground every morning for several days and see if they are cleaning up the feed. If you can't go out to the location every day, you can try putting out a deer feed block and checking on it every few days to see if they are coming to it. One good trick to get them to come to your location, where it is legal to do so, is to bury a salt block a several inches under the ground and then sprinkle icecream salt on top of it. Deer love salt and will come to it and then find the feed. Usually, the salt block will last through the deer season but you can replace if if it becomes necessary. By the end of the season, the deer can have a considerable hole dug where you bury the salt block if there are many in the area.
Once you determine that the deer are coming to the feed at a praticular location, I'd go with a 55 gal drum on a tall stand with an automatic feeder. You don't have to fill it as often. Just be sure that the legs of the stand are long enough to get the bottom of the feeder at least 8 feet off the ground to keep the deer from trying to get to the feed with their antlers. One of the problems with a wind operated feeder is that it can drop way too much feed on a windy day. Also, if the stand is not high enough, the deer will figure out how to use their heads and antlers to operate the wind paddle to get feed out of the feeder. They can empty a feeder pretty quickly once they figure out how to do it.

One of the neat things about an automatic feeder is that the deer soon figure out that when the feeder goes off it throws out feed and they will actually come and stand around in the morning and evening, or whenever you have it set ot go off, and wait for it go scatter the feed for them. The first few times it goes off it will scare them but they soon learn that the sould of the feeder means food so they quickly loose theri fear of the sound. At first, you may not fare as well. The first time I was sitting in a stand near an automatic feeder it was all nice and quiet out there in the woods and I was about half asleep when the feeder went off. It makes a heck of a noise and I almost jumped out of the stand.

Feeders are very productive but not legal in all states nor are salt blocks. Be sure you are legal before using any of the techniques. All states take their game laws pretty seriously and you can loose a sizable chunk of money, your gun, car, etc for violating game laws. It ain't worth it! Check the game laws and stay legal.

Answer 3

it is usually a 35-55 gallon drum.
but let me tell u this.
i hunted on a friend of mines property this year.i shot a doe and missed a buck.in total 8 bucks and 3 does were taken off his 110 acres this year.
he fed the deer fruit and licks,but also what he did was take a piece of 8" pvc pipe and put a reducer on it to 2".it was about 4' long.well anyway he would fill these up with corn and strap them directly to a tree.as the deer would feed the corn would slowly fall from the 2" reducer.with the amount of corn that u can put in a 8" 4' long tube with that 2" reducer the feed lasts a good little bit.it seemed to do the trick.

just thought i would share this with u.economically this seems to be a better setup,and it works

Answer 4

I assume you want to build an automatic feeder. The bigger it is the less you have to come back and fill it up. I would go with the standard 55 gallon drum. Of course with the bigger size, you have to build a bigger frame to hold it up. I believe that most of the commercial built feeders are 40 gallon or larger.

Answer 5

My feeder uses a metal 5 gallon bucket. It came that way. Holds a 40 pound bag of corn or sweet feed. I would avoid a plastic bucket because squirrels and rats eat through them. I can set my dispenser timer so that a 40 pound bag can last just about 4 weeks. I set my feeder up in late august so that by october they are well patterned to the area.

Miketyson26

Answer 6

You would have to be more specific with that question for me. How often are you going to fill your feeder? How many deer are in the area you wish to place it? Would it be permanent?

Answer 7

About a 30 gal one. When mine starts the cycle the deer know its dinner time and began pouring out of the thicketts to eat that corn and soy beans.

Answer 8

start small, if you start big and the deer are not feeding there, you will be wasting food or it will spoil before it gets spread out.

Answer 9

We use 55s. But they are permanent, and not timed.

Answer 10

55 gal.cheap dependble. 20 gal paint if you feel like paitn