Deer Feeder Helper Blog

I really enjoy watching whitetail deer and especially enjoy deer hunting over game feeders here in the great state of Texas. Game feeders have given my family, friends and I so much in return for the amount of energy and cost that I have put into them. They are very far from free and even more costly in time to keep them performing efficiently, but worth every nickel if you can manage to do it right. It’s not rocket science or complicated, but I would love to share with you what I have learned through trial and error so you to may enjoy hunting those big bucks as much as I. Perhaps there are those among us who would just love to capture that world record buck on their trail camera. Either as an avid whitetail hunter sitting in a deer stand or as an enthusiastic photographer watching a game feeder, anyone can benefit from these suggestions.

For a wonderful whitetail hunting experience using game feeders or if involved in deer management, I encourage you to follow these simple suggestions. First start with a good barrel. You can purchase barrels with timers or as separate components. Plastic barrels are recently becoming quite popular. I prefer a metal one’s though. Buy a quality, digital 6 volt timer in  a metal housing from a reputable dealer who honors warranties, chances are you’ll use that it one day. Mount a feeder helper between the barrel and the timer. Doing so will save you many hours of time and frustration in the future. Use only high strength feeder legs as the lighter, thin walled legs will certainly buckle due to the weight of the feed and pressure applied from livestock such as cows rubbing on the legs. If you make your own barrel, I suggest that you buy 4 leg brackets and make a ladder using two of the legs and angle iron for steps spaced 14″ apart. It’s a good ideal to put feet or pads under the legs to keep them from sinking into the ground under the constant weight and make sure each leg is anchored to the ground. Any size rebar and bailing wire will work. Get a quality metal lid, I tried using plastic lids, but squirrels ate holes in it, leading to rain water spoiling the feed. I prefer using the metal lids that are retained to the barrel using springs. It will save you two trips up and down the ladder and will keep your lid from blowing off during windy conditions. I recommend always use a varmint guard, raccoons and such will rob you blind and continually destroy your equipment. Lock or secure any latches you can to prevent any bad things from happening. Locks, pins carabineers, and simple wire all work well. Get a solar panel for the battery; it’s a good investment to keep the battery from going dead which could eventually ruin an eagerly anticipated whitetail hunting trip. You can fasten the solar panel vertically, directly to the housing using self-drilling screws. Only fill it with recleaned corn if possible to prevent future clogs. If not, you can buy a corn screen that mounts inside the barrel, or transport the screen from barrel to barrel if you have more than one feeder. The feeder helper makes easy work of removing these pesky clogs without you having to jeopardize your equipment in the process. I have seen clogs from rocks, corn bag material, range cubes, dirt dobber nests, corn stalks and cobs, and old clogged feed; remember its agriculture and you are certain to get some debris from time to time. Build a solid pen made from 36″ tall cattle panels to keep out the feral hogs and livestock. Using eight 16′ panels in a circle appears to be the minimum size to ensure the deer feel unconfined and comfortable. I do have some feeders without pens for hog hunting. If so, make sure your deer feeder legs are anchored and secure a flat cattle panel to the ground below to prevent a huge mud puddle from forming. These puddles can become a mess and making it very nasty to work on your deer feeders. If you chose to feed protein during the spring and summer, you can remove your timer and place a 3″ PVC tube and PVC “T” onto the barrel. I like to leave the timer on, but place a 5 gallon bucket around the timer then attach the 3″ PVC tube to the bucket. I suggest always perform a fall cleaning before deer season starts to the clean inside of the feeder barrel to remove any debris, even corn/feed dust causes problems.

I like to set my  feeder timer to activate 30 minutes before sunrise and 90 minutes before sunset. Doing so lets you take advantage of legal whitetail deer hunting time in the a.m. and allows for a quality deer hunt during the evening. I have experimented with other times such as 10:00 a.m. or noon but it seemed to draw in more turkeys than deer. I have utilized owl decoys to keep the turkeys away but they had minimal effect. I do have my  feeders activate around 11:00 p.m. during the off season to help that big whitetail buck claim his territory. We all know the big deer move at night and this helps to make him comfortable to the environment. If interested, hog hunting at night makes for an awesome night hunting experience and your guest will love it. Get close and downwind and be prepared. HCR makes a low maintenance light kit for your deer feeders for that purpose. I don’t own one yet, but probably will very soon. When setting up your deer blind, remember that guest may accompany you  hunting from time to time which is great. However, their shooting skills might not be quite as good as we would like. So I try to put my  blind no further than 100 yards from the game feeder and downwind as well so they will have a comfortable experience. We certainly want them to be successful. Sharing your white tailed deer hunt with them will leave you forever honored in their memory bank. Upon arrival at the ranch, I like to check the function of my game feeders immediately, before going to the  hunting blinds. It is very common to discover relatively simple problem that is easily remedied before a spoiled deer hunt. Once your deer hunt has been a success, always remove your big trophy deer from the area before field dressing. Leaving behind innards and such will have a negative impact to the area by emitting unusual odors and drawing in varmints, encouraging the whitetails to leave and avoid the area, possibly for several weeks. I feel following this particular lead could result in one successful deer hunt into another. During my recent 2007 season, my guest and I harvested over 30 whitetails under an intensive quality deer management program using one stand and two game feeders with no ill effect on the hunting area. The more we shot, the more they kept coming. So I believe this system is a very valuable quality deer management tool as well as offering a satisfying whitetail hunting experience. I hope you succeed with your adventure. Happy Hunting and May Yours be the Bigger, Better Buck. Chris Nicholes

I’ve been a whitetail hunter in Texas for many, many years now, since I was sixteen. As most hunters in this great state, I started and still use feeders to attract deer. These feeders allow us hunters to harvest deer in a more selective fashion, removing deer from the herd that we feel are primed for removal. Many other animals frequent these feeders as well, including pigs and exotics. Between my two feeders at home, and eight others at my deer lease, I would consistently find a non-functioning timers or other issue such as a clogged spinner requiring extensive time and sweat to resolve. I even once broke a motor shaft trying to remove a hard to reach clog. After many days sweating in the hot West Texas sun, I soon designed and developed a concept in my garage that would drastically change the maintenance and use of deer feeders. Originally made of wood and used at my lease for 2 years or so, I soon discovered what a huge benefit these feeder helpers could provide.

   The design consists of an accessory that installs between your timer mechanism and the feed barrel. Has a separable top and bottom. The top encompasses a slide valve; both have interchangeable hinges, and share 2 lockable draw latches. It’s a universal design and will fit onto any type feed barrel and accept any type of timer mechanism. However, it is not compatible with the feeders utilizing internal components such as the Sweeney Brand. With its hinged design you can now easily access the vital components including the mounting hardware that normally complicates replacing these timers. Regardless of which brand of timer you currently use, they all can easily be swapped out in seconds. Clogs are easily removed now with easy access to the spinner plate, allowing you to remove any foreign object such as corn cobs, rocks or range cubes that’s where they shouldn’t be. Relocating your feeder has never been easier now that you can efficiently off load it by emptying its feed into another barrel or trash can, or remove old and spoiled feed directly to the ground, and cleaning your feeder once a year is very beneficial ensuring your feeder functions properly during the hunting season. It also allows you to refill your tailgate feeder while out in the field if you find yourself out of bagged corn. The hinges use two 3 inch screws to allow you to remove the bottom half of the feeder helper along with the timer for safe keeping during the summer months or if relocating a feeder so it doesn’t get damage while being moved. Larger operations, servicing many deer feeders, can simply have additional combinations already set-up and swap out the bottom halves thereby ensuring continued feeding and facilitating repairs to the faulty timer on a later time at a more convenient location such as camp or the ranch house. Gravity fed protein tubes, solar panels, and varmint guards all mount nicely adding to its versatility. Or you can make your broadcast feeder into a protein feeder during the spring season. It’s been really amazing what I stumbled upon and I would hope that all will discover the huge benefits that now exist for all of us. I for one certainly enjoy playing and hunting in the field versus working on a feeder every trip. Happy hunting and may yours be the bigger better buck.