Bait feeders

[rosscrazyelk]

 My buddies and I bought some.property .
1..looking for feedback on any kind of feeders you have tried or reccomend. Pros and cons
Anything you can give me advice on. Never used a feeder ect.
Thanks

[Jpmiller]

A seemingly now inactive member finally convinced me to switch to salt instead of feed blocks or loose feed. Started having alot less issues with bears just taking away my baits and lasted way longer with seemingly the same productivity. Salts pretty cheap too. I'm not expert but I have bumbled around with attractants for a few years now.

[baldopepper]

I've used the tripod feeders available on Amazon for a number years. They cost around.$100. Gotta kinda block off the actual spreader part or the deer will pock on it an empty it fairly quickly. Also have to stake it well if put in an area subject to wind.  Bears have destroyed em a couple of times. One problem is that it does not broadcast the feed very far and two or three deer will dominate and eat most of it. I throw out a salt lick also.and it gets a lot of activity
Both the feeder and salt are in the yard so we never actually hunt over them.  Set the feeder for 6 seconds twice a day and 100lbs of corn lasts about 3-4 weeks
.

[CP]

A cheap, DIY feeder made from PVC pipe and fittings works as well as anything.  Yeah, sometimes bears will tear them up, but they are cheap to repair or replace.

[baldopepper]

Tried gravity feeders, but they empty them in a hurry.  We also keep.ours in a fairly open area where predator ambush is more difficult 
 

[hunter399]

I tried it this year, thinking it would be some great thing.

I just had one on a five gallon bucket,so I could hike it in to my spot.
I've always used salt,so that was already there.
Setup in at the beginning of September thinking that would be enough time before modern deer.
My first mistake was apple scented corn.
It was up 4 or 5 days before a bear climbed the tree.
Put his weight on the bucket and broke it down.
I went back about the 2 week mark. To add more corn and try to figure out the time frame for when the bucket was empty.
Seen the bear damage,bear poop with corn in it.
Checked cam,bear came in at night. Took it down,ate corn.
Showed up very next night to make sure it was gone.
I brought bucket home,put some metal flashing on it,and repaired it.
Took it back out to woods,put it back up.
Through our all these events ,I'm just disturbing the area more and more before the season opening.
Long story.... shorter....
I took it down a few days after the season started.
Cam went from 5-6 bucks periodically to nothing in a hurry.
Which is pretty normal for some spots I have.

As far as my situation,it didn't help my productivity on my spot.
Just seemed like more work. Crows,bluejay,and a few doe with baby ate pretty good for a month.
I do think baiting works best if done about four months before the season,then slowly decrease food as the season gets closer.
I suspect that is 90 percent of most people mistake when it comes to baiting. Cause they dump huge amounts of food just days before there season. Animals show at night,eat it all,then don't show when your in the stand.
Baiting early in the year,gets them on a daily check for food.
Then decrease food to nothing right at start of season.
Just leaves them hungry,more likely to be moving on public land.
Up and checking for food.

The feeder in general works best on a private land setting.
But can be applied anywhere,if you wanna put the work in.

Private land ....keep it full all the time .
Public land ...start early...decrease food to nothing when active hunting.

Those are my suggestions.

[buckfvr]

Wont be long before its illegal to bait so dont shoot your wad on feeders.  Salt/mineral blocks work, but so does other stuff like scents.