Bucee's American Hunter 440

I bought a Wildgame Innovations 300# feeder at Academy ($119) about 6 years ago, and it has run with no problems 'til this year. Even now, the motor, timer, etc. has worked fine. I've never noticed it has failed to spin on time, but, I've also had a problem (like everyone) with raccoons and squirrels. Finally the squirrels won - about 3 weeks ago I went to fill and found that a hole, about 3" in diameter through lid. I patched to get by, but went back and looked this Saturday, and although the patch was still in place, a new hole had been made. My feeder contained about 150# of sour mash. The smell was horrendous, so I decided to salvage the working parts, and junk the rest.

Went over to Bucee's today and picked up one of the American Hunter 440# kits - including a varmint cage. Not a bad deal at $259. I was really interested in the All Seasons, but man, I am cheap and the nearly $500 price tag for the 300#, with all of my other ranch projects, is a bit much for me. One of these days I may bite the bullet on better feeders, but I am looking forward to seeing how the AH performs. I do like that the openings in the varmint cage appear to be small enough to keep squirrels away - the All Seasons cage is much beefier, but the openings are large enough that squirrels will intrude.

Anyone using? Is the varmint cage durable?

I'm not sure whether you are asking about the AH or AS. I've been using All-Season Feeders since 1991 and just retired my first one a week ago. The bottom rotted out. It ran twice a day, every day for 26 years. I replaced the timer once and just replaced the solar panel but of course, there has been a battery about every 5 years.

I've used the AS varmint cages on all of them and have never had critter problems. I've even seen coons swinging from the cages but they can't get to the spinner.

Next year, I'm going to start replacing the feeders, one a month during the spring, with the AS 300# Stand-N-Fills. I had a just had a step ladder break while filling a feeder and with no injury, I fill lucky. I figure I've gotten my money's worth from AS plus they are just up the road an hour and a half from my ranch.

I gave less than $600 for a 600lb AS feeder. But the American Hunter system is not a bad system at all.