Well, you better buy it now, it's on sale for $70

Georgia howl, I respect you for hanging in there with some Texans slinging stuff at ya. You have obviously given it a lot of thought and are willing to put some effort into your chosen solution. You are also open minded enough to ask for help in the first place. From my previous posts its clear I think the deer will get used to it as most of us do but im unsure how long it will take.
Question/suggestion- I don't know how big your place is or the situation with other hunters or neighbors but would it make any sense to setup another feeder out of the way as a test to see if they come to it.

I will also say choice of feed makes a difference too, on my place in the river bottom, I have tried food plots and they have all been a failure. There is just too much for them to choose from. In the fall when the pecans and acorns are falling, you might as well shut off the feeders.

I would experiment with food choices, soybeans, corn, pellets , small piles and see what brings them in, I still don't believe it is the noise, especially if they have just recently allowed the use of feeders, they have never heard the sound before to be conditioned one way or the other.

I don't think anyone is necessarily slinging anything, there is just tons of evidence to show otherwise, look at the number of pigs and deer that get shot over bait, if anything it would condition them to avoid it, and that just isn't the case.

You may have indeed learned a thing or two Dr. Howl, but one of those two things certainly wasn't learned stimulus response, it's a basic animal thing. I'm in North Texas, not South, I guess the deer up here immigrated from the S. Texas deer you observed and passed on said feeder noise gene? Same thing for deer in OK, they respond to the feeder thing too.



You're getting deer pics because you're dropping corn, not because it's quietly dropping corn. Deer can hear the singular click of a shutter on a game camera, so they're hearing your auger as well. For the most part, your theory already holds no water.

We're not oversimplifying just to argue, we're trying to point out facts and experience from a state where feeding has gone on for a long time. Most folks would give that some weight.

Good luck to you.

Charlie

Bachelor of Science '88
Night in Holiday Inn Express - 5/29/19

What about if you use a plastic funnel on the inside? How do you bolt it in then?

I asked the same question about the funnel but didn't get a reply. OP is same guy that asked about pouring mortar to replace funnel. Maybe hes got a plan to put it all together that we don't know about. Im giving him points for creativity and effort so im rooting for him even if he isn't from Texas! Im complimenting him cause I want a report when the smoke clears.

They make drop feeders that essentially do the same thing, but all suffer from the same fate. Corn that is not properly cleaned and a piece of the cob gets in there and stops progress. I have never poured out a bag of corn that did not have some form of trash in it.

Decades ago before feeders became the norm and were available I took an electronics course at Cisco JR College, just to create a feeder mechanism. It helped that I also knew the instructor so he gave me a lot of help on his and my time away from class. Between the 2 of us we tried the plunger method and just a slinger plate. Mind you we were working on this blind without a plan or something to copy.

The plunger system worked great until a piece of corncob jammed in it when opened. we had 25 pounds of corn on his shop floor to clean up. When the slinger plate jammed, it didn't dump the bucket we used. Granted, our plunger probably wasn't like this one. But if you want the corn slung out over the feed pen you still need a slinger motor. Another expense? I like the slinger plate and a varmit cage.

I have hunted Deer all over Texas, and mostly it has been with corn feeders. Deer responded to the noise. Respond and come running. It is *NOT* because they are used to food being there at certain times. I have seen deer show up at a feeder within 20 minutes of it spinning and an hour after being set up. I have shot a deer before the feeder went off, had the feeder go off and shot another deer. I have had a feeder not work, walked 100+ yards to feeder to trip it, walked back and have deer at feeder before I was back in blind.

If you want the plunger to keep coons out of your feeder, good luck and I hope it works. If you want it to keep sound down, you are hurting yourself

That's a good point about needing clean feed. Did y'all ever try a linear actuator instead of a plunger solenoid?

feed falls straight down..you can do the same thing with a 5 gallon bucket covering the spinner unit screwed unto the bottom of the 55 gallon feeder barrel

Hmm... so how do you account for deer (or hogs) coming to feeders which have been there for a bit, before they go off? Are they anticipating the feeder noise alone and not "I've seen food here before" ? That would also mean we don't even need to buy corn anymore, we just need a device to play a feeder sound, since the food being there has nothing to do with it?

I think the deer in this scenario have simply established a pattern. I (and prob most here) routinely have deer standing around waiting for the feeder to cycle. When the feeder cycles, some will run off a few yards then come back, but many don't seem to worry about it at all. I usually jump higher than the deer, and I KNOW exactly when it is coming. Pavlovian conditioning on both time and sound. If you quit slinging corn, even with the sound, eventually they will find an alternative.

Actually, you can. And they even used to sell attractants that were nothing more than the sound of a feeder going off. I have also heard of people using a "call" made of a coffee can and swirling pebbles around mimicking a feeder noise. Yes, you do need to throw some corn, but the deer after it has been there awhile will have a Pavolvian response to the sounds.

How about for this deer season do a little test to prove your point... You stop throwing corn and only use your coffee can call from now through Jan and tell us how things go for you?