I was at the lease pulling cards and for the first time in a while cattle wasn't my main enemy on my feeders..coons were everywhere..i move to another area on our lease about two miles farther south..and to my surprise..i was expecting my feeder barrels to be tipped over by the huge black angus cattle ..but to my relief they were still standing..but wires were jerked out of solar panel..i have a question..if there was one solution to coon problems..a feeder cage around box and spinner or a mechanical spinner plate that fits tight against the funnel..thanks for your advice

This has been discussed here many times before. Scroll down through this topic and you will find lots of ideas. I have been feeding and fighting coons for a long time. I just installed PVC pipes over the feeder legs, suspended by bungee cords, as suggested by someone here a while back. A little work, but maybe it will reduce my corn bill this fall.

The Eliminator Spinner Plate will stop coons from getting corn from the barrel but they can still get some of what is on the ground.

PVC on legs, varmint cages, closing spinner plates, and trapping. You gotta do it all to make a dent. They're relentless, both in attacking feeders and in making baby raccoons.

carpet tack strips on 2 sides of legs...we use silicone to attach so we can pull off if needed....all you need is about 3 ft on each leg....

all the way up to spinner??if not how far off the ground do you start them?

we start a foot off the ground and do 3 ft strips...

Eliminator plate and ensure all loose wires are secured enough to withstand at least 50 pounds of force. They'll give up once they realize they can't get corn or pull anything loose.

The big thing there getting me on is they are hanging on my solar panel and bending it down. I have to rig a bracket to secure it better.

i tried a little experiment with one of my feeders..i located the battery on top of the lid of my feeder barrel drilled a hole and ran a piece of conduit and ran the termainals and wire through the conduit and down through the empty barrel to the feeder box,,then filled with corn..keeps the wires hidden..then covered the battery with a waterproof cover..then only way coon can destroy wires is if he climbs on top of barrel..overthinking it probabaly!

Every feeder I own gets all exposed wires protected with electrical conduit, conduit clamps, and bigger than needed self tappers. I refuse to drive 7 hours to find a wire pulled loose

out at Ozona, the lids of my feeders were loaded with coon poop and any exposed wires, even in flex conduit were trashed ... until I added PVC to the legs

Copper tubing is good to run those wires in. Had no problem with motor but coons were tough on solar panel wire
Put wire in copper then secure copper to side of feeder, run tubing to timer box. Drill hole in box and insert tubing.

A lesson I recently learned with a feeder I built. When you install a solar panel consider running it with a drip loop in the wire. I did not. The first time the coons got hold of the metal flexible conduit I used, they stretched it just enough to allow water to get into the conduit ever time it rained. It was siliconed but the coons stretching it out and broke that seal. Without the drip loop it was allowing water to run into the feeder motor housing every time it rained. This was a large hanging feeder, but they were jumping from above onto the top of the feeder, then falling down the side of the feeder to the solar panel, then sliding down the conduit to grab onto the feeder motor housing.

Ditch the flex conduit and get some EMT.

I live on a ranch with cows so deal with cows, coons and pigs hitting my feeders daily.

Cheap 35 gallon plastic feeder with 1 piece metal posts with tposts driven into ground alongside the posts, then tie the legs to posts in 2-3 places.
These little feeder kits come with multipiece legs - if you want your feeder to stay up, throw those away and replace with conduit or pipe.
With the tposts driven into the ground at same angle as legs, cows can't push the legs out and drop your feeder.
1" lightweight mesh critter cage screwed to bottom of barrel with solar panel mounted to the cage.
Small 80 dollar solar fence charger.
Ground from fence charger goes in a loop to each feeder leg so they are all hard grounded.
Hot wire from fence charger goes to wire cage - since barrel is plastic, cage is insulated from legs.
When critter reaches across from post to cage or solar panel, it lights their [censored] up and the fall to the ground.

Sometimes when it's slow at the pig stand, watching coons get lit up is the only entertainment but we have probably scared off a few hogs laughing at the coons.
It only takes a few times and they leave the feeder alone.

Been doing it that way for about 8 years now and never lose a feeder or solar panel anymore.

I have 6 feeders. the only one that neither coons or squirrels don’t mess with or destroy is a winch up.

Do what you can to deter them but more importantly, kill as many as you can. Dukes DP coon traps deployed every weekend you are there in the offseason will solve a lot!! We bait them with mini marshmallows and fruit loops but you can use dry cat food or just about anything. Always tote a .22 when you check them for quick and easy dispatching to get them out of the trap.

Sounds like you have ground feeders that are mounted on skids what I've seen over the years, last 12 or so years been using a pair of tripod feeder hung high off the ground, all coon problems solved! at times squirrels play a fit, chewed on my plastic lids, but usually a 20ga. when we set in the crossbow blind or tree next to the feed pen. Racoons will never go away just have to deal with them!.....

hunt safe....

I had my problems with coons. The eliminator spinner plates worked great till dirt caused one to quit closing off. Finally I enclosed all throwers in wire mesh cages. That worked until the coons destroyed the one exposed solar charger and plastic conduit. I got a sturdy metal framed solar charger and serious metal conduit. They tore the conduit loose at both ends. I upped the game with the metal conduit firmly anchored at both ends. I am presently beating the coons.

One other way to beat them and the squirrels is to hang the feeder barrel off a tree limb. They never were able to find a way to jump far enough to get to the thrower and they never were able to climb down the feeder barrel, since there was nothing for them to hold on to.

If they can get a paw on it and get leverage, they'll break it. I don't see where you said how yours is built, but I'd put the panel flat on the lid and run wires through the inside. My feeders are a foot off the ground. There just isn't anything on the outside for them to mess with.

Just an update to my earlier post on this thread: I installed PVC pipes over the legs of my feeders, as suggested by others in some previous threads. In the past I had lots of nighttime pictures of coons climbing the legs, hanging on the varmint cages, spinning the spinner plate. Since installing the pipes, I have a few pictures of coons walking by or looking up at the feeder, but not a single one anywhere on the feeder. Keeping my fingers crossed.

This pretty much eliminates sows, cows and coons

Seems you have to problems, first install the shorter cattle panels about 28" tall, that will eliminate all cows from the feeder, did that years ago,
kept the pigs at bay too! they give up and leave. on the raccoon problems, I use tripod hanging feeders, if the critters still try to climb the legs, smear
plenty of Crisco on the legs, squirrels will lick it off, but mostly keeps the coons thinking! young ones try to climb, after a while they give up, at least what '
my cameras see.....

If pests still bother your feeder, we had in past make a shroud around the bottom of the feeder, keeps the corn from slinging away from the bottom and feeder keeps it all in one spot, after a while you will have a mud hole if they come snuff there......

last year I pitched out couple handfuls of winter rye mix, was pretty green under the feeder for a bit...... kept animals around all the time!;;;;;


hunt safe....