I have an old 850 pound All Seasons gravity feeder, inside a pen with my spinning feeder and I have a raccoon problem where raccoons crawl up the pen fence and up the legs of the gravity feeder and eats the protein. I even put slinkys on each leg and they can mastermind it and STILL can crawl past the slinkys that i have on each leg. I was thinking of getting a new gravity feeder and what do you guys recommend that will keep those pesky raccoons from eating my protein. Not looking for a thousand dollar gravity feeder, just a more reliable gravity feeder will do.

How about trapping the coons?

Hands down, the most effective way.

We picked these up a few years ago and they are more effective than trying to outsmart a coon from getting to your feed.

Dukes DP Coon Traps

We scored these in a package of 6 for $72 on Amazon but I don't see that deal there anymore. We baited with mini marshmallows and walmart brand fruit loops. You can use corn, dry cat food, pretty much anything as they are not picky eaters. I'd stay away from wet foods / baits. All you need is a .22 bullet to dispatch them because these are live catch traps. If there's a better trap out there, I'd like to see it.

They work.

although trapping is the more permanent fix, I have found the 4 inch PVC over the legs have drastically reduced coon issues on my spin feeders. I am not sure about a gravity feed due to height.

carpet tack strips siliconed to the legs.....

Although trapping will keep THAT coon from eating your feed, or raiding your garden, I have found that there seems to be an endless supply of coons just waiting to fill in.

Shark teeth strips. 'Seems all the new gravity feeders ARE a thousand dollars. Crazy.

Trap all summer. Dry cat food in a Duke's.

It is not a one and done with trapping but a continuous regime. I have trapped on my place since 2012 and caught coons every year. Now I only see one or so every so often on trail cams. I trap them and wait for new ones to move in, trap them and the cycles continues. I have trapped 306 to date since summer of 2012 on my 234 acres. Lowest was a couple of years in 2016 with 15 then highest was 69 in 2013. I see very few on trail cams even today.

I may be a little behind on my regimen.

I see that the new gravity feeders are dang expensive and not even racoon proof, so I brought home my existing 850 pound All Seasons feeder and sent it to my welder with my ideas to make it 100% racoon proof guaranteed. All those racoons that have been raiding my protein feeder for the last 3 years are so fat that the Louisianans will kill to hunt them for food, no offense to the Louisianans. I won't show my fabricating ideas yet until I have it set up for pictures

Good luck!

Did you fix your raccoon issue?

Nope, I don't let them bother me. If I see one, I will get in to him, but I do not waste my time purposefully going after these varmints. I know all kinda ways, but none are worth my time or $. If I had nothing to do, may do it differently.

Protein is expensive, lol. A single racoon eats about 5 pounds of protein per night, imagine a family of raccoons. I seen a family of 5 to 6 at one time, like 4 times a week according to camera pics. Not spending my money making raccoons fat.

I have a buddy that uses 4+ inch pvc on the legs on his, it has kept them off for him.

We have All season stand and fill feeders, think they hold like 400 lbs or so, the coons dont hang on them.

So a deer eats about 8 lbs a day and then those pesky little furry coon babies consume 5 lbs each and every one of 'em?

Sorry, its a family of racoons that can can eat 5 lbs of protein each night. I misread it on a forum on another site.

Been feeding protein for many, many years now. Started off with barrels and have utilized various free flow feeders. In addition, I have seen and heard about many others. We have recently gotten everything to stand & fill and are now relying on these molded plastic units from Texas Hunter on IH 35 near downtown San Antonio. Stumbled across one by chance three years ago and now these are all we have. There are reasons.

Cost effective in comparison to similar volume size units.
Easy as all get out to move around.
Stable on the ground.
Have proven to be durable.
We believe there is little in the way of loss to varmints.
The round ports are highly desired (here) over square and certainly rectangular trough delivery. Few issues when rain actually comes to South TX.
The plastic does not get as hot as metal so as not to "bake" the protein during the hot summer months.
Back your truck right up to it and fill off the tailgate - huge plus.

I have no affiliation with this outfit, none, zero. I just like the product.

AS Timed Protein feeder or AS Evo or Stand & Fill gravity feeder. It doesn't have a coon perch for them to set on.

We swapped out an ASF protein for a HB. The coons definitely can't get into it, but the jury is still out on if it was worth it ($$ wise)

HB has a good design. I just despise anything with a trough in lieu of a port.

I don't have time to run a bunch of traps every day but if you hit them hard with Duke traps for awhile, they will get the message and move on. Eventually, another family of bandits will ahow up and school starts again.