The best deer feeders

Spin or gravity: pick this first and the rest gets easy

Every feeder here is one of two machines. A spin (broadcast) feeder has a motor, a timer and a plate that flings corn out in a circle on a schedule. A gravity feeder is a hopper with holes in the bottom; the feed sits there until an animal eats it.

Spin feeders control when animals show up, which is what you want if you are hunting over the feeder or trying to pattern a sounder. Gravity feeders control what animals get, which is what you want for free-choice protein, and they have no motor, no battery and no timer to fail. We work the whole argument through on spin feeder vs gravity feeder; if you only read one other page before buying, read that one.

The second decision is how high the hopper sits. A tripod puts the hopper at a 6 ft fill height — a ladder and a bucket, every time. A sled feeder sits on the ground, which means you fill it standing up and can tow it behind a four-wheeler, but it also means hogs reach the hopper itself rather than just the spilled corn.

How we picked

We took every feeder in our registry, read each maker's own product page on October 11, 2026, and scored them on our published feeder rubric: hog resistance (30%), programmability (20%), capacity and fill (20%), build and weather durability (20%) and value (10%). The whole rubric is on how we choose. Nothing here was tested by us; every figure below is the maker's published number, linked to the page it came from.

One thing we deliberately did not reward: a big headline capacity on a thin hopper. Two of the feeders below publish hopper construction in detail — steel on the Boss Buck sled, thick-wall UV-protected HDPE on the Boss Buck gravity — and two publish "plastic hopper" and nothing more. We scored accordingly.

The five side by side

The picks in context

1. Moultrie Deer Feeder Connected (250 lb cellular tripod)

The reason this wins is that it removes the drive. Moultrie publishes built-in 4G LTE with auto-connect across all major networks, feed-on-demand from anywhere in the app, up to ten feed times a day at one to sixty seconds each, a feed-level detector, and low-feed, clog, jam and low-battery alerts. The 6V safety battery ships with the Moultrie 6V solar panel. 250 lb, 6 ft fill height, powder-coated steel legs in six sections, operating range 14°F to 140°F.

The honest costs: Moultrie requires a paid subscription for the cellular side — it publishes monthly and annual plans — the hopper is "thick plastic" rather than steel, and the warranty is one year. If you will not pay a plan, this feeder is a worse Pro Hunter III.

2. Moultrie 250 lb Pro Hunter III Tripod Feeder

The same 250 lb hopper and 6 ft tripod with the subscription taken out. Moultrie publishes a built-in timer, Bluetooth control via the app with no subscription, sunrise/sunset sync, custom schedules by day, up to ten feed times, high/medium/low throw speed and a metal spin plate. Pair it with an Edge 3 Series camera and you get cellular control anyway, which is the clever route to the winner's features without the winner's plan.

Costs: the 6V rechargeable battery is sold separately, Bluetooth means you have to walk to the feeder to change the schedule, and the warranty is again one year.

3. Boss Buck 300 lb Stand & Fill Sled Feeder

The one we would buy if we had to fill it in the dark in February. Boss Buck publishes 300 lb in a powder-coated steel body with a steel lid on two lockable latches, an enclosed timer and battery compartment, a feed window, a varmint guard grating, a 12V heavy-duty motor, two Quick Set programs plus sixteen adjustable timer slots, and a sled bottom with tow-hook and anchor holes. The solar panel is included; the battery is not.

Costs: it is on the ground, so hogs and raccoons are at the hopper, not just the scatter. 12V means a bigger, heavier battery than the 6V tripods. And it is the heaviest thing here to move once it is full.

4. Boss Buck 350 lb Gravity Protein Feeder

The free-choice protein answer, and the one with nothing to break. Boss Buck publishes about 350 lb of corn or 300 lb of large protein pellets through three 10 in, 4 in internal-diameter feed tubes set at a 10° angle with a drain hole in each port, a thick-wall UV-protected HDPE hopper, galvanized hardware, 78 in legs and a 34 x 32 x 35 in body. It also converts to a 12V spinner later if you change your mind.

Costs: no timer, so no control over when animals feed, and the angled tubes that keep rain out also hand hogs a free, continuous buffet if they can reach them. This is the pick for a protein programme, not for hunting over.

5. Moultrie Gravity Deer Feeder (tripod)

The cheapest route to feed on the ground, and there is a real argument for it. Moultrie publishes a 250 lb tripod gravity feeder with no electronics or batteries at all, a 6 ft fill height, a twist-lock detachable lid, powder-coated steel legs in six sections and Quick-Lock compatibility so you can convert it to a spinner.

Costs: no timing, no app, no alerts, a plastic hopper and a one-year warranty — and Moultrie's own listing does not state capacity in the Amazon title, which is the sort of detail that makes buying one online annoying.

Every one of these is a hog magnet, and you need a plan for that

This is a hog site, so we will say the thing most deer-feeder roundups leave out: a feeder full of corn is the most effective hog attractant you can install, and nothing on this list resists hogs on its own. Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute's work on exclusion fencing at feeding stations and AgriLife's publication on fencing feeders are the sources worth reading before you set one up, because they are about the only measures with evidence behind them.

Also worth knowing: in Texas, feeding and baiting rules differ by species and by whether you are hunting over it. Feral hogs on private land have no closed season, no bag limit and no restriction on hunting them over bait (TPWD Outdoor Annual); deer rules are not the same. Our Texas hog hunting laws page covers the hog side.

What to look for in a deer feeder

1. Spin or gravity, decided by your goal. Spin to control when animals come, gravity to provide free-choice feed. Buying the wrong one is the commonest mistake and no spec fixes it.
2. Capacity against your fill interval. A 250 lb hopper on two 15-second spins a day lasts weeks; on six long spins it does not. Work backwards from how often you are willing to drive out.
3. How it is controlled. Dumb timer, Bluetooth (walk to the feeder), or cellular (change it from the truck). Cellular normally means a subscription — budget for it.
4. Power, and whether the battery is included. Two of the five here do not include the battery. 6V is lighter; 12V drives a bigger motor and throws further.
5. Published construction, not adjectives. "Heavy duty" is not a material. Powder-coated steel and UV-protected HDPE are.
6. Varmint protection and a lockable lid. Raccoons get into hoppers, and a coon in a motor housing ends the season for that feeder.
7. Fill height versus your back. 6 ft and a ladder, or a sled you tow and fill standing up.
8. Warranty. One year on all three Moultries. Read the terms before you count on them.

Mistakes people make

• Buying capacity instead of fill access. A 350 lb hopper you cannot reach gets filled to 150 lb.
• Forgetting the subscription. A cellular feeder without a plan is a Bluetooth feeder with extra hardware.
• Assuming a varmint cage is hog protection. It protects the electronics. The corn is still on the ground.
• Running a spinner for 60 seconds, six times a day. That is a hog feeding programme, whatever you meant it to be.
• Skipping the solar panel. Two of these include one; if yours does not, add it. Dead batteries are the number one feeder failure.
• Setting it where you cannot drive in the wet. You will be filling this thing in February.
• No camera on it. You cannot manage what you cannot see; see best cellular trail cameras.