Those are all great ideas and probly all work great . I made several feedersthis year also but only used 5 gallon buckets w/ lids then I would drill a 1" inch hole in thecenter bottom then I would go out a find a sapling a little smaller than the hole then put a screw or nailthrew the sapling good and long enough to hold the sapling in the buck threw the hole . Fill bucket w/ feed and hang up wherethe end of sapling comes to about waist high or to where you think the deer can hit it. The deer will pick up to hit the sapling to get food .It's a copy cat of some you might have seen at stores but cheaper and works I think much better cause most of the feed goes to the deer unlike the free-flow feeders where birds , coons ect.. willget alarge portion of it also so you can fill the 5 gallon bucketseasy but I they lastmuch much longer than others cause its all for the deer. I'vemade several of these this year and I can trust the feed I put into them is going where I want it to go and savesome money on feed . I used to use the free-flows too but I was going through 200lbs of deer feed a week per feeder and I had 3 .Now I made 5 of these bucket feeders anda 100lbs of feedhas stretched me about3 weeks and have been getting tons of deer on my trail cams.If I find a pics of it I will putthem up .