The feeder in those pictures is a protein feeder. It's a demand feeder and the deer can eat from it 24/7/365 unless they empty it before I get back down to fill it. The peak usage is in late January to early March and then again in late May to mid July depending on rainfall. That feeder holds 350lbs of pellets and in peak periods they can eat that much in 3 weeks. Right now they are eating about 50lbs every couple months.

I do have a couple timed spin feeders and they do a lot better job of attracting pigs than deer. I run mine on a limited basis (i.e. very short spin time) all year long as well. I've never had the experience of a feeder going off and deer running up to it though.

I'm going scouting tomorrow on a friend's place in New Mexico who is going to be trading me a hog hunt here in Texas at my place for a mule deer hunt there on their place. The license is $275 so I'm scouting tomorrow to make sure there is a decent chance of a shooter buck before buying the license for next weekend.

They've shot some respectable deer there in the past though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.