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Chopped Drills Perfect For Wildlife Plots
Why buy an expensive wildlife plot drill when you can make two of them out of an old grain drill that you can pick up for next to nothing? Ralph Zirbel cut his old 8-ft. Case drill into two 4-ft. plot drills, one for use with an ATV and one with a 3-pt. hitch for mounting on tractors.
"I use them to plant soybea
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Chopped Drills Perfect For Wildlife Plots DRILLS 30-2-4 Why buy an expensive wildlife plot drill when you can make two of them out of an old grain drill that you can pick up for next to nothing? Ralph Zirbel cut his old 8-ft. Case drill into two 4-ft. plot drills, one for use with an ATV and one with a 3-pt. hitch for mounting on tractors.
"I use them to plant soybeans, sorghum, sudangrass, and even turnips. Wheel to wheel, they measure about 6 feet," says Zirbel. "The 3-pt. model is handy for backing into tight areas."
Cutting the drill in half was the easy part. The next step was to weld sections of an old 20-in. truck frame to the two open ends of the drill frames. This closed the frames off and provided a mounting area for wheels off an old house trailer. Zirbel welded the axle stubs to the bottom edges of the new frame ends.
Of course, the ground-driven drive shaft had also been cut in two. Zirbel fashioned new hubs for the cut ends from white oak blocks that he fills with grease. The blocks are mounted to the inside of the welded steel plates. Pine plank was used to close up the open ends of the hoppers, and 5/8-in. hoses were added to the grass seeder outlets to spread the fine seed on top of the ground.
"When it went through the drill, it got buried too deep," says Zirbel about the modification.
He fabricated a hitch out of angle iron and box tube steel to attach to the one drill. Three-pt. hitch mounts were welded to the front frame of the second drill. A removable wheel was also mounted to the front of this drill to make it easier to move it around when not in use.
"I also made a bracket for the 3-pt. unit so it can also be used as a pull behind on a 4-wheeler," says Zirbel. "It only takes about three minutes to convert it."
Sandblasted and painted in crisp new Case colors, the drills are loaned out to folks wanting to establish wildlife plots. Zirbel makes them available through the local sportsman club and Pheasants Forever chapter and plans to make more.
"I have another old drill and plan on doing the same with it," he says. "We are trying to seed every nook and cranny around here to feed pheasants."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ralph Zirbel, N1562 Pray Ave., Neillsville, Wis. 54456 (ph 715 743 2353).
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