Have any of you guys ever tried to use tanks to put water out for game on your leases or ranches? I saw a picture that looked like someone had rigged up a barrel to provide water into a trough for the deer. Looked sort of like a glorified dog bowl on a bigger scale. I was just curious if anyone had found anything that worked well.

Just joined the forum. Found it yesterday and haven't been able to work real well since...Headed to the ranch today so if I can devise something this weekend I will share pics.

There are past threads on this you can track down with pics and ideas. Many use the "guzzler" concept, with an elevated 'tin roof' style rain collection platform feeding into a gutter system which fills a barrel/container reservoir. Pipe it to a trough of some sort with a simple float valve and you have the basics. Can also skip the rainwater collector if you have a convenient water source and the means to keep the reservoir full.

welcome!!!

It is great if you do not have water year round on your place!!

I use short rubbermaid containers and other various shallow containers. May I suggest something fairly shallow because the deeper it is the more weird things get stuck and die in it. I even found a dead owl once before I shallowed them up. The rain water thing really helps out too.

I just built one, 8X10 tin roof draining into a 275 gallon tote. I need to figure out what to put in the tank to keep the water from getting funky right away.

Use a black tank this will keep sunlight out and not allow any fungus to grow.

ah... mine is white, guess i'll spray paint it black.

thanks

Where I have deeper troughs I always put a cedar branch, rocks, or even a scrap piece of cattle panel in it to allow a ramp or climb out route. Nothing like fishing a drowned skunk out of a trough that didn't have one (twice!).

Thats a good idea.

Het Bill, welcome to the forum

We tried it on our lease but only watered the squirrels and birds. Never did get a pic of a deer using it so we gave up. I did find some weird dead things in there too but never a skunk.

Bill,

Took float out of the dog bowl setup and installed on a washtub. Deer drink out of it all the time. I replenish weekly (about 30 gallons). Good luck whatever you come up with.

Here is the one I built this year. Pretty simple to build and has been working great! This set up will hold a little over 300 gallons.

Thanks for all the input and various pictures and video. I hope to someday have a deer like that drinking from my trough. I will probably use some sort of adaptation of all the above ideas. I'm not convinced that rainwater collection would be that effective since we rarely get rain. (We are out near Rocksprings) But if would be worth having for when it does rain.