I know this has been discussed but as usual it comes up every year. Who else out there waters their deer. Where we hunt we have been hit hard by drought and im sure lost alot of deer but it seems that our efforts of watering have saved a few lives and i have seen a few fawns and seems that a few does are pregnant yet again. what are yalls opinions? and what ways do you water

This doe has been a champ having a fawn this year that started to nub already not to sure if thats common or not and looks to be pregnant yet again. we call her hog nose. thought about shooting her but is to good of a breeder at the moment.

If I could had to spend money on one thing only, I would spend it to improve water on any piece of ground that has limited amounts of it. Spreading out or adding more water areas lets animals utilize the entire property and habitat better.

Water is always, always important. We bulldozed a new, big tank last year and dredged the others.

Never too much water out here in the West. Right now what I would give for just a 1-3 inch rain.

Yea they drink a good 300+ gallons of water every 4 months or so. doesnt sound like much but i do have a tank near by that waters cows. but as yall said the more water the better.

Like Stx said, water is the key. I like leaky water troughs fed by windmills, or dirt tanks fed by wind.

My goal is to have a line of these across the pasture. I took these pics during the worst part of the drought. All it is is a 1" pvc with a sprinkler and hose bip.

http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b509/HornHillCam2/1361284006_zpsc7078761.jpg

This is my little water hole. It is the only water on the property and it comes from a spring. I had noticed the continually wet spot in the ground and dug it out to pool the water. Except during the height of the drought, this spring has produced water and then I had to truck it in for the critters. In all, the pool holds about 300 gallons when it is cleaned out. The flow from the spring is sufficient to produce about 4 gallons per hour surplus that over flows into an overflow pit.

The time and effort into keeping this little water hole functioning has really been beneficial. I have had up to 12 turkeys, 6 or 7 deer, 20+ hogs (yeah mostly piglets) show up as groups to use the water hole (not all at the same time, LOL). It isn't much water, but it is consistent and the animals know it is there.

I would agree that if there is something you can do to provide water for your wildlife when they don't have access to it close by, then providing the water will be beneficial. The happier the wildlife, the happier the hunter.

We dont have any hogs to thankfully we can leave our big 300 gallon barrels out there without any worries. they do need to be filled but i think if the deer always have water and have food provided by us alot will survive the droughts texas throws at us. to bad it sounds like so many people lost alot of deer.

Nice little water hole Double Naught...shaded and all...

they need it

Yes on the water

During the height of the drought, I established watering stations at each of my feeder locations. As a result, I was able to hold the herd on my ranch. My neighbor had a small amount of water near the area where I was completely dry and I think I prevented them from relocating. Broke my arm patting myself on the back. Had it all figured out until I visited with a wildlife specialist from Kerrville. My question to him involved a few of my ponds that were again almost dry and have become hog hotels. The water is nothing but soup. Nasty! What he told me was surprising. He said that evidence proved that deer would pass up my water tubs to go the pond soup! I am really in a quandary as to what I need to do now. I am sure that my clean water is a lot healthier then the pond soup but I’m just not sure how I can get my deer to the labels.

The only thing that I know for sure is that hauling water is a very time consuming job.