what would you guys do?

[saddlebum]

i picked up another 80 acre lease,it has alot of tracks and a few old rubs , but it doesn't have water on it. the closest water is 1/3 of a mile away on some one else's property. would you put out a stock tank and haul water to it or not worry about it? bear in mind i aint rich like dennishoddy so no suggestions of drilling a well and putting up a wind mill. thanks

 

[brennan]

bear in mind i aint rich like dennishoddy so no suggestions of drilling a well and putting up a wind mill. thanks

^ This

 

[nobuttbrian]

i picked up another 80 acre lease,it has alot of tracks and a few old rubs , but it doesn't have water on it. the closest water is 1/3 of a mile away on some one else's property. would you put out a stock tank and haul water to it or not worry about it? bear in mind i aint rich like dennishoddy so no suggestions of drilling a well and putting up a wind mill. thanks

1/3 of a mile isn't really that far away.I would put out a feeder and call it good.If you have another place to hunt, maybe leave this one until late season, esp. if there is a lot of hunting pressure around it

 

[dlbleak]

we have a place east of binger that has no water on it. we tossed around the idea of a stock tank or getting the old windmill thats there running. the deer still come through and we never did anything except use high protein feed supplements in out feeders. seems to work well.

 

[Deer Slayer]

I would not worry about the water. I would concentrate on locating the travel corridors of the deer. The deer are moving during the coolest part of the night right now. I would walk the edge of the timber and look for tracks coming out of the trees. If you want to see if the deer are using the area I would suggest you put out some protein pellets which has an alfalfa base then drizzle pancake syrup over the pile. Deer are curious and are suckers for something sweet. Yes, the coons will hit it too. I use a deer and elk chow that I get at Cross Brand Feed Store at NE 63rd & Bryant Ave in OKC. It's over by Remington Park and costs around $12.00/50 pounds. Corn is fine, it is cheap, but it is primarily carbohydrate and approx 6% protein. Whereas the D & E chow is 20% protein and that is what the deer need now. Corn is desireable during the winter to keep them warm because of the carbohydrates. Plus if the deer do not have the necesssary enzymes in their intestines to digest the corn then it is of little value to them. When I start feeding corn I add some protein pellets with it initially in order to develop the necessary enzymes in their stomach/intestines to better digest the corn. Then I back off the protein pellets because the deer can get their protein from my food plots.

Right now is 1 of 2 most stressful times in the whitetails annual life cycle. The food source is dried and stemmy and low in protein. The fall rains stimulate the forbs and food plots and the fresh growth is higher in protein. The second most stressful time is late December,January, February and part of March before green up. The food sources are dormant and they must survive on stored fat and browse. I feed a mixture of corn and deer chow during the winter months when they have little to eat and right now I am feeding the deer chow only because the deer need the protein. The bucks racks should have reached maturity by now and the photoperiod is slowly shortening causing the blood flow to the velvet to decrease. The does need to protein to build her body back up and produce milk for her speckled butts. The speckled butts need the protein to grow a better bone structure and prepare for their first winter. The spots should be fading now.

Nutrition is key to their development and maintenance. The better the nutrition the better the animal does. My harvested animals are butterball fat from being on a high protein diet year round.

 

[J.T.]

I read an article in one of the bow hunting mags a while back where the author had the same situation. During early bow season he hunted over/near the water rather than a food source with success. His method was to use Koi pond liners and dam up a natural depression and line it with the plastic. Used 55gal. drums loaded in his pick up to deliver water and filled them at the car wash.

 

[saddlebum]

I read an article in one of the bow hunting mags a while back where the author had the same situation. During early bow season he hunted over/near the water rather than a food source with success. His method was to use Koi pond liners and dam up a natural depression and line it with the plastic. Used 55gal. drums loaded in his pick up to deliver water and filled them at the car wash.

that seems like alot of work when you could just buy a metal stock tank at atwoots etc. , deer drink from them all the time in western Ok. where there's nothing but wind mills

 

[Danny]

Don't worry about the water. There must be something on your property that keeps them coming back. Hunter pressure on surrounding land? Good, thick, bedding areas? Or maybe a very good food source? Find out what it is, and expand on that! A few salt or mineral blocks aren't expensive and will keep them coming back also. Maybe a couple of small, well placed food plots.

 

[saddlebum]

Don't worry about the water. There must be something on your property that keeps them coming back. Hunter pressure on surrounding land? Good, thick, bedding areas? Or maybe a very good food source? Find out what it is, and expand on that! A few salt or mineral blocks aren't expensive and will keep them coming back also. Maybe a couple of small, well placed food plots.

right now the place is covered with sand plums and i just put feeders out

 

[dennishoddy]

i picked up another 80 acre lease,it has alot of tracks and a few old rubs , but it doesn't have water on it. the closest water is 1/3 of a mile away on some one else's property. would you put out a stock tank and haul water to it or not worry about it? bear in mind i aint rich like dennishoddy so no suggestions of drilling a well and putting up a wind mill. thanks

Hey! didn't say I could afford it
Three years ago we had a really bad drought, so we got some of the rubber 50 gallon stock tanks, and set them out around the feeders. Put a camera on them, and got some really funny pics of racoons that would get inside of the tanks. The deer really used them. Used a 55 gal plastic drum in the back of the pickup to get the water out to them.