Water Hole Hunting

[binney59]

Getting past the bait pile mentality is an excellent point, most people look at it as just that.

I have a spot that is somewhat near a bedding area that only holds water a few months out of the year that I would like to enhance. I am planning on cutting a 275 gallon IBC tote in half and burying a portion of it so that not as much of the water seeps back into the ground. The problem I run into is that this is a fairly remote area and hauling in water would be a huge pain. I was thinking about hanging a tarp 6' above it and cutting a small hole in the middle, directly over the water spot so that the tarp collects water and funnels it right into my water hole. My other idea would be to do something similar but at ground level with a sheet of plywood and some eve troughs. Do you think that either contraption would scare deer off? I would think they would get used to it after a while but dont want to screw things up. The ground is pretty level so channeling water to that spot would be difficult as well.

[Singing Bridge]

There are many contraptions that deer hunters have developed to get water into their water hole... some were successful and some were not. I believe Deerslayer posted on a number of them some time back. Some of the devices were successful with big bucks getting caught on trail cam using them... keeping human scent away from the water hole is of primary importance whatever you use. I would also make sure that your tote isn't adding any odor to the water... it doesn't take much to keep the deer away.

I believe there is a good chance of deer using your water hole if they are given enough time to get used to it and you keep the area as scent free as possible.

[dan]

Getting past the bait pile mentality is an excellent point, most people look at it as just that.

I have a spot that is somewhat near a bedding area that only holds water a few months out of the year that I would like to enhance. I am planning on cutting a 275 gallon IBC tote in half and burying a portion of it so that not as much of the water seeps back into the ground. The problem I run into is that this is a fairly remote area and hauling in water would be a huge pain. I was thinking about hanging a tarp 6' above it and cutting a small hole in the middle, directly over the water spot so that the tarp collects water and funnels it right into my water hole. My other idea would be to do something similar but at ground level with a sheet of plywood and some eve troughs. Do you think that either contraption would scare deer off? I would think they would get used to it after a while but dont want to screw things up. The ground is pretty level so channeling water to that spot would be difficult as well.

I would attempt to dig it deeper... I would also consider thickening up the area between the bedding and water to enhance daytime movement if the hole is only "somewhat" near bedding.

[binney59]

Thanks for the heads up on some contraptions people have tried, I will search back through the old posts to see if I can find it, but I agree that scent free will be the key.

I will see if I can dig it down further as that would be the least invasive but I know there is a lot of clay in that area. I will for sure be thickening up that area- along with most of the rest of the woods. Thanks!

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