Hey, Dick, ever hear of a "caps lock" button? More importantly, ever hear of turning it off?

I have also done the sunken tub, but unless it gets replentished regularly with fresh water, it becomes stagnant, buggy and could even grow toxic algae.A better way I have found is to put out a larger livestock water tank and dont bury it, so it can be drained and cleaned. To fill it use a large plastic tank in the back of the truck, like the farmers use for chemicals. Our soil does not hold water well, so my best waterholes are dug in waterways and lined with the black plastic used to cover silage pits. You must put at least 6 - 12 inches of dirt back in though, to prevent deer hooves from poking thru. If you dont have much water, on your place, it is a killer setup for early season and during the rut, when the bucks are on the go all day. During the very cold winter when everything is frozen I have a heated automatic water tank that used to be for cattle, that I keep going. Its visable from my house, and has deer drinking out of it all day all winter. Deer can go awhile without food, but they have to drink daily, even in the winter. Actually in winter they may even drink more because there is no more moisture in their food.

Good idea--now all I need is some land. I don't think the state will be too happy if I do this on public land and I know the Colonel would be pissed if I started digging holes on his Air Force base. I'll log this idea in my memory--one day I might have land or a lease where I can put this to use.

*worth to note that mine is a natural spring fed pond.

So, what Bestul sez is, "build it and they will come."

Would have to agree with Scott. I did the same thing in my backyard and they came. My story, a little different.
Dug the hole, dropped in the landscape tub from Home
Depot right next to the full size Palm Tree I planted.
Let the Seattle rains fill the tub (took 1 day). The very next dry sunny day saw streams of my neighbors showing up for a mai tai at "pool side!" Build it and they will come...

im going to try this project this season. maybe i will put a filter system in it to keep the water fresh.

Nothing intrinsically wrong with it, Bubba. If shooting livestock is your bag, go for it. But it's not "hunting" if you're conditioning the movements of the deer and putting up feed plots or feeders. It's just "shooting."

Seems a little close to baiting for me, legal or not.

There is a mud puddle as I call it in my father in laws back yard. It never dries up and it is a deer magnet.

Of course his property backs up to a State Park but it is where I saw the largest whitetail of my life. An hour before shooting hours of course.... too bad I am carrying the weight of a strong conscience. I wouldn't be able to enjoy looking at that deer if I had taken it illegally. He was HUGE......

Every spot that I am able to hunt, has either a creek or river.
A food plot is my best investment. Three of the five places I hunt have areas for food plots. The other two are grain fields.
When waterways are high, or low, it changes the travel patterns of the local wildlife. This is the biggest impact that water has where I hunt!

BubbaFirst

I tried this with a kid swimming pool and a buck gored holes in it with his antlers. Sometimes I wonder if the beavers should be shot for taking out pines because of the positive habitat they create for wildlife. Anyways, I am going to keep thinning out the beavers and continue to read tracks and rubs to key in on dominant bucks. Its can be frustrating to hunt a scrape line to find out you spent all season going after a basket rack. My best chance at the big boy is early bow season when pressure is less and they can be patterned more easily. After that I have had to resort to shooting jogging bucks moving 9am in the morning, or right before dark. If you don't want to improve your habitat chances are your neighbor will and you'll know where all those opening day shots are coming from.

Got to thinking about it Mike D.

Honestly?
The area I hunt in has a "large" population of deer!
There is so much agricultural activity in the area, the present population is in no danger of starving due to overbrowsing. What they are in danger of is under hunting, strange as that may seem.
The older hunters have been conditioned to NOT shoot does. The younger hunters don't mind shooting does, there's just not that many hunters!
You gotta purchase a hunting license (nearly 50 bucks for a resident) THEN, you gotta buy the appropriate "tag" for either buck or doe. Most of the older hunters, and I've heard it more than once.... "Ain't paying no twenny bucks to shoot an ol' doe!"
EVERYBODY wants a trophy buck. So do I, but at least I can understand that to get trophy bucks, ya gotta get rid of bunch of does.
Last I heard, preferred ratio was one buck to one doe. The ratio here is probably 20 does to 1 buck!
This state could close the "buck" season for 2 years and still not get the ratio back into balance!
If it takes food plots and feeders to get the does to come in to my range.... I'll do my part to try and rebalance the herd. Besides, you can't eat antlers!

Bubba

My season begins with bow hunting in public land which has a limited number of access walk only roads, no scents, bait, or anything and in pre season scouting I found where 2 respectable 8 points were feeding/crossing, so I have my spot picked out and later I only walk past and into 2 hunters that basically had the same idea as me and then I set up and do some real hunting. I then drive to the lease and basically arrow a doe and drink beer by the fire contemplating how and where to take a dominant buck.. I respect both sides and like a challenge, but Bucks aren't worried about corn, and it is still challenging closing the deal with scent, corn, rattling, food plots, salt licks, ponds, and tall shooting blinds on private property, I mean there not in a highfence cage, or anything. Hell I am pushing for the club to put in 4 more feeders, and better food plots, I want a high deer density.

Dr. Ralph

The only reason we don't have a problem with deer destroying horticulture is we don't have a "metropolitan" area, BUT, the nearest "passenger" airport does have a problem with deer on the runways at night!
Here, the problem really isn't the number of deer. There's enough agriculture to feed twice what we have. The problem, according to game biologist, is inbreeding due to "buck:doe" ratio.
I've seen what happens!
First, you get hugh herds of does!
Next, you notice that there are no really decent bucks even though there are tons of 'em.
Then, IF you can find a deer, (buck?) he will have a massive 5 to 7 point rack with at least an eight to ten inch spread and will field dress an awe inspiring 75 to 80 lbs.!
Somewhere along the way, spike bucks will become the norm.
Oh yeah! This doesn't happen overnight. It will probably take 10 to 15 years to come full cycle then another 15 to 20 to re-establish a healthy herd!!

Bubba

Good to see ya back. Yooperjack and Blue ox are still around from those times as well. I enjoyed your postings glad to see you came back.

Yep Dr. Ralph

I still have lots of questions.
I HAVE all the answers, NONE of which is what I want to hear! Only my Lord and Savior was able to get me through.
One friendship I developed on this site was a tremendous help, whether he knows it or not!
I also spent lots of time out in woods butting trees. Didn't do anything but damage the trees, just made me feel better! There were lots of deer that walked by my stand that lived because I just didn't feel like pressing the trigger!

Bubba

I also spent lots of time out in woods butting trees. Didn't do anything but damage the trees, just made me feel better! There were lots of deer that walked by my stand that lived because I just didn't feel like pressing the trigger!