Deer water

[tumor96]

duckunder-
Thanks for the input and ideas. You may have just saved us a ton of work and money. We are going to go with a couple of 20x20 holes and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

JOe

[Everyday Hunter]

ORIGINAL: buckfarmdude

It probably depends alot on the climate, the time of year, and the temperature. I would be hard to say that they drink a certain amount a certain number of times a day.

I'd say that answer is right about on. I remember once meeting up with another hunter who told me that deer don't drink water at all -- that they get all the H2O they need from the plants they eat. If that's true, I guess all the photos I've seen of deer drinking water were actually of deer pretending to drink water. [;)]

Deer do drink water, but where water is abundant it does not factor into their daily movements. In the northwestern Pennsylvania climate, we get plenty of rain -- especially during hunting seasons. There is a creek running through every valley, and trickles coming down every hillside. It would be virtually impossible to pattern deer by their use of water. There's "water, water, everywhere," and every drop is drinkable.

ORIGINAL: 69Viking

I imagine D&DH has done an article on this in the past, might be a good time for them to do a refresher like they did recently with the deer calling article....

I don't remember ever seeing an article like that, so I'd like to see that one written, too. There is no doubt that deer get plenty of water from vegetation, especially when there is dew (or even frost) on the ground. So, around here, they're not making a bee-line to a water source at a particular time of the day.

Steve

[duckunder]

I have a trail camera at my water hole most of the year here in Southern Wisconsin, and this is what I have noticed with my pictures.........
  The summer months are usually very good for pic's..... especially if there has not been much rain lately...
   The fall time ( usually around september to middle of october ) the activity at my water hole shuts down quite a bit, I think because of the warm day and cool nights, which creates alot of dew on the alfalpha fields and grass, which gives the deer all they need to drink in a day.....
  When the end of october gets here and the first few weeks of November seem to be golden for me on my pics at the water hole.... especially when the rut is really on...  I have had numerous bucks on my camera that have their tongues hanging out of their mouth when they get to the water... I amagine they are doing so much work out chasing the girls around that they need lots of water to cool down.....  But, if there has been alot of rain during this time, my pics will be down considerably.... 

I once heard someone say that a Big Buck would rather take a drink out of a little mud hole, no bigger than 2 feet in size, than to put themselves in danger by going out in the open to drink out of a creek or river where everyone can see them......  Heck, I've seen deer drink the water out of an old dead stump that help water in the middle of it before.......

  I love hunting my water hole during the rut......... you never know what is going to show up and at anytime of the day......