Here is a water cather I built just to give you an ideal on what they can look like. Not hard to build and this one will hold 320 gallons of water. I do top it off everytime I go to the lease and it works perfect.

Nice setup, might want to dig the trough down some to lower it for the smaller animals to drink. A fawn this summer will not be able to reach the water level. Also put a piece of cattle panel or some concrete cinder blocks in it so if a bird or small critter falls in they can get out and not die in the trough if you have not already.

Digging it down would also help insulate it and reduce loss from evaporation.

Mine are Democrate deer too... They know what time the feeder is going off...

I hate to ask a stupid question, but here goes... Do deer actually have to drink water to live, or is it possible that they get all the water they need in browse foliage?

Yes and No. In normal rainfall or better years they do not have to drink much water as they can get it thru the vegitation the consume. But in a drought with a taller browse line and not many green forbes then yes they will drink water. If you feed protein they will drink more water also. In South Texas they can eat cactus or browse plants and get enough moisture to survive on for a while if needed in drier times. At the same time adding water is probably the single most over looked management tool for all wildlife.

The cheapest would be to keep a low density on your property. Suplemental feeding and selective harvest generaly rais the population. If you keep the population where it should be naturaly then you deer should stay healthy, especialy if you feed.

But I like to go out and see a bunch of deer and have more chances at growing a tropy, so you pay to feed them when it gets dry.

We keep the protein full and have a tank that will go dry in about a month and have 2 large 20' round cement water trouphs and a 80 gal water trough at each feeder we fill every time we go. In wet conditions the troughs at the blinds evaporate and grow algea, but now they are near empty or empty every time.

matt

If you are in the cotton raising area check with area gins about there cotton burr pile (low protein ,free inseason and then burned) and somebody to haul a truck load. Dump corn, protein, molasses, mineral on top of pile. Desperate people do desperate thing BTDT

Outback Wildlife Feeders makes a great water guzzler. I bought 3 last year and they work well, but you still need rain. We haul water to them with this setup when there is no rain and it works so well one man can do it alone.

KCR Got any pics of the deer using that Outback Watering System ?

we see quite a few deer go to water but certainly not all of our population

I don't have my game camera over the water, but I have seen them use it in person. I watched from about 500 yards as several does would eat protein and then go over and drink from the guzzler.