Drought

[1mathom1]

We hunt NW of Alva on the state line. (You can see Ted Turner's bison herd from our northernmost stand).

It is the driest I have ever seen. Almost no forage. Very little sign. Usually see rubs and tracks just anywhere you want to look. Nothing. And no scrapes in the usual places.

Local oil well pumper (usually a good source of sighting reports) is seeing nothing but a few does in all the usual buck haunts.

All the ponds are dry. The creek is spring fed but this year the only water is right at the spring. Within a few yards, the creek bed soaks it up. Will concentrate on the water but the cows on the place will bugger that up....guaranteed.

May be a tough year.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm in about this same situation. Normally the creek has water in it, and I have lush food plots. This year, bare dirt. Grasshoppers ate the first planting, and the second is still laying in the ground waiting on moisture. This little rain will help some, but not with the water situation.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

That was the issue we had last year. It stayed so hot, so late in the year, that it was hard to get deer moving before sunset. We decided to try corn feeding to leech game off our neighbors water source, but his high dollar food plots proved more valuable. Our shortest shot ended up 435 yards, with a 515 long as they continually crossed the wheat from crp bedding to the water source.

We ended up throwing in the towel and got a cousin to drill us a well, and put in a solar cell pump and float cutoff. We drilled in a food plot, and while we're seeing deer on cam, it's mainly at night. I'm really hoping on this cold snap to last a while, get them deer moving early like it was years ago.

 

[Okie4570]

The last of my water holes dried up to just a mud hole this last week. Hopefully this last rain helped put some standing water back in it. There's a windmill not 50 yards from it. The landowner and myself have discussed several times about getting it going again, or dropping a pump.

 

[dennishoddy]

Yeah, I've got a windmill on my little spot it still turns, and the pump is hanging in the casing from a chain. Fixing it would solve a lot of problems.