Not the local tavern...
I'm talking about making a watering hole for deer, to attract & help hold deer on ones hunting land. What's the trick to knowing if it's worth creating 1. I want to make 1, but how do I know if it will naturally hold water?

My sons and I put one in last year. Had a very small spring in the woods. Sent kids back with my bull dozer and roughed out a small pond. Had to put some tarps down to help retain water. Had deer tracks there within a week. Without some moving water I would think it would turn stagnant.

you need moving water and patience to let it naturally silt in.i have 5 ponds of different sizes on my 50 acres thanks in part to a tremendously nice spring i've never saw not running.

Here they block a drainage or dig a hole in a low spot in a pasture/field.

Dog - Sounds like you're speaking of beaver?

As already stated,it needs to have some movement.
Another problem is water holes attract bugs,Nat's are the worst
Most worry about cwd,but no one talked about blue toung and other bug born deer killers. These take more deer every year than cwd has in it's known history. So use caution with placement of a water hole. Just what I have learned.
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Do deer near you travel a long way to find water in Wisc? Might be the ticket.

This, but, if you have no natural water...

Buy a horse tank and take It out In the woods. Drive out with your ATV and fill It.
You just can't dig a hole In the ground and come up with a pond. The tank Is a no brainer.

Will the deer drink out of It? who knows but if there isn't any other water around I'm betting they will. Then plant your red topped turnips around the tank and start killing deer.

Even with a permanent pond 60 years old and spring fed, I don't see a lot of deer tracks there. I think deer take in most of the needed water as dew when they browse at night and dawn.
The only way to "hold deer on one's hunting land" is for that land to big enough to comprise the deer's entire home range. They move something like 29hours a day.

Don't know anything about building a pond but what this guy said is true. My brothers and I found at least 6 dead deer last year. We sent some pics of a deer that had died only minutes ago to a neighbor that works at the Penn State test lab and he said Blue tongue. Couldn't tell you how many died that we didn't find but it knocked some of our population back! BE CAREFULL. you may end up doing more harm than good if it geys muddy around the pond site.

A few years ago, we had a drought and very hot summer for the area. I always have resident does and fawns in my back yard. I put out a couple of buckets of water for the deer and whatever else was thirsty. Every day, we had deer, fox, birds, squirrels etc, hitting those buckets. I changed them out daily to keep clean. It was cool watching 5 or 6 deer, waiting in line for a cool drink of clean water. They never even thought twice about putting thier snoot in a bucket.
As far as a permanent water hole, it depends on the location and water source. I have seen lots of small holes on high ground, that always had water, but they looked quite nasty. Deer will use them, but if water is not replaced often, it can be a breeding ground for disease. I hope it works out.

I do kind of wonder if they spread disease. Some of you might be raising a very legitemate concern.

AJE I will take a deer sanctuary over a waterhole any day. And what I mean by that is. 10% or more of your hunting property is groomed to be a THICK bedding area. With a food plot or two inside.
And you never go inside during hunting season. Unless its to bring out a deer after dark.
You can't break that rule or it does not work,and you waisted all time and effect for nothing.

I hear ya.

we would never think of dragging a deer out until after closing time. Sometimes If It's late In the day we won't even gut It till dark. You don't want to run any deer out of your ground to someone else hunting the perimeter.

Don't make this any harder then It Is.

Does a skid steer work well to build watering holes?

It has been my experience that deer will walk past a clear bubbling stream to drink out of a muddy water hole. If you have a good clay layer and are careful not to dig through it, you can make a seasonal water hole.

Don't have any running water in the land I hunt and I've seen them drinking out of mud holes and little spray ponds on the farm. Don't see deer dying anywhere from it. Ponds get dug all the time. Problem will be getting one dug that will always hold water without a stream or ditch or spring entering it

I set up an old cast iron bath tub and haul water to it. One year it only had a couple inches of water in it so next day I took a tank of water down there and drove up to it pretty fast and there was two half grown coons in it, the sides were slick and they had a time getting out of it. In dry weather all the critters esp. deer keep the grass wore down around it.

After the coon deal I keep a 4'' pole in it so they can climb out and not drown when it has more water in it.