gringo220

Curious to know if anyone makes their own. I know I can make some for way less then the store brands and make a lot more. I read the ingredients in most of them and they're mainly salts. I was thinking some cracked corn, salts, brown sugar, soybean and molasses. Maybe some peanut butter. I hear some people say yes to peanut butter but some say not to use it. Does anyone here have a special blend of ingredients they use? Any tips would be appreciated!

Major Woods

Peanut butter works great, also have used vanilla extract with good results

lil jake

yea ive used vannilla and maple syrup mixed up and poured on a log or base of a tree and deer love it cuz they love the sweetness... and it has a strong smell 2 bring em in

GSHUNTER

Rice Bran works good in East Texas. Around $8 for a 50lb. bag at a feed store. Also try mixing some dry molasses with it.

Mojotex

My "Paw-Paw" was a trapper. He made all of his trap cover scents and attractants from natural scents ... using the critters he trapped. Scent glands, scent oils and critter urine that he collected from the beaver, muskrat, mink, fox, coon, etc. that he caught in his traps. He showed me how to do this before he passed .... so when I first started taking white tail hunting seriously, I looked to the commercial scents. I bought into all of the hype .... one I recall with not s find a memory is "skunk" scent as a cover ... Lord only knows what i was thinking !! And I tried a bunch of stuff. None of which I can attest to that made one iota of a difference as far as I could tell. At the end of the season, season after season, I would have seen and killed about what I did during the previous years of not using this stiff. I had foregone what Paw-Paw had taught me ... go "natural".

Somewhere in the early 1970's I started doing what Paw-Paw did. I started collecting deer urine from the bladders of deer I killed ... and removing "oily" tarsal glands. I freeze what I do not need. I use this stuff to make drag-rags, sweeten existing scrapes and "mark" territory.

I can attest that this technique has worked. Every time ? No. Some times ? For sure ... yes. I have had both does and bucks follow my drag-rag trail right up to the base of the tree where I was sitting 15'-20' off the ground. I have dropped I'd guess 10-12 good bucks when the stopped to sniff where I had rubbed several saplings with a tarsal gland or poured a table spoon or so of deer urine in an existing scrape. When I started doing this, I found that at the end of the season I had seen a few more and taken a few more nice bucks than during previous years.

I have to say that I am not saying that this is not a "sure thing". What is other than a small area, high fence inside which bucks are strictly managed for trophy?

I have had deer walk right over a drag rag trail and not pay any attention to it. And have had bucks come into the area down wind from a soaking wet, fresh tarsal I had hung nearby and never check up. But as for me, I think that this works well and I am going to stay with it. If for no other reason than a tribute to my "paw-paw".

gringo220

Thanks for the tips! I never thought of vanilla extract I'll give that a try to. I might make a few different brews and see what they tend to like more!

Buckyou

apple juice or cider works.

don't pour it out, use a spray bottle.

deerdust

Various fruits are also very good attractants. Apples, pears, or bananas (minus the peel), to the point of browning put off a good sweet aroma, and a tasty treat for them as well.

NEBRbruiser

I've come up with my own blend that has worked better than anything I've tried and I've tried about everything out there. I basically just did a ton of research online about what deer like, whats good for them, etc, etc. So I got ahold of the local feed mill to see if they could get all the ingredients I wanted and sure enough he can. I've given some to some friends and they have put in front of cams and WOW! Its workin and they keep coming back. I'm actually looking into getting this mixture out to more people to see more results and see if I need to adjust the mixture any. Then potentially selling to all my buddies and their friends etc. Not trying to make a million dollars, just like to see my buddies have results and get good cam pics. The mixture is things like soymeal, dried distillers, molasses, rolled corn, rice bran, and calcium and phos and other minerals. Hard to beat.

gringo220

I keep reading rice bran works to. I'll give that a try to! Might as well make the next year trial and error. I'll buy u all the fruit from the grocery store that goes on sale because it's starting to get old. Can't hurt I guess! Thanks guys!