RE: What's the best way to attract deer?
 

That's a little un-called for man. He's just looking for some more ideas. What do you think these forums are for? Over 2k posts, and you've never tried to get any new ideas?!

RE: What's the best way to attract deer?
 

I prefaced my comments with "I may be out of line here"....if I was, I apologize.

I have never not tried to help anyone when it comes to deer hunting. Conversly, like you, I have also put questions to this board in the hopes of getting positive input. That's what this place is all about. The information from the folks here can be priceless.

That being said, let's examine why I asked the questions I did.

From you initial post:
....."The land is great...it has a little bit of everything. 2 big clearings, a slough (thanks to the beavers), and small stream running from a lake at the south end of the property to a lake just across the highway on the north end of the proprty, a large hill (I'd guess about 500 ft. higher elevation than the base)....basically its got a little bit of everything for Northern Minnesota. Anyways, we've seen tons of deer up there and I actually shot this buck last year, even though we purchased the land about a month before hunting season and had very little time to scout out the area.

Based on your comments, the area is great, has a little bit of everything, it has tons of deer and you even tagged a beautiful buck with little time to scout.
My thoughts: "If that's the case imagine how successful you and you buddies would do if you had lots of time to scout."

Why would I ask a few questions (as you say), I was simply reading your post. There never seemed any reason to ask further questions.

Then you ask about attracting deer with feeders....Why would you want to do that if: ....the area is great, has a little bit of everything, it has tons of deer and you even tagged a beautiful buck with little time to scout.

Another quote from you:
When I said "I've seen tons of deer up there" I meant in the area. Obviously if I've seen tons of deer on our land, I wouldn't be asking this question.

Based on you own words, how is anyone supposed to understand that you meant the area when all you did was talk about your little piece of woods that showed the pic of the buck you tagged from the land you purchased?

Botton line:
If I offended you, it was because I failed to understand the entire situation based on your own comments. That being said, again, I apologize and I wish all the best this hunting season........Jimmy

RE: What's the best way to attract deer?
 

I guess I should have been a little more specific in my initial post. Obviously I'm not just going to pick some arbitrary spot and set up my stand and hope the deer come. We've spent a lot of time up there scouting out the trails, finding droppings, etc. We've found what we feel are five pretty decent spots for the five guys that hunt the land.

I guess what I was actually trying to achieve was alternative methods to keeping the deer in the area. Not necessarily to walk right in front of my stand, but to possibly attract more deer to the area. We typically use corn and a salt/mineral block, but I've heard many other methods used as well. I was just looking for some other examples and your experiences with it, that's all.

RE: What's the best way to attract deer?
 

2 big clearings,plant them with something green. If you put out feeders it will make most of the deer feed at nite ,you may kill some small ones at the feed stations .Like they say plant and they will come and stay .Another thing you can do is set aside part of the land for a place you do not go for no reason,let them feel safe there.Hope this helps .

RE: What's the best way to attract deer?
 

find some edge on your land and set up a mock scrape.
works wonders for me.
mine is on the egde of woods and a small 1/4 acre plot i put in.
i actually have 2 mocks one on the east side and one on the west side.
the other day i noticed someone else made a scrape 20 ' from the one i put in.
have yet to see this buck though.
i spray mine 2 times a week starting in late sept.
i'll start to hit it with esterous around the 20th of october.
get the boys a little worked up early.
i hit it with buck, doe pee at first then buck and esterous later.