What's the best way to attract deer?
 

Hey guys...as my post below mentioned, I'm new to the forum, actually just stumbled upon it Monday morning while looking for some advice on trail cameras. Anyways, the purpose of my post is to find out what everyone thinks is the best method to attract deer.

Here's a little background...last year, my family and I walked into a deal that was too good to pass up and purchased 60 acres of land in Northern Minnesota, strictly for hunting, nothing else. 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.

The reason I'm asking is because we just recently built four feed bunks, which we typically fill with corn and a mineral block. However, I've heard many other suggestions as well.....apple blocks, vegetable blocks, vanilla, urine drip bags, and a variety of other things. We're about 3 1/2 weeks away for rifle season in Northern MN and I'm planning on one last trip up to put out some corn and try to attract the deer to our stands now that we've scouted out the territory.

What works best, how exactly do you do it, any examples would be much appreciated. Thanks!




Not bad for the first deer shot on the new land....

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

you will probally get lot's of different answers for your question. obviously everyone is going to list whatever they have had the greatest success with as being the best "deer attractant". my advice is to experiment with everything and see what works for you and in your area. i hardly ever use cover scents and attractant scents. i mainly use a combination of grunts and rattles. this seems to work good in my area.

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

Don't attract them; find them, set-up on them, and kill them.

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

Hello fellow MN. I think that you should just refresh the corn and leave alone until you hunt. When actually hunting, hang a scent bomb, do a little rattling if that is your thing and simply be patient.

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

Ditto

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

"Finding deer" makes sense when hunting a good chunk of land, but were talking 60 acres with likely several people at once, so finding deer would likely just push them out and gone.
I hunt a 60 acre plot of private land with two others, usually two of us at a time, and it simply is not practical to go looking for them, but to attract.

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

In our case, We've got 5 guys hunting the land. However, directly adjacent to the South and directly adjecent to the West is national forest which we can hunt. So even though we technically own only 60 acres, we have a few hundred at our disposal. With that being said though, we do like to keep our stands on our land, or at least relatively close to it.

While I understand the "find 'em, set-up, and kill 'em" theroy, I was more looking for methods people use to attract deer towards their stand (i.e, feeder plots, mineral blocks, corn, urine drip bags, etc.)

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

I may be out of line here but if you see tons of deer why not do like others have said...find them, setup and shoot them?

Heaven forbid you should go in, spend some time scouting on your own, come up with a "personal" gameplan on your own and hunt them on your own.

What am I missing here?If the others huntersdo not have access to your little piece,that's what they would have to do.

Maybe there's more satisfaction in Northern Minnesota attracting deer to your stand than not.

Just my two cents....

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

Heaven for bid a guy asks a simple questions without someone jumping down his throat.

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.

As far as going out and scouting the area, there have been many weekends spent scouting the area and the adjecent national forrest. Maybe next time before immediately criticizing someone's post, you could ask a few questions.

Heaven for bid a guy throws out a conversation topic.

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

jmjuergensen,

I also hunt on private land. About 5 of us hunt on 500 acres of very thick stuff. Even the hardwoods are thick to the point where a 100 yard shot is rare. I usually have to cut lanes through the woods to see a hot trail. The deer movement really depends on when the acorns fall, and all of my scouting is done with the acorns in mind, and good hot trails are more attractive to me than rub lines or scrapes.

I usually have a good chunk of that 500 acres all to myself, so instead of trying to attract the deer to me, I try to insure that the trail I have my stand set up on is hot. I find that I don't make the deer move, I have to wait for them to move.

My favorite way ofmaintaining a good trail is first to find a good one, and the place two cattle size salt/mineral blocks at two points on the trail and strategically place my stand to where I am in position for when the deer move. I set out the salt blocks in mid to late summer, and the big blocks last through the deer season.

Someday I might figure out how to attract them to me, but the best I can do right now is to figure out how to put the odds in my favor for when they decide to move.

C. Davis

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.