bowmansonny

I have over the years literally thousands of pics over Magic Mix. It is made in East Texas and i have used it since The owner came out with it. A 5 lb back will bring them in and keep them coming in pourning several small piles with a 50 lb bag of corn works wonders on keeping the animals coming in. I have had great success with this product. The product is affordable. www.whitetailconcepts.com or email me [email protected] have 1800 pics from this year. I put 5 lbs in all of my corn feeders 200-300 pound hoppers (year around) cmere dere is 25 dollars for a gallon jug. Magic Mix is 8 dollars for 5lbs. i can get some shipped to you? there will be a picture tab on the web site and i am getting all of the pics for the web site. Highly Satisfied with the product.

tight360

right around the corner, I don't think of a food or food type substance. I use and SWEAR by a product by James Valley Scents called "Wallhanger", the Doe in heat product, and the scrape product are excellent also. But the Wall hanger now thru the end of the rut is priceless!!!!

wi_buckstomper

If legal, an established salt, mineral lick is hard to beat for number of photos.

JeffHoskins

Attractants and unnatural products just get you pictures of deer, they will never bring deer back to the area more than a few days after the product is gone. They also teach the deer to travel at night. They also get the deer even more associated with human scent and unusual things, like a pile of food in an unusual place. The times I have deer over a fresh pile of corn they look nervous for the first day or so in the pictures. The flash and the click the cameras make don't help either.

You are much better off putting in some time in the preseason scouting. Best time is from 10-2 on hot days. If you can manage the very best time is from 10-11 and 1-2, they seem to move around noon even in 90 degree heat, not as much though. If you do see deer, turn around and leave the opposite way they ran and don't come back for at least a week and avoid that area and that time if at all possible. Also, make note of wear they ran from. Any spot you see them in the middle of they day is a good spot for early season hunts because they generally stay on the preseason patterns up until the pre-rut.

The best spot for a cam is under a food source in the preseason or on a travel route. In my area that means white oaks. They drop the soonest and the deer love them. Unlike a feeder that may have been in a place for a few years max, a mast producing oak or a heavy trail has been there that deers whole life as well as the parents life who showed the fawn that tree... and so on.

I am very paranoid about placing cameras when I find a good spot. Mainly because I hunt such an unpressured spot I feel that anything unusual could alarm a deer. Also because I work hard to find the good spots and I don't want something as silly as a camera flash or click or human smell to screw up a spot. The mature animals don't get that way being careless, they are easily spooked in my experience. For this reason I will find a tree I can hand climb up to a fork and hang the camera up about 10ft angled down a good distance from the food source or trail. In my best locations I don't even risk a camera. I only visit the weekend before the season to confirm ripe acorns or fresh tracks on a heavy corridor.

Some people don't have the advantage of mast trees and can only manage to attract deer to a certain location. I would use a mineral/ salt lick and put it in at least a couple months before the season. The problem with this is you pretty much have to hunt over this trap in order to kill deer on this type of property, that is called killing not hunting. Unfortunately, hunting is reduced to killing in many cases. I refuse to even hunt green fields, especially with a gun, unless I'm just killing a doe for meat to save my valuable time. This is nothing to be proud of or to brag about though. -Jeff

Raywilliam

Jeff i agree with you on this point. We've turned a primative desire into a commercial interprise of sorts. I have never seen so many wares on the market to take weekend warriors money...so they can brag about killing a deer they have photographed, hog tied, staked down with a bulls eys on it, saying "Shoot me here" with your 7mm mag. I hate seeing those guys shooting deer in Texas on the roads where its obvious they have scattered corn for the mornings hunt. I sound critical and i know dear still have an edge...but we have lowered the bar on what it means to have a trophy on the wall. Big deal today...Not to mention, we shouldn't be surprised when cultural opinion of what they see on these shows turns against us. I'm a devoted hunter and I hate to watch it. Bait and shoot...Ok...my soapbox that has offended probably most of those who read.
Just as Jeff said...learn to hunt...not just shoot something. BTW...if you don't have good acorn trees, and need to use food supplements...plant them or put them where deer come onto your propterty...but don't hunt off them.

NebCorpsmanBowHunter

I've had great luck with a 10 dollar, 50lb. bag of salt, dig a hole, dump the bag, and mix the dirt from the hole with the salt in the hole.

easy effective, and long lasting, this has drawn deer in front of my cameras for the last few years, with only one bag 3 years ago.

and in some states, if you wait long enough after you put it there, you can hunt over it without it being considered a baited area.

MZS

One very unusual attractant seems to be glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp weed killer. After spraying, the next day there are deer or new deer sign every time. Could be just a curiosity and the fact that quite a bit of it is distributed. Makes me wonder if any strange new smell would work.

Jeff Ovington

I live in British Columbia..With all the available Crown Land around, I'm able to hunt alot of square miles of public land so I'm able to go to where big game animals want to be or need to pass through during migrating periods.. Not sure what's it's like in some places to the South,
but I'd say alot of hunters might be very very restricted in areas they are able to hunt.. So yeah as much as I agree that hunting should be hunting, I also think there is a legitimate place in the hunting industry for animal attractants that cater to those hunters who are
forced to hunt animals in confined areas, cause 100 meters further in all directions it's private or someone is hunting along side of you..
Just putting it out there..

MZS

I think most everyone here is in agreement with you. Scents in liquid form are part of the hunt, and legal in almost every (if not every) state. Salt blocks are legal in some states. Also, lack of scent, cover scents, or scent eliminators play an essential role in the hunt.

WI_Hunter1

This time of year I'd say water.