As we all know there's tons of deer attractants on the shelves of Academy, Bass Pro and such. But there's so many there and you can't try all of them. So I was wondering if anybody has tried any of these bags of deer attractant or the sprays or anything else that works pretty well? And I don't need any of the smart*** corn answers either guys

I love threads that end with "and I don't need any smart@ss answers either....." It just begs for smart@ss answers.

And it that case, corn.

Should have just made the clear distinction of "Non-Dietary" attractants.

Obviously corn, cottonseed, protein are your big three.

There are also quite a few mineral/salt licks that work quite well and despite all the Bass Pro odd/ends, I always grab a bunch of these no matter what.

A lot depends upon the time of year. You can also make your own scrapes, find and expand upon existing scrapes, learn to rattle, make sure you have scouted the area and are at least close to their existing movement patterns as well as having a proximity to water....lots of stuff. Some guys use grunt calls (again, during rut) that are less effective later in the season.

[This message has been edited by BoyNamedSue (edited 10/12/2012 1:44p).]

I have never used them.

My thoughts are that for years, people hunted deer without the need for them and were successful at it. I don't think they are true attractants as much as stuff that deer will stop and look at if they come across it. And if one can be marketed, so can ten I guess.

Gimmicks

Peanut butter - deer f****** lose their damn minds over the stuff! Problem is, so do all of Mother Nature's craftly little creations, so timing matters.

Cheap cat food mixed with sweet feed, not kidding.

Putting in winter food plots such as wheat or oats made a big difference on our place. We could almost do away with our feeders after we started putting in food plots.

An estrus doe is abosolutely the best attractor !

Tinks for Men.

A couple dabs is all you need. You wont be able to keep those horney suckers off you.

You'll be thanking me later.

I have experienced great success WITHOUT a feeder or a blind in an area where there is very little whitetail activity compared with the rest of the state. (edit - and I don't say that to be snobby, just to point out how well this works)

I have used the deer urine that they sell at Academy, Cabelas, etc. and it works like a freakin charm. I've used several brands and all have been successful. I like this method because it's way cheaper than doing the deer feeder and a lot less hassle, and I believe just as effective.

If you are wanting to attract a buck, the best luck I've had is with using both the doe estrous and buck urine scents in tandem. It gives other bucks the sensation that another buck is challenging their territory and is after one of their hot does.

If you want to make a doe feel super safe, just use the regular doe urine and they can come within feet of you without even worrying.

It might sound silly, but I do cover my scent with the regular urine (not the buck or doe estrous, just regular doe urine) by putting a little of it on my boots, pants, jacket, etc.

Here are my success stories from the last 3 years:

- Was scouting an area where I had noticed some activity, and I put down some regular doe urine around the area and also covered my scent with it and just crouched down out in the open near the area. (it is not a wooded area or anything, just the side of a hill with pretty much full visibility in 3 directions for several hundred yards) Had a doe literally walk within 10 yards of me. Pulled out my flashlight and moved it around a little bit at her, and she just stared for a few seconds and went back to sniffing. We don't have tame deer either, we live out in the country and no one around us hunts or puts up feeders, and there isn't a great deal of human activity out here.

-Was hunting behind a hay bale, watching out in front of me where I had put down some doe estrous, and made the mistake of spilling some of it on my hands & wiping it off on my clothes. About 20 minutes after I had put the scent out and got back to my hay bale, I had a 8 point buck walk up behind me where I was completely uncovered with no camo at all, pause literally 10 feet from me and stare at me for a good 5 minutes. He then turned around and slowly walked off, and I dropped him as he stopped to look back about 75 yards later.

-Finally figured out I needed to use buck urine with doe estrous. Took a kid hunting during the late youth season (in January) well after peak rut and put down both scents and trailed them to where we were sitting along a fence line. Within 5 minutes we saw one buck, and 15 minutes later we had 4 bucks trying to figure out who the **** was trying to breed one of their does. All four of them were looking at each other and weaving back and forth making it hard for us to decide which one to take. We ended up getting a pretty nice 8 pointer, once again, in an area where there just aren't very many deer. A couple of those bucks that were there even came back about 5 minutes after the kill shot because they were still curious about the scent. We couldn't take them because they weren't spikes and we had already taken down a legal spread deer. No problem, I'll get one of them this year as soon as I bait them to me with the scent.

It almost feels like cheating. This year I am going to try and extract the urine from their bladder and figure out how to preserve them to make my own scents.

[This message has been edited by aggie_2001_2005 (edited 10/12/2012 9:36p).]

I have just about quit using any attractants. But I will not get in the bow blind without putting on the Deer Herd in a Stick stuff. I put it on the bottom of my boots before walking in to the hunt area. I also put some on the inside of my hat as well as on the lower part of my pant legs where it will rub the grass while I'm walking.

And when I get in the blind I rub a little on the shoot through material on the windows.

Most of them are just gimmicks.

quote:

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Most of them are just gimmicks.

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Not if you use them correctly. Obviously you can't just bathe in Deer piss and bring home a trophy. You have to do some scouting, just like any good hunter would do. And if you know your area, using the scent can mean the difference between a shot from 300 yards and a shot from 50 yards. Just sayin'.

I've used estrous scent and other things like that during the actual season. I was asking about the different types of feeding attractants and how they worked because I recently put up panels around one of my feeders to keep the hogs out which have been eating all of my corn. I got worried it would take deer while to get used to the panels (which it for sure has, in a weeks time not one deer jumped it) and wanted to try something to attact the deer a little more.

But what I think I'm going to do is get some just normal urine scent and put inside and maybe that will make them a little more comfortable if they still aren't coming to the feeder after another week

trey_hadley,

Throw some hay in there (square bale). We had the same problem and that seemed to speed up them wanting to cross into the pen.

[This message has been edited by Hoyt Ag (edited 10/15/2012 4:16p).]