Advice on attractant

[scotty30-06]

Scottym.....your making us scotty's look bad.....lol smarten up fella .......all jokes aside....has anyone used buck jam.....love the idea of not having a munch of visible stuff all over the ground. ....buck jam seems to work just wondering if anyone on here has experienced activity with it?

[New Bow Hunter]

Check out:
http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/
Lots of info.

[bigredchev]

What are people using for salt licks? I've heard water softener salt is common.

Does anyone else buy the deer apeciality salt licks from the major atores

[Cyrus]

What are people using for salt licks? I've heard water softener salt is common.

Does anyone else buy the deer apeciality salt licks from the major atores

I tried softener salt once. The deer would not touch it. I go with just the blue salt licks. Have tried the brown mineral licks and they do not seem to like them as much. Bought some fancy merican apple lick and it was a complete waste of money. All my experiments in front of trail cams and the blue seems to work the best.

[RugDoctor]

Thanks for all the input! Great advice, and discussion. I'm thinking about starting in the summer time...July or so and into early season for bow hunting. I suspect that could be enough time to habituate them, or at least to let them know it's good eating in that particular spot, but not so long as to get them bored of the free diet and wander out??? I tend to agree that they'll be a little random, but at least if one comes in, they should in theory head to the tasty eats and stand still long enough for a shot.

[todbartell]

I'd drop mineral before any food.

[RugDoctor]

In terms of drawing the deer in...

Dabs of peanut butter works well to initially draw them to site.

Think salt in the late winter and through early summer.
It can be purchased relatively cheap (water softener salts) at places like Canuck Tire.
While it doesn't hurt to keep salt on site all year, the draw to it appears to subside a tad by mid-summer and into fall (at least for me).

About mid summer, add COB to the site. COB is rolled corn, oats & barley soaked in molasses. Available at most feed stores.
The deer WILL become used to, if not addicted to it in short order, so you will need to replace fairly frequently if not using a feeder.
Be consistent! They will respond much better if you keep the supplies up.
Downside is bears also happen to love this stuff. If they move in, consider an alternative as mentioned above.

It sounds like you have the "perfect" set-up location. Small clearings well within timber, treed on all sides, with existing trails is about as good as it gets. Should allow for setting up your bait station in the center of said small clearings, and locations for blind / tree stand placement back inside the edge of the timber.

Trail cams are worth their weight in gold for these kind of operations.

Best of Luck! Looking Forward to hearing of your results...

Cheers,
Nog

I'm sure the set up isn't perfect, but it looks good to me so I'm going to give it a try, first time in a stand. Thanks for the tip on specific treats....I'm going to give it a go for sure, and I'll do my best to document with photos but I admit I'm not really good at that.....usually take a picture after the fact and that's about it. I'm too lazy to figure out resizing, photobucket or anything else....if I can just paste 'er up, I can handle that.....

[RugDoctor]

I'd drop mineral before any food.

As in salt, or a mineral lick from sporting goods store?

[Darksith]

Be wary of corn as in the winter deer can die of acidosis. Not sure how much it would take to kill them but I tend to stay away from it all together

its not just corn, but high carb foods. Do a bit of reading if you are going to introduce a lot of feed about now. The amount of daylight triggers changes in their stomachs and appetites. Some feeds can do more harm than good if enough is available. Another reason to stick with local sources that they are already acustomed too.

You will find the best bang for your buck from feed stores not any sporting good store. If you buy water softener salt get as pure as possible, if you use a salt lick maybe break it up and grind/water it into the dirt. They are used to natural mineralized areas already anyway. I haven't tried doe piss or anything else like that yet, but that will be next years experiment to go ontop of my bait.

[Darksith]

I'd drop mineral before any food.

not at this time of year. Once the antlers drop then ya mineral or salt is the way to go. Beware of cows if you are in range lease areas...the cows will camp bait hard and you won't see any deer. I have to wait until they are brought in before I can start baiting...even using or creating a lick is a waste of time generally speaking. Was thinking about building a fence to keep cows out even haha.