How to Attract Deer to Your Stand: In our previous article, we discussed Where to Hunt During the Rut and I shared my best practices with you. In this article, we will tell you how to attract deer to your stand using foods, lures, odor elimination, and a deer-friendly environment.
How to Attract Deer to Your Stand
Before you start attracting deer to your stand, keep a single goal in mind: ‘to not let the deer know they are being lured’. Once you have found the perfect place to set up your stand, you can use these proven tactics to attract plenty of deer.
How to Attract Deer to Your Stand: 4 Amazing Tactics
- Establish a food plot
- Use deer lure
- Eliminate human odor
- Promote a deer-friendly environment
Tactic 1: Establish a Food Plot
To establish an effective food plot, you must consider different locations and food options.
Depending upon the different food crops or plants that successfully grow in the area, you must plant a mix of crops that are rich in protein (like soybeans and peas) and include clovers and grasses (like oats, wheat, and rye).
Try to grow crops that are not already abundant in the area and provide a water source as deer will be drawn to water. Test the soil for ph and nutrients and then match the crop accordingly.
You must select a well-watered plot that is far away from the roadways. We suggest you use the Best Spotting Scope Under 200 to locate deer around your hunting area.
Tactic 2: Use Deer Lure
Using a deer lure helps attract deer from a reasonable distance to the stand. The lure makes deer follow the trail laid by you and aids in positioning the deer for a clean shot.
Lures like buck urine, doe urine, and estrus urine are the most effective scents to attract deer to your stand.
Deer will be most drawn to such lures about 10 weeks before the peak of the rut season.
You can also hang scent wicks, saturated with buck urine, around your stand or use commercial lures to increase your chances of attracting deer.
As deer are fond of the smell of sweet apples, you can draw deer using either the actual fruit or its scent. You can plant apple trees around the edges of your food plot or simply spread a lot of apples around your area.
Don’t forget to check the local laws and regulations before you try to bait deer.
Tactic 3: Eliminate Human Odor
A deer’s sense of smell is stronger than other senses like sight or sound, and one whiff of human odor can spook deer. So you must keep your odor as minimal as possible to have any chance of attracting deer to your stand.
To get as close to zero scents as possible, you must wear thoroughly washed clothes and shower with a scent-free soap to prepare for your hunt.
If you use an antiperspirant then make sure its scent free and don’t forget to chew some chlorophyll gum to reduce breath odor.
Although there are many commercial products available to eliminate human odor, one cheap trick is to mix baking soda with a scent-free soap while taking a shower or mix it with detergent while washing your clothes.
Tactic 4: Promote a Deer-Friendly Environment
You must make your hunting area deer-friendly to attract deer. If you have any pets, especially dogs, you must keep them away.
Provide natural and wild conditions like growing taller grasses and planting trees and shrubs like blackberry and red cedar around the boundaries to attract deer.
Also, reduce all human activity in the area and avoid using radios, bright lights, sounds, oil, smoke, and tobacco.
Conclusion
There are many different tactics you can use to attract deer to your stand. You can attract deer using foods, plants, scents, and lures.
Have you ever tried any such methods to attract deer to your stand? What kind of food, scent, or deer-friendly environment tactic worked the best for you? Do share your experience.
We have had much success on our waterfowl hunting trips using some of the Best Duck Calls for Beginners. But we have not tried deer calls so far. So, next season, we plan to test some deer calls to attract deer to our stand. We will keep you posted!
Last Updated on December 9, 2023 by Victor Mays
