We all know how difficult it is to lure a deer from the crowd and increase your chances of a successful shot. Does it ring any bells? Of course, it does. And this is why deer attractants have long been a part of the hunting industry.
The best deer attractant manufacturers have made many options available for you. So you’re bound to get a little confused when it comes to buying deer attractants that work. And I’m here to help you get rid of all that confusion.
While your quarry might happen upon your blind through pure serendipity, you can drastically increase your chances of seeing those antlers if the deer has an incentive to visit your perch. If you’re wondering what the best deer attractant is, this article is for you.
Picture this: you’ve been sitting in the deer blind that you built for the past four hours dressed in full woodland camouflage. You grip your custom compound hunting bow and watch the fog from your breath in the chilly morning air. Your scent is masked and your arrow is notched, so where is that 6-point whitetail you’re yearning for?
Well if you’re like me then you’ve forgotten a very important step that seems obvious but can be easily overlooked: you forgot the lure.
Quick Comparison: Top 5 Best Deer Attractants
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Lucky Buck – PoundM20 Apple Flavored Deer Mineral and Attractant |
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Evolved Habitats Deer Cane Block (Our Top Choice) |
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* Below, you’ll find our more detailed reviews, but you can also click the links above to see customer reviews and current prices on Amazon.com
Best Deer Attractant: Which Species Of Deer Are You Hunting?
We will assume that you are looking to attract a species of deer that is commonly hunted rather than exotic and big game species like reindeer or moose. This article will focus on game found in North America—primarily the white-tailed deer, the mule deer, and the subspecies black-tailed deer.
The way that white-tailed deer are distinguished is self-explanatory: the color of their tails.
Averaging 100-150 pounds, these deer can be found all over North America east of the Rockies.
Mule deer are the largest of the three species we’ll cover here with some specimens being found at over 400 pounds.
They are marked by black-tipped tails and have antlers that fork out as they grow as opposed to the white-tail whose antlers grow from a single stem.
Lastly, as a subspecies of mule deer, black-tailed deer sport a characteristic black tail and are larger than their eastern white-tailed cousins clocking in at over 300 pounds in some cases. They call the Pacific Northwest and California their home.
The Anatomy Of The Senses
Like many mammals, particularly prey, these three species of deer have heightened senses incomparable to our feeble ones. This allows them to locate predators before it’s too late to escape which is great for them, but how can we, the hunters, use these senses to lure them to us?
As far as getting their attention goes, there are two extraordinary sensory faculties that deer rely on smell and sound.
There is a huge disparity between our ability to smell and that of a deer. A white-tailed deer sports over 270 million olfactory receptors, which is on par with the smelling power of a bloodhound. When you compare that number to our meager 5 million, you see that getting the deer to notice your lure isn’t the problem; it’s getting it to come once it’s noticed it.
For sound, it may be intimidating to find out that zoologists believe deer to be able to pinpoint the distance from which a sound originated.
With hearing this advanced, it’s easy to tip a deer off to your presence with the click of your safety or a slight shuffle. But it’s also easy to make a sound that causes them to investigate.
While their sight is keen, they have a dichromatic vision as opposed to the trichromatic vision of humans. Since deer can only see blue and yellow, reds and oranges are invisible to them, which allows us to wear orange vests and hats for hunter-to-hunter safety without fear of being seen by our prey.
Having eyes on the side of the head like another prey allows them to see 310 degrees around them, but the distance between their eyes makes them unable to focus.
If you want to get a deer’s attention, you may want to focus on appealing to their senses of hearing and smell, though you can use a decoy as an ace if other methods fail to work.
Some deer tracks in the mud:
Credit: freeimages.com/Bill Sarver
Which Attractants Are Best For Each Sense?
To make sure that your buck finds its way to your blind, you are going to want to use a combination of scents, deer calls, and decoys and rather than just focusing on one type of attractant. Employing each one at specific times and in specific ways goes a long way here.
Of course, you have to consider how far along in the season it is when you hunt. If you find yourself out in the early season, pre-rut, rut, or post-rut, there are a variety of ways to attract your game.
- Early season should have you using doe urine for scent along with a grunt tube for sound. If you decide to use a decoy, a young buck will do here.
- During the pre-rut, buck urine, and the rattling of antlers will attract adolescent bucks itching for a fight. That same subordinate buck decoy will give your quarry an enticing target.
- In the heat of the rut, when dominant bucks are searching for virile does, a strong estrous scent, and some doe bleats will lead them right to your door. If you use this opportunity to put an adult buck and doe decoy together, you maximize your chances of bagging a territorial buck.
- After the rut, the heat of battle and mating start to die down. Here you want to reassure your prey with doe bleats and basic urine. Soon a second rut will spring back, but not with the same intensity.
At the end of the day, if you plan on hunting throughout the season, you will want to use a wide spectrum of lures that appeal to a variety of a buck’s senses to increase your chances.
Using each type of lure individually will definitely make you more likely to sight your game, but using them in concert is a recipe for success. If you use the wrong lure at the wrong time, however, you can end up alerting the deer to the abnormality and actually hurt your chances.
If you’re looking to find what is the best deer attractant, be aware of how far along the season is and choose your lures accordingly. Then learn how each lure should be used and employ those strategies to your next hunt.
How To Use Deer Attractant Supplements?
What should you consider before buying deer attractants?
When it comes to purchasing deer attractants that work, you should keep in mind the following characteristics.
- Before you set out to buy the right deer attractant, you should know the type of deer that you would be using the attractant on. There’s blacktail, mule, and whitetail deer. All three respond to their distinct deer attractant. So a whitetail deer scent will not work on a mule deer.
- The same applies to hunting season. There are four different types of deer hunting seasons; rut, pre-rut, post-rut, and early stage. So buy a deer attractant that is created for the current type of hunting season.
- Why would you want to purchase a deer attractant that is already abundantly found in your target hunting region? You need first to determine where you will be hunting. So you know what kind of food already grows there. Because buying something that already exists in the region is a total waste of time, effort, and money. (What do deer eat?)
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Lucky Buck – PoundM20 Apple Flavored Deer Mineral and Attractant |
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Evolved Habitats Deer Cane Block (Our Top Choice) |
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Top 5 best deer attractant reviews
You can shop for quality scents, calls, and decoys by clicking on these links and see current prices and customer reviews of these products at Amazon.com
1. Conquest Scents EverCalm Deer Herd Scent Stick
The best deer attractant in the shape of a stick is the Conquest Scents EverCalm Deer Herd Scent Stick. Do you know what the best part about this is? The fact that, when using them, you don’t have to stress about leaks, spills, or any such mess. These sticks are very effective in luring deer into walking towards them. You also don’t have to concern yourself with finding out what type of hunting season you can use them in. The Conquest Scents EverCalm Deer Herd Scent Sticks can be utilized throughout the year in all kinds of hunting seasons.
We Like
- The sticks are very soft, which makes them easy and efficient to rub all over the hunting boots.
- They help in overriding the deer’s natural alert reaction to your scent.
We Don’t Like
- Whatever you rub the sticks on turns bleach white after some time.
2. Lucky Buck – PoundM20 Apple Flavored Deer Mineral and Attractant
What is the best way to not only lure the deer to walk towards your desired location but also entice it to stay there? The answer is Lucky Buck – PoundM20 Apple Flavored Deer Mineral and Attractant. You can feed this mineral-rich food to the deer to make them beefier and bigger. The product comes without any sweet ingredient or molasses. So the deer will not overeat. You know it’s working when the buck turns and starts digging the log to find some more minerals dumped in that spot.
We Like
- The attractant can be used to get the deer to acquire a taste for any other food that you want them to get accustomed to.
- It keeps the deer coming back for more.
We Don’t Like
- The attractant lures more than just deer. Undesirable animals like foxes, coyotes, raccoons, hogs, etc. cause too much degradation around the mineral site.
3. Evolved Habitats Deer Cane Block (Our Top Choice)
The best deer attractant that releases mineral vapor trail is the Evolved Habitats Deer Cane Block. And we all know how beneficial mineral vapor trail is in luring deer into your territory. Once you use it, the moisture in the air causes the minerals to begin the attracting and reacting process. This can be used for months to keep the deer coming back to the same spot. The Evolved Habitats Deer Cane Block also helps in keeping the bucks healthy and also ensures rack development. You can quickly mix the attractant with at least 8 gallons of water to see immediate results.
We Like
- The block makes the bucks stick around for a very long time.
- Suitable for all types of weather and climatic conditions.
We Don’t Like
- The attractant has certain hunting season limitations.
4. Mighty Deer Lick 4 lb. Sweet Apple Block
The market may have many options available when it comes to deer attractants. But there are only a few deer attractants that work best. And the Mighty Deer Lick 4 lb. Sweet Apple Block is one of them.
The attractant is poly wrapped. This helps in maintaining freshness and guarding the block against human scent contamination. It also contributes to achieving both luring the deer and keeping them healthy. In fact, the Mighty Deer Lick 4 lb. Sweet Apple Block provides healthy antler growth as well.
We Like
- The block doesn’t melt even in the wettest spring.
- The size and quality of the attractant are pretty remarkable.
We Don’t Like
- The block tends to turn white after the winter season.
5. Wild Game Innovations Acorn Rage 16-Pound Bag
For your next hunting trip, make sure that you’re carrying the best deer attractant. And when I talk about the best, there is nothing better that comes to mind than the Wild Game Innovations Acorn Rage 16-Pound Bag. All you have to do with this one here is place it in the feeder. And you’ll be able to attract bucks from miles away. The mixture also results in phenomenal antler growth. So you not only attract deer with this thing but also keep them in good shape and condition. The Wild Game Innovations Acorn Rage is one of the few attractants that deer simply can’t get enough of.
We Like
- The attractant is excellent bait during the rut.
- It can attract many deer throughout the day.
We Don’t Like
- Since deer are used to corn, the attractant might not be 100% effective.
Do you know how to make homemade deer attractant with corn? Here’s how:
Wrapping it up
These are the best deer attractants that work as efficiently as any other natural deer attractant. Some use them to feed deer while some use them for hunting purposes. Whatever it is, just make sure that you take the laws and the health of the deer seriously when using deer attractants.
So keeping this mind, I would recommend the Evolved Habitats Deer Cane Block. It is a highly valuable mineral supplement. This will help you with luring the bucks into your territory as well as maintaining their over health. Deer tend to gather around the mineral block and forget about departing from it anytime soon.
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