How Far Can Deer Smell Corn? Quick Answer

Your anticipation is high as you sneak up to your favorite tree stand. They carefully slow the final approach to ensure calm. Just when you think you got in clean, you hear a deer flee. you twitch You blew your cover. What now?

Document the bed

Scaring a deer doesn’t end your hunt. It provides valuable information about the animal’s lounging area, which will help you plan future hunts. Check your map and mark the exact spot where the deer settled. Also note the weather conditions, especially the wind direction. Deer typically sleep with the wind at their backs and faces where they can see danger before it can pose a threat. By marking the litter area and noting the conditions, you may be able to get close to the location and hunt it down undetected next time.

Assess the situation

Frightened deer will return to their sleeping quarters, but when they return depends on how frightened they were by the intrusion. If they can’t locate the threat, they’ll likely return sooner than if they saw or smelled you.

You can judge your effect on a deer by studying its body language. A softly nudged deer saunters away without snorting to warn other deer of danger. It can often pause to look out for a potential threat, but remains relatively calm when unseen. Deer will often circle downwind around the bed area and make a J-hook to the bed with the wind in their face. The “bump-and-dump” is a clever tactic devised by Dan Infalt in which the bowhunter positions himself downwind of a deer bed after bumping it. The goal is to intercept the stag when it returns from the wind hours later.

Even deer that veer from a location after seeing and smelling a threat can tolerate an intrusion, but it may take a while for them to return. They clearly identified a threat and quickly escaped while repeatedly puffing as they plummeted through the brush at top speed. The bump-and-dump is less effective in such situations because the deer won’t return soon after being shooed away.

But the damage is done, so use this time to explore the area thoroughly. Drop a waypoint at the litter site and use satellite imagery to study alternative entry and exit routes, helping you return later undetected. Avoid the place for a few days for things to get back to normal and watch the weather forecast. Plan to return another day with weather conditions to help you navigate the new access route calmly from leeward. By positioning yourself near a location where you expect deer migrations, you can benefit from the information you have gained from previous hunts.

stay aggressive

It’s easy to get discouraged when hunts don’t go as planned. Scaring deer isn’t good, but it can help you identify roosting spots and escape routes in new locations. Once you’ve identified these areas and hunted their edges, your chances of seeing deer within arc range during shooting times increase dramatically. Stay mobile and customize your setup so you can hunt deer where they spend most of their time: their bedroom.

Unread Postby Stanley » Sat Oct 05, 2013 5:25 am

I’ve done a lot of testing myself on this very thing. There are many variables. Wet soil holds the scent better than dry soil. Strong wind washes away odors better than a light rain. Wet boots leave more odor than dry boots (wet dog syndrome), have you ever smelled a wet dog? In farming, wellies help keep human odors from staying on the ground. I mean, deer smell tires every day of their lives. So these rubber boots aren’t just there to keep your feet dry. If you’re in an area where the wind hits the bare, dry ground and you’re wearing rubber boots with your trouser legs tucked in and just walk through. In 6 hours, your odor can dissipate to a non-alarming amount.

Also keep in mind that on a windy day, the soil scent doesn’t rise to the buck’s nose, but falls off to the side. Just like with thermals, rising thermals bring the smell of the ground up to your goat’s nose. If you’re walking through tall grass, forget it, you’re broken. This is at dollar nose level and much of the scent lingers in the tall grass.

When I set up my wildlife cameras, I rarely get good pictures for 7-10 days because of the lot of human smell left in the area. Because of this, checking cameras can be counterproductive. Another thing to remember is that deer age soil odor. Sounds mystical or magical, but they can. I hear people say all the time, “I use masking scents to reduce the amount of scent left on the floor”. The problem is that deer run out with the smell and don’t account for the remaining amount. Have you ever wondered how this buck knows which way to follow that hot doe?

To answer the question, unless Mother Nature helps you in heavy rain and/or strong winds, human smell will be detectable for many days and even weeks.

You can fool some of the bucks all of the time and fool all of the bucks some of the time, but you certainly can’t fool all of the bucks all of the time.

Staff writer

standard times

Countless volumes have been written about white-tailed deer and their extremely keen senses that make them one of the most challenging wildlife animals on earth. Sure, their cousins ​​the elk, elk and caribou are all awe-inspiring to encounter, but nothing compares to the breathtaking thrill of a large white-tailed buck mount.

And hunters perform body and clothing defragmentation rituals to evade the deer’s sense of smell in order to get within bow or rifle range. We buy special soaps, sprays and deodorants and unlike before, when you didn’t bathe for a week at the wild camp, we now shower and detox at least once a day during the game season. We also use masking scents like fresh earth, pine and fox urine to cover any trace of human odor that lingers on us.

There’s even a theory that deer can smell the faintest trace of gun oil, which is why guns are wiped clean today. Not like years ago when everyone sprayed their guns with WD-40 before going into the woods.

Deer hunters even go to such pains to keep their own urine in a bottle when they are on their hides. Honest. Some hunters are so afraid of deer smelling their pee and getting “broken” (seen by the deer) that they keep a plastic bottle with them in the tree. There’s even a jug you can buy with some granular stuff so when you pee in it it turns into gel and doesn’t spill.

It hasn’t been written (until now), but when we found another hunter’s booth at your favorite spot, we all quietly murmured, “I’d love to p— walk around his booth,” hoping that he it won’t get you the big bucks you’re looking for.

I for one reject this theory that deer creep urine so you don’t have to worry that I’m at your booth p—p which is why I’m writing this story. It is widely believed that our urine is full of human scents and that deer head for the hills when they get a whiff of it. Home remedies for keeping deer out of gardens include urinating around the garden. However, there is research that suggests some deer are not bothered by this at all.

According to an article in Hunting Lease Magazine by Ben. H. Koerth, human urine does not deter deer. Mock scratchers were created on a large leasehold and various baits were used to attract deer. Scratches are spots where bucks scratch the ground down to bare earth and then urinate in it. This attracts females who also urinate in the scratches. Bucks usually come back to check their scratches and sniff them for females that are in or near heat and ready to breed.

“Treatments for this study included rutting buck odor pseudoscratch, rutting deer odor shams, and human urine shams,” Koerth wrote. “Interestingly, I photographed as many bucks on human urine marks as I did on store-bought deer urine marks. There was no indication at all that human urine in the scratches would scare anything away. So much for that old woman’s story, huh?”

Lou “Skip” Hambly, an avid hunter, wildlife biologist, and retired district manager for MassWildlife’s Southeast District who has shot many deer, agrees.

“It (human urine) doesn’t bother them (deer) one bit,” he says. “Human smell will send deer to the next county, but in my experience our urine won’t. I saw deer coming and smelled the spot I just ‘left’.”

And I agree with Hambly. I fully understand the concern of hunters who are worried about the urine. I always try to get the deal done as soon as I get into the woods and well before I get to my booth. But years ago when I had to go and didn’t feel like holding it, I would get off my stand and take care of far off things that probably scared more local deer than a pee puddle stood under me. I never liked it to take a bottle upstairs.

But two years ago I came to my stand late afternoon on a rough day with light rain. My feet got cold and when that happens I have to leave. About half an hour before sunset, prime time was approaching and I had to leave. Instead of climbing down, I went straight off the top of my stand.

Hunters know that moist or wet soil traps odors better than dry soil, so I figured I probably wouldn’t see any deer that afternoon. Ten minutes later, one of the largest bucks I have ever seen approached this spot within 15 meters. Disinterested and unconcerned, he offered a broadside shot. I drew the bow. He was a heavy nine-pointer dressed at 195 pounds.

Another time, one afternoon, I “walked” about 10 feet behind my booth. I sprinkled in a few drops of Deer Scent to mask my own scent, just to be safe, and climbed up. Didn’t see anything that evening but when I came back in the morning the leaves on the ground where I had “walked” were upside down where a deer had been sniffing around. And there was a fresh scratch made during the night just 15 feet away. I used that spot to “go” again and shoot a back arrow two afternoons later, not 25 feet from my boom and about 15 feet from my “spot.”

Bill Woytek, MassWildlife biologist and deer project leader, is undecided on the matter.

“There’s some evidence that it will (the urine) scare deer, but there’s also evidence that refutes that theory,” he says. “Personally, I’m not sure and I haven’t sold myself yet. Of course, in areas with high human populations, deer are more used to constantly smelling human scents and may not be afraid of it, but in remote areas, like the high ridges up in the Berkshires, deer might be more alarmed.

Generally, deer become alert and even alarmed at an unusual smell. But for every whitetail theory, there is another that contradicts it. Because deer are cautious, but also curious. And while some deer will run away at the slightest hint of a different smell, others may want to investigate.

“Curiosity killed a cat, but it also killed a lot of deer,” muses Woytek, who suggests staying scent-free and taking care of business before heading into the woods rather than risking deer to warn. “Nothing is certain with deer.”

Hunters should not wear their hunting clothes in vehicles, houses, restaurants, gas stations, etc. where they can absorb scents. I keep mine in a large, covered plastic box in the back of my truck, where it won’t be contaminated by in-cab odors such as smoke. B. my hunting dogs, can be spoiled. Sitting in the seat your dogs sat on when you went duck hunting will make you smell like a wet dog. Deer don’t like dogs.

When I arrive at my hunting ground, I change there. When I’m done, I change my clothes again and put them back in the box before I go home. In the box are leaves and pine branches. If I’m hunting an apple orchard, I’ll also toss a few sliced ​​apples in the box, but the scent of apples will warn deer if there aren’t any apple trees in the area.

“Rather than using anything that draws the deer’s attention towards you where they can see you, be as clean and odor-free as possible and let the deer continue on their normal path unnoticed,” adds Hambly.

And my advice, if you have to strum, look around so you don’t offend anyone and pee freely. If you are concerned about the smell, put a few drops of Rehurin on the spot. It can help you bag the money.

On the other hand, it may just scare the hell out of him.

Marc Folco is the outdoor writer for The Standard Times. Email him at

This story appeared on page E9 of The Standard-Times on October 30, 2005.

Before the season starts and when the exploration is over, you sometimes find that you might need a little extra help when it comes to attracting those deer. Why waste your time with a simple corn pile? Why not go out and get the best deer attractant to guarantee success?

When looking for the top options, it’s important to remember that there are multiple types – spread, spray, plot, mineral, etc. Each type offers its own pros and cons, as well as the best picks within each category.

This blog focuses on the four main types of deer attractants and identifies the attractant that we feel is best suited for its intended purpose. Enjoy the comparison chart below and some key questions we wanted to answer before making your decision on a deer attractant.

Wildgame Innovations Acorn Rage Nationwide Scents Pure Active Scrape Antler King No Sweat, No-Till Plot Mix Big & J Headrush Brand Wildgame Innovations Nationwide Scents Antler King Big & J Image Type Ready to Use / Spread Spray Plot Mineral Quantity 5-15 lb Bag 8 oz. 4.5 pounds. 20 pounds. Flavor/Fragrance Acorns Deer Urine Oats, Rye, etc. N/A Price ~$15 ~$20 ~$25 ~$25 Best Price CLICK HERE! CLICK HERE! CLICK HERE! CLICK HERE!

Overall the best attractant for deer

Wildgame Innovations Acorn Rage

While it might not be the newest item on the list, it’s certainly proven its worth – and the results speak for themselves. Wildgame Innovations’ Acorn Rage deer attractant is our top pick for 2022 and here’s why!

Acorn Rage feed attractant is by far the most popular and best rated deer attractant on the market today. It’s well known that acorns top the list when it comes to valuable deer fodder, and what’s more convenient than having it in an easy-to-dispense packet?

Pro tip: Deer attractant minerals are released slowly over time and can create an active mineral site for up to a year.

Other top technological features include:

This blend is made with 100% real acorns and roasted soybeans to create a nutritious snack packed with flavor. It’s also combined with Wildgame’s Airborne technology, which disperses 600% more scented particles than standard food – WOW! You can also call this a solid long-distance buck attractant.

As for actual specs, the blend is 17% fat and 28% protein with 11% fiber. It is also high in nutrients and can be used all year round.

What we like Ease of use

Airborne Technology

Proven success

Price, what we don’t like No bulk purchase options

For current prices and more information click here!

Best deer attractant spray

Nationwide Scents Scrape Lure Deer Attractant Urine

Nationwide Scents have been producing authentic, field-tested scents for nearly 20 years and they continue to be a trusted tool for many deer hunters. Their Scrape Lure Deer Lockant Urine is our top deer lock spray for 2022!

Pure Active Deer Attractant Spray is a great option for year-round use but performs exceptionally well in the early to late rut. The performance is in the recipe, which is above the industry standard. Look at this:

Fun fact: Nationwide Scents is the world’s largest deer urine collection company.

Other top technological features include:

Nationwide Scents’ facility houses over 600 live white-tailed deer and collects all urine in their state-of-the-art stainless steel facility. In addition, everything is collected fresh this season for the best results.

In terms of quality, the company is a certified member of the RHSA and all of their fragrances are CWD certified. If you don’t like it, Nationwide Scents guarantees all of their products and will make your purchase right!

What we like Price

spray tank

Year-round use

CWD Certified Free What we dislike Drags not included

For current prices and more information click here!

Best deer attractant for planting

Antler King No Sweat, No-Till Plot Mix

All whitetail deer hunters would love to set up their own acres of foraging grounds to ensure they have a solid setup for the season. However, not everyone has the land or equipment to do it. For those looking for an easy deer attractant to plant, take a look at the Antler King No Sweat, No-Till plot mix.

The No Sweat, No-Till deer attractant blend is ideal for those who are short on space or when you’ve found a nice bag but can’t get gear there. If you ask, “Is it really not a checkout?” then the answer is – YES! Antler King has developed a color tolerant mix that will grow almost anywhere with minimal preparation.

This attractant is a mix of perennial and annual seeds that can be planted in both spring and fall. In addition, it also includes varieties of oats, rye, clover, canola and more.

One last note, Antler King has provided a handy mix chart for all of their products!

What we like Easy to use

amount of protein

Plant spring/autumn what we don’t like, price per bag

For current prices and more information click here!

Best mineral attractant for deer

Big & J Headrush

Big & J is best known for taking salt-based supplements (which deer love) and using additional technology to enhance their performance. This is best demonstrated in the strongest mineral deer attractant we could find – the Big & J Headrush.

Headrush Deer Attractant is a perfect combination of pure nutritional supplement and attractant for whitetail deer hunters across the country. The added calcium is key to antler growth, while the product’s bioavailable trace minerals contribute to overall herd health.

The attractant’s greatest feature is its BB2 aroma, which produces a strong scent that attracts deer from a great distance. This concoction, which contributes to a deer’s energy levels, is a trait blend that drives deer wild!

Honestly, the science in this product is just too much to summarize. For a full story on all of its benefits, check out the link below to be even more amazed.

What we like Long-range fragrance

Balance of supplement/attractant

own formula

Salt based price which we don’t like

For current prices and more information click here!

Frequently asked questions when buying deer attractant

Best deer attractant to mix with corn?

Overall, the best deer attractant to mix with corn is the GYT 90 liquid mix.

This particular combination of supplements is excellent during the summer months as deer are more accustomed to consuming corn as agricultural fields are so widespread.

This mixture also offers great advantages in the winter months. The high-fat raw soybean oil serves as a powerful attractant, helps them gain weight and provides many important minerals for antler growth.

What is the best deer attractant for the off-season?

Attracting deer in the off-season can be difficult as travel patterns quickly become more disrupted. Priorities obviously change for both younger and older bucks as they diverge and venture beyond their normal feeding paths.

You may be able to attract deer with a stronger acorn or apple scent blend, or by using active Scape scents like those offered by Nationwide Scents. However, it gets a bit difficult with a standard spread mixture or a simple pile of corn.

Remember that odor molecules move more slowly through the air when it gets colder, making it harder to pick up smells. As a result, the use of long range mineral scent attractants can counteract this when combined with favorable wind conditions.

Can you make homemade deer attractant?

Yes, you can attract homemade deer very easily. For the best homemade DIY deer attractant recipes, check out the links below:

animals mom

gone outside

spring net outdoors

Does molasses attract deer?

Yes, molasses can be used to attract deer due to its strong and sweet aroma. Most standard attractant blocks use molasses as a binder to hold everything together while enhancing the scent.

Best Deer Attractant Experiment Video

For a blog about the best Texas Hunter Deer Blinds, click here!

By Randy Hynes

We’re often concerned about leaving as little odor as possible, but that shouldn’t always be the case.

With nearly 300 million olfactory receptors, white-tailed deer are known to have an exceptional sense of smell. As hunters, we may not understand every physiological and biological detail behind this innate sense, but we do understand that a whitetail can smell much better than we can.

A whitetail’s ability to smell plays a crucial role in social behavior and the overall reproductive process. When the rut gets underway and a white-tailed buck makes a graze, it leaves both visual and olfactory cues. The scent of the interdigital glands, preorbital glands, frontal glands, or tarsal glands stay grounded and on the “licking branch” to relay a variety of information to the local deer herd.

While humans may be able to decipher the various languages ​​of Homo sapiens, deer biologists are still trying to unravel the complexities of communication built into the secretions and odors that come from a white-tailed deer’s glands. As a respected deer biologist once said, “Simply by smell, deer can recognize other deer, learn about the sex, dominance status, reproductive status of the other deer, and so on.”

For the whitetail, scent is a language all of its own.

For decades, whitetail hunters have used buck and roe deer and various other scents to play with a whitetail buck’s territorial, feeding and breeding instincts. It’s no secret that Whitetail responds to strategically placed scents that mimic those left behind by ordinary Whitetail behavior. Empirical evidence suggests that mimicking some type of whitetail scent, whether roe deer or buck, can increase the hunter’s chances of success.

Something as simple as a chalk line could make all the difference when chasing a booner.

Walk along the chalk line

Anyone familiar with carpentry has undoubtedly used a chalk box at some point. But did you know that the chalk box is also a handy device for fooling a rutting whitetail?

Video that may interest you ×

Most hunters are familiar with the trail rag, a tactic in which the hunter drags a piece of cloth soaked in deer to mimic the smell left by a hot deer. This trick has been used successfully for years, but now there’s a new handy twist.

Originally, the trailing rag was a short length of cordage trailing behind the hunter, leaving a trail of scent for a buck to follow. But what if you want to create more than one scent trail, limit your human scent, or not disturb the area around your facility?

By simply adding a bit of weight to the end of the chalk box string, attaching some cotton swabs and applying fresh deer in heat and/or buck bait to the swabs, you can unwind the string from the chalk box and cast it in the direction you wish to make a scent trail. When you’re done, simply wind up the string, weight and swabs – a much easier way to leave a trail of scent for a buck to follow.

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I’ve also heard of hunters replacing the nylon cord with cotton and applying deer in heat directly to the cord while it is in the chalk box. By adding a small weight, the line can be let out behind you and then retrieved once you have reached your stance. When rewinding the line into the chalk box, the odor-absorbing cotton line left a fresh scent trail that hopefully a rutting buck will follow.

Personally, I replaced the factory chalk box “hook” with a small carabiner. To make a scent trail, I simply attach two unscented tampons by tying a loop in the string of each. One tampon is then scented with deer in heat and the other with buckurine. Once I’ve laid the scent trail, hoping to mimic a buck following a deer, I leave the tampons where the scent can drift downwind.

While some might not like the idea of ​​another item to carry on the way to the booth or to play around with, I’ve found that a properly placed trail of scent usually attracts a buck or investigates further. Especially when hunting with my boys, a scent trail can often add a few seconds to the shot and help to position the deer a little closer to my position.

While the chalk box allows for convenient cord retrieval and storage, be sure to store the chalk box in a sealed container or ziplock bag. This will ensure your gear doesn’t smell like rutting whitetail.

Make your trek to the tree stand more productive by dropping some scent for an excitable dollar.

boots and trees

Out of both curiosity and sexual drive, a rutting buck will travel a considerable distance to sniff out a deer. But it’s not always convenient for the hunter to quickly and strategically place a scent that will lure a gutter-mad buck. For example, it is difficult to use a trail rag when hunting in an area that is extremely dense and bushy.

One of my favorite methods of scent placement is using Conquest Scents, EverCalm – Deer Herd Stick and VS-1 – Estrus Whitetail Stick on the bottom of my hunting boots. By placing the deer scent on the sole and toe of my boots, I accomplish two things: I leave a scent trail and I mask human scent.

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If you hunt in an area where you can create a scent cone, Conquest Scents, EverCalm, and VS-1 work very well. By placing EverCalm or VS-1 on trees and branches upwind of a belay, these handy sticks will quickly make your area smell like deer. I’ve repeatedly seen a suspicious long-nosed deer smell a whiff of EverCalm and go about its business.

Another unique use for EverCalm and VS-1 is once in your booth, remove the lid of either scent and simply let it smell your entire hunting ground. Both EverCalm and VS-1 come in a deodorant-style resealable container. Due to their unique wax composition, no fragrance will spill, leak or freeze.

Remember that deer take on the scent of their kind. So if you place EverCalm where an approaching deer thinks another deer should be, and when they approach they don’t see a deer, they will quickly find out something is wrong. It’s a mistake I learned the hard way.

However, if you place the scent on trees or branches downwind of your stand, deer will move past you towards the source of the scent – and offer you a shot – rather than stand 50 meters away and stare in your direction.

Like a whitetail, use your surroundings when scenting.

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rope and tampons

We’ve already mentioned tampons, but if you’re not confident in your manhood, then ignore this next tip. For the rest of you, I promise it will work.

Not only do tampons make great absorbents for your trail rag, they also make exceptional scented wicks. They are sterile, odorless, and can ingest a significant amount of deer urine. Simply apply the scent or deer urine to the tampon and tie with the handy string.

Cotton rope also holds a significant amount of scent and has been used by some of the most successful whitetail hunters. By applying scent to a frayed end of the rope, the “wicking” action spreads the scent throughout the general area. A rope 1 inch or larger in diameter can also be hung over a scraper and can serve as both a “licking branch” and a scented wick.

When placing scented wicks, always consider the direction of the wind and try to hang them so that approaching deer will pass by your stand and not stop in front of it. Also, make sure to use your wind checker to see how thermals and wind carry a scent’s scent to an approaching deer.

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Knowing that you’ve tricked a whitetail’s nose and lured it into the shooting range only adds to the deep satisfaction that comes from hunting alluding whitetails.

While some owners do their best to keep deer out of their garden or yard because they sometimes cause trouble, others want to encourage deer to visit their property for observation or hunting purposes. One of the best ways to attract deer to your property is to use deer feeders. This article focuses on how to get deer to come to your feeder and property.

Attract deer with corn

There are many ways to encourage deer to visit your property or yard more often. Certain scents, plants, or foods can be very effective, but the least expensive way to attract deer is with corn. You can place corn piles in areas already frequented by deer and be sure they’ll find it. Once the deer become familiar with these corn piles, you can begin to slowly introduce them to more unfamiliar areas like your yard. Your deer will visit these locations more often in search of their next meal. A disadvantage of this technique is the fact that you will have many thieves like squirrels and other animals stealing your corn over time. Now let’s take it up a notch and see how to attract deer to your bird feeder.

How to attract deer to your bird feeder

One of the best and most efficient ways to attract deer to your property is to use deer feeders. Automatic game feeders are specifically designed to release any type of food at precise intervals with minimal human intervention and maintenance. If you choose a quality feeder, all you have to do is change the batteries every few months.

Once you’ve made your purchase and installed your feeders, it’s time to take a closer look at how to attract deer to your feeders. You can use a variety of foods and scents to slowly lure the bucks or cows to your feeder – peanut butter and corn piles work best. Once the deer get used to the feeding troughs and are not afraid of them, they will visit them more often.

How long does it take for deer to get used to an automatic feeder?

Deer typically take about three weeks to become accustomed to an automatic feeder. During this transition period you should avoid maintenance on your feeder and get the flock used to the new food source. It’s also a good idea to purchase a deer feeder that will blend in with the environment and not appear threatening. These are the basics of getting deer to come to your feeder.

Best time to hire automatic game feeders

The best time to place game feeders depends on whether you are using the feeder for population management or hunting. If you use the feeder to boost your deer’s health, you can set it to dispense food for a few seconds once in the morning and once in the afternoon. You can run a few tests and see how much food is being given out at each feeding session. On the other hand, if you plan to use the feeder for hunting, you can set it to dispense food for a few seconds just before your hunting time.

How long does it take a deer to find corn?

It takes between 1 and 2 days for deer to find corn, but in some cases it can happen sooner if the area is well traveled. It also depends on the number of deer in the area and their travel routes. If you want the process to go more smoothly, you can try power attractants or apple slices.

By David Hart

Love it or hate it, baiting is legal in many states. Here’s how to do it right.

Whether you agree with it or not, deer baiting is legal in all or part of at least 27 states.

Some, like Michigan and Wisconsin, have restrictions on the amount of feed hunters can use, while Louisiana only allows baiting on private land and with anything but sweet potatoes. Find out!

Whether you agree with the rules or not, one thing is certain: where baiting is legal, it’s hugely popular.

Up to 74 percent of Michigan hunters use bait where it’s legal. It’s even more popular in South Carolina’s Low Country, a sprawling region of thick palm thickets, pine plantations, and swamps. A survey of employees of the region’s Antlerless Deer Quota Program found that 94 percent of respondents use bait for deer hunting. Most use corn, and almost all just dump the corn on the ground.

This is not an effective way to kill deer, according to a report by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, which states that success rates are actually higher in the state’s Piedmont region, where baiting is illegal.

According to the report, hunters in Piedmont killed 28 percent more deer per square mile and spent 22 percent less time hunting a deer. It also says it takes an average of 1,200 pounds of corn to kill a single deer on the Coastal Plains, based on the estimated amount used by all survey respondents.

Hayward Simmons agrees that it can take a lot of corn to kill a deer, but he believes success rates are lower because hunters using bait are a bit more selective.

“Many of the people interviewed practice high-quality deer management, so they forego smaller deer,” says Simmons, owner of Cedar Knoll Hunting Lodge in the state’s Coastal Plain. “I can say with certainty that baits are very effective. We feed year round to help keep deer on our property and increase the overall population. No question, it works.”

Mike Noskoviak of northern Wisconsin doesn’t eat year-round, but he agrees that baiting can be an effective way to kill deer, even adult bucks. The 43-year-old outfitter has been a lifelong huntsman and has used bait for much of his deer hunts for the past 21 years.

It took him a few years to figure it out, but instead of dumping corn on the ground long before the season starts, he now limits the time he uses bait.

“I start baiting a stand seven to 10 days before I plan to hunt him,” he said. “I learned a long time ago that if you start baiting for a long time, the deer, especially the adult bucks, become nocturnal. It wasn’t until I reduced the amount of time I baited a stall that I saw larger bucks during the day.”

STAY BACK!

Noskoviak is fortunate in that he controls hundreds of square miles of forest in northern Wisconsin. There is virtually no farmland in its territory and very little hunting pressure around it. That’s one of the reasons his bait stations are so effective.

But there’s another reason Simmons and his South Carolina colleague Terry Hiers think they do so well with bait: They never approach it on foot.

“We prohibit our hunters from going anywhere near our bait sites,” Simmons said. “It seems everyone wants to look at the corn before climbing into their stall. This is the quickest way to ruin a spot. Once I walked a 10 foot circle around a bait pile. The deer never touched it. It was lying on the ground rotting.”

Instead of walking to their bait spots to fill them up, all three outfitters rely on vehicles. Noskoviak drives up in an ATV and distributes his corn from a bucket. Both South Carolina outfitters used a gravity-powered hopper to spread corn in the back of their truck. Pulling a rope, they can drop corn while driving through fields and along forest roads without getting out of their trucks. That’s important, emphasizes Hiers.

“Human scent is the main reason deer don’t come to a bait pile during the day. It doesn’t matter whether it’s corn or a feeding station. If deer smell you, they won’t show up during the day,” he said. “Deer will get used to a truck, but not the smell or sight of a human.”

DON’T CHOSE THE BAIT

This is one of the reasons why all three outfitters pay close attention to the wind direction every morning when they are thinking about the hunting grounds. If it blows towards the bait from a stand, they will not chase it.

The presence of corn won’t trump human scent, and you don’t have to hunt a bait stand any differently than you might hunt over a feeder, trail, or other location, Noskoviak points out.

This includes limiting the time you spend at each booth. Whitetails will find a spot that has been hunted hard for most of the season and avoid the area, baited or not. Or they just go nocturnal.

That’s why Hiers’ clients almost never see bait. Instead of dumping corn just yards from his stands of trees, he places his hunters 150 yards or more from corn fields.

He prefers to hunt trails leading to the bait, especially during bow season as adult bucks rarely approach a bait pile in daylight. They tend to hold back with denser cover and wait for darkness before venturing outdoors. Those dollars will not come to the corn at all if the site has been overrun.

“I think a lot of hunters sit over their bait day in and day out and wonder why they don’t see deer,” said Hiers, owner of Blackwater Hunting Lodge. “It’s really important to limit the pressure. If someone kills a deer from one of my stands, I will not hunt it for several days, or longer if we had to track the deer.”

Noskoviak moves his hunters as well, and Simmons will rest an area for a week or more even if no one has killed a deer there. Most importantly, provide the deer with a level of comfort that will compel them to return to a bait station. The only way to do this is to lay off a specific location for several days or even weeks.

WHAT WORKS?

All three outfitters bait almost exclusively with corn for one simple reason: deer love it. Noskoviak has tried other things and admits that apples work. But for him, corn is easier to get and use. Two gallons of corn (the legal limit) brings in more deer and lasts longer than two gallons of apples.

“I’ve tried beets and carrots, but for some reason the deer don’t touch them where I hunt,” he said. “I know hunters do really well with that in Michigan, but I don’t.”

Hiers has used yams in his bait stations, but he now uses corn exclusively because it just works. He assumes that deer will eat almost any standard bait food, but corn is readily available, relatively inexpensive, and easy to use.

Corn is king in Texas too. Gary Smith, a guide for Texana Ranch in Hunt, Texas, says the outfitter he works for also feeds protein pellets from a gravity feeder, but he can’t say he sees much of a difference in what the deer prefer . However, sometimes they don’t want anything from a feeder.

“If we’ve had a good rain and everything turns green, you won’t see a deer at a feeding station,” Smith said. “Many people are not aware that they do not only live on corn. In fact, it’s not often I see big bucks staying at a feeder for very long.”

A heavy fattening crop will also draw deer away from feeding stations. Corn is just another food source and bucks in particular will find their way to a feeding station, eat a little and then continue on their way. The only time Smith sees mature bucks lounging around bird feeders is when the rut is active and females are present. Females stay attached to feeders a little longer, which is why baiting can be so effective during the rut.

“Don’t assume you’re going to kill a big deer just because you have a food bowl,” warns Smith. “There’s a lot more to it than sitting and waiting over a feeder.”

However, it can be extremely effective if done correctly.

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This article was published in the October 2012 issue of Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine. Sign up today to have Buckmasters delivered to your home.