Thread: Luring deer to a feeder

I am taking care of some deer that are a problem on some private bush blocks. I have successfully got deer to eat daily from feeders I have made and installed. In the feeders is maize. My feeders are installed strategically at spots that have good shooting lanes and cover (bowhunting). To get them to the feeder I have been using a 'cookie trail' of maize, from a nearby deer track. Red and Fallow deer do not seem to smell the maize, rather stumble across it and follow the trail.

Rats and possums however are cleaning out my cookie trails of maize in some places, and deer never seem to find the feeder. I have tried putting a salt block next to one, and used molasses, but no joy. I have filmed deer walking within 20m of a feeder they are yet to discover.

For this reason I would like to add a strong scent to lure in the deer to the feeder. Reading around US material I see that what works for whitetail in some states (like citrus), doesn't work in others. Some regions the deer like cherry or grape, because that's what has grown there for a long time. Other places it actually repels. I have tried raspberry jelly mix here, as some hunters in the US swear by it, but deer here don't seem to care for it. I'm yet to try peanut butter (possums and rats go nuts so to speak for that too - so can't just screw a plastic jar to a tree like they do in the US). Brassica is not an option as I'm bush hunting.

I would like to hear from hunters here (not Oz or anywhere else) with success in using all season home made attractants for Red and Fallow deer.

Depending on what trees are nearby if its just native some pine sap will have them coming for a sniff, in the bush a bit of Broadleaf might get them looking. They love fodder beet if you can chuck some around.

Good suggestions. I'll try the fodder beet as all of the blocks have some self-seeding pine, and one block backs onto a pine crop. All have broadleaf already, or what the deer haven't stripped out already

a couple of smashed up swedes or fodderbeet should add some smell and get then to come for a look...same deal with brassicas...pinch a couple from over the fence and leave by feeder...the possums may beat deer to them....but if the smell brings in a deer..all good. turnips are another crop deer have been known to travel a long way to get into....

Good to read about the turnips. Have a sack of them here, and plenty more on steady supply. Will def give that a go tonight or tomorrow morning. I can probably get my hands on some swedes also. Handy if turnips or swedes could be dried in some way and still work, as feed. Would lace the maize with it. Guess it loses its scent when dry.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Deer love the smell of petrol and diesel.
Had a pet red hind who go crazy trying to get a taste when I was filling the bike up.
When I was a kid my dad was cutting bush to supplement the farm income. Deer would often come out on to skid sites at night and play around diesel tanks and oil drums.
Whether it would work as a lure I wouldn't be sure.

Cripes that's news to me. Wonder how the heck that works.

hes from south waikato.....lots of petrol sniffers live there LOL....

They were siphoning it off and selling it to buy maize, turnips and salt licks.

yeah..back to PVA glue and each others farts in these trying times LOL....

The farm deer love the smell of Palmolive Dishwash det. If I put a squirt in the knapsack sprayer ( helps the spray penetrate waxy leaves ) and spray a fence line, any deer on the other side of the fence are over really getting off on the smell.

Maple syrup. You might attract a moose with that :-)

The old oil/diesel is similar in scent to their waxy scent glands

Have had deer eat the grease off digger booms in the past

Crush some apples on their trails

Then leave apples at your feeder

Once deer establish apples as food they will go a very very long way to get them

I have tried all sorts in front of trail cameras with very mixed success. Top ones seemed to be: leaves/branches from palatable plants eg mahoe, broad leaf, willows etc. Apples, some cut up for a bit of scent. Feed pellets, ones that had use for deer on the packet. Then maize, some with molasses poured over it. Salt blocks, zero activity on the trail cams for some reason, that was both rock salt and mineral blocks with reds and Sika present.
The branches with leaves on may be easier to spot too and seem more natural to the deer, who knows.

Got to go with the feed crops, swedes, turnips, rape, they will come for miles around to feed on that.

I was told deer like Aniseed too. been meaning to try it. popular in the UK apparently. Lace the corn with aniseed