I have been using areas off a heavily travelled trail to test different attractants. Each new attractant I try is set further down the trail than the previous from the bedding area. I leave a trail cam set up on the attractant for one week. I rated each attractant by: 1. Number of deer showing up; 2. Number of adult deer; 3. Buck to Doe Ratio; and 4. Time spent at attractant. Here are my results so far: Trophy Rock: ($14.99) 16/15/7:8/6min 3rd one tested and still has a lot of activity. Deer CoCAIN (Black Magic) ($7.99): 37/37/5:32/12min WOW! they come in and stick around for quite a while. C'mere Deer ($19.99): 8/0/0:8/2min 2nd one setup and visits dropped off drastically after trophy rock setup. Salt Lick ($5.70): 32/16/2:14/1min 1st one setup and least frequented since the others started. I just set up a trail cam on a product new to me - Advantage 360 Supermaxx ($9.99) Further questions: 1. Has any of you done any type of study on different attractants in your area? 2. Do you feel the criteria I set up is fair for rating the attractant? Thanks for your input.
A couple problems I see. 1. You condition them to come to a certain spot and then move your test to another. 2. The trophy rock and the deer cocain leave some residue in the ground that the deer will come back to even if you remove it.
I still maintain the other sites. If it looks low on the attractant, I reload with more. Getting kind of expensive, but I want to make it fair. To know that deer bypass something that was closer to their bedding to go to something else seems to tell me that they prefer one over the other.
That may be true. But it is also a defense mechanism. Deer walk as they feed, not standing in one spot for very long. It make it hard for something to sneak up on them without them noticing. Carry on with your experiments Dr. Doolittle. Got any pics to post?
When I get done. Each pic off my trail cams are over 1Meg and I have to resize each one to post. I have to finish with this one and "Buck Addiction" and then I'll post what I've been seeing. My favorite so far is a slickhead sticking out her tongue at the camera. Does with attitudes, I like 'em.
I didnt really do a test, but I followed a passed around recipe for a mineral mix... and had a mature 8-pointer diggin in 3 hours after i made it. And did absolutley nothing to reduce my sent, and it was in the 80's.
First 24 on the Advantage 360 Supermax is looking good! 6 bucks/3does longest time on spot is 10 minutes. This is looking pretty good. I normally don't check the trail cam this soon, but I forgot to put the SD card in when I put the Supermax out.
This freaking heat wave won't quit! I see a lot less deer movement from the house than I usually do and personally, I don't want anything to do with the weather outside. For 3 days now the temperature with humidity level has put the heat index up over 100! Yesterday it ended up being 108 and the day before was 102, today they're calling for close to 110. I know them rotten weather has to be affecting the deer something fierce! I walked down the lane towards the back of the property, but didn't go near the attractants and there was a small 4 pt that got up and wobbled away. He was so thin it looked like he had just come out of a gulag. He couldn't even make a whole hearted attempt to get away. I came back to the house and called DNR and asked if they had any reported incidents of deer diseases in this area and they claim we don't have CWD or anything else. I know this youngun could just be sick with something that is not contagious, but I'd rather be sure. I then called the local enforcement officer and asked him to come out and take a look at this deer. He said he "might" be able to come out some time this week. I feel like I should be able to do something to take care (for lack of better term) of the deer on my land, but am at a lose for what to do. Any realistic ideas?
Go to any grain elevator - buy trace mineral salt and a cattle mineral mix (both in 50 lb. bags). You can get 4 mineral stations for about $30.00. All the name brand stuff is nothing more than the above, and some have added sugars for attracting, but those do nothing for nutrition. If you want to add sugars, molasis would do the EXACT same thing.
I hear cherry Kool Aid works well too. I made my own mix this year and came out with about 125 lbs. worth of mineral for around $45. Much better than $30 for 25 lbs. in the store. My sites were tore up this year too. Much better response than I ever got with other products.
What minerals do you buy? I'll go to the co-op about 30 miles from here and try it. Has to be a lot cheaper.
Just ask the counter guy if they have a cattle mineral mix. This is very common stuff. Tell them what you are doing and they will be able to help you out!
Supermax results: 56 deer: 39 adults: 20 bucks: 19 does: 10 minutes was the longest any spent. None of the bucks I have photos for were shooters. This may because the previous landowners rode atvs around all the time and there was a party spot close to what I declared a deer sanctuary. It will take time I am sure to "grow" some big bucks here. The longer the sanctuary stays quiet and unspoiled by man, the better it will become, I think. Also went back and looked at all the pics and came up with a 3:1 ratio for deer heading out of the sanctuary to deer heading back in. As there were 3 times more pics in the evening time as there were in the morning. I suppose they stop by for a snack and then on their way back, their stomachs are full. The week I had a camera on the Buck Jam, nothing happened. In fact nothing happened until this last week. Where the Buck Jam was placed is now several small holes in the ground. I don't know if the extremely hot weather this past week had anything to do with it or not. The totals and averages I got for the whole "Test" so far are: Total Deer: 141 Average per attractant: 28 Total Adult Deer: 107 Average per attractant: 21 Total Young'uns: 34 Average 7 Total Bucks: 34 Average 7 Total Does: 73 Average 15 Average time at the attractant: 5 minutes Total Evening Deer: 107 Average 21 Total Morning Deer: 34 Average 7 Anyway, put out some Xcellerator 360 this morning. We'll see what happens there.
