Home-brewed deer lure?

Teach

This year's hunting season for Tennesee is pretty much in the bag- - - -only about another week left. I'm thinking ahead to next season already. For several years, I've been creating my own salt licks in rotting stumps by pouring bagged trace mineral salt crystals into the hole in the center and letting rain leach the salt into the wood. The deer lick and nibble the wood away, and eventually they create a depression in the ground where the stump used to be. When that happens I freshen the lick with more salt a couple of times a year.

Now- - - -next idea- - - - -one of my neighbors owns a small trucking company, hauling logs to sawmills, and also pulling tanker-loads of fertilizer-grade molasses. I'm thinking of trying to get a couple of 5-gallon buckets of that stuff, mixing it with cracked corn and letting it ferment, then adding a good dose of trace mineral salt as a deer lure. I can just see a couple of drunk big-boy bucks fighting over some "deer likker"! Comments/suggestions? (Yes, I know it's probably illegal to hunt over it- - - -gotta remove any kind of bait that's not at least 51% salt two weeks before the season opens!)
Jerry

Fat Billy

Sounds like a 8 point drive through to me. :applause: Later,

HAWKEN

Interesting post Jerry, let me know how it works, I might want to try it. Your obedient servant, Robin

tennmike

Apple juice poured on a few tree trunks is a good lure; not that I'd know anything about that.

Peanut butter smeared on tree trunks is a good lure for deer and squirrels; but I don't know anything about that, either.





:tooth:

woodsrunner

Jerry, a few comments about your salt/ molasses idea. What I say is based on deer research some years old now, and mostly done in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, but it will apply just about anywhere in the Whitetail range. Remember, though, my specialty...if I have one!...is managing natural Longleaf Forests with wildlife management somewhere down the line in importance and experience. But.....if you want to try the salt/molasses idea I suggest that you add an ounce or so of ANISE OIL that you can buy in the supermarket off the spice shelf. For some reason anise oil will attract the attention of about everything that makes a living in the woods....anything with four legs on it! Now about your idea:

Deer do not need salt in the diet at all. It WILL attract local resident deer and we all know that but it will not increase your population or pull deer in from very far away. It's more like attracting the resident Whitetails to a central location. If you want to increase your resident Whitetail population and put body weight on them along with MASS on the antlers, do this: Mix in about equal amounts common old sweet feed, corn and powdered soybean meal and dispense it through feeders. This pours the nutrients into the deer and significantly increases body weight and reproduction. I remember reading the research on a study in northern Alabama several years back that showed an increase in numbers (bucks and does) from about one deer to every 18-20 acres to one every 7-8 acres, about double the population in 2-3 years. Reproduction went from about one fawn per doe to 2 and on occasions 3 per doe. And the interesting thing was that does were conceiving and dropping fawns by their 1st birthday as opposed to about 18 months between birth to first fawning before the feeding program. Body weight also increased by 20%-30%. It's all tied to nutrition, and it doesn't matter if we're talking about squirrels, coons, deer or humans! It's what animals eat that's important!

I took a good look at your place and the surrounding habitat during the Memorial Day get-together this past May. I forget how many deer you said an average harvest was each year, but I remember telling you that I thought you were taking out maybe half of what you could take without degrading the population. You've got darn good deer habitat, and I think that if you will start a feeding program using these ingredients you'll see results within 18-24 months. But you have to stick with it once you start! And remember the other suggestion that I guarantee you will work! Locate those white oak trees in the woods and each February and August scatter a cup of 10-10-10 for each inch of tree diameter at 4-5 feet off the ground. Scatter it out to about as far as the limbs reach or even farther. (The feeder roots of that oak tree will be no deeper than 6 inches from the top of the ground, and will extend out about twice the length of the limbs). If you can get the fertilizer company to custom blend you a 17-17-17 mix that will be even better! Deer and other vegetative eating animals instinctively know to eat the highest protein material available, and you will see deer walk past acorn producing oaks to get the fertilized ones first! It works....believe me!

EDIT: Hey Mike....smear some peanut butter on the insulators of your electric fence, overlapping the hot wire, and see what happens! No deer, shocked ones or not, will never go near the fence again

tennmike

woodsrunner wrote: »

EDIT: Hey Mike....smear some peanut butter on the insulators of your electric fence, overlapping the hot wire, and see what happens! No deer, shocked ones or not, will never go near the fence again

I broke a dog from watering the wheels on my truck in a similar manner. Watered down the area around the truck, hooked up the hot wire to the bumper, and drove a good ground rod into the wet area. I had no doubt when the dog attempted to remark his territory. He didn't come back, either!

Teach

A neighborhood mutt used to water the wheels of our cars when we were hauling hay for a local farmer back when I was in high school. I used a jumper cable from an electric fence to the bumper of my car to accomplish the same sort of aversion training!
Jerry

Dr. db

It is illegal in Colorado to intentionally place or distribute feed, salt blocks or other attractants for big-game animals.

Teach

Tennessee has pretty liberal baiting rules, such as the requirement that any deer attractant used during the hunting season has to be at least 51% salt. We can use corn, or other food-based attractants, but those products must be removed at least 2 weeks before the season starts. Doves- - - -sowing winter wheat or harvesting corn, then shooting over the area is legal ("normal agricultural procedure"), but spreading a truckload of cracked corn for a dove shoot like the state attorney-general's hunting party was caught doing, is not. There are some oddball rules, such as hiding in the bushes and making a noise like a siren is forbidden when hunting ambulance-chasing lawyers ("Shooting over bait")- - - -ditto for placing big bundles of cash in plain view when hunting politicians!
:jester:
Jerry

bullsi1911

woodsrunner wrote: »

But.....if you want to try the salt/molasses idea I suggest that you add an ounce or so of ANISE OIL that you can buy in the supermarket off the spice shelf. For some reason anise oil will attract the attention of about everything that makes a living in the woods....anything with four legs on it! \

Interesting. Is it the licorice-like smell that attracts them?

woodsrunner

Don't know for sure what it is about anise oil that attracts. Just know or remember from all the trapping for wildlife research my buddies have done (usually in a university research situation) this has been added to the lure....even fox or bobcat urine. CaliFFe may have some idea. He's our "resident trapper". I do know that even deer are attracted to the odor.

Teach

Lots of it available on Ebay- - - -looks like the hippie "aromatherapy" crowd likes it, too!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Pure-Essential-Oils-2oz-4oz-8oz-16oz-Glass-Bottles-/221275442526?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item33850b4d5e

:drool:
Jerry