Let’s face it, we all want to attract deer, fast. If you own your own land, or have access to a willing friend’s, then you can definitely make the best of things. The American whitetail is an elusive animal, and many of us have spent all morning and afternoon waiting for our quarry only to be irritated that we didn’t see a single one.
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Once you’ve completed this guide you’ll have done everything you can in order to make the area you hunt in friendly for deer, which will greatly increase your chances of bagging the big one next season. Read on, because here a primer on the art of how to attract deer fast.
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What You’ll Need
Before we begin, let’s take a quick look over what you’ll be wanting to make sure you have in order to get the deer right where you want them.
- Land- You’ll need access to some land that you can manage in the off season, ideally this will be yours but a friend’s can work just as well and you might even get some help.
- Seeds- Try to make sure that you purchase deer food plot seeds if you’re unsure of what you’re doing. Otherwise, just make sure that you have a wide variation of different foods available.
- Waterproof Containers- You’ll be using these to create watering holes. They’re not essential if the property you’re working on has water features like streams and creeks already however.
- Basic Tools- You’ll need a few tools to clear trails and possibly make some holes in fences. Chances are you won’t have to go out of your way to find them if you own the property, since you’ll have them around anyways.
- Salt Licks- Use these to create spots where your deer can get minerals.
It really shouldn’t cost you too much, the main investment here is going to be your time. Keep in mind that this is certainly going to be a rather lengthy affair, but it’ll all be worth it once the next hunting season rolls around.
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How To Attract Deer Fast - In Six Step
1.) Scout the Property
Whether the land you’re on is big or small, you’ll want to scout it out in order to determine what you need and where you need it. You can find great locations for the steps in the rest of this guide by carefully going over the land around you.
Communicate with your neighbors. Not only do you need to know if they’re okay with you chasing a wounded deer onto their property, but you want to provide things that they don’t have on their property in order to attract the animals.
Protip: Treat your scouting trips like a hunting trip. Use rubber boots and scent eliminators in order to avoid getting human scent all over everything while you’re taking a look. Remember that deer will instinctively avoid humans in many cases.
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2.) Set Up a Food Plot
Food plots should be your primary consideration for getting deer onto the property. You can attract quite a few of them, and halfway control their movement by planting a few plants. If it sounds too good to be true, well, you do have to put in some work but you’ll love the payoff.
Protip: Consider investing a little bit of money and getting some “forage grade” seeds like this instead of planting something low-quality and overly cheap. It will mimic your deer’s normal feeding routine, and make things a lot easier on you. Either way, go with mixes, as the diversity of food will keep them coming back.
3.) Create Homes for the Deer
If you have the room on your property, you should definitely consider making actual “sanctuaries” for the deer you’re trying to attract. Remember that deer prefer forests because of the cover, if you can see over three hundred feet through the trees… so can they, and they’ll feel insecure.
Bucks, in particular, are extremely wary. If you have a heavily forested section of the property, consider making it off-limits to everyone in order to allow the deer to remain unmolested until, hopefully, you get the shot when they wander into your food plot.
Obviously, this isn’t much use when you don’t have enough property but you can still create quite a bit of traffic by allowing sections of your land to become thickly forested and leaving them alone year-round.
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4.) Mind Your Fences and Create Trails
If your property is entirely surrounded by fences, it will be quite hard for new whitetails to get in. Even shorter barbwire fences that they can easily leap can create something of a pain for them to get around and may discourage them.
The easiest way to handle this is to strategically create holes in your fence-line in order to allow them to easily pass. You can do these either by roads where deer sometimes get funneled to, or along adjacent property if your neighbor is okay with it.
The key is to make access easy, but not to completely open your fences to the world. If you scouted properly you probably already have a few areas in mind by the time you’ve reached this point. You might want to consider running some trails through the more thickly vegetated parts of your property as well to make things even easier on the deer.
5.) Make Watering Holes
Deer need water, just like everything else, and not everyone has a creek sitting around on the property they own. You can make your own watering holes pretty easily, however, which can add to the experience of “home” for the whitetails you’re trying to attract.
There’s no need to rent or borrow heavy equipment either. If you have access to some fifty-five gallon drums you can simply cut them in half and sink them into the ground, and if you don’t you might want to just buy a couple large plastic containers and sink them.
6.) Place Salt Licks
Animals are inherently attracted to mineral sources, and you can work on attracting some more deer to your property by making sure that they’re present. Set the salt licks in strategic places around the property for the deer. If you use scouting cameras, they make a good place to set them up.
Bovine salt licks work pretty well for managing wildlife and they’re available for low prices. There’s no need to overcomplicate things here.
Summary
What you’re really trying to do here is to create a stable environment for the deer to exist in even during the off-season.
Once they get comfortable you’ll soon find your property teeming with whitetails and you’ll have a much easier time filling your tags during the next season.
It’s all in the details if you’re goal is figuring out how to attract deer fast. Good luck, and happy hunting!
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