My son and I love to go deer hunting each year. He is still quite young, so we often just post up on top of a hill for rifle season. He tends to move around a lot make noise, so that is about our only option. However, when I hunt on my own that is a different story.
There is nothing more exciting than to have a monster buck walk right under your stand, and it happens most years for me. When there is a chill in the air and you can see the breath of the deer in the morning sun, there is nothing better. I also hunt with a crossbow and with a compound bow, so getting deer in close range is vital.
For hunting with bows, I really want the deer at about 30-40 yards for me to be completely comfortable with a shot. I have made longer, but only a few times. I never want to take an iffy shot and potentially injure a deer without killing it. The worst thing that can happen for me would be for a deer to starve to death, die of infection, or get eaten by predators because of my actions.
I love hunting deer as they are worthy prey. Deer have a great sense of smell, sharp eyesight, and ideal hearing for a forest setting. It is tough to walk up on a deer with it in range because it normally hears you, sees you, or smells you before you can get that close. This means your best bet is often to stay put and get deer to come to you. In this article, we will cover how to attract deer for an ideal shot.
Deer Sign
If you look around, you can often tell exactly where deer will be walking every day. Deer are creatures of habit. When they find resources, they will take the same path to these resources each time they go. Where you place your stand should be based on signs that deer are walking through that area.
When going after bucks, you can find signs that only bucks leave. Rubs are where bucks rub their antlers on small trees or branches to shine them up. You will see that the bark is rubbed off of the tree somewhere between two and four feet off of the ground. Scrapes are areas where bucks scrape the ground and then urinate to mark their territory. If you see these signs, you know bucks will be in that area.
My general philosophy is that any deer sign is good sign. If there are does in the area, there will eventually be bucks when the rut comes around. I also often take does for meat, so I’m not as picky as some hunters. Scat is a good sign that deer are in the area. This is deer droppings often found along game trails. While deer travel to resources like food, water, and bedding, they will wear game trails on the forest floor. These are like roadmaps to tell where deer will be walking. Scat and fresh tracks show that the game trail has recently been used. I always like my stand to be overlooking a game trail, a rub, a scrape, or all three.
Stands
It may seem obvious, but a big part of attracting deer is not scaring them away. You picked your location based on deer sign, so they will likely be there as long as you don’t screw it up. Your first priority is hiding yourself visually. You can use natural materials to build a ground blind, but this does limit your visibility. You can set up a manufactured ground blind, but they have many of the same issues. They also allow deer to smell your location easier than if you are up in a tree.
Using a tree stand gives you more visibility so you can see the deer coming from far away. Your scent will not be as big of an issue when in a tree. The biggest advantage is that deer have no reason to look up. Think about it. All of their food sources and predators are down on the ground. Their instincts tell them to keep their eyes down low. The only downside to tree stands is that they typically do not cover your movement, so you must stay fairly still.
Urine and Cover Scents
Most hunters have scents that they use for a variety of purposes when deer hunting. There are a bunch of different opinions on this. I believe that you want to disrupt your own scent as much as possible. This means you are going to do better if you don’t smell like a person, so cover scent or deer urine could help. However, I find it hard to believe that an old wily buck cannot tell the difference between a five-dollar bottle of scent and actual deer activity.
For cover scent, a common option is earth scent which just makes you smell like a forest floor. There are also now cover scents that actually smell like nothing. They are designed to eliminate the molecules that create a scent. For deer scent, you can get buck urine, doe urine, and doe estrus. The one you pick is typically chosen based on the part of the rut you are in. I like to wash all of my hunting clothing with cover scent detergent and dry them with cover scent drier sheets. Then I seal them up in airtight containers.
On the day of the hunt, I typically spray myself including all clothing with cover scent. I avoid ‘human scents’ such as toothpaste, deodorant, and fragrant soap. I sometimes will spray some doe urine or estrus on the bottom of my boots to create a path for the deer to follow. When I get to my stand, I put out a few scent bombs with deer urine to draw deer into the general area. I also like to spray in any preexisting rubs.
Deer Calls
We are hidden visually, and we have covered our scent. What about sounds? Calling deer into your area is tough, and honestly I do not call much. I do take a grunt call with me. This is designed to sound like a mature buck. Some people use this to call in deer, but typically I just grunt when a deer is in range and I want it to stop walking. Just a quick grunt can freeze a deer long enough to take a quality shot.
Rattling anglers can be used from other deer you have harvested, or you can buy plastic ones. These work by imitating the sound of two bucks fighting. During the rut, this sound can bring other deer into the area to see what the commotion is all about. If you are specifically going after older bucks, this could work well as they are always up for a fight. Just be cautious not to rattle too much as the deer catch on after a while.
Sure, it is nice to set up in a comfy ground blind on a hillside with my son. I usually take shots up to 200 yards to get our first deer in the freezer, so I am happy to bag one early. Last season I bagged my deer, gutted it, skinned it, quartered it, and was headed home by 10 am. However, there is something really special about having that up-close moment with the deer. If you want to get your deer in up close and personal, follow these tips to confuse their senses. You will have deer coming to you before you know it.
