As deer hunting season gets closer, more and more hunters try to attract deer to their land. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, as deer have a keen sense of smell and aren’t easily fooled. However, if you pay careful attention to what deer like to eat and observe their behavior, you can attract them to your property.
If you want to know how to attract deer because you find them a majestic creature that can be beautiful to look at or want to hunt them for a food source, we’ve got you covered. Here we have researched nine easy and practical ways to lure deer to your property.
Let’s get started.
How to Attract Deer to Your Property?
There is no doubt that to attract deer to your property, you got to give them what they want. But before you can start, you need to find out their behavior and what foods they’re willing to eat.
Here are several ways you can lure deer to your property.
Use Deer Scents
Hunters often use deer scents to attract deer, but it also offers you many more uses to improve your lawn and attract wildlife. Deer scents are available in various forms, including sprays, powders, and even scented soap.
Deer are attracted to food and scents in the same way as we are. For example, using doe urine attracts male deer to come into the area. It also makes female deer curious to check it out and spray their urine to mark their spot.
In a wild habitat, deer routinely mark their territory by urine on the ground, trees, and other objects in the area. You can use this to your advantage and use it to attract deer to your location.
Deer urine can be purchased in many different scents, such as buck and doe, in pressurized spray bottles. All of these scents are used to attract deer, and they work in much the same way.
Some hunters recommend using scent wicks by laying it a couple of feet above ground to help disperse it. You should make an effort to not contaminate it through human scent.
When buying urine deer attractant, make sure to get them fresh rather than buy old and stale bottles with lower potency.
Provide Safety Covers
Deer are naturally vigilant animals as they’re often on the main menu of predatory animals. They tend to visit hidden areas and lower their guard where they feel safe.
An area with a large patch of grass, above 5 to 7 feet tall, provides them good cover from predators and safeguard their bucks. Planting warm-season grass such as switchgrass, Indian grass, and bluestem that grow quite tall provides a safe haven for all the deer in the neighborhood.
Hunting experts recommend 50–60 percent grass cover areas. This means that more deer are likely to be spotted near your home. They may even stay around for a while for you to watch them.
If you’re hunting deer, you can choose deer blind that allows you to not only stalk animals but also lets you walk among them without scaring. It’s a vast grass structure that completely covers you and the gear you’re carrying, making it look like nothing more than a grassy hill.
Lure Them With Minerals
There are several minerals that deer crave. They’re attracted to these minerals by smell. Salt, lime, and dolomites are good sources of calcium and sodium. These minerals are essential to deer antlers and also good for your plants and ground soil.
To improve the smell, or to use them as a temporary cover to mask the scent of humans, try using a different kind of mineral on your property. Besides lime and salt, iron and sulfur are other minerals that deer crave.
Provide Shelter
The most effective way to attract deer is to shelter them. Deer will use your proposed deer attraction to protect themselves from harsh weather conditions, as well as predators. There are several things to consider when designing a shelter to attract deer to your property.
These include the location, size, bedding cover, and strength of the structure. Providing transition corridors by having different shrubs and grasses to the shelter location makes it easy to funnel deer to the desired spot.
Planting small green leafy trees and tall ground cover grass makes them feel secure and often causes them to visit the area. You can also plant shrubs such as dogwood shrubs and honeysuckle bushes. Trees such as oak, cedar, pine, and apple make the most conducive environment for deer to visit.
Limit Human Movement
Deer are a notoriously skittish lot, and it can take a lot of effort to get them to come to you. But research has shown that placing large obstruction between the deer and your property can have the effect of limiting human movement to attract deer.
If you want deer to assemble in your backyard for an easy hunt, you should limit human movement on your property. Limit the number of people in the forest floor area to make deer feel safe. Reducing visitors helps prevent spooking the deer.
If you have a small property, limit the number of people who visit that area and use some cover such as bedding and tall grass to create a sanctuary for deer to visit.
Develop Food Plots and Water Reservoirs
When you’re looking to attract deer to your land, food plots are a great way to do so. Whether you’re designing a plot to hunt on or just want to attract deer with deer lures to your yard for a more natural look, the first step is selecting the sites for your food and water.
Deer have a keen sense of smell, which is why they can detect a food plot from miles away and determine whether it’s worth checking out. The best sites for food plots and water reservoirs are those that already have paths that deer and other animals are using on your property.
Deer like to feed on plants and fruits that are high in protein and sugar. You can plant apple trees, wheat, oats, peas, and turnips in a food plot that deer simply find irresistible. Trees such as acorns and chestnuts are also their favorites. You should avoid planting deer repellent plants that deer tend to avoid.
Some hunting experts recommend placing a corn feeder or hang peanut butter to attract deer. Planting flowering and legumes plants along the edges is a great way to lure into your property easily. When developing your food plot, ensure it’s away from traffic and roadways to prevent accidents.
Use Mating Sound and Fawn Bleat
People use different sound-making devices such as squeakers, bells, or whistles to pique the interest of deer. But if you want them to visit your property consistently, then you should consider using mating sounds.
A recent study by the University of Georgia discovered that deer could hear mating sounds up to five miles away. This is why they’re often attracted to areas where mating does occur.
If you want to lure deer to your property, you should use mating sound to your advantage. You don’t have to resort to exploiting deer natural mating urge to your advantage alone. The use of fawn bleat sound attracts mother deer that makes them curious to come and check. Consequently, the female deer scent attracts male deer as well.
Keep Pets Away
Most deer hunters dream of finding that perfect spot where the game is abundant, the ground is lush, and the cover is thick. To invite deer to your property, a great way to do is to remove pets from the area.
This is because dogs and cats, both pet and feral, have a powerful scent that deer can smell from several miles away. Many hunters have found that keeping pets away from the yard helps them attract deer. It’s one of the most prominent smells that deer avoid.
Use Doe Decoy and Remove the Obstruction
Hunters use deer decoys to attract deer to the location where they can shoot them more easily. A deer decoy is used to attract deer in their natural environment. Hunters might use bait to attract deer in the woods so they can get a clear shot.
If you have a large backyard where you’d like to attract deer or a large garden or orchard that needs protection, deer decoys may be your answer.
These decoys come in many different shapes, sizes, and styles. You can choose to buy a complete set of deer decoys, or you can choose to buy just one to use in your garden. You should remove obstructions such as barbed wire and tall fencing to make it easy for deer to move in.
What’s Next
This article has covered several ways to attract deer to your property, either for hunting purposes or simply watch these majestic animals roaming in your yard. Now, to determine the location of your deer luring efforts keep the following things in mind:
- Where do the deer usually live?
- Does it usually come onto the property for food or water?
- Or is it more of a transient animal that generally stays away? If so, you may have to use more aggressive tactics.
Regardless of whatever strategy that you mind end up using, if you’re looking to attract deer to certain areas of your property, then there are several above listed things that you can do to make it happen.
