Here are the best deer attractants you can get your hands on.
Sometimes in deer hunting, you need to do a little extra besides just a food plot to bring in and keep the deer in your hunting area. That's where deer attractants come in.
But the market is quite flooded with products and it's easy to get overwhelmed when you head to the store trying to figure out what to spend your hard-earned money on.
That's why we're going to narrow things down for you. We'll look at a variety of products from mineral supplements to liquid deer attractants.
These are some of the best deer attractants currently available on the market, and they will help you keep whitetail deer near your treestand this hunting season. That should increase your chances of a successful harvest of that big buck this fall.
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1. Deer Cane Black Magic Mineral Attractants
There are actually a few different variants of this mineral attractant product. But they are made by a company called Evolved Habitat and contain vital minerals like calcium, which can help enrich antler growth.
The Black Magic supplements are easy to deploy; just dump it on the bare ground. Some of the other deer cane products require you to mix them with water, but there's plenty of evidence in the form of trail camera photos and videos on the internet that this deer supplement works great. And it's relatively cheap at around $10 a bag.
I noticed Amazon has the liquid form in a bottle on sale for less than $5 right now. Because it is so widely available, you can often pick some up on the cheap at Wal-Mart after the season ends too.
2. Deer Cane Liquid and Blocks
The Black Magic products by Evolved Habitat are slightly newer, but still popular are the company's block and liquid attractants too.
Both the original liquid formula and the block deer attractant cost slightly less than the Black Magic stuff at around $8.99 each, so they're definitely an option if you're trying to pinch some pennies this season.
3. Wildgame Innovations Acorn Rage
Deer love acorns. Many of the most successful hunters out there plan their hunting around when the acorns are the heaviest. So, it makes sense that Wildgame Innovations would come out with an attractant powder to capitalize on this highly effective natural attractant.
The company says Acorn Rage utilizes real acorns. Many hunters are utilizing this stuff by mixing it with different types of deer feed to make for a combination the animals can't resist.
4. Antler King Trophy Deer Mineral
This product is similar to the other powder attractants mentioned above. The Trophy Deer Mineral from Antler King is a bit more expensive than the others, but it offers some extra vitamins, amino acids and minerals the deer might not get with the other products.
Antler King has been in business a long time and they definitely know their stuff. My family has personally used Antler King products in the past to great success, so I can tell you first-hand they definitely work.
5. Whitetail Institute 30-06 Break-Away Block
If you're looking for some real bang for your buck, Whitetail Institute's mineral lick blocks are great. They really bring in the deer during the summer months and they last an extremely long time.
We've found these types of blocks to be most effective in the summer months when the bucks are looking for food sources and extra minerals to supplement the growth of their antlers. The 30-06 Block can be found for around $30, but considering you'll likely get months of use out of it, it's worth the cost. Another benefit is you can cut it into smaller blocks for multiple spots, so that's not too bad of a price.
6. Big & J B22 & Deadly Dust
A slightly newer competitor on the deer attractant market, Big & J have scored the praise of Michael Waddell and his Bone Collector brand, and the company appears to be growing in popularity.
Their BB2 supplemental feed has proven especially popular. The Deadly Dust product utilizes a hybrid sweet corn loaded with sugar that deer are sure to love. Their products can usually be found in the $15-20 range.
7. Tink's #69
You can't really go wrong with a classic when it comes to deer scents. There is a reason Tink's 69 Doe-in-Rut buck lure has been on the market over 40 years. It's a quality deer lure that just plain works. Plenty of successful hunters can attest to that.
They've got a lot of new products utilizing the same basic lures, but we still enjoy using the classic bottle, dripper, drag rag, and even a gel that shoots 10 -foot streams! It generally goes for around $10 a bottle. Using this doe urine on a drag rag can help deer hunters bring bucks straight to their stand from long range that you might not have seen otherwise.
8. Buck Bomb Doe Estrous
Buck Bomb products have exploded (not literally) to become one of the most popular deer urine attractants out there aside from Tink's in recent years. I haven't had any luck harvesting a deer using it myself, but it does seem to put the deer I didn't shoot at ease, which means it works well as a cover scent too.
You can either spray this scent attractant out a little at a time or lock down the cap to empty the contents of the can at a prime time to bring that big buck into range. Just be aware using the entire can at once can be expensive, at around $10 a pop.
9. Code Blue Whitetail Doe Estrus
This buck attractant is great if the deer herd is a little more wary in your area. Code Blue's motto for years has been "One deer to one bottle." Meaning that the scent you're getting comes from a single animal rather than being combined from multiple ones.
We're not sure if the deer can tell the difference or not, but it certainly seems like sound reasoning.
They're a little more expensive at around $12 a bottle, but if you're after an especially wary buck, it may make all the difference in the world.
10. Wildlife Research Center Active Scrape and Special Golden Estrus
These two scents have been on the market for years because Wildlife Research Centers got them to simply work. I've known a few hunters who have had success using Special Golden Estrous and I've seen it in trail camera photos too. One of the other nice things is that these scents tend to cost a little less than some of the other brands out there. You can use this product to make a hot mock scrape that will really get those bucks riled up.
You can get eight ounces of the Active Scrape for around $20, enough to last during the most active part of the rut when the bucks are on the prowl for does and watching out for rivals to fight with.
Now that you have a good idea of what's out there, what's highly-rated, and what it costs, you can make a better decision when it comes time to load up on deer attractants.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
NEXT: 4 FACTORS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU GO SHED HUNTING THIS YEAR
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