Are you tired of buying Expensive store bought attractants that give minimal results? Do you want to attract that big buck that your neighbor has been seeing to your treestand? Are you wanting to help maintain a healthy deer heard on a budget? Well if you have said yes to any of these questions, then we are right there with you! We have created the 15-Cheap Homemade Deer Attractant |With recipes for you!
Before doing this post we would spend hundreds of dollars on Store Brand Deer attractants, but we hardly spend any money on attractants anymore! These 15-Recipes down below will show you how to make homemade deer attractant for a very low price, and some you can even make for free!
Here are the 15-Cheap Homemade Deer Attractant- with Recipes! It will show you everything that you need to know for attracting more deer to your stand with less money! Let’s take a look….
Why Use Deer Attractants
Why should you use deer attractants? This is a great tactic to concentrate the deer movement to your treestand. It doesn’t necessarily attract Deer from 4-properties over, but for the deer that consistently move through your land, it will concentrate them to key areas like you’re treestand.
Another key benefit is that it will allow them to gain some extra nutrients depending on what attractant method you use below. This will keep the deer in your property more frequently, and give you a better chance to shoot a big buck! It increases the daylight movement by the deer, and as long as you don’t over pressure the area, you will be in a great position to shoot the Big Buck in your area!
Top 5 Store bought Deer Attractants
5. Code Blue Deer Urine Lures
4. Whitetail Institute 30-06 Mineral/Vitamin Deer Mineral Supplement
3. Evoved Habitats-Deer Cane
2. Big & J Deer Attractant
1. Trophy Rock- Redmound All-Natural Mineral Block
15-Homemade deer attractants
1. Homemade Apple scented Deer Lure/Attractant
We have talked about a couple of apple lures so far, and that’s by no accident. This is one of the best deer attractants that there is, you can find alot of apple feeds and scents on the market, because they work so well! Here is how to make this apple scented deer lure…
What you Need:
- Natural Water
- Plastic tub
- Pine Needles and dead leaves
- Work gloves
- A blender
- Clothespin
Heres How to Make it:
- Cover the bottom of a large plastic container or a small tub, with pine needles and dead leaves.
- Place your pitcher from the blender, the apples, plastic Bag, Clothespin, and work gloves into the tub/ Container.
- Seal the tub/container in the refrigerator for the night.
- Slice the apples and blend them in the blender and start blending until its like apple sauce.
- Pour the natural water that you gathered from a creek or pond, in with the apples. Put a cloth in the blender also and let it soak for about an hour.
- Put the rag into a zip lock bag and use a clothes pin to ensure that it is sealed tightly. When you are ready to use it, just take it out and drag it on the ground behind you when walking into the stand.
2. Peanut Butter Deer Attractant
A lot of Hunter Know that Deer love Peanut Butter, which makes it a great attractant. This can be used by itself and work great or you can use it in a Mixture to enhance the attractiveness of the Peanut Butter. The fact that Peanut Butter is very Cheap make this Homemade Deer Attract a great substitute for expensive Store Attractants.
1. Use A Large Jar of Peanut Butter and Screw or hang it from a tree. You will want It hanging about 5-Feet off of the ground.
2. Make sure to Cut an opening so that the deer can access the Peanut Butter! You now have a great Deer Attractant! I suggest using this on high traffic trails infant of a trail camera. This will cause the deer to stop and allow enough time for the trail camera to capture a few photos!
3. Mix Of Foods Attractant
Here is an attractant that uses various Feeds and attractants to make one Ultimate Homemade Deer Attractant! Lets see how to make it…
Here What you Need:
- Bucket/Bowl
- Molasses or Syrup
- Water
- Corn & Rotten Fruit
- Peanut Butter (Above we mentioned that you can combine it with other deer attractants)
Steps to Making the Ultimate Homemade Deer Attractant:
1. Mix all of the Dry Ingredients together in the Bucket (Corn, Peanut Butter, and Fruit)
2. Add The Molasses or the Syrup to the Dry ingredients in the Bucket.
3. Add 1/3 of the Bucket with water to easily mix all of the ingredients together, This also increases the amount of the attractant. You will only want about 1/3 of the Bucket to be water or it will be a liquid texture.
4. Apply the Ultimate Deer Attractant to Stumps or on the ground for the Best Results!
4. Acorn Scent Attractant
We will now show you another Deer Attractant that will drive the deer crazy! This Homemade Deer Attractant is Acorn Scent!
The Acorn Scent doesn’t only attract the deer to your treestand, but it also helps cover your scent that you may have left behind. This will help calm the deer so that they are comfortable in the area!
What You Need To Make This Deer Attractant:
- Pot & Stove
- Water
- Potato Masher or the muddling stick
- A Container
- Spray Bottle
- Mesh Strainer
- Acorns
Steps to Making the Acorn Scent Attractant:
- Gather 3-5–Lbs Of Acorns, this can be done when scouting or after a hunt.
- Put the Acorns into the Pot and cover them with water. Let the pot boil the acorns for about 30-40 minutes, until the Acorns are soft.
- Mash the acorns using the Potato Masher. Re-boil the acorns until the water in the pot turns to a dark brown color.
- Strain All of the acorns into a strainer serpsrating them from the water.
- Pour the acorn water into the Spray Bottle and use it to spray around your hunting location. This odor will actually last up to about 30-days. This is perfect for using as a cover scent while walking to and from the stand.
5. Apple Deer Block
This is a perfect alternate for Salt blocks. Deer will come to these salt blocks when looking to gain some quick nutrients. We will now show you how to make your own Homemade Apple Flavored Deer Block…
What you will Need:
- 25-50-lb Bag of trace minerals
- 25-50-lb bag of salt preferably stock salt
- 50-lb bag of Di-calcium Phosphate
- 10-20 gallon Bucket
- 10-lbs of Apples
- 18-oz molasses container
- Empty 3-lb container
Steps to making the Apple Deer Block:
1. Cut the Apples into large chunks, But don’t through out the cores.
2. Boil a gallon of water in a large Pot, and add the apple chunks, and begin to stir the pot.
3. lightly boil the Apples until the feel soft.
4. Put 6-lbs of Di-calcium phosphate in the large container, using the 3-lb empty container. Add 6-lbs of Salt, and 9-lbs of trace minerals. Stir the mixture completely.
5. Combine the pot of soft apples to the mineral mixture and stir it all together again
6. Add the molasses, and 2-extra gallons of warm water. Stir it to completion again. Now its ready!
7. Pour the Mix of attractants into a small hole, mixed with some of the dirt from the hole. This will create the apple flavored Deer Block naturally in the ground, and will last for many months.
6. Deer Scent Stik
What is a Deer Scent Stik? It acts as an incense that will lure bucks into your treestand for an easy shot! Let’s see how to make this unique Deer Lure…
What you will Need:
- Doe Urine
- Coconut oil
- A Glass Bowl
- Polysorbate 20
- Unscented incense Sticks
- Disposable Stirring Stick
- Plastic Baggy- Long (About a foot)
Steps to making the Deer Scent Stik:
1. Lets start by adding 2-oz of Doe Urine (Or Estrus) and Coconut oil into a glass bowl.
2. Add 2-teaspoons of Polysorbate 20 to the glass to make the Doe Urine and Coconut oil mix together. This ingredient can be found in hobby or craft stores. If you still can’t find it, then you will be able to online!
3. Stir the ingredients together until they are completely blended together. You will be left with a very strong smell.
4. Put the Doe Urine Mixture into the plastic bag (1-foot). Dip about 15 of the unscented incense sticks into the bag with the powdered ends facing downwards.
5. Seal the Bag tight. Let the bag rest upright for 2-3-weeks. This allows the scent Sticks to completely asorb the Doe Urine Mixture.
6. After the 2-3-weeks, you can hang them on tree branches around your stands, letting the wind blow the Doe Scent, which will attract Bucks to your area! This is a great tactic to use during the all phases of the rut!
7. Vanilla Extract
This cheap attractant has been used for a very long time by hunters for attracting deer! Just by spraying it on stumps and trees around your stand will attract deer right into range!
Vanilla is very easy to find (At almost any local store) and it is very cheap, so this is a great tactic to attract Deer to your Stand.
Using this Tactic with Peanut Butter will maximize your success! This is an irresistible combination, that is very cheap!
8. Peanut Butter & Apple Mixture Attractant
Using Peanut Butter and Apples together is another Combination that will give you great results in the woods when trying to attract Deer! Try this Attraction technique and you will be very impressed with the results!
Making the Mixture for best results:
1. Dice up the apples and place them into a bowl.
2. Scoop a sizable amount of Peanut Butter into the Bowl with the apples and begin to stir them together until you get a really sticky Substance.
3. Put this Mixture at your feed site and you will see great results! Scraping the mixture onto trees around your Stand will help create an attractive odor to the area!
Trophy Rock- Redmound All-Natural Mineral Block
9. Tarsal Glad Spray Attractant
This is an effective attractant because the smell of other deer in the area will attract deer to your area, especially Big Bucks duding the Rut! You can also use this as a cover scent for walking to and from your treestand. Lets see how to make this Effective Homemade Deer Attractant…
What you will Need:
- Tarsal Gland from a deer. This can be found on one from the side of a road or one that you have actually harvested.
- Bowl
- Bag
Here is how you can make it this Awesome Attractant:
1. Put the tarsal Glands that you find or keep from deer, and put them in a labeled bag with what gender the deer was that you found It on. Keep them in a freezer until ready for use.
2. Take the tarsal glands out go the bag and cut the hair off, put the hair in the bowl with water and begin to stir.
3. Put the tarsal gland flavored water into a spray bottle, and then you are all set for use!
10. Feeding Site
Creating a feeding Site is one of the best ways to attract a lot of Deer to your treestand! This is probably the majority of hunters favorite tactic, because it doesn’t take a lot of work. The only work is refreshening the feed site, but it can take about a month for Deer to finish everything off.
The most important part of a feed site is the location of it, you want it in a spot that you hunt first of all, but this should be in an area that the deer feel safe and protected. Thicker areas in the woods are great, being just outside of a bedding area will give you great results.
How to create a irresistible feeding site? Lets take a look now…
Needed Materials:
- Homemade Deer Feed (Could be the Homemade deer attractant form earlier in Post)
- 1-2-Dozens of Apples
- 5-10-Lbs Of Acorns
- 2-Lb of Salt
- Some Doe & Buck scent (Use Doe Estrus During the Rut!)
Creating The Perfect Feeding Site:
1. Pick the best location for the feed site. You want this in a place you already hunt or plan on hunting. Make sure you have an effective hunting strategy that will help you maximize your success! I like a good entrance and exit strategy that will keep any deer in the area for seeing or Hearing me. I also suggest scouting the area with Trail Cameras to see what kind of traffic is already in the area.
2. Clear out a 10×10-ft Area, remove twigs, leafs, and any other forage. You want the dirt to be fully exposed. Using a rack is probably the easiest way to do this.
3. Spread the Homemade Deer Attract Feed to cover the whole 10×10-Ft area. You don’t want to just dump all of the feed into the middle of the area.
4. Now you can spread the Plain Salt over the Feeding site. The 2-lbs should be enough to cover the whole area lightly. The salt will dissolve into the soil when it rains, this will keep the deer coming back even when the feed is gone.
5. Now is a good time to dump the Apples and acorns around the Feeding site. The Smell of the apples Alone will attract deer! You Can also use the Homemade Apple Scent Attractant from earlier in the post to enhance the Feeding site!
6. Drip Some Doe & or Buck Urine around the edge of the Feeding site to calm the deer when they come to it for the first time. Using Doe Estrus during the pre-rut– Post-Rut Could Attract a Monster Buck to your Stand! You want to make sure that you are practicing proper scent control techniques to minimize the pressure and order in that area, especially since its beside your treestand.
Bonus Tips:
-Leave the Area undisturbed for at least 2-3-Weeks to prevent spooking deer out of the area.
-Freshen the feed site every month or two & Refresh the salt every 6-8-Months
11. Persimmon Scented Deer Attractant
Creating this fruit scented deer lure is the same process as the Apple Scented deer lure. This is another tactic for covering up your scent, when you are entering and exiting your treestand! This helps you go undetected by the powerful Deer Nose. Lets take a look at how to make this Deer Attractant…
What you will Need:
- 1-Cup of Diced persimmons
- 2-Cups of Scentless alcohol such as Vodka
- 1/2- Cup of water
Heres How to make it:
1. Mix all of the ingredients together and store them in an air tight bag/Container or a spray bottle. Place the Container/Spray bottle in a dark place for 3-5–Months, the longer you let it set the stronger the odor will be!
2. Give the spray bottle/Container a good shake before use. This will help solidify everything, and will produce the best results.
3. If you already haven’t, store the persimmon liquid into a spray bottle that you can use for your next hunt!
12. Plant Scented Deer Lure/Attractant
This is a similar lure to the persimmons, Accorns, and Vanilla. There is still a big different in the ingredients and steps to making it, but you can use it in the same way (As a Cover Scent). This is very cheap to make, and maybe even free if you have all of the materials. Lets see how we can make this awesome Attractant!
Heres What you Will Need:
- You will want to gather some leafs, and plants, either when hunting or a special trip to gather some leafs/Plants (Pine needles, Aloe Vera, and spruce). I like to go to a wooded area that has that fresh leaf smell! You want this lure to have a strong odor to it.
- Pot to boil water in
- A cloth to filter the water through
Now that you have the Materials to make this lure!
How to Make It:
1. Boil Water and then put all of the plants and leafs that were collected into the pot to boil for at least 10-20 minutes. Don’t boil for too long or you could lose some of the plant odors, also use only about 1/3—1/2 of water compared to the ingredients collected.
2. Filter the mixture through a cloth, or something to filter out the leaves and plants so that you are only left with plant smelling water! You don’t want any of those particles to clog your Spray bottle tube.
13. Saltwater Deer Attractant
This Attractant might surprise alot of you, but it shouldn’t because Salt is one of the most used ingredients for Deer Attractants! This is one of our cheapest Homemade Deer Attractants if not the cheapest. All you need is Water, A Bucket, and Salt, which should be very Easy to find around your house!
How to make this Cheap Attractant:
1. Fill the Bucket (5-gallon) with water. As you fill the Bucket, add the salt until you can’t add anymore! This is going to make a great attractant almost instantly, and for almost no Money!
2. Pour this Attractant at your feeding sites and or on tree stumps for the best results! You will never go back to buying Store brand Salt licks after seeing the results from your Own Homemade Deer Attractant!
-NOTE: You can experiment with this Attractant, by making a salt lick that will create a healthier deer heard by adding some extra ingredients. You can also help enhance the growth of Bucks racks, All in the video below!
14. Deer Minerals Attractant
Creating a homemade deer attractant is a great alternative to store bought mineral attractants. You can easily get the ingredients that are needed to make this Attractant at almost any local store for very cheap, and you honestly already could have most of these ingredients.
What you will Need:
- 25 0r 50-lb bag of dicalcium phosphate
- 2x 25 or 50-lb bags of trace mineral salt with not treatment with any medication.
- 25 or 50-lb bag of Salt (Ice cream salt works good also)
Here is How to make this great attractant:
- Empty all of the bags out into a Barrel to tub that holds at least 200-lbs, and miss all of the ingredients together!
- Once all of the ingredients are mixed together, it is ready to use! You can feed the deer 20-lbs at a time every 2-weeks! This will last for about 6-months which will last from September-February, which is the whole hunting season!
- Putting the attractant in a cleared out dirt spot, a hole, or tree stumps will give you the best results!
There are various ways to make these Mineral attractants so here is another way!
15. Homemade Deer Cane!
Here is a nice video explaining how to make your own homemade deer cane! This is a great attractant that will really bring in the deer to your treestand! All of these attractants work great, but this could be the best one!
Now that you have learned 15- Homemade Deer Attractants, which one is you favorite? Comment the number go your favorite attractant down below!
Remember that Deer attractants are great ways to concentrate deer movement! It doesn’t necessarily attract deer from miles away, but it is a great way to get that big buck that has been hanging out on your neighbors property, over to yours! Make sure to take action on these, as you will be very surprised by the results you get!
Make sure to Comment the number go your favorite attractant down below! I. want to hear what you think? Also if there are any Homemade Deer Attractants that I missed that you would like to add, Please comment it for all of the readers Below!