Supplemental Deer Feeding | What You Need To Know

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Here Are the Rules with Supplemental Deer Feeding

Depending on where you live and what you are used to, supplemental deer feeding might be common practice or an illegal offense. Many states are starting to enforce stricter limits on what can and cannot be fed to wild whitetails, primarily out of concern for spreading diseases like chronic wasting disease (CWD). But where it is legal and in the right conditions, supplemental deer feeding can be helpful. Here are some good ground rules to follow if you are considering this approach.

Nutritional Needs throughout the Year

During the course of a typical year, most whitetails change their diets pretty significantly. They do this to get the most nutrition they can during a given season. This is especially true in northern areas with harsh winters, as whitetails need to drastically switch their food sources to survive. So what do deer eat throughout the year? Here is a seasonal breakdown to show you.

Winter

As mentioned above, winter can be an especially cruel time for whitetails in northern areas, which is why supplemental deer feeding efforts are brought up so much this time of year. What do deer eat in the winter? Snow often covers all herbaceous vegetation, leaving only woody browse for them to eat. Branches are not very digestible (they are very high in fiber) and have little nutrition. But deer are adapted for this scenario, and their four-chambered stomach allows them to survive on it. In agricultural areas, they will also devour standing soybeans or corn for their high fat and carbohydrate content.

Many bucks enter winter at a deficit and will spend most of their time eating to catch up. Does and fawns are also in survival mode during this time of the year. This is why many people assume that winter deer feeding is helpful, although there is more to it than that, as you will see below.

Spring

Spring is full of fresh new growth after a long and stressful winter. Deer shift their diets to key in on tender green growth (e.g., grasses, forbs, leaves, etc.), which are generally higher in protein and minerals than older vegetation. This growth is also very palatable and digestible for deer. In areas with high habitat quality, supplemental deer feeding will not likely offer any benefit in the spring simply because the natural vegetation is so nutritious. Some good examples include clover or alfalfa fields, forbs and grasses in natural meadows, regrowth after a prescribed fire, or the tender tips of new branches. Why do deer seek this out in the spring?

Bucks are almost certainly at a significant loss from their fall weight, and need to eat a lot of very nutritious food to replenish their muscle mass and fat reserves before their bodies will invest much in antler growth. Likewise, many does are either pregnant or lactating to feed their new fawns. They too need a lot of nutrient-dense foods to fuel this cycle. Finally, last year’s fawns are also playing catch-up with body mass, and will consume a lot of food to do so.

Summer

The summer period is a time of routines for whitetails. They will seek out reliable food sources, such as agricultural crops (e.g., soybeans, corn, etc.) or young clear-cuts to feast on foods high in protein and carbohydrates. They usually do not bed too far from food, and spend each day on a simple rotation of feeding and bedding.

Again, this is a rebuilding phase for deer. Bucks are hopefully back up to their original muscle mass after a stressful winter, and they are also using nutrients and minerals to fuel antler growth. Many supplemental deer feeding efforts during the summer focus on providing high-nutrient/high-mineral content deer feed to help bucks build their antlers fast. Does are still nursing fawns and trying to maintain their own bodies during the summer. Fawns are weaning themselves and eating a lot of vegetation too.

Autumn

Fall is usually the fourth quarter for deer (and many other animals). They need to make the final push to put on as much weight as possible before winter arrives. As such, they switch from high-protein diets to food high in fat and carbohydrates, which puts as much fat on their bodies as possible. Some good fall food sources include hard mast (e.g., oak acorns, beech nuts, chestnuts, hickory nuts, etc.), soft mast (e.g., apples, pears, persimmons, etc.), and agricultural crops (corn, soybeans, brassicas, cereal grains, etc.).

While bucks will definitely eat a lot in the early part of the fall, they tend to switch out of this pattern as the rut approaches. When the rut occurs, most bucks focus their time on chasing and breeding does or fighting rival bucks. During this time, they can lose a substantial amount of their body weight. Does and fawns, on the other hand, will eat as much as possible during the fall. As long as they are not being chased or harassed by bucks, you will find them feeding throughout the day and night in many areas.

What to Feed Deer

So now it is time for the ultimate question: what is the best thing to feed deer? Sure, it sounds like they get a lot of their food naturally, but what if your area is lacking in habitat quality or good food sources? This is where well-intentioned (but misinformed) people can go wrong. Assuming supplemental deer feeding is indeed legal where you live, here are a few tips on what to feed and what not to feed deer.

First, the best deer feed will always be the same as or reminiscent of their natural food sources for a given season, plain and simple. They are naturally adapted for certain foods at specific times of the year, so why mess with what works? Like the name itself, it should be a supplement to what is already available to them. For example, it is tough to beat corn piles over the summer or in the fall for supplemental deer feeding. Many deer are already consuming a lot of corn in agricultural fields anyway and it has a high level of carbohydrates that they are seeking.

However, if you were to suddenly introduce a lot of corn to deer that are not used to eating it in the winter, you could cause acidosis. Basically, their bodies cannot process that sudden infusion of the new food and they can die as a result. So as far as what to feed deer in winter or what to feed deer instead of corn, stick to more natural sources like cutting a small patch of forest down to bring browse to deer level. This is a very inexpensive way to feed deer – all you need is a chainsaw and a couple hours of your time. And as this patch grows into young forest, it will provide more browse for deer over the winter.

If deer are already used to eating corn throughout the winter in your area, you can start feeding corn to deer slowly and see how they take it, but you will likely have no problem feeding deer corn year round in these areas. Ultimately, the best supplemental deer feed is one that the deer in your area will be attracted to that actually helps them gain body mass.

Now when it comes to feeding deer in summer or spring, you have many more options. Many people will buy high protein deer feed for their supplemental deer feeding program. This helps them bounce back and recover muscle mass faster, and for bucks, it can help with antler growth too. You could combine the deer protein pellets with our GYT90 deer attractant (4 gallon case) to make your own custom deer antler feed. The high fat crude soybean oil serves as an attractant, helps them gain weight, and provides many essential minerals for antler growth, including calcium and phosphorous. Just mix it into your feed or pour it over piles of food.

Where and How to Feed Deer

As for where and how you should go about your supplemental deer feeding, you have a few options. You should find something that works for your own situation, because a consistent feeding program is more important and useful than a haphazard one.

Food Piles

The easiest route is to simply go out and dump the deer feed into a pile somewhere. You can quickly do this along access roads and trails, which also makes for easy checking of trail cameras. But the downside to this kind of supplemental deer feeding is that the exposed food can be eaten by other animals, including crows, blue jays, squirrels, raccoons, hogs, bears, etc. Being exposed to the elements on the ground, it can also rot faster. Deer food pellets in particular tend to turn into mush when they sit on wet ground or it rains.

Feeders

A better option for most situations is to use a deer feeder. Gravity-fed or battery-powered feeders protect the deer feed ingredients from spoiling and regulate it better. Deer cannot come in and gulp it all down – they have to eat only a little at a time. Feeders are easiest to refill if they are located alongside trails too. The best time to feed deer with a feeder is usually during the day, which can train them to come during shooting hours. If you can’t hunt deer over or near feeders, the timing really doesn’t matter as much.

Other Locations

Of course, other places are good to feed deer too.

  • Small openings just off large agricultural fields can be great spots because they are often staging areas for deer before venturing out into fields at night anyway. 
  • Small patch cuts in an otherwise mature forest will attract deer as is. When you add supplemental deer feeding or mineral sites, you can bet it will be a popular spot. 
  • If you find a series of deer trails that converge between feeding and bedding areas, it could be a great area for a deer feeder. It already gets a lot of deer traffic, and you should be able to get great trail camera pictures there too. Just try to use a larger feeder in these spots so you don’t have to refill too often.

Is Supplemental Deer Feeding Right for You?

If your property lacks abundant natural food sources throughout the entire year, there may be an opportunity for you to use supplemental feed to help the deer herd. And if it is not legal or relevant where you hunt, try managing the natural food sources the best you can. It will definitely make a difference.

Winter Deer Feeding

Late Season Deer Food Sources | Strategic Hunting Plans

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Which Late Season Deer Food Sources to Target

In many states, there’s still time for some late season deer hunting opportunities. Whether you can hunt with a firearm or bow, the late season can actually be a great time to fill your tag if you know how to go about it. Sure, there are challenges with hunting late season whitetails, including cold weather, pressured animals, and generally tougher conditions. But if you can find some good late season deer food sources, you might be able to stack the odds back in your favor and use a buck’s stomach against him. So if you’re wondering what deer eat, here are a few great natural and planted/provided food source options for late season deer, and some ways you can capitalize on them.

Late Season Deer Food Sources

First, realize that deer can get along just fine in some areas with their own natural habitat and nothing more. But they still probably won’t be living to the fullest potential. And on the flip side of the coin, there are many areas where the deer herd is too large or the habitat has been altered so much that planted food sources are the deciding factor for survival. In the late season, especially, deer are looking to pack on some weight fast to help them get through the winter. Even more so than does, bucks need a lot of calories fast to spring back from the rigors of the rut. So even the pressured and educated deer that make it to the late season may make exceptions for good late season deer food sources. Here are several great places to start your search for the late deer season.

Natural Food Sources 

In high quality deer habitat, native food sources are abundant. Though the bumper crops of soft mast (e.g., apples, persimmons, berries, etc.) and hard mast (e.g., oak acorns, etc.) from fall have all but disappeared, good habitat should have a lot of another important deer food: woody browse. Deer are highly adapted to survive winter by eating the tender twigs and buds of shrubs and trees, and even bark in bad conditions. Browse is a critical winter deer food for a good chunk of the country. If your region consists of mostly forest, there’s a good chance your local deer depend on it too. So how do you find late season deer food sources in thousands of acres of forest?

Try looking for recent clear-cuts, or areas that have been harvested or thinned in the last 5 years. These areas usually have an abundance of regrowth from the summer following the harvest, and in many cases, will be so thick that you can barely move through it. These tender young sprouts are usually full of protein and minerals and are extremely digestible for deer, which makes them highly attractive. If you can find an area like this, you can bet that deer will be spending a good chunk of their time there.

Agricultural Fields 

If you live in more of an agricultural area where row crops dominate the landscape, deer will really depend on these crops in the late season. Vast swaths of standing corn and soybeans are very inviting for deer and almost everyone can agree they are some of the best late season deer food sources where available. Whitetails can bed and feed in the corn, or hop over to the next field to munch on some soybeans. Corn and soybeans have a ton of carbohydrates to pack on the fat for the winter, while soybeans also offer a high fat content to bump up the calorie count.

 

But there’s a catch. Farmers are also trying to harvest their crops before the winter weather sets in and before the deer can completely consume it. Once it is harvested, some waste grain remains in the field, but even this can disappear fast if winter snow starts accumulating. When the fields are totally harvested, deer might travel long distances to wintering areas where they can survive better, which means your time to hunt them may be limited and dependent on the harvest schedule. This brings us to the next topic…

Food Plots 

If you have the land and the means, planting several acres of corn or soybeans and leaving them standing throughout the winter as a food plot provides a major draw for deer. If you have the only field left standing in a desert of plowed fields for miles around you, you can bet you will attract and hold deer for as long as the food remains. It’s a dream scenario for most hunters: having one of the best late season deer food sources around. But it doesn’t have to be just corn or beans. Other good late season food plots include grains (e.g., wheat, oats, rye, etc.), turnips, radishes, and winter peas.

  • Grains are often planted as a cover crop, so they can be dual-purpose for farming and hunting. They are most nutritious, palatable, and attractive to deer when they are very young and tender, so this obviously has limitations for truly late season hunting, unless you are located further south. However, winter rye for deer has good frost tolerance for late season opportunities in northern areas. 
  • Turnips and radishes can be attractive to deer earlier in the season, but they really become attractive after a frost. The starches are converted into sugar, which makes them much sweeter tasting. It’s common to hear “crunch, crunch, crunch” all day when hunting over brassica food plots that include turnips or radishes in the mix.  
  • Austrian winter peas are extremely attractive for deer, but you need a very large food plot or low deer density or else they will just be overgrazed before they can reach full production. Nonetheless, make sure some of your food plots include winter peas for deer if you want great late season attraction.

Supplemental Feeding/Baiting 

If none of the prior categories are all that great in your neighborhood, or you simply want to provide a boost to the local deer herd, you could also consider supplemental feeding for whitetails. If you will also be hunting over these areas in the late season, this is called baiting. Many states do not allow baiting or feeding deer in any fashion, so make sure you know the regulations before you pursue this option.

Undoubtedly, the best bait for the late season is a pile of corn with some GYT90 deer attractant poured over the top. Corn packs the nutrition deer are craving, and our deer attractant is full of minerals and crude soybean oil to provide a boost of calories (and some major attraction). You could also use deer food pellets in feeders for this purpose, but corn seems to hold up better. Either way, this is a great way to attract deer to a very specific area for an archery shot, for example.

If you have access to hunting over or near these late season deer food sources, you stand a really good chance of encountering a mature buck during daylight yet this season. It’s not too late!

Winter Deer Feeding

Winter Deer Feeding | Guidelines and Tips for Healthy Deer

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Everything You Need to Know About Winter Deer Feeding

Winter deer feeding is a hot topic for many people. If you are a deer hunter, you’re probably always looking for ways to improve the health of the deer you hunt. So it’s a natural next step for many people to want to take care of them throughout the year. As you’re probably aware, winter is one of the toughest times of the year for many animals – whitetails included. This is especially true in the northern half of the country, where winters can be especially cruel. Cold temperatures, body warmth-stealing winds, and lack of quality food can all work against them and weed out the weaker individuals. So it makes sense that feeding deer in the winter would help them out, right? Maybe yes, maybe no. It really just depends on the situation and how the feeding is done. If it’s done the wrong way, you might actually be hurting the deer herd instead of helping them. Now we know what you’re saying. Your neighbor is feeding deer corn year round, and it doesn’t hurt them. Here are some winter deer feeding rules to help you decide whether you should or should not do it, and tips to do it the right way.

Nutritional Requirements for Deer

The first thing we need to cover is what deer actually need to survive the harsh conditions that winter throws at them. Throughout the summer and fall, deer are hopefully able to gain enough body fat that they can make it through the low calories and cold conditions of winter. They do that by eating as much high quality food as they can in the time it is available, and their fall diets focus on the best food available. But they don’t always put as much fat on as they should. And bucks, in particular, are at risk when entering the winter.

Obviously, bucks focus on breeding during the rut, which means they avoid a lot of the last-minute fall feeding opportunities, so they typically enter the winter with already-depleted bodies. Without good food sources throughout the winter, a buck’s body will start to cannibalize itself by converting their muscle tissue into energy. That puts them at risk for starvation, and if they do survive, they will start the spring at a severe deficit. At that point, all of the calories ingested would have to build muscle mass back before allowing them to use minerals for antler growth, which means they certainly wouldn’t grow to their full potential. If one of the goals on your property is to also shoot larger bucks, this is a problem you need to address.

In an ideal world, deer need high-carbohydrate and high-fat food sources in the winter (with some major caveats below), whether through natural food sources or winter deer feeding. This would help them burn enough calories to stay warm over the winter and maybe even replenish some of the fat stores lost before their bodies have to resort to using muscle. Essentially, deer in northern areas just need to survive until spring, when abundant and nutritious green food sources return. Deer in southern areas may just need the additional nutrition to produce healthier fawns next year or bounce back from the rut quicker.

What Deer Eat in Winter

So exactly what do deer eat in the winter to get that high-carbohydrate and high-fat nutrition? Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of natural food sources available in the winter that can provide that. Fortunately, deer are already highly adapted for this exact scenario.

Woody Browse

Whitetails in highly forested areas consume woody tree browse to survive the bleakest time of the year. Their digestive system, which consists of a four-part stomach, is biologically designed to break down the high fiber content present in browse and provide the most nutrition possible from it. But not all browse is created equal. Mature forests – think park-like settings – often have very little browse available at deer level, which is why deer often disappear from these areas as winter arrives. However, young forests are full of tender and nutritious browse. Think about a clear-cut area – within the next growing season, it is so dense with tender young tree branches and shrubs that you can barely walk through it, and it is all conveniently located within browsing reach for deer. Over the winter, a few acres of this habitat can support more deer than 40 or more acres of mature forest.

Agricultural Crops

In agricultural areas, there are often various agricultural crops available for deer to eat over the winter. Some farmers or hunters leave standing rows of corn, soybeans, etc. for winter deer feeding purposes. Even in harvested fields, there is often waste grain left behind for them to forage on, as long as the fields aren’t plowed under in the fall. Depending on how much snow accumulates, the ability of deer to forage for food sources on the ground may be affected. In these areas, corn, soybeans, grains, and brassicas can all be highly sought after and extremely nutritious. Corn and grains are full of carbohydrates, while soybeans provide a lot of carbohydrates and fat. These are both great for the unique nutritional needs for deer in the winter. But if these are not common food sources in the area in a given time period, they can be dangerous.

Dangers of Winter Deer Feeding

Getting back to the beginning of the post, it seems like winter deer feeding would be beneficial for them, given the lack of good food sources on some properties. But that’s not always the case. For a deer’s stomach to be able to digest wood fibers in the winter, it builds a community of gut flora (e.g., microbes and bacteria) that help digest it. When a really digestible, low-fiber food source (e.g., corn, wheat, apples, etc.) is eaten, bacteria in the deer’s rumen that can digest high-carbohydrate food rapidly multiply and produce a large amount of lactic acid. This rise in acidity kills many of the other good bacteria/microbes and essentially stops digestion. The acid in the stomach can even acidify the blood, which can kill the deer within 24 hours in severe cases. This is called acidosis, corn toxicity, or grain overload. To identify a deer killed by acidosis, you’ll generally find them in good body health and with a rumen full of corn, grain, etc. While severe for individual deer, this generally only occurs when deer suddenly get access to a large amount of high-carbohydrate food after they have adjusted to winter browse. If it doesn’t kill them, it can also cause permanent damage to their rumen stomach lining, which may affect their ability to digest in the future.

The other dangerous part about feeding deer in general is the risk of disease transmission. In many parts of the country, diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) are wreaking havoc on the population. When deer browse, they are generally dispersed and only nibble on the end of branches. But with supplemental feeders and bait piles, deer are attracted to and gather around the feed in very close proximity, so it crams more deer into a smaller area. Inevitably, there is more nose-to-nose contact or exchange of saliva, which can spread the disease further. As a result, many state wildlife agencies have put feeding bans into effect to limit the spread of such diseases. A good way to avoid that risk is to limit the amount of food offered and scatter it across a large area.

Guidelines for Winter Deer Feeding

It should be pointed out that winter deer feeding is different than baiting deer during the hunting season. When you’re feeding deer during the winter, it is solely to help them survive until spring, whereas baiting during the season is often to attract them to a spot specifically to hunt them. Depending on how severe the winter is and how good the habitat is, deer may not even require supplemental deer feeding. But if the winter gets particularly harsh, the deer herd is larger than the habitat can support, or there is just no winter browse available, winter deer feeding could actually be beneficial. As long as you do it right. Here is what to feed deer in winter and a couple deer feeding rules you can use on your property.

First, it’s no use trying to provide deer supplemental feed if they can’t find it. When you’re starting in a new area and want to make sure the deer find the food source, try applying GYT90. Our deer attractant is a great blend of over 90 minerals and crude soybean oil, and it is super attractive to deer. The calories from fat provide a boost of nutrition, and the aroma helps draw them in to the food source. You can get a 4 gallon case of GYT90 deer attractant and mix it with your deer feed/deer corn, or apply it to a decaying log nearby to get their attention. Periodically refresh it for the most attraction and benefit.

From the feeding standpoint, the most important thing you should do if you want to feed corn to deer is to start very slowly. Start applying only a small amount (i.e., sprinkling a gallon bucket over a large area) at a time to allow deer to find and get used to it. Whether you manually feed them or use an automatic feeder, replenish the feed every couple days initially. Continue this pattern of providing a few pounds of food every few days for 2 to 3 weeks, which will allow them (and their digestive systems) time to get used to it. So corn is not exactly a “what not to feed deer” item – you just need to do it the right way. As long as it is not a large amount of corn that suddenly makes up the majority of a feeding, acidosis should not occur. In other words, don’t go out in mid-winter and dump an entire sack of corn into a field, or you run the risk of killing a deer or two. But to err on the side of caution, you can just mix corn into a homemade deer feed mix, with corn only occupying about 25% of the mixture. Providing a variety of different food sources within your deer feed mix is a good way to reduce the chance of acidosis.

If you’re looking for something else in the mix or what to feed deer instead of corn, a better and safer option for winter deer feeding is to use deer food pellets or other high fiber deer feed. This is nutritionally more in line with what they naturally eat anyway. It just provides good nutrition in one area rather than a deer having to browse over a large area. With feed mixes, make sure to look at the deer feed ingredients to make sure it is high in fiber, and has low carbohydrates. Some people use alfalfa pellets for deer, which offer about 16% protein and a lot of fiber, but some deer can suffer from bloat when eating hay as they are designed to be a browsing animal rather than a grazing one. Pellets don’t usually have the same effect as hay, but again, mixing pellets with another food source can eliminate problems. As for the advantages of deer pellets vs corn, pellets are definitely safer than straight corn, but will probably cost more than a sack of corn.

The safest option of all is to have high quality, early successional habitat on your property. If you don’t already have the young, dense, and nutritious re-growth that deer need to browse on, the most inexpensive way to feed deer is to do some emergency timber harvests. Simply cut down some deciduous trees (e.g., maples, birch, aspen, basswood, etc.) and brush (e.g., dogwoods, willows, etc.) to ground level in a small patch, so that deer can eat what nature intended them to eat without any consequences. Gather the brush piles loosely so that deer can still get to them. In the future, these areas will likely respond with a flush of raspberry, blackberry, and young trees to provide additional browse, which is the best deer feed for winter.

Will You Try Winter Deer Feeding?

In many areas, winter deer feeding is not necessary or won’t make much of a measurable difference for the local deer herd. If a winter is severe enough, it’s inevitable that some deer are going to die. But in some cases, feeding deer using the right techniques can help them.

What Do Deer Eat?

What Do Deer Eat in Fall And Early Winter?

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What Do Deer Eat? | Deer Food and Nutritional Requirements for Fall

White-tailed deer are wrapping up one of the most physically demanding time periods of the year; the fall rut and breeding season. This is a time when bucks run themselves ragged in search of does. In fact, a buck can lose up to 30% of his body weight during the rut from all of that chasing and not replenishing his nutritional requirements by taking time to eat. What makes things even more difficult for bucks after losing all of that body weight is they are about to enter into the winter season. Winter is one of the most stressful periods a buck can go through, particularly in the north where winters can be severe. So how can you ensure that bucks on your hunting property have everything they need to survive the winter? What do deer eat in the fall and early winter to build reserves? What is the ideal deer food that can you provide through supplements or habitat changes? This article will discuss some of the natural forages deer rely on during this time of year and why GYT90 supplements tend to work so well for your deer herd.

 

What’s for Dinner?

Deer eat a lot. On average, a deer can eat anywhere from 6 to 8% of its body weight every day. That means that a 150-pound deer can eat up to 12 pounds of food per day! To put that in perspective, that’s like you eating 48 quarter-pound hamburgers a day just to survive…Now think about how much forage it would actually take to weigh up to 12 pounds. That’s a lot of forage!  

So what does a deer eat? Deer will primarily eat browse (woody portion of leaves and stems), forbs (broad-leaved plants), mast (acorns, apples, etc), and grass. Although these are the main foods deer like to eat, the quantity of these different foods differ throughout the year and the region you are hunting.  

Deer Food in Your Region

For example, deer in the Midwest will have a larger portion of their diet comprised of agricultural crops then deer from a non-agricultural area like the northeast. Although a deer’s diet will vary throughout the year, woody browse tends to make up the majority of a deer’s diet throughout the winter, regardless of where they are found. Woody browse is usually more abundant throughout the winter months after crops are harvested and is high in fiber, but also nutritious, especially new stems and shoots from species like black berry, greenbrier, and understory saplings like ash. Think about how much a deer has to eat to survive. Finding up to 12 pounds of waste grain to eat is hard work and if you don’t have standing crops available for deer, then they are going to have to find food elsewhere.

 

Standing crops like corn and soybeans are a great source of energy during the early winter months like November and December and also throughout the rest of the winter. Specifically corn lacks a high level of protein, but has a high fat and carbohydrate content, around 4% fat and 75% carbohydrates. On the other hand, soybeans contain a high protein content (around 40%), and around 20% fat content but are lower in carbohydrates than corn. These high quality sources of energy are just what bucks need to help them recover after an intense breeding season and will help them survive the winter months. Remember, a buck can’t start growing his antlers in the spring until after he has replenished all of his fat reserves that he lost in the fall and winter. That means that the better the body condition a buck is in during winter, the sooner he can start growing his antlers in the spring. The sooner he can start growing his antlers means more time he has to grow them during the summer! 

Why GYT90 Supplements Work

So what can you do to help ensure bucks on your property go into and come out of winter in the best possible shape? That’s simple; make sure they have foods with high-quality fats and a high energy content available to them. This is where GYT90 shines. GYT90 uses a natural crude soybean oil to deliver its 90+ minerals. This crude soybean oil is high in natural fats (95%) and is full of calories meaning plenty of energy for deer consuming it. Both fats and calories are needed by whitetails during and after the rut. Now to really ramp up the effects of GYT90, you simply need to pour it over corn, another food item high in energy. This combination of GYT90 and corn is a quality combination. Deer are not only getting all of the quality fats and energy they need to help them survive the winter, but they are also getting all of the minerals they need to stay healthy. The potent combination delivers carbs, calories, and a very high fat content, enough to pull deer into the site whether you are feeding, hunting over bait, or just enhancing the deer herd health.

But how many supplemental feed and mineral sites do you need to really help your herd out? That tends to depend on how many acres you are hunting. A good rule of thumb is to have one supplemental site for every 100 acres of property. You can place a 50-pound sack of corn mixed with GYT90 at each site. This should be enough to help supplement the deer herd. Remember, that this combination should only be used as a supplement because you don’t want to, and probably can’t afford, to totally feed your deer herd with corn. Another thing to keep in mind is that, although corn is high in energy, it is difficult for deer to digest. If deer eat too much corn too fast, they can actually die from what’s called acidosis. To avoid this, be sure you place your supplemental sites near woody browse so deer can browse on both food items. This will ensure they can balance the pH levels in their rumen while consuming corn. Or start the corn and GYT90 mixture off slowly, feeding small amounts gradually every week to allow the deer’s rumen to adjust for digestion.

 

If your goal is to grow as big of deer as you possibly can, then deer management is a year-round thing that doesn’t end after you put up your bow or gun for the year. It requires you to think about what deer need throughout the year. Remember, if nutrition is lacking at any point in time throughout the year, then that reduces a bucks chances of reaching his maximum potential. Hopefully this article has opened your eyes to the importance of winter nutrition. Be sure to give GYT90 a shot this fall, it may just help your herd reach its potential.

 

Attracting Deer to Your Hunting Setup

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Tactics to Make Your Deer Set Up the Spot on the Spot

The pursuit of whitetail deer has hunters nationwide working to create opportunities and increase the odds of a whitetail encounter for the hunt. Whether you love hunting deer for the camaraderie and fellowship, for the challenge that the pursuit of a trophy provides, or to provide meat for your family; one thing remains the same, you need deer in your area to hunt. When it comes to influencing deer, their habits, and the area they live in; there are multiple strategies that can be effective at attracting deer to your hunting area and increasing hunting opportunities. Utilizing deer attractants in your hunting strategy will increase your odds of success, and your enjoyment of the hunt.

The term “deer attractant” is a generic term, and it can encompass a wide variety of tools and methods that are proven to attract deer into a certain area. Some of the means to attracting deer to a specific spot include the use of: food plots, baiting, mineral sites, and deer scents. Hunters can utilize one or many of these methods in combination to attract deer into their hunting area depending on factors like state and local laws, available resources, and terrain. Attracting deer to your spot on the spot, and providing a hunting opportunity is critical to your hunts success. With a little strategic planning, and the right tools put to work, you can increase your number of whitetail encounters and shooting opportunities.

  

Food Plots

The use of food plots as a deer hunting attractant is as old as deer hunting itself. Natural food plots such as acorn mass and large crop fields continue to be an effective draw for deer. The use of food plot crops planted specifically with deer hunting in mind is becoming more and more common. From larger plots of forage soybeans covering 10 or more acres, to small parcels of broken tree canopy planted to brassica; various crops including corn, milo, turnips, peas, clover, and alfalfa will attract and keep deer.

One of the surest ways to attract deer is through their stomach. Whitetail deer are ruminant animals and require both quality protein and fiber forage to survive. Supplying quality groceries to the deer herd you are hunting is the perfect way to increase the frequency of deer in your area, and the amount of time they spend in your core hunting zone.

Baiting

For the same reason that food plots are so effective, bait as a deer attractant can also be extremely effective. An easy meal provided by a corn pile, a gravity feeder filled with a grain mix, or a prepared liquid deer bait is impossible for deer to resist. The nutritional demands of the breeding season, surviving through harsh winter conditions, and regaining lost nourishment expended during the rut drive deer to seek the most nutrient dense feed supply possible.

Keep it Legal

Using bait to attract deer is extremely effective, and a proven tactic for all seasons; including summer feeding programs, pre rut, peak rut, and post rut recovery. However, laws vary widely from state to state, from public to private, and even by date. Make sure you know and abide by the state and local regulations when it comes to baiting deer, hunting over bait, and when you bait.  You may find your state allows hunting deer directly over a bait pile, a late season tactic that is sure to produce results. On the other hand, some states allow baiting, but restrict the distance to the bait. Still other states allow baiting, but all bait must be removed or consumed 10 days prior to season.

In states that only allow baiting out of sight of the hunter, or a certain distance away from the hunter; bait is a fantastic tool for manipulating deer movement. Bait stations between bedding and feeding areas can draw deer within range of your stand. Utilizing pinch points and travel corridors, and strategically placing stands for prevailing winds, using bait in a state that does not allow hunting over bait can produce amazing opportunities while staying well within the law.

Mineral

Just like all other animals, deer require certain essential minerals to remain healthy and to best utilize the nutrients they digest from feed. Essential minerals like calcium and sodium are natural attractants to deer, and in many states offering these minerals to deer is not classified as baiting. Be careful however when offering mineral as a bait station, some states classify mineral as bait if it is incorporated into the soil from rains. This can be tricky if the state you’re hunting doesn’t allow hunting over, or near a leached mineral site. There are ways to still offer the minerals deer crave, and remain on the right side of the law.

 

Whether your state allows hunting over bait, or not; or classifies mineral as bait, or not; make sure and consider using essential minerals as an attractant in accordance with regulations. Mineral sites and offerings are perfectly paired with other types of deer attractants to make your hunting area truly dynamic for whitetails.

Deer Scents

According to research conducted at Mississippi State University, deer can smell somewhere between 500 and 1000 times better than humans. It has been said that whitetail deer see the world through their noses. We have all been there, watching a deer that has no idea we are nearby, then the wind switches. One little gust of scent carrying wind and that deer is off, no questions asked. Harnessing scents that attract deer has been tested for decades, and year after year, hunters fill their tag and swear by a scent product that helped them do it.

By coupling a deer’s amazing sense of smell with their biological phases, the wind currents, and a strategically placed stand; deer scents can be used to bring that old wary buck into range. There are numerous deer scent products on the market, but a couple of the most popular include doe in estrus urine, and rutting buck scent. By tricking a buck’s nose into thinking there is an estrus doe nearby, or a competing buck in the area, you can play on a deer’s most advanced defense to create an opportunity to fill your tag.

Build an Arsenal and Develop a Strategy

Food plots, baits, mineral, and scents are all effective tools that you can put to work in the deer woods this season. By coupling multiple tools into an effective arsenal you will be able to influence where the deer travel and find an opportunity to fill your tag. Make no mistake, whitetail deer are elusive, wary, and always on their guard; but by working a strategy to make your stand the spot on the spot, it is possible to even the odds.

Using Deer Attractants for Observation Instead of Hunting

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No Pressure + Deer Attractants = Great Hunting Intel

When most whitetail hunters talk about deer attractants and mineral supplements, they automatically drift towards the deer hunting application of them. After all, our powerful and attractive product can create one of the best hunting sites you’ve ever sat above. But eventually, you’d probably educate a few bucks about your intentions if you sat over a site too much. And additionally, an increasing number of states do not allow hunters to hunt over or even near anything that could be considered bait anyway, which would rule this scenario out too. So have you ever considered using a deer attractant to enhance a bait site or mineral site without hunting it?

It might seem crazy to some people – why spend the effort and money on keeping a site like that running if you can’t directly hunt the deer using it? But there are actually several benefits of doing just that. Here’s how to use deer attractants and some tips on where and why to use them.

Why Use This Strategy?

The best reason for using this approach is that you can gain valuable insight about the deer using your property in a way that you might not if you were hunting it. Whitetails are pretty quick at patterning people, so hunting a deer bait site several days in a row definitely turns the pressure on. With this strategy, however, you can capture trail camera pictures of essentially unpressured deer (since you don’t hunt it). This property reconnaissance helps you understand truly which deer are using your land; whereas, mature bucks may be reluctant to use a bait site that is regularly hunted. That is the true power of this deer attractants strategy.

 

In addition, if you’re wondering how to attract deer to your property, this product is so versatile for different situations. There are several ways to use this product, depending on the situation. At easier to access sites (i.e., accessible via a trail system), this is probably the best deer attractant to mix with corn because it adds fat calories (soybean oil), 90+ minerals, unrefined salt, and attraction power (scent of soybeans) to the bait pile. For more remote areas, you can pour it onto decaying wood or directly onto the soil to create the best deer mineral attractant. These are all very good ways to attract deer.

And as we mentioned earlier, there is another obvious reason this approach might be a good option for you. In some states, it is illegal to bait deer while hunting them, which often includes any caloric food source at all (including grains, fruits, vegetables, molasses, etc.). Since our product is made with crude soybean oil and chock full of fat calories, you definitely couldn’t hunt over it in that situation. However, some states may allow you to bait deer on your property, provided you don’t hunt within a certain distance of it. In this case, you could still get the benefit of baiting deer in front of your trail cameras without breaking any laws. But be sure to study your state’s regulations on this topic before you start.

Best Places to Put Deer Attractants

While this approach could work for any property to get an unbiased look at the deer there, here are a few places where this would make the most sense.

  • If you have a small property (e.g., total of 40 acres), you need to be serious about deer hunting to consistently do well. Instead of walking around your whole property throughout the season, try designating most of the center of it as a sanctuary that you hardly ever enter (except to re-apply more GYT90 deer attractants and check your trail camera). Then you can use the trail camera pictures to decide how to hunt the perimeter, based on which deer are comfortably using the interior portion. 
  • Do you have a cellular trail camera that directly sends pictures to your mobile phone? That’s even better. Find a very remote part of your property that you can’t access easily (e.g., an island in the middle of a swamp). Take some time to apply a liberal amount of GYT90 deer attractant on some decaying logs and within the soil so that it will persist longer than just applying it to a corn pile. Rest assured, the deer will absolutely eat the decaying wood and dirt. Then let the camera and deer attractants do their work. This approach probably makes GYT90 the best deer attractant for trail cameras at remote sites.

 

How to Use This Approach for Hunting

Wait, didn’t we say we were not hunting over these deer attractants? Yes, but there are still ways you can use this method to inform your hunting strategies. First, simply having this site in an unpressured area could entice deer to stay longer than they otherwise might. Keeping them on your property is over half the battle once the general hunting season opens.

For a more specific hunting example, if you start seeing a mature buck using your remote site, you will need to figure out how he is accessing it and where he goes afterward. Study some aerial maps of your property and find some likely travel corridors or pinch points that the buck might use. If he primarily uses the site at night, it’s likely he will head to a bedding area in the morning, so look for densely vegetated areas on the map where a buck could feel safe during the day. Then place some trail cameras in those locations. After a week or two, sneak back in to check the cameras (or use the cellular option mentioned above). Once you find out where and when he is using a certain area, set up a tree stand or ground blind downwind of his primary access – remember to not hunt too close to your deer attractant site. By only hunting the perimeter of this area, you stand a great chance at attracting and then hunting a buck as he comes and goes.

Best Deer Attractant

This season, try using this amazing product and hunting approach to see how it goes. In most cases, the deer attractants will pull the deer in on their own – how you handle the hunting of them is up to you. But providing a no-risk area for deer – especially mature bucks – to congregate and get some nutrition and minerals from is a fantastic way to get a census of the deer using your property.

 

Best Locations for Mineral and Bait Sites For Hunting

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Mineral and Bait Site Locations | GYT90 Deer Attractant

Deer hunters want to create an attractive bait site for a multitude of reasons, but most would agree that killing a target buck would be at the top of the list. If you want to build a habitat that encourages deer to hang around your stand during shooting hours; getting creative with your setup will be key. To begin this process, we must consider the priorities of a whitetail:

  1. Food  
  2. Water 
  3. Security  
  4. Breeding

These four factors will control a deer’s life and the better we understand each, the closer we can come to punching our tag. To best determine where a bait site should be located, it’s helpful to refer to an aerial photo and begin your search for the perfect spot. An aerial photograph, in combination with a topographic map, can assist your search for water, food, possible bedding and terrain features that lead to travel corridors. 

The primary goal in finding all of these features is to help increase the attractiveness of your bait site and eventually a place in which to ambush your deer.

  

Natural Deer Movement

Deer, like humans, will naturally take the path of least resistance when traveling in most situations. When setting up your bait site, consider where deer will most likely funnel through an area. The best way to do this is to refer to your map mentioned above. When reviewing the map, you’ll see an arrow that points to a natural point in which the hardwoods is sandwiched in between food plots—creating a pinch point. This area of cover is the perfect place for deer to travel with the feeling of security while moving from one food source to another.

Pinch points are the easiest of features to find on a map, but other features to look for are also important:

Saddles: This is a place where the terrain dips down like a horse’s saddles. Sometimes this feature is easy to spot, and at times it’s very subtle. However, one thing is for certain; saddles are a place deer will naturally move through.

Field Corners: Many hunters prefer to hunt over a field to see much deer, but they don’t realize they’d kill more deer by staying on the inside corner of the field. By the time October rolls around, deer know they are hunted. The likelihood that a mature buck will move into an area before dark decreases and these deer love to skirt the edge of fields by going around the corner; this can be another great place to place your GYT90 mineral station so the deer can feel secure before heading into your food plot.

Gaps in a fence: Every year it’s a good idea to walk the edge of your property line to determine if there are new low spots in the fence. Again, deer love to take the path of least resistance and an easy to cross fence is an excellent place for deer to funnel through. Many times that is on their way to and from food and bedding.

Bedding Areas 

Everything we think of—when it comes to whitetails—should be around bedding. Deer spend a large portion of their day bedded-down to survive. Deer will pick a bedding area where they can see and smell in a way that makes them feel comfortable about their situation. At times, we feel the need to push the limits on a bucks bedding area to kill him, but your bait site should not intrude on their bedroom.

To keep the bait site fresh, you’ll have to spend time going in and out of the area. When choosing your location, it’s best to understand where the deer are bedded because they will see you, or smell you going in and out. It’s recommended to find their primary bedding locations as soon as the season is over so that you will not alert the deer during the season.

Once you’ve located their bedding areas, you’ll want to make sure that your bait site is in their natural travel corridor, so you don’t have to push the limits. The most important asset to a deer is water, so getting your bait site between water and bed is a great location to start.

Waterholes

Water is an essential ingredient to a whitetail’s habitat, without water on your property the deer will be traveling as far as it takes to find it. If water doesn’t exist, you have the perfect opportunity to supplement your deer herd with a waterhole. Think about it; the more comfortable you create for the deer herd, the less likely they are to leave their secure environment.

Creating water holes is labor intensive, but worth the sweat equity. All you need is a water trough, or even kids swimming pool, a shovel, and tons of water! Once you have your water is in the ground, and situated close to your bait station, you’re good to go. All you’ll need is rain to keep it full or tote in more throughout the year.

Mock Scrapes

Deer have to eat, they have to drink, but they’re also social animals. Creating a mock community scrape near your bait station can be a great way to keep deer cruising through the area to keep tabs on one another. The scrape is a way for a deer to let others know he or she has visited; think of this as a message board for whitetails!

To create a scrape is simple: Find a tree with a small branch hanging down to where a deer can lick it, rake the leaves back in a large bowl under the branch, then you can pour deer urine or use your own to create the first scent. If you want to run multiple trail camera’s near your bait station, this is the best place to hang your second camera to get pictures.

Putting it Together

Throwing out GYT90 in a random place will produce results, but the likelihood of it producing deer on a consistent basis is lower. The more time you put into creating complimentary aspects of a deer’s life, the more you increase the attractiveness of your bait site. Most of the ingredients to a suitable location already exist on your property, make sure you increase the odds by putting in the extra effort, and you will increase the herd health, density, and your hunting success rates.

Tips for Deer Hunting Over Bait and Attractants

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Deer Bait and Attractants 101

It’s an exciting time of the year for many hunters as we approach the end of summer and begin to entire the cooler months of Fall.  The grocery supercenters and gas stations in most suburban and rural areas start setting pallets of one of the highest selling hunting products on the market; deer bait.  Suddenly, the timber and fields where we hunt are deposited with concentrated piles of sustenance and we have been practicing this ritual ever since we can remember.  Pouring out bait to attract whitetail deer can sometimes be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. 

Hunters have been baiting, attracting, and feeding deer for decades, with the main purpose of enticing that mature buck to come into shooting range during daylight hours.  In recent years, and with the wide use of trail cameras, hunters are now using bait to create feeding hubs that generate numerous quality trail camera photos of their deer herd.  As we study to learn more about the nutritional biology of whitetails, it’s been discovered that the supplemental feeding of deer shows benefits if done during the off-season. Even with all the complexity and politics surrounding the world of baiting, deer feed and deer corn continues to fly off the shelves across all regions in North America.  The basic principles of baiting remain unchanged, however, new products, better strategies, and advanced tactics can dramatically improve the success you might achieve when baiting and attracting deer.

What is the Best Bait for Deer?

A whitetail buck’s antlers are comprised of 22% calcium, 11% phosphorous, and the remaining balance is a mix of protein, trace minerals, and ash. When searching for a feed, attractant, or bait product, it’s important to look for these key ingredients of calcium and phosphorous on the package. By far the most popular and widely used bait for attracting whitetails is corn.  Not only is deer corn highly consumed and well received by whitetails in almost every habitat across the continent, but it’s also one of the cheapest options for hunters.  Corn contains several of these essential nutrients for whitetails that improve their health and ability to survive leading into winter.  Baiting with corn is always a highly recommended source for whitetails and remains as one of the best product choices out there. However, hunters using corn should keep in mind that it can be enhanced.

PHOTO: GYT90’s crude soybean oil content is thick enough to cover the corn kernels with a glaze and acts as an attractant enhancer from its soybean aroma. It also supplies heightened taste and an instinctual need whitetails have for the highest nutritional intake for their time feeding.

One product that is sometimes overlooked, but proves to be highly effective year in and year out, is soybeans.  Since soybeans aren’t commercially sold at the same level corn is, outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen don’t seem to pursue it as much.  However, if you have ever hunted over a freshly cut soybean field, or a standing soybean field in the late season you have seen the impact they have on deer. These locations can act as a free bait piles and will definitely attract several deer.  Corn and soybeans contain a higher combined percentage of calcium and phosphorous than acorns, apples, alfalfa, or clover. Not to mention carbs and fats deer seek in the fall.  Without soybeans being readily available, hunters will have a hard time accessing this without planting soybean food plots. Fortunately there is another option! 

New deer bait and feed products surface frequently, but only a select few make an impact on everyday hunters. One such product is something that can take standard deer corn bait sites, and enhance them with the nutritional power, scent, and taste of soybeans. The soybean oil based deer mineral and feed supplement “GYT90” gives hunters the best of both worlds when mixed with a standard bag of corn. GYT90’s crude soybean oil content is thick enough to cover the corn kernels with a glaze and acts as an attractant enhancer from its soybean aroma. It also supplies heightened taste and an instinctual need whitetails have for the highest nutritional intake for their time feeding. Deer corn, enhanced with GYT90’s soybean oil based nutrition and 90+ mineral supplement means that your bait site is optimized for attracting deer. Now it’s time to discuss where to put this potent mixture.

How to use GYT 90: Corn

How to use GYT 90: Corn

Posted by GYT 90 on Friday, April 13, 2018

 

The Best Locations for Deer Bait and Feed Sites

With the best deer bait and feed in hand you need to find the most effective locations for hunting, recon, or attracting deer.  Specific bait locations can vary based on terrain, wind direction, competing food sources, use, etc.  However, there is one common denominator when deciding where to place your bait site and that is its proximity to deer bedding locations.  

If you are truly looking to hunt over bait, you need to understand deer movement and how deer would potentially be traveling to and from your bait site. In addition, you need to look at how you might access and hunt that compared to where the deer will already be. Several hunters will throw out bait at a location that best suits their access restrictions or feasibility.  One of the biggest mistakes hunters make is placing bait in locations where deer usually won’t access during daylight shooting hours. As successful as deer bait is, at the end of the day its hard to force a deer to travel to a place they do not want to be. Frustration can quickly set in when hunting over a bait site and seeing minimal deer activity, then returning the next day to hunt that same location only to find your bait pile has been almost entirely consumed.  Mature bucks may become lazy and purposely nocturnal to avoid exposing themselves in daylight.   

Avoid this pitfall by placing your bait near known bedding areas. This will reduce the time it takes for deer to travel when they begin to move out of their beds towards evening feeding locations. This will generate a greater return on your investment of feed and time, and a better overall hunting experience. 

Conversely, if the sole purpose of your bait site is to generate a higher quantity of trail camera photos and night time feeding is not as much of a concern, you will have more options for your bait site locations. Generating intel and surveying your deer herd is extremely valuable for in season recon, developing a hit-list, or watching survivors through the winter. The objective is to create a resource or destination point for deer that positions them directly in front of your camera. Bait sites are a fabulous tool to utilize for this activity.  You do however want to avoid frequently visiting those sites to minimize intrusion. Using a product and a feeding mechanism that reduces routinely trafficking that area will increase your odds of obtaining quality trail camera pictures.

PHOTO: GYT90 is unique from other liquid attractants in that it uses an oil base instead of a water base.  Water based attractants will evaporate and dissipate quicker than oil, which will result in more frequent refills to that bait site.

Deer Bait Station Types

When considering how to distribute your bait, there are several different options available.  Elevated feeders, such as open trough style feeders, gravity fed feeders, and mechanized feeders all create methods to raise your bait pile up off the ground.  The purpose of placing bait in elevated feeders is to minimize the consumption of non-targeted wildlife such as raccoons, squirrels, wild pigs, etc. The easiest feeders to get your hands on are simple gravity feeders, trough feeders, or more advanced deer feeders that dispense feed on the ground below at specific times.  

However, you don’t need to spend tons of money on a feeder to have a productive bait site. In fact, some feeder setups may decrease mature buck usage as some deer just tend to avoid feeder sites and/or camera sites, especially with human scent in the area. 

At the basic level the simplest bait site is a corn pile or mineral site for deer on the ground or on some sort of platform, usually in the form of decaying wood logs or stumps. The rotten wood in a dead log or stump is more absorbent than a freshly fallen tree and will soak in the attractant or mineral. However, minerals alone are not enough to keep deer enticed throughout the fall from their summer patterns. Mineral use decreases as deer diet changes from lush summer forage to acorns, grain, and woody browse. Read more about transitioning mineral sites to attractive hunting bait sites here.

PHOTO: GYT90 has the ability to create a bait site without the use of any additional grain or seed mixed in.  A couple alternatives to the previously discussed corn mixture include simply pouring out GYT90 over a dead log, rotten stump, or directly on exposed soil. Another advantage of using the GYT90 blend is that it can be used just by clearing away some debris and uncovering the bare soil.  Emptying a 1-gallon jug over a few feet of exposed ground will result in consistent heavy deer traffic at that site.

Best Trail Camera Setups Over Deer Bait and Feed Sites

For any bait, feed, hunting, or mineral site a trail camera is a must. Normally, without attraction, trying to funnel deer activity in front of your trail camera can be tricky during certain months of the year depending on the type of habitat that you are in.  Minerals, supplemental feeding products, and deer attractants can all be highly desired by deer at various times on an annual basis. Most trail cameras on the market today have settings that let you adjust the picture resolution and the photo/video frequency.  Reducing the picture resolution to low and extending the trigger frequency between photos will prolong your battery life and extend the time between visits to your camera. You can get away with longer picture/event durations since deer at feed/mineral sites will spend between 3-5 minutes at least feeding at or licking the site.  Adjusting the settings down to that 3-5 minute mark during non-hunting months and then back to a higher frequency of photos (30 seconds- 1 minute) during hunting months. This tactic will prolong battery life, slow down the rate at which the memory cards fill up, and reduce the amount of time you spend checking the site. 

PHOTO: Using a 3-in-1 product like GYT90 takes the guess-work out of it and allows you to provide all the best resources that deer seek throughout the entire year in one single bottle.  More and more hunters are leaving their game cameras out all year long to monitor the herd even in the off-season.

You also want to avoid pouring your bait in an area with mature foliage and tall vegetation.  A location that might be great in the Fall and Winter might not be ideal during Spring and Summer when the temperatures warm and the green-up impacts the photos being taken on your camera.  The last thing you want to see when thumbing through your full SD card is 2,000 photos of grass swaying in the wind. 

Hunting Setups Over Bait

Using the right bait and placing it at the right location are two key factors when hunting over bait, but hunters often overlook the 3rd crucial element that is equally as important.   Stand or blind placement, down to the exact tree or site, as it relates to that bait site must be thoroughly thought out prior to choosing your location.  Again, you want to understand which direction the deer typically travel from (the bedding area) in order to reach your bait site.  Then you want to pinpoint their direction of travel away from the bait site (a large food source). Next, you want to account for the wind direction that will put all the odds in your favor to go undetected when hunting over that bait site.  Finally, you’ll have to figure out how you plan on entering the hunting setup without blowing your wind across the bedding area, bait site, or large food source.

Photo: Form your hunting setup before you place the bait, considering bedding areas, deer travel, larger food sources, tree stand placement, wind direction, and access. More importantly don’t be afraid to shut down a bait site if it’s not working in your favor. 

The ideal setup has the bait site in between your stand and where the deer will travel from, with the wind blowing in your face on your hike in and while hunting.  Shifting winds that blow your scent over the bait pile will result in poor hunting experiences with minimal mature buck sightings. Consider your stand or blind placement and wind direction prior to creating your bait site. Try to also give yourself options.  If the wind isn’t consistent or tends to swirl in that particular location, opt out of hunting it or continuing to bait the site.  It’s hard to pick up a pile of corn after it has been poured, but you can seal a bait or mineral site up if you choose to relocate.

 

Conclusion

Baiting deer for the purposes of hunting is a long tradition that has been refined throughout time.  There is a lot more thought and strategy that goes into it than just dumping out a pile of tasty treats.  Baiting also has several applications that can be utilized for growing and maintaining a healthy deer herd. By understanding what nutrients to look for and which resources contain those nutrients, you can impact the overall attractiveness of your bait site.  Combine that with an effective strategy when scouting and hunting around that bait location and you can maximize your hunting experience year after year!

SHOP GYT90 ATTRACTANT HERE

Note: Check your state’s regulations for baiting, feeding, and attracting wildlife and deer during any time of the year and especially the regulations concerning hunting over bait.

Note: Feeding corn in the winter months, especially in large quantities to a herd that normally does not have access to that type of food source could be dangerous. Since the deer herd might not have enough of the right bacteria to digest corn it can cause acidosis and death for individuals in the herd. Do not feed corn in the winter in large amounts, and if a feed program must be started start in periodic small amounts to allow for the bacteria to adjust in a deer’s stomach.

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How to Turn Summer Mineral Sites into Attractive Hunting Sites

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Deer Hunting Bait Sites | Transitioning Deer Minerals to Fall Attraction

Most hunters are familiar with the benefits of providing their deer herds with supplemental nutrition. Whether you decide to provide mineral, the benefits range from helping you inventory bucks on your hunting property or collecting scientific data for management purposes to ensuring your herd has their complete nutritional needs in case nutrition is lacking. Although these are great reasons to use mineral sites, you may be wondering how effective they can be to use as an attractant for hunting. Although not all minerals serve as good attractants during the hunting season, GYT90 does. This article will discuss what makes GYT90 different from other minerals on the market and how to use it during the hunting season.

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Why Deer Decrease Mineral Use

If you run trail cameras over your mineral sites for deer, you probably notice some obvious trends. Use of mineral sites generally increases with spring green up and is maintained throughout the summer. This is likely related to deer seeking out sodium to balance all of the water they are consuming that is contained in the new growth of vegetation. And although there isn’t much research out there, providing supplemental minerals likely also provides nutrition needed to both bucks who are growing their antlers and does that are producing milk for their fawns. 

So why do deer decrease their use of these mineral sites in the fall? There are several reasons like alternative food sources such as acorns and supplemental food plots becoming more prevalent on hunting properties. In addition to those things, vegetation no long has the same water content in the fall as it did in early spring and summer. This means that deer no longer need to seek out sodium to balance their diet which ultimately decreases their use of mineral sites. This is where most supplemental minerals fall short, they don’t provide any additional components to continually attract deer throughout the fall, in turn, not making them useful attractants during hunting season. This leaves hunters in states where deer hunting over bait is legal scratching their head. How do you avoid reinvesting time, hunting pressure, and money into your summer mineral sites just to keep the attraction up throughout the hunting season?

PHOTO: Summer mineral sites for deer decrease in use as sodium is no longer needed once vegetation loses its water content, creating the need to provide deer with additional attraction if a bait/hunting site is desired.

If you simply have a mineral lick for deer and fail to add additional attraction, the site will no longer be pulling deer like it was through the summer. You need to be able to provide something that deer associate with quality nutrition in the fall. They concentrate on food sources like standing grain and acorns. Soybeans, corn, and acorns give deer access to fats and calories, preparing their bodies for the winter and rut ahead. Keying in on these attraction points should be the focus on your deer hunting bait sites.

Finding a Product That Doubles as Mineral and Attraction

Arguably the best thing to find in this scenario is something that doubles as providing minerals and attraction. Corn and regular deer feed do not fit the bill by themselves since they do not provide the sodium for the summer. Most mineral blocks and licks do not provide the calories and fats, not to mention the scent of associated quality nutrition like corn, acorns, or soybeans. The trick is finding something that offers sodium, minerals, scent, taste and attraction for both summer and fall.

PHOTO: GYT90 is a product that offers sodium, minerals, scent, taste and attraction for both summer and fall hunting.

GYT90 is one such product. At its core GYT90 is a deer mineral and feed supplement. So what makes GYT90 different from other deer mineral supplements on the market? First, it contains more than 90 minerals that deer can use in addition to unrefined sea salt and natural crude soybean oil. Why is this good? GYT90 has everything a deer could want in both summer and fall…hitting key features hunters should be looking for. It provides them with the sodium they need in the spring and summer time, but also provides them with healthy fats that are provided by the natural crude soybean oil. The soybean oil hits deer with both soybean scent and flavor profiles that they already associate with quality food sources. Long story short, GYT90 always provides something deer need and are attracted to.

PHOTO: With scent and flavor profiles of soybean oil, deer are instinctively attracted to GYT90 mineral and hunting sites.

Another thing that makes GYT90 a great supplement is it comes in a liquid form. This means that you can mix GYT90 with just about anything. For example, you can mix GYT90 with corn and place it out for deer. The corn may serve as an additional attractant to pull deer into an area. You can also mix it with supplemental feed. Deer may be reluctant to start eating supplemental feed when you first start providing it. Mixing an attractant like GYT90 will likely help speed up that process of deer getting used to eating supplemental feed.

 How to Use GYT90 for Hunting

So how do you maximize your use of GYT90 so deer get the supplements they need but you also can take advantage of attracting deer to an area during the hunting season? The first thing to consider is where you are going to establish your mineral site. Some obvious areas are in food plots or agricultural fields where deer are already frequenting. You can also consider using wooded areas to establish sites. It may be easiest to find a staging area going out to a food plot or agricultural field for this. Wherever you decide to establish a mineral site, there are two things to consider. You will want to pick a site that sets you up best to hunt the area. This means you can access the area on multiple wind directions with minimal probability of detection when entering and leaving the stand. The next thing to consider is when to begin establishing the site. You will want to do this as early as possible. The more time you give deer to get used to visiting a site, the better.

PHOTO: Appling GYT90 deer mineral supplement and attractive deer bait in areas of frequent travel like soybean fields make great hunting bait sites.

Now that you’ve picked out your location, how do you use GYT90? That’s easy because you can use GYT90 in several ways. As previously mentioned, you can add it to corn and place it in some type of trough on the ground to attract deer. You can also simply pour it over a stump or on a log if you are in the woods. Again, whenever you are choosing a location to establish a mineral site, be sure it is in an area that you can easily hunt. 

There are multiple benefits to using supplemental minerals on your hunting property. But if you are hoping to find a mineral that also serves as an attractant during the hunting season, then GYT90 is for you. Be sure to give GYT90 a try this fall. You never know, it may just help you harvest your hit list buck or even help to put some meat in the freezer.

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How to Keep Your Mineral Sites from Leaching in the Soil

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Whether you’re using mineral to supplement any potential nutritional deficiencies in your deer herd or are using mineral to help you get pictures and inventory any hit list bucks for the upcoming fall, mineral sites can be highly effective. But what do you do if you hunt in an area where you hunting over a mineral site is considered baiting because of the mineral leaching into the soil? Don’t worry, all hope has not been lost! This article will discuss what you can do to prevent deer minerals from leaching and what you can do if you’re trying to restore an old mineral site so it is legal to hunt over.

How to Prevent Leaching

The easiest way to prevent getting yourself into any type of legal trouble where you are required to remove mineral sites is to prevent leaching from the start. Leaching of mineral sites generally occurs after your mineral gets rained on after sitting in one spot for any length of time. The mineral is still available to deer through the soil and that’s why you tend to see deer continually coming back to a mineral site even after the mineral has been depleted. So what can you do to prevent leaching?

There are a few things you can try to prevent leaching. First, you have to make sure that you are using mineral that can be removed from the site. This means that you shouldn’t be mixing mineral directly into the soil if you hope to hunt there in the fall. The second thing you need to make sure of is you are preventing any mineral contaminated rain water from reaching the soil. That is where most people get themselves into trouble. There are several ways you can do this.

Deer Mineral Site Setups That Prevent Leaching

Tub/Bucket: First, you can simply place your mineral in a shallow bucket or tub. Although this method can be effective, there are a couple of things you want to keep in mind. First, you have to remember to take the handle off the bucket if you choose to use one over a shallow tub. It may seem like a crazy possibility, but a deer might work that handle over its head and get the bucket stuck on its head. The other thing to keep in mind is a bucket on the ground can be easily tipped over. If there is any rain water in the bucket and it gets tipped over, then you will still have leaching issues. Burying the bucket in the ground will help provide stability while also still allowing you to remove the bucket when you’re ready. The same concept applies when using an oil pan but you need to monitor these oil pans because they may break if a deer happens to step in them and again, any break may lead to leaching.

Decaying Wood/Stump: Using an old tree stump that you can easily remove will also work for you. Finding a stump that has a depression where you can pour your mineral in is your best bet. You may want to test your stump by soaking it with water first to see if you’ll have any leaching issues. If you do, then you will need to safeguard by using a stump in conjunction with an oil pan or something that will help prevent the leaching. You can simply bury the oil pan and place the stump in it so everything can be removed.

Combine with Feed: Another not so common way to keep minerals from leaching into the soil is by combining them with feed. Liquid deer mineral supplements and deer attractants that contain minerals can be incorporated into deer feed or corn. Simply mix the mineral with the corn or feed, coating it evenly in a bucket or tub. The feed shouldn’t go directly on the ground but instead into a trough, bucket, tub, or gravity deer feeder that doesn’t distribute the seed on the ground.

Regardless of what method you use, you will want to monitor these sites to ensure that you don’t end up with any leaching issues. You don’t necessarily need to check these sites daily or even weekly, but it isn’t a bad idea to check them after a big rain. Take an extra bucket with you in case you need to dump some rain water out. That way you can take it out of the woods and dump it somewhere safe where nobody will be hunting while still leaving the mineral in the woods. You can also replace any pans or buckets that may have developed a crack.

Reclaiming an Old Mineral Site

What happens if hunting over mineral sites suddenly becomes illegal in your area or what if you’re just trying to restore an old mineral site you’ve used for years but no longer want to maintain? You should first contact your local Conservation Officer to ensure you are doing things legally so you won’t be ticketed in the fall, but here are a couple of methods that generally work.

Whatever you do, don’t simply fill in the depression that’s been created by deer with dirt. Deer will still frequent the area and paw at the ground to get to any residual mineral that is left. Instead, you’ll have to invest a little more time and energy to reclaim your mineral site. The first thing you can do is to remove the soil where the mineral site was. Be sure to also remove soil immediately surrounding the site so you can be certain that you removed any minerals that potentially leached out. Next, it’s a good idea to fill the hole in with some type of gravel. Fill the hole about half- to three-quarters full. Then, if you want to be completely sure deer will not be access any leached minerals if there are any to be found, then place a piece of plywood on top of the gravel and place dirt on top of the plywood. Hopefully, you removed all of the leached mineral when you dug the hole, but if you didn’t then filling the hole in with gravel and plywood will prevent deer from being able to paw at the site to reach the leached minerals. Once deer become used to no longer having the minerals readily available, they will stop visiting the old mineral site.

Using supplemental minerals seems like an easy way to make sure deer are getting all of the nutrition they need and can be a fun way to capture photos and videos of bucks you’ll likely be hunting this fall. Whether you find yourself legally obligated to remove your mineral sites before the season, or would like to keep mineral sites and the ground beneath them intact keep these tips in mind for easy removal of mineral sites. This way you can still enjoy the benefits that supplemental mineral sites can provide throughout the spring and summer!

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