Best food to attract deer?

[ian1337]

So deer stay at my trail camera longer. 

[Walker570]

Munties love apples and I know fallow do. There is a glut of apples this year so ask around you might find a local supply you can pick your own.

[Vince Green]

When i was in America they would put out blocks of salt. called a salt lick. It was a deer magnet

Part of the reason they don't salt the roads over there was deer would come onto the roads to lick it off and it caused accidents.  Deer on the roads in winter was a big problem at the best of times because the roads were warmer than the surrounding fields. 

Edited October 13, 2020 by Vince Green

[ian1337]

38 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Munties love apples and I know fallow do. There is a glut of apples this year so ask around you might find a local supply you can pick your own.

Thank you. I’ll put some apples out. Many fallow pass through the woodland as well as roe and muntjac.

20 minutes ago, Vince Green said:

When i was in America they would put down salt. called a salt lick.

Part of the reason they don't salt the roads over there was deer would come onto the roads to lick it off and it caused accidents.  Deer on the roads in winter was a big problem at the best of times because the roads were warmer than the surrounding fields. 

That sounds good for fallow. Although with all the rain I don’t think it would last that long.

[Sussexboy]

30 minutes ago, ian1337 said:

Thank you. I’ll put some apples out. Many fallow pass through the woodland as well as roe and muntjac.

That sounds good for fallow. Although with all the rain I don’t think it would last that long.

I put salt licks in the wood and put up trail cameras looking at them. While they were hanging there the deer walked straight past with no interest. Once they had dissolved I got pictures of row bucks licking the ground where the salty water had dropped! 
 

I also put out some coarse sheep mix which contains molasses. That got some interest, and not just from deer. The badgers, pheasants and boar had their share to. The pheasants would follow me when I turned up with the bag to refill the feeder.

[Windswept]

I find young saplings work, the more expensive the better.🤣

Agree with the apples, roe also like them.

[Dunkield]

Salt licks only tend to work if there is little else to feed on, the muntjac on my ground ignore apples as well - but commercial shoots are like a year round harvest festival to deer 😄

[243deer]

sugar beet, carrots, parsnips

[Lloyd90]

3 hours ago, Dunkield said:

Salt licks only tend to work if there is little else to feed on, the muntjac on my ground ignore apples as well - but commercial shoots are like a year round harvest festival to deer 😄

👍🏻👍🏻
 

America doesn’t tend to have big commercial driven pheasant hunts. So they instead have a lot of ‘food plots’ and crops in openings in the forest or woodland that can attract deer. 
 

In the U.K. with all the farming, and shoots with big buckets full of on demand grain they’re pretty safe for an easy meal. 

[NoBodyImportant]

In America we use salt licks.  A huge block of salt that melts into the soil.  You can also dump a 25lbs bag a salt on the ground.  

3 hours ago, Dunkield said:

Salt licks only tend to work if there is little else to feed on, the muntjac on my ground ignore apples as well - but commercial shoots are like a year round harvest festival to deer 😄

Salt licks and minerals licks attract deer year around.  A deer with a full stomach will still come to licks to get minerals and salt.  

[team tractor]

I fill my squirrel feeders up with peanut and wheat . The munty soon come in to eat what’s on the floor 

[Rim Fire]

Full Maize with a little molasses mixed brings in Boar fox deer Badgers just about everything there is they love the sweet molasses 

I am picking up 4 bags today to feed tonight 

Edited October 14, 2020 by Rim Fire

[Benthejockey]

Maize whole or split, sugar beet nuts, peanuts, wheat, ruminant mix, salt licks, molasses, apples, carrots, fodder beet pretty much anything you can get your hands on. I had fallow get hooked on beet pulp nuts last year.

[Dunkield]

22 hours ago, NoBodyImportant said:

In America we use salt licks.  A huge block of salt that melts into the soil.  You can also dump a 25lbs bag a salt on the ground.  

Salt licks and minerals licks attract deer year around.  A deer with a full stomach will still come to licks to get minerals and salt.  

That would depend on what they have been eating, like us if they get everything they need from their normal diet they don't probably don't need to supplement it.

I have put licks out and had trail cams watching them for days and all I got were sd cards full of pictures of squirrels with deer walking past in the background

I've put apples and apple mulch (from cider making) out for muntjac and watched them step over it to get to sweet grass or a pheasant feeder.

Muntjac grow very well on my ground, I have had 3 serious gold medals (including the best in the uk last year) just on what nature + a commercial shoot provides. 

[loriusgarrulus]

You can get horse salt links. They are relatively cheap and don't melt that quick. They about the size of a house brick and you can even get a metal holder for them if you want.

[Mice!]

18 hours ago, Rim Fire said:

Full Maize with a little molasses mixed brings in Boar fox deer Badgers just about everything there is they love the sweet molasses 

I am picking up 4 bags today to feed tonight 

How do you add the molasses? I'm picturing trying to add treacle and ending up with a messy blob, I'm thinking I could try it for the squirrels. 

[Rim Fire]

5 hours ago, Mice! said:

How do you add the molasses? I'm picturing trying to add treacle and ending up with a messy blob, I'm thinking I could try it for the squirrels. 

The molasses is quite runny liquid form put corn in bucket tip in molasses you don't need a lot  and stir with spade because we feed pigs i bury it the pigs find it and keeps them busy with their heads down last night i was waiting for them i had a munty come a fallow Doe a badger and a fox everything but a pig 🤣 but still nice to see 

[Dunkield]

Not bait related but to answer your question about getting them into your camera, sunlight seems to be very attractive for them.

Saw three muntjac on the morning dog walk today, all three were seeking sunshine in relatively dark surroundings. Just a thought. 

[ian1337]

 I left a few apples and pears. Also put out oats.