How to Make an Apple Scented Deer Attractant

Use homemade apple scent to attract a buck.

When that big buck won't cooperate during the hunt, sometimes you have to implement a few tricks of your own to get it to come to you. One thing you can do to attract deer is to create a scent from apples and hang the scent on a tree in the woods where you're hunting. To keep the scent smelling as natural as possible, choose ingredients from your surrounding area to make an apple-scented attractant deer won't be able to resist.

Things You'll Need

• Pint jar with screw-on lid
• Large plastic tub with snap-on lid
• Fresh pine needles
• Dead leaves
• Old blender with glass pitcher and lid
• Wooden spoon
• Clip-type clothespin
• Work gloves
• Large zip-lock plastic bag
• 3 ripe apples
• Long, slender rag
• Wide-mouth quart jar with lid

Instructions

1. Find a natural source of water, such as a mud puddle, lake, stream or pond. Dip the pint jar in the water until the jar is full. Place the lid on top of the jar and screw it down tight.

2. Cover the bottom of a large plastic tub with a thick layer of pine needles and dead leaves. Place the pitcher from an old blender, a wooden spoon, the clothespin, work gloves, one large zip-lock plastic bag, three apples and the jar of pond water on top of the pine needles and leaves in the plastic tub. Place the lid on the plastic tub and snap it into place. Allow the contents to sit in the tub overnight.

3. Remove the lid from the plastic tub. Put on the gloves. Sprinkle some of the pine needles and leaves from the plastic tub onto your work surface. Place the base of the old blender on the work surface.

4. Retrieve the pitcher, apples and the jar of pond water from plastic tub. Attach the pitcher securely to the blender base. Cut the apples in half. Place the apples in the blender. Put the lid on the pitcher. Plug in the blender. Blend the apples, seeds and all, adding pond water from the jar as necessary, until the apples form a smooth puree. Unplug the blender.

5. Place the rag into the apple puree mixture and let it soak for five minutes. Retrieve the rag with the wooden spoon. Place the rag and the clothespin in the zip-lock bag. Zip the bag closed. Place the zip-lock bag in the quart jar and screw on the lid. Place the quart jar in the refrigerator until you are ready to go hunting.

6. Take the zip-lock bag with the apple-soaked rag and clothes pin in it with you when you go out hunting. Open the zip-lock bag and take out the rag. Use the clothes pin to clip the rag to a low-hanging branch on a tree 5 to 10 yards upwind from where you are hunting.

Tips & Warnings

• Take measures to keep human scent from penetrating any of the materials you use when you are preparing the apple scent so deer won't detect any human odor attached to the scent.

• Check with the department of natural resources in your state regarding the use of scents and lures for your area and follow those regulations. Some states allow limited use of scents and lures. Some states prohibit the use of scents and lures.

References

• Deer Fever: Quick Hunting Tips
• Hunting Blades: Homemade Cover Scent Recipes