What do yall think of this?I found it online
In one five gallon bucket put in 10-15 apples. Break them up a little. Pour in 1-2 gallons corn and add a little brown sugar on top then pour a couple cups of apple cider over the sugar. Stir it up. I call this a deer lolly pop. if there are deer down wind they will wipe it out.
Spread the bait in a 10/10 ft area. By spreading it out more then one deer can feed and have its head down at the same time. if you have a dead fall spread it along your side of the dead fall.
The day you are going to hunt it do not use apples. Deer will pick the apples up and look at you while they eat. Corn keeps there heads down.
After the bait is getting killed reduce the amount of the bait. Make them know that if they dont come early some one else may get the tasty treat...
I don't think mixing that stuff all up is needed. When I start a new pile I always try and start with apples, then end up with corn. Smash a few of the apples to get the scent on the wind. Unless you dump corn right on top of them it can take awhile for them to find it.
I disagree with limiting the amount of bait if you can afford/collect it. I believe if they show up and there is nothing there they may not come back for a few days unless they are under stress IE: no food elsewhere, heavy snow. A mature buck may only show once a week, I am not willing to play games, I don't want him to come in even less. Constant food keeps them coming back.
One more thing, if the deer are picking up an apple and watching you, your spot is burned. I doubt you kill a mature deer once they figure out where your stand is. When I get picked off in a stand over a baited site I stay the hell out of that stand for 2-3 weeks if possible. IF you are limited as to your spots hang multiple stands. My consistant producing baited stands have 2 stands with a shot to the bait and another set or two on trails leading to the bait.
Cool story. Made me look like a superhunter to my son. He was going to bowhunt with me for the first time on this property. My stand was a nosebleeder so I hung a set for him. I had killed 2 deer from my stand and the deer were starting to look up at my stand. There was a perfect tree for his set on the approach trail and he still had a shot to the bait. I told him "the deer will come in on this trail and stop right here and look up at my stand, smoke 'em when they stop". I set up in the third stand in the are on another feeder trail.
When I got him at dark he was WIDE eyed!! "Dad 2 does stopped right where you said they would and stared at your stand, it was sweet!!" I asked if we had one to trail or what?? He said "well I really wanted to shoot one of the does but I could hear two bucks fighting further back so I waited. The one buck came in but I was not sure I had a clear shot and was not sure of the distance".
I killed a doe that evening from the other stand, and Hunter became a lifelong bowhunter. He told me "now I see why you go so much, this is WAY better than gun hunting!!" He killed a doe out of that stand the next weekend.