When my friend Sam Old from Virginia first began talking about the formula he had developed that will stop any deer in its tracks, I was all ears. What deer hunter wouldn’t want to learn about a way to attract deer?
Sam owns a farm up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and is one of the most astute students of whitetail deer behavior that I’ve known. Sam’s knowledge of deer wasn’t acquired from a college classroom but rather from a lifetime of observing deer doing what deer do, from the onset of the rut in the fall, through the lean winter months, the shedding of antlers late winter and the birthing period when the species perpetuates itself each summer. He lives on his farm and has been fascinated by deer since the age of three when he watched a buck scale a steep, 200-foot cliff in less time than it takes to tell about it. He has spent countless hours filming deer on his place, not only during the fall breeding season (rut) but throughout the year.
Sam began emailing me videos of deer reacting to his “Up Close Juice” a couple years ago and, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. He uses a spray bottle and applies the attractant to a bush or the ground in front of his trail cameras set in video mode. The videos followed a definite pattern, the deer would be passing down a trail or travel route, get a sniff of Sam’s attractant and go immediately to investigate.
Watching these videos, it is very obvious the animals are confused and they use their noses to attempt to identify the smell. They actually look puzzled as they sniff the ground or bush, sometimes tilting their head from side to side as though they were attempting to figure out the alluring scent.
Sam knew deer in his area were attracted to his “Up Close Juice”, he has been using it to get deer in close for the camera and also for the meat pole during hunting season but he had no idea how it would work in different areas. Back in the summer he shipped me a spray bottle and a couple of bottles containing the ingredients. The instructions were to mix the two bottles with water and apply in areas I knew deer frequented.
I promptly found a bush situated along a trail that is normally used by both deer and wild hogs. I mounted a trail camera on a sapling nearby and set the camera in video mode. This was during the peak of our summer heat wave and for the first few days, nary a critter moved down the trail, not even a raccoon. I think most of the animals were spending their time close to the nearby water source, a spring fed creek that I’ve never seen go dry even during the hottest summers.
I did a bit of scouting and located a junction of two trails near the creek that were being heavily used by hogs and found some deer tracks in the mud near the creek bed. I mounted the camera at the junction of these trails. Surely, I would capture video of animals near the water. I sprayed heavily another bush about 15 feet out in front of the camera and impatiently waited a couple of days to check the results.
As I sorted through the video, anxiously looking for deer, I scrolled through videos of hogs and even a couple raccoons that had stopped and put on a show in front of my camera. They were sniffing the bush I had sprayed and along the ground where I left a line of spray leading back toward the camera. And then, I found what I was looking for, a big doe began to appear on the videos.
There is not a great number of deer in the area I hunt but always a resident number of doe and fawns that live here year around. When the rut kicks in in a few weeks, we begin to see bucks that spend much of the summer on a big ranch a mile or so down the creek. The camera caught her coming down the trail, probably to water, then her nose began to twitch and she approached the bush. Her tail began to twitch nervously, and her nose went to the ground. She was obviously baffled but also intrigued at what she was smelling! I’ll swear she even had an inquisitive look on her face as she cocked her head from side to side while sniffing the ground.
I don’t expect my buddy to tell me all the ingredients he used to make his Up Close Juice but he did say several of the base scents are commonly found in grocery and hardware stores. I have no idea what all the magic ingredients are and I really don’t care, I know where to get my next bottle of juice for the opening of deer season and you can bet I’ll be using it to put deer where I want them.
Getting traveling bucks to stop during the rut is key to making a good shot, especially when bow hunting but also during rifle season. I am planning to put the juice to use in a week or so during the opener of archery season. I will use it to position deer for a close bowshot by spraying the ground in openings around my stand that will provide a good shot. I pull a bow with my left arm so I’ll spray a spot a bit to off to the right of the stand. YES!
I’m already making plans to put the juice to good use. I’m hoping for a fat doe or maybe an early season buck for the freezer. It’s always my goal to harvest a deer early in bow season to provide camp meat for upcoming hunts.
I do believe we’ve made it through a heat wave here in Texas that I doubt many of us will ever forget. It’s almost our time of the year!
I think you might wish to connect with Mr. Old. He has a Facebook page called Craig’s Creek Deer and Wildlife Management. Sam posts current videos each week and shows wildlife going about their day-to-day lives throughout the year. I believe Sam is making plans to attend our annual Luke Clayton’s annual Outdoor Rendezvous at the Top Rail Cowboy Church in Greenville this spring on March 20. I’ll remind you as we get closer to the date.
Listen to Luke’s Radio show which becomes a podcast each week. The website is www.catfishradio.org or search “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends wherever you get your podcasts.
