6 Things to Do This Summer That Bring Deer Closer To Your Tree Stand

Summer is a busy time of year. From installing food plots to creating mineral stations, our time is valuable as deer hunters and managers. It’s hard enough to find the time to hang our tree stands or install food plots, surely finding time to start just one of these 6 summer projects is unrealistic? It is unless you realize that any or all of these projects will count towards what’s really important…they are ways to bring deer closer to your tree stand!

If you really think about everything that a deer hunter or manager might do during the summer, you realize a good portion of it most likely does not directly affect the hunting. In fact the food plots, mineral sites, and off season tasks are more a way to get out in the outdoors than actually things that will benefit hunting. These 6 summer projects are not those tasks, and unlike the other chores they do directly affect your hunting, in fact they steer and bring deer closer to your tree stand! Read this article on the 6 summer projects and figure out which one, if not all can apply to your deer hunting property and tree stand location.

Create a Watering Hole

Creating A Watering Hole For Deer

(Video) Spring is giving way into summer! Soon the rain will let up and the dry warm weather will hit, making water a great resource to have in the right location. Join Buck Advisors Weston Schrank as he explains how to create a watering hole for deer on your property.

When the word summer is brought up two things pop into your mind, the sun and the heat. Why? June is just the start of the long hot summer months, the heat will be relentless until fall arrives. This creates a perfect scenario for a watering hole for deer.  Why put a watering hole on your property? Well the obvious reason is to supply water, especially when a property is lacking any water sources. But in the case of a way to bring deer closer to your tree stand, a watering hole, even in the presents of water source on your property, can be effective!

Installing a watering hole will create a big attraction for your tree stand location. If not a direct draw during the early season in September and October, than at least a great stopping point and potential shooting lane and shot opportunity. The great thing about a watering hole, besides being a way to bring deer closer to your tree stand, is it is extremely easy to install. With minimal digging, a $20-$50 dollar tank, and a little planning a watering hole can be installed and filled up to start attracting deer this summer.

Before putting out anything for deer that can be consumed, check your states regulation and baiting policies.

Summer Deer Mineral Site

Deer Mineral Station Placement and Strategy

(Video) – Putting out minerals for deer is critical to start in May! Join Weston Schrank as he explains exactly how many mineral stations for deer you need and where to place them on your deer hunting property.

Summer deer management would not be complete if it was not without mineral stations and sites. Fortunately these mineral stations, which need to be removed before the dee season to not be considered baiting, can bring deer closer to your tree stand location even when they are gone. How?! By creating a social area and travel route. Putting out a mineral or salt attraction is not only a great place to hang your trail cameras, but a way to attract deer to your tree stand location before the hunting season. Deer determine their movement by 3 criteria, ease, security, and social influence. The path or area they choose to travel through depends on whether or not it is safe, it is easy to move through, and other deer move through it. By putting a summer mineral station out around your tree stand and keeping pressure off the site, you are creating a hotspot for deer activity. While the minerals might be removed, the memory, social interaction, and influence of the mineral station will last, ultimately becoming a great way to bring deer closer to your tree stand.

Before putting out anything for deer that can be consumed, check your states regulation and baiting policies.

Creating A Micro Food Plot

What and How To Plant for Small Food Plot Success

(Video) – Small food plots (under an acre) are by far the most common food plot planted for wildlife. So what should you plant in small food plots to succeed? Here is our number one choice of species, the reasons why, and some other small food plot tips.

A lot of deer hunters and managers will be talking food plots this spring, summer and early fall. While most will worry about planting that 2-5 acre food plot or bigger, the small time food plotter will be planting a much more important and vital plot. This food plot is a micro plot and it acts as a kill plot if done correctly! These kill plots or micro plots are less than 1 acre, less than ½ acre even, and are usually an unbelievably effective ¼ or 1/8 of an acre big! They key is that small size. It creates a pit stop, staging area, and afternoon or morning snack that can turn into a prominent shot opportunity. The key with these plots are prepping the plot and planting the right species. White clover, small grains, and brassicas are usually the only crops that can last in a small food plot. They also give attraction in the early and late season.

Rake a Trail to your Tree Stand

One way bring deer closer to your tree stand is by steering them with a raked trail. Why would that work? Well deer are just like you when you hunt, they want to stay quiet, and take the path of least resistance. The only time you really hear a deer in the woods is the rut or through an oak flat searching for acorns, for the most part deer walk quietly and on deer runs. By taking a hard rake, or leaf blower you can essentially create an artificial deer run. While this is usually a tactic in creating silent tree stand access routes, it can work to steer deer by your tree stand, as long as it is in the general area they were already traveling towards.

We usually see it when we hunt, deer filtering out into a food plot or AG field from a logging road or four wheeler trail. The same principle here. If an easy route, such as a freshly raked trail, is available to travel on, it obviously is the easiest route to travel and will result in deer usage.

The Fence

How To Grow A Small Soybean Food Plot – Electric Fence

(Video) – Soybean food plots are the deer managers and hunters best friend no doubt about it. However, the one thing that limits soybeans is the size of the food plot. Make and Install your very own DIY dual perimeter electric fence to successfully grow a small soybean food plot.

An electric deer fence is a great and effective way to bring deer closer to your tree stand. This is especially true when talking about deer hunts involving youth hunters and bow hunters. It is common knowledge that soybeans are one of the greatest food plot species and this is where an electric food plot fence shines.

By fencing off one section of a soybean field, you can hold the beans off from being demolished by deer, and by the time fall rolls around put an extremely productive yield at the deer’s level. Soybean pods in the late season, November –January are one of the very best places to be in a stand. If you’re a bean plotter, look into a fence this summer as a productive way to bring deer closer to your tree stand.

Hinge Cutting a Funnel

Another popular summer project among deer hunters and habitat managers, is hinge cutting for deer. Usually this takes the form of creating bedding areas and thick sanctuaries for deer, but changing up the style of the cut can result in steering deer to your tree stand.

It’s called screening, or in this case funneling deer with hinge cutting. By hinge cutting small diameter non mast bearing trees like maples, poplars, hackberries, and elms you can make a natural and impenetrable fence that if done strategically can create a massive funnel. Just be sure to think out every cut, the funnel, and take all the necessary safety precautions.

Create a Mock Scrape

Later this summer into early fall, when bachelor groups begin to break up, communication will begin. In this case the communication is through mock scrapes as a social bulletin board for deer, creating an opportune moment to bring deer closer to your tree stand.

By finding or placing a licking branch, and pawing up a patch of dirt with a stick or your boot, you can create a stopping point or wall on a run that could potentially draw a buck into a shooting lane. Whether they are scent checking for does and happen to stop at the scrape or are specifically checking scrapes and stop, you will have an opportunity within range if place correctly.

This summer, while you are hanging your tree stands in order to prepare for the upcoming deer season, think about which project makes sense in that area. These 6 projects can bring deer closer to your tree stand, only if you can find the time this summer to complete one!