The 4 Best Deer Baits — Tips & Reviews 2023

best deer bait, deer baiting tips, best deer bait recipe, best deer lures

Photo by USFWSmidwest / CC BY

Baiting deer is a common practice that is legal in a great many states. Some allow it during hunting season, others require ending any baiting prior to the opening of hunting season. Some even encourage it as a way to help thin deer overpopulation. Whatever the reason, baiting is a great way to bring deer back to the same spot or to make them easier to harvest during hunting season as they arrive to look for their favorite easy treat.

There are a lot of baits on the market, and we waded through some really crazy ones to find 4 of the best deer baits on the market today. Use them wisely and legally and you too can fill your freezer with Bambi and family.

Deer Corn



The old fashioned way is sometimes the best deer bait. Good, whole grain yellow corn is a classic bait for deer and other wildlife. Scattered around an area, deer quickly learn to come back for this nutritious, delicious feed. Not only do you attract a sizable deer population, but you feed them a healthy supplement that enhances your harvest.

An absolute no brainer for a first choice of deer bait, you’ll want to bundle it with a quality deer feeder for optimal effect. Here, we like the Moultrie Deer Feeder Pro. Not only is it programmable to release feed when you want it to, which helps accustom deer to coming by at certain times, but adaptable for solar panels. So you can see exactly what is coming by. Maybe that really big buck only hits the feeder early on in the morning? Set the feeding schedule to accommodate that, and bag him this fall!

New Moultrie Tripod Feeder

Deer Cane Liquid Attractant


This one is more subtle, but also is less likely to get eaten by squirrels, bears and the odd wandering jackalope. A delicious liquid full of important and tasty minerals, it brings deer to your chosen location, where they dig and paw at the ground to get at and lick the mineral rich soil. Eventually this becomes a potentially deadly habit for them.

Minerals are scarce in the wild, and giving your selected deer ready access to mineral rich soil with liquid Deer Cane ensures a healthy game animal to harvest, as well as a better developed one. Combine this with some traditional feed, and you can all but be assured of a great hunt in the fall. It’s one of the best deer baits for the money.

Evolved Habitat's Deer Cane Liquid

Acorn Rage


What is made with acorns, enhanced with soy protein, and flavored in such a way with additional minerals and nutrients to drive deer absolutely crazy? Why Acorn Rage, of course. This is a hardcore deer bait for hardcore results, and keeps bringing deer back for more.

If you could eat delicious, high grade steak every day, I bet you would, and this is the same thing for deer. Packed full of everything a deer needs to thrive, Acorn Rage helps you get bigger bucks, with bigger racks, and easier than ever. Use by itself or as part of a broader baiting or feeding regimen, you’ll be glad you laid in a few bags of this stuff.

WILDGAME INNOVATIONS & Evolved Harvest

Trophy Rock All-Natural Salt Lick


Here is one of the top deer baits. If you want something that won’t disappear overnight, this all-natural salt lick is for you. This big and heavy brick acts like a boulder. Once in place it won’t wash away or be stolen be enterprising animals. This salt lick is perfect for a long-term baiting situation. Besides, baiting this mineral block helps grow healthy deer and can be used in the off season to grow big, healthy, and beautiful deer primed and ready for deer season. The Trophy Rock All-Natural Salt Lick is an excellent purpose-built design that not only brings deer in but helps them grow and maintain their healthy demeanor.

Trophy Rock Mineral Sites

Tips on the Fine Art of Deer Baiting

First things first. Check your local and state laws regarding baiting deer. Did I mention check your local laws? Yeah, because that’s important. After ensuring that what you are planning to do is legal, then huge worlds of opportunity open up for you. There are many valid reasons to bait and feed deer, ranging from providing winter nutrition when food is hard to come by, to baiting them for a hunt, and just as many ways to do it.

The most obvious choice is to simply scatter feed or bait where deer gather and call it good, and this may work rather well in most cases. Other times you want to use a timed feeder to ensure that only a certain amount is released at certain times. Not only does that keep other animals from taking your deer bait, but it trains deer to come at certain times.

In other cases, you may opt for simply free feeding or using liquid mineral compounds to attract deer, or use several in tandem with each other. For simple feeding without the goal of hunting, it’s best to use only when food is scarcest and then wean the deer off your feed by gradually reducing or even eliminating the feed at once. For hunting, the choice is far more obvious, simply deploy the feed or bait near where you plan to hunt or setup your blind. Properly done, you’ll have the deer literally gathering around when you are ready to select and harvest one.

The best deer baits can be a valuable hunting tool, and in some cases a key part of scientific population control. Where deer are plentiful or overpopulated, there is much incentive to ensure as successful a hunt as possible, and in those places, you are often encouraged to bait deer. In other places, it’s simply a traditional and effective method.

You are most likely to find baiting discouraged in areas where the population is stable, but not so much as to require heavy hunting to keep in check. Another benefit of baiting comes from providing mineral nutrients which encourage the growth of large and healthy racks. Properly done, by the time hunting season rolls around, you’ve got a well fed buck which will become many healthy, delicious meals.

  • Owner of Reloaderaddict.com, Boyd Smith is a major handgun enthusiast, and although he owns Glocks, he prefers the revolving wheel type. His go-to guns are a Smith & Wesson 642 Performance Center for carry and a Ruger GP100 in the nightstand biometric safe (he has kids). He loads both revolvers with old-school 148-grain Federal Gold Medal .38 wadcutters. It’s OK if you think he’s a wimp. Email him.

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