John’s Note: Hank Parker, former Bassmasters Classic Champion, and his two sons, Hank Jr. and Billy, produce the TV shows, “Hank Parker 3D” and “Hank Parker’s Outdoor Magazine” on the Pursuit Channel and “Hank Parker’s Flesh and Blood” on the Outdoor Channel. They use deer lure to get more bucks within bow range. When we asked Hank, “What are some of the trends you’ve seen in the deer lure business in the last few years?” we were surprised by what we learned. Deer lure can be an effective tool to allow bowhunters to put bucks in front of their bows. But if deer lure is used incorrectly, it rarely if ever works. Hank is the president of C’Mere Deer (www.cmeredeer.com). If you’ve wondered about how to use deer lure effectively, stay with us this week, and Hank will tell us how.

I’ve had some hunters say, “Baiting is a bad thing. If you take your children hunting over bait, they don’t learn how to hunt deer.”

I don’t concur with this. For deer lure to work as well as it can work, you’ve got to find the deer’s preferred food that they’re feeding on when you’re hunting them. For instance, you’ve got to locate a white oak tree that’s dropping acorns, a patch of honeysuckle that the deer are feeding on and/or briars the deer are feeding on in a cutover area. You want to use products like C’Mere Deer in the areas where the deer are feeding. The purpose of deer attractants is to try and help the hunter pinpoint the deer and get the deer to return to that site frequently, especially during daylight hours, so the hunter can take him. Many hunters believe they can pour out a pile of corn, spray it down with C’Mere Deer Liquid and have a buck that scores 200 inches on Pope and Young walk 50 miles to eat that corn with the C’Mere Deer sprayed on it. But that’s just not going to happen. Deer lure isn’t a substitute for effective scouting.

Another reason that deer lure doesn’t work or won’t work is if the hunter puts out corn and sprays it with C’Mere Deer or puts C’Mere Deer over it. If the hunter doesn’t stay as scent-free as possible, those deer will become alarmed and alerted, when they come in to take the attractant. If you have C’Mere Deer and/or any other bait piled-up on a deer trail, that 3-1/2-year-old buck will say, 

I see something in the middle of the trail that wasn’t there yesterday. I’m going to back out and take another route.” Deer have two distinct traits – they’re very curious and very suspicious. When bucks reach 3-1/2-years-old, they’re no longer curious but instead are suspicious of anything they see or smell that’s different in their environment. So, when you put out deer lure in the wrong place, you’re at a disadvantage to taking an older-age-class buck.

A friend and I attend the same church. One day he said to me, “Hank, I believe you’re an honest man, but I haven’t had any luck using that C’Mere Deer stuff. How are you killing all those big bucks with your bow using C’Mere Deer? I was all-fired-up about using that C’Mere Deer. I bought some, and it just didn’t work.” I told him I would go hunting with him and find out why the C’Mere Deer wasn’t working. I asked him, “Are you using a trail camera over the C’Mere Deer products?” He answered, “Yes, I did everything you said to do to get deer to come to the C’Mere Deer, but the stuff just didn’t work.”

The next week I went to my friend’s hunting property. We got out of the truck. The first thing I saw was three deer trails coming out of a cutover going into a pine thicket.

At the point where all three trails came together, right in the middle of the deer trail my friend had put a big pile of C’Mere Deer Powder. I turned to my friend and said, “You couldn’t have made a bigger mistake. You can’t put C’Mere Deer or any other type of attractant on the deer’s trail. You’re issuing the deer an ultimatum. You’re saying, ‘You either cross this trail where I have the deer lure piled up, or you have to go another way to get to where you’re going.’ Most deer will go another way to get to where they’re going. The day you get a buck to eat deer attractant that’s piled in the middle of his traveling trail will be a rare day indeed.”

My friend said, “What’re we going to do?” I told him, “We’re going to get some trash bags, a rake and a shovel to entirely clean up this C’Mere Deer product off the deer trail.” As we raked, cleaned up all the C’Mere Deer and put it in a trash bag, I told my friend, “This area isn’t ruined, but it’s out of order for awhile. Let’s look for another place to hunt.” So, we went to a new area where we found a lot of deer droppings. We knew this was where the deer were feeding. I raked back some leaves, put down a 3 Day Harvest of C’Mere Deer and covered it with the leaves. My friend said, “The deer won’t be able to see that 3 Day Harvest.” I told my friend, “You’re absolutely right. They have one of the keenest noses of any critter in the woods. Their noses will tell them where the 3 Day Harvest is. Deer lure works best if the deer never sees it.” We put up a trail camera and left the area. I got busy with other work and completely forgot about my friend and his problem with C’Mere Deer. The next time I saw him, he hugged my neck and said, “Hank, you’re not going to believe it. On my trail camera, I’ve got pictures of 14-different bucks feeding on that C’Mere Deer. I didn’t even know 14 bucks were on the entire property.”

If I hadn’t gone to my friend’s land and shown him the right way to use a deer lure, he’d never used C’Mere Deer or any other deer attractant. He would’ve told everyone why deer attractants didn’t work.

They’ve said that deer attractants don’t work. But because I went to my friend’s property and showed him how to use C’Mere Deer correctly, he’s the biggest promoter of C’Mere Deer in the world. He doesn’t go hunting without C’Mere Deer. He had to see for himself that C’Mere Deer when used properly would lure in deer.

To learn more about deer hunting, you can get John E. Phillips’ Kindle eBooks, “How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows,” “PhD Whitetails: How to Hunt and Take the Smartest Deer on Any Property,” “How to Take Monster Bucks,” and “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro,” or to prepare venison, get “Deer & Fixings.” Click here to get these books.
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About the Author

John Phillips, winner of the 2012 Homer Circle Fishing Award for outstanding fishing writer by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors.

Next: Hank Parker – the Case for Baiting and Using Deer Attractants