I've gotten a number of requests to post my findings thus far, so I'm going to put up a preliminary assessment. In full disclosure, when I was sent the free sample, I was told that it could take as long as 6 weeks for the deer to find the mineral.

So far, the deer at my place seem to be on the "take up to 6 weeks to find it" path. I placed the stuff 4 weeks prior to this past Sunday (yesterday), and so far, the deer have not really paid much attention to it. I got a huge amount of rain 2 days after I placed it the first time, so I thought it might have packed the dirt in or something, but I re-dug and re-mixed the spot 2 weeks ago and still haven't noticed any real activity from the deer. I have pictures of them standing next to it, so I know they're easily within range of the scent. The stuff smells really good - sort of like berries.

I also have quite a few hogs that frequent my property, but they're very sporadic. They come about once a week or so, but will also take stretches where they don't show up on my camera for a couple of months. Judging from my other pictures, the local herd just starting hitting my property again about a week ago. Saturday night, the hogs found the Max Draw Earthquake. The pics:

First pic of animals on the site:

Then some more:

The bigger pigs also hit it:

They stayed at the site pretty consistently for a couple of hours (note time stamp):


I don't know why the deer haven't hit it yet - maybe they just haven't found it. But once the pigs did, they hit it hard. They rooted the dirt up and turned it over considerably.

I'm hoping the deer will do the same over the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I just swap out my camera cards when I go, so I didn't check the pictures until I got home. If I had known I was aiming high, I would have adjusted, but I'll do that the next time I'm out there.

At this point the results are inconclusive, at least in my opinion. I'll post again in another couple of weeks and will continue to do so until the site stops getting activity.

Let me know if you have any questions.

mhhmm "the deer attractant that works" doesnt seem to be working too well. but i guess there is still time. at least u know somethin likes it tho

I think it's too early to rule one way or another. I would agree that so far the results have been disappointing.

But the hogs definitely went crazy when they found it. I'll take pictures of the crater next time I'm out there.

I have been waiting for your result's. Thanks for sharing, please post pic's after your next trip. I don't know why it would take 6 week's to work. It seems to me that if there are deer in the area standing next to it they would eat it if it looked/smelled/tasted like something they wanted. Maybe they get together and tell each other to make sure and wait at least 5 week's before you taste it.

They aren't hitting the minerals well at our place either. We are using some we get great results with in Missouri but nothing here so far.

the results showed so far somewhat reminds me of that beast feast additive. It was instant hog draw and the deer didn't know what to think of it, so they jsut didn't eat it.

Regardless if something smells good, if it is a completely new smell to the deer wouldn't it be normal for them to shy away from it for a while at least?

Yes, that's why I believe it's too early to form a conclusion on the product.

But I've been getting a lot of requests for the results, so I felt obligated to at least post what I've seen so far.

I will continue to update everyone as the site progresses.

Thanks for the update.

I hate to keep sounding like a party pooper, but I don't think there is such a thing as a "magical deer attractant". I know there are a lot of people that claim there is so that they can separate you from your money.

In my early years of deer hunting, I fell for all the, what I call gimmicks and I couldn't tell one ounce of difference in the amount of deer I was seeing.

As for as hogs, a little corn soaked in soured milk seems to work just as good as anything else and is a lot cheaper.

Anyway, thanks again for the test results.

Another possibility.. The deer may not mess with it if the hogs have been in it. You might want to fence the hogs out on a new site just to see if that makes a difference.

We take some of our hog panels off in early spring and allow the hogs to get to the corn. Once that happens, the deer won't come around near as much. When we put the panels back up in June, the hogs become less frequent and it takes awhile for the deer to start coming back.

This is a generalization. We have observed this, but nothing is 100%. I do believe that the smell being something new could be another reason that it would take them awhile to get used to it. The combination of these and other issues, accompanied by sufficient natural food, may result in the product being ineffective in this setting. Different place, different time and it may work well. None of these attractants are fool proof...but some of them do make the producer a lot of money. :-)

I have asked my neighbor to start shooting the hogs. I only make it out there every couple of weeks, and the hogs are very hit or miss. Almost never there when I am.

For some reason, he likes having them out there. I don't think he's shot a single one. Kind of frustrating.

Deer are not looking for food. We have a bumper crop of acorns and we had so much rain the deer are just not on the move for food. Let the first freeze hit and see if it works or not.

Deer are like a lot of people on welfare, they are not going to wander off too far looking for work if the are being fed with our taxes.

Finally some answers.... I agree with bjank....there's too much food around right now for the deer to be patterned at all! Give it some time and I bet they'll tear it up too. But who knows... maxdraw could be some peta hippy chick hoping to scare off every deer within a mile!

I know it may be too early for best results but I put up a feeder with corn, and even though there is plenty of other green stuff around to eat the deer are still slamming my feeder. So to me maximum draw is just another gimmick. I will stay tuned for further test though. Thanks Cameron for your honest results.

This isn't "food", so to speak. It's a mineral lick, and from what the biologist in my area has told us, the deer should need it regardless of the acorns, persimmons, pears, plums, grapes, wheat, oats, etc. that I have on and around my property.

I think they just haven't figured out what it is yet. The hogs obviously have.

6 weeks to work ?
buwahahahaha
this stuff works in a day

It took them half a day to find the corn on my property.

But that said, this isn't an "apples to apples" comparison with corn. This stuff is zero calories, i.e. it's not a food. It's a mineral lick that aids in antler development and overall health.

Assuming they decide to consume it at some point, obviously. Before I posted this, I informed the maker of the results thus far, and he seemed confident that once the stuff thins out a little and the deer get used to it, they'll be all over it. His suggestion (and I'm not trying to defend the results) was that it might be too concentrated and the hogs mixing it up and/or rain will get it to the right mix for the deer.

We'll all know soon enough, I guess.

That wouldn't be a big ole pile of Indian corn would it?

We have plenty of green "stuff", weeds, forbes, etc. around the ranch but the deer are still utilizing the protein pellets pretty good. This is our 5th year of feeding the pellets and the deer now know this is one source of food. Just like us they like a some variety in what they eat from day to day.

As far as minerals go, the biologist I work with told me you have to do a soil test first to find what minerals your ranch is deficient in. Once you do this the deer will readily consume minerals they need but are lacking. If you put out minerals that they are getting plenty of through their normal diet they will not touch the stuff. This may explain why a particular product has worked in one place but doesn't work in another.

I'm glad I'm helping to rid the pigs of their particular deficiencies. Always want to know that they are at their healthiest whilst tearing my property to shreds.

Ain't that the truth