Archery hunters are always looking for an edge. Whether it is the latest camo or the newest grunt call or a faster bow we are all suckers for the next big thing in gear. We are looking for something that is going to put a big buck in the exact spot, at the exact time, standing in the exact position so we can gather ourselves to make a good shot. We also spend an obscene amount of money trying to make those things happen, unfortunately they do not pan out very often. When a good friend introduced me to grapevine licking branches as a low tech and no cost way to attract deer to a specific spot I jumped immediately.
I want to first back up to a year ago. I set a camera up on an active scrape and got dozens of pictures of both bucks and does using the scrape and the branch above it. Nothing out of the ordinary there I thought. It was when I left the camera up all year that I found the deer continuing to use the branch almost every day. If not every day, then at least several times a week. This is when I discovered that deer use some of these licking branches year-round. When my friend told me you could use a grapevine to replicate this behavior I knew I wanted to give it a try.
My friend sent me some YouTube videos and I did a search and found more. What I learned was that deer will use these licking branches as a sort of Facebook page. It is a social site for deer to go investigate to see who was using it and who may be in the neighborhood. It becomes a sort of addiction for them and once it starts to gather scent, they cannot leave it alone. I put two up and within a couple of weeks I had deer using one of them. The other one has not gotten any attention yet, but I am not giving up on it yet. The real kicker is that it can be a very easy no frills way to get that buck to stop in the right spot at the right time for you to get your shot.
Good luck!
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