How to Use Mock Licking Branches to Pattern Big Bucks
Welcome back, guys. It’s a balmy 10 below zero up here today—good exercise, good cardio on the snowshoes. But I want to take a break and answer a question I’ve been getting a lot in my emails and comments lately.
We all know you can probably watch a thousand videos on licking branches, but you’re going to get a thousand and one right now. I use licking branches everywhere in big, heavy, forested areas. Why? Because I want to consolidate deer into one specific area so I can get a collective inventory of exactly what bucks are living in the woods.
Over the past year, I ran a 12-month test across four different setups to see exactly how deer react to licking branches. Half were placed in feeding areas, and half were placed near bedding areas. Here is the good, the bad, and the exact science of what happens when you build a mock licking branch.
The Trap of Feeding Area Licking Branches
For my first two scenarios, I went looking for lush vegetation. I drove down some old gravel logging roads, parked, and hiked back into some old grassy trails until I found an opening. The woody stem count was huge—blackberries, raspberries, and thick, lush brush.
I walked the perimeter, found the southeast corner where the prevailing northwest winds blow, and found two faint trails crisscrossing before they entered the opening. I set up a licking branch right there and threw a trail camera on it.
The Summer Boom
The results in the spring and summer were unbelievable. Deer hammered that licking branch. Biologically, this makes perfect sense. Does desperately need that lush, high-protein vegetation to produce milk during lactation for their fawns. Bucks love it because that green growth is packed with Vitamin K and essential nutrients they need to grow velvet antlers. I had a massive variety of bucks checking that branch daily.
The Fall Disappearance
But here is the catch with feeding areas: Deer have to eat, and food sources change.
By October, the velvet was shed. A mile away, loggers fired up their tractors and started cutting fresh timber. Every single deer I had on camera moved a mile down the road to feed on the fresh tree tops left by the loggers. In my second feeding area setup, a lack of an acorn crop caused the exact same thing. The food dried up, and the deer completely dissipated across thousands of acres.
The Lesson: Mock licking branches in feeding areas are phenomenal for taking a summer buck inventory, but they can run completely dry in a heartbeat once the fall hunting season actually arrives.
The Year-Round Goldmine: Bedding Area Licking Branches
For scenarios three and four, I completely shifted my strategy. Instead of focusing on food, I looked for security.
In January, I followed a trail that dropped off into a swampy bedding area near a small lake. I noticed some historical rubs. Instead of going deep into the swamp and bumping them out of their beds, I put a licking branch up on the top edge, right where they transition out of the swamp to head to the big woods to feed.
In another scenario, I went right into a known doe bedding area in early March, hung a licking branch, and immediately got out.
Why Bedding Areas Win
When you place a licking branch on the edge of a bedding area, the deer stay there all year. Through the summer, into the fall, and right through the rut, they continually checked it.
Even when food sources change, deer will often stick to their preferred, secure bedding areas. By the time late October rolled around, the bucks knew the does were bedding there. The licking branches became highly active social hubs. Some of them were hit so hard they turned into massive, natural breeding scrapes underneath.
A quick warning: Don't just stick a licking branch on a random trail in the middle of the woods. If it’s just a travel corridor with nothing holding them there, they will ignore it. Use common sense—put it where deer are naturally staging or bedding.
How to Build a DIY Mock Licking Branch
You can go to the store and buy those expensive rope kits with the synthetic scents if you want, but you really don't need to. It isn't rocket science. I like keeping everything natural so there are no foreign odors to spook a mature buck.
Here is my exact setup:
- The Stick: Find a natural, dark-colored branch about 1 inch thick.
- The Hang: Use a piece of dark paracord to hang the stick from an overhanging tree limb. Hang it right about chest-high.
- The Placement: Don't tuck it under heavy brush. Hang it right out in the open. Deer are incredibly curious animals. Bucks and fawns alike will walk right out into the open to smell who has been in their territory.
- The Jump-Start: To get it started, I pour a little diluted ammonia or standard doe urine down the stick. Just enough to catch their attention. Once the first buck rubs his preorbital and forehead glands on it, the deer take over and maintain it themselves.
The Missing Piece: Your Trail Camera Setup
The entire point of creating a licking branch is to capture a collective inventory of your local deer herd. A licking branch is completely useless if you don't know what is hitting it.
Whenever I hike back to set these up, I always carry a trail camera in my backpack. Because these setups are often deep in the timber—and you want to leave them alone for months at a time—you need a camera you can trust to "soak" in the woods. Setting up a highly reliable, long-lasting camera like a GardePro ensures you capture every buck that checks that branch, day or night, without having to constantly intrude on their bedding area to swap batteries.
Get out there, find a Bucky-looking area, hang a branch, and see what happens. It's a fun sport, and checking those trail camera pictures is one of the best parts of the process. Take care, and I'll see you in the woods.
