ORIGINAL: WKP Todd

When someone shows me proof that rubber boots leave less of a scent trail than say a leather boot - I will believe it.

I wore those uncomfortable and non-breathing boots (rubber) for many years. Getting constantly ground scented by deer - I came to a conclusion - if they can still detect me - I might as well be comfortable - and protect my ancles!

About5 years ago I started wearing leather boots again - which are FAR more comfortable, they breath to allow me to keep my feet more comfortable and warmer, and are far easier to take off and put on.

Since changing, I've noticed very little differance if any in getting ground scent checked by deer. If anything, and this is the best part, I think I used to get worse results when wearing rubber boots and spraying them with scent elimination (supposidly) spray!

A master whitetail hunter told me many years ago - "you ever smell a rubber boot".Yeah, it sticks! Now smell a typical leather boot after the break-in period! I actually just motivated myself to smell my Wolverine boots (leather) - compared to a rubber boot. The difference is UNBELIEVEABLE! The leather boot has a very subtle leather smell, the rubber is almost gaggingstrong after using them for YEARS! It pretty much made me realize that rubber does nothing in preventing human scent from hitting the ground. I think about 95% of the scent DOES NOT come from contact, but instead is left behind from our "stink" that is constantly cascading off our bodies as we walk.

Think about this. Consider how far you walk in a pair of boots to get to certain stands. Do you not think that the ground, mud, dirt, rocks, water, brush - would actually "scrub" your boots as you walk? It does. When walking through wet clay here in Iowa - I sometimes have completely covered boots - packed full of mud by the time i reach my stand. Even though the entire contact area of my boots have been "clogged" - they will still know you walked through. You will NEVER eliminate this from happening - NO MATTER WHAT! Bloodhounds have proven this - yet hunters think these "promotions" are fact. It is not.

Of course, this is only my opinion based on my experiences in the last 19 years of bowhunting. My rule of thumb is to do whatever I can possibly do to avoid walking in an area I expect a deer to come through. If I am forced to, I walk where I can shoot because any mature deer will slam on the breaks at the slightest amount of human scent. Depending on the particular animal, the time of year, and the amount of pressure in an area, a deer will react differently every-time. Often times here in Iowa, because I hunt some very un-molested properties, mature does will act as curious toward human scent as scared. I've also had 4-1/2 and 5-1/2 year old bucks hit my scent, catch it, and because of the rut - they just keep looking for does. We have countless encounters with mature bucks caught on-camera where they clearly have caught our direct wind-line, and after a short pause, continue on their "merry" way in-pursuit of hot does. We have two examples of this with two different 4-1/2 year old bucks on one hunt this season alone, both on the same night. A 145" ten and a 150" non-typical. They had us busted at 30 yards, both nailed us in the exact same spot.One actually proceeded to make a scrape to almost displaya dominance overus - the other just stopped, looked in our direction, and keptwalking toward the doe bedding area he was heading to in the first place!