A few years back I had (what I thaught) would be a brilliant idea too. I started scouting my area of woods in late May and continued to scout until about October. In this time periodIfound little (if any) deer tracks throughout the whole woods. Thinking of how well a deer scent trail hadworked to bringin a large buck the previous year, I got a seemingly brilliant idea....What I thaughtthat I would do, was lay down scent trails all over the woods.(when the time to lay down trails was right) i did not lay downalot of trails but a few.(not heavily) but moderately. Iworked them through heavily used travel routes andmeandered them into the woods around my stand. I set up mock scrapes and made sure I wore rubber gloves and boots....(I practiced proper tequniuqes being as scent free as I could .) Well, around the middle of October, signs of heavy deer activity became previlent in my woods. As the weeks aproached the season, I became more and more excited in the fact of seeing 2 very large deer tracks that kept showing up in the scrapes. Finally!!!!opening daycame and opening day went without seeing 1 deer. The same had happened the following 3 days. And beforeI knew it, the first week of hunting was over without seeing any deer. With this happening, I changed my tactics, I harvested 2 doesbetween a knownbedding area and a food source. And later in the season (when snow finally came) I tracked a decent 2 1/2 year old buck down and shot him.

I was happy that I harvested deer that year, but the question in my mind was, (WHY DIDN'T THE SCENTS WORK THISTIME?) they worked last year, and a couple other times.....

The point that im making is that I have had several deer come right in to me following a scent trail. When at other times, I wont see a deer on that trail all year. I believe this alldue to propertiming. The bucks were obviously using the scrapes that year...but they just weren't using them while I was sitting there...This is probally why they say (alot of scrapes are used at night) Also, deer don't go in estrous the same (exact) time every year (peak of the rut could be oct. 27th - nov. 9th in 1999 but in 2000, the peak might have occured2 weeks later)...In other words Icould have been a day off...or 3 days off of when the scent trails would have been the most effective (in my area)....but I know that I wasn't seeing deer and I had to change my tactic and go out and find them.

I still use scents because I know that they work and have seen them work, But I dont go out and spend hundreds of dollars anymoreon scents in the hopes that (the more I put down, the more activity I willsee)

I wouldnt really recomend plastering it on your clothes...but a drag linewould seem more practical to me. Also, don't get disapointed if it doesn't bring in deer......sometimes you might have to go out and find them....good luck and good hunting