I've posted this story a couple of times, so bear with me all who have read it already.

This is my first year of serious hunting with a bow or rifle in nearly 12 years. I like to try all the gadgets in just about everything I undertake, just to see for myself if they have merit or not. So this year I tried Hawg's Buck Fever line of scents. Here's the facts without a story:

Date: September 22, 2002
Time: 6:00ish PM
Temp: Mid 70's
Location: Near Plattsmouth, Nebraska (where the Platte River runs into the Missouri)

Product: Hawg's Buck fever Pre/Post Rut Scent and Gland scent

Method: Created a mock scrape along trail that ran under my tree stand using p/p rut scent on ground and gland scent on branches overhead. This is a heavily traveled trail and a funnel point where a hole has been cut in an old barbed wire fence. The hole was approx. 30 yards south of my stand site. 3 different trails converge on this hole on either side. I had my stand sitting between the middle one and the western most one, watching the middle and eastern trails to keep the sun out of my eyes as it set. All three trails run north south, more or less.

I also used Hawg's scent on a drag rag to lay a scent trail through the hole in the fence and approx. 30-40 yards further south, making it about 60 yards long and crossing as many trails as possible along the way.

Result: As fate would have it the buck (a young 1 1/2 year old 4x3) came in from the north on the western most trail, the one I had my back to. He sneezed/snorted/sniffed loudly behind me, as if catching a wiff of something, but laid down 30 yards off and over my right shoulder. He was currently less than 10 yards from the scent trail I laid. He laid there 10 minutes or so and got up and started heading towards the hole in the fence. He hit my scent trail and turned and came back towards my stand with his nose to the ground. 18-20 yards from my stand he came across my scrape that I made two hours earlier. This turned him broadside to me as he sniffed at both the ground and the overhanging branches. After about a minute or two of sniffing and such, he took two steps forward and began to urinate in the scrape. If this would not have been my first chance at getting a deer with a bow, I probably would have watched what all he would do, but the excitement got to me and I poked him.

Those are the facts. The <u>young</u> buck was headed one direction until he hit my trail and then turned and came back towards the stronger side of the scent trail, in the opposite direction. He sniffed and licked his nose a lot the whole time. He came to the mock scrape and did not hesitate to explore it and to start marking it himself.

-Brad
Eastern Nebraska Bowhunter

Edited by - by23856 on 10/26/2002 09:52:24