ORIGINAL: mkiesslinggop
To be honest, I have yet to havea hard time taking mature does. I usually take 1 during the first couple of weekends to fill the freezer, and then hunt antlers from there on out.
Couple things I noticed from your post-if you use a 4-wheeler, how far from you stand are you parking it. Do you use scent control clothing? When you say you are anal about scent control, really think about that statement. If at any point the outside of your cammo touches something other than the stand, your bow, or your body, you aren't. I don't say this to preach, but last year I had the most successful year I've ever had and I attribute a great deal of it to good scent control practices. I can count on one hand the number of sits in a stand that I didn't have an opportunity to take a doe or smaller buck with my bow.
Here's my prescription, but I'm sure others have similar methods. First, rubber boots, carbon lined jacket, pants, gloves, hood. Start by showering with scent free soap/shampoo and using a towel washed in scent away detergent, along with scent free deoderant. I then put on a sweatshirt and sweat pants and socksthat have been washed in scent away detergent, and a pair of flip flops. drive to my hunting location. Strip down and put on underwear, socks, t shirt, and usually my hunting pants, all washed in scent away detergent. Spray down with real earth scent cover spray. hike in. i don't know about everyone else, but I sweat so i generally don't put on jacket, gloves, hood until I am up in the tree. think about it like putting a lid on a jar when you lock up your carbon cammo. I touch as little as possible. once up in the tree, i spray the crap out of myself, first with white lightning and next earth scented spray. also, once I'm a few feet off of the ground, i like to spray some racoon urine around the base of the tree, deer don't mind it and it smells so bad, thatit covers about anything that you might miss.
Also,don't know if anyone else uses this method or has tried this, but whenI have deer stop, or stall before entering theunder 25 yard ring around my tree, I will close my eyes untilI hear them start moving again. 1. I believe deer know to a certain extent when the are being watched, and sense the eyes on them. Ever notice this happensin the 40 to 50 yard range, but not at 10 yards because they look in front of them and around them, but not up. 2. I also believe it helps with breathing because part of the buck fever trigger is the sight of the buck. Close your eyes for afew seconds and get your breathing under control. then open them when you hear him/her start to move toward you again.
Good replys folks!
To answer your question, no I am not that anal, I should have said I take moderate precautions, lol. As far as the 4 wheeler thing I park it right off the main camp road and walk back into my spot. Its about a 15 min walk back there but I never had problems with seeing deer last year rifle hunting so I didnt worry about that too much. Deer hear 4 wheelers every day and dont pay them much mind. While I was watching the spike the other day I could hear somebody talking a long ways away and then start using a chain saw, guess they were logging a patch of woods somewhere, anyway the spike never even flinched, kinda surprised me, then a few mins later him and the 2 other deer even started heading there direction. I dont wear scent control(carbon) clothes b/c I had read a few post on here about how some people thought it was mostly a gimmick and as long as you use good camo, and are still you will be fine with out it. Personally I like to stack up the odds in my favor if I can, but havnt had the oportunity to purchase any,,, maybe santa will bring me some. For boots I need to get some good rubber hunting boots bad, right nowI am using snake proof boots. I cant shower, this camp is tucked away back in the woods about 30 minute drive away from any kind of town.It was built backin the 50's and is a very rustic camp, the doors dont even have locks!No electricity, we do have running water and a makeshift shower but somebody has to bring in a water pump/generator and we have a few 500 gallon tanks that fill up with rain water that we use for a water source. But I was the only one there this weekend so no shower/power for me(kinda spooky) I will admit I slept with the latern burning to help keep the rats at bay. No wonder they smelled me huh! I wish I could take a shower right before with all scent free stuff and then throw on fresh clothes everytime 5 minutes before and top off with scent blocker clothes but I dont have that luxury when I am camping for a few days at a time. I did however have2 sets of clothes washed in hunters soap and dryed with a earth scent softener, then packed in scent lock bags that I opened up and put on as I walkedout the door and used hunting deoderant then sprayed myself and hat, gloves, maskbow, boots with scent blocker. I just never had trouble with doestill the other day, thats why I wondered maybe the hogs had them spooked. The spike and the fawns would walk all around me, just those darn old momma does woldnt come close enough for a shot. I am going to get some cover scent and place them in some scent bombs and hang some from my stand just in case next time. I will definatly try the closing the eyes thing,I never thought I would have to do all this for a doe!