ORIGINAL: Dirt2
Just because I feel like arguing, I don't think a whitetail's sense of smell is its number one defense. I think it's vision is numero uno.
We can neutralize their sense of smell by the very simple measure (although granted this doesn't sell product for the hunting gear manufacturers) of staying downwind of the deer. Doing so converts the deer's sense of smell into a zero. Their hearing is great, granted, but truthfully all a sound typically does is raise their alert level - put them to sniffing and looking. Only after their nose or eyes confirm what their ears tell them do they run, usually.
Their eyesight is the rub. They are absolutely keyed in to movement, and we can't shoot without movement, right?
Again, I'm just being argumentative, but all this is triply true when you do a lot of still hunting. In still hunting, it's their eyesight that busts me the vast majority of the time.
I definitely have to agree to disagree with you on that one...
It all depends on what type of hunting your doing, and if your still hunting then yes, you do have a much greater chance of being seen before they smell you...your down on their level...however, I hunt from a stand, and I have literally not been spotted out of my stand for at least 3 yrs....but have I been busted through their nose, definitely......Chuck Adams use to hunt with check-ed flanel shirts on, deer are color blind for Pete's sake, and they never seen him...all you have to do is break up your outline. He didn't start hunting with camo until he got sponsor's...money talks, and the rest walks....however, there's tons and tons of products out there trying to reduce scent....that's how deer communicate with each other through rubs, scapes, licking branches, etc....there noses pick all that up....So to say that a deer's eye sight is a bigger threat to a hunter than his nose, I don't buy it.....