A deer's best attribute to his survival over many thousands of years has been his nose. With this being said, a whitetail'ssense of smellis the most imortant ofall hissenses in his quest to stay alive.

Awhitetail can smell odor down to 6ths parts of a million. which basically means he can smell you from about 400 yards away. In other words his sense of smell is about 10 times better than your average dog.

Awhitetail is a creature of survival. WhenI go into the woods I try to stay as scent free as possible. I also play the wind. Most whitetails have smelled humans before. And as a matter of fact most are used to the smell. However, this doesn't mean that if you go into their homes ( the woods) that they wont buck on you once they catch your scent.

Just because you have seen deer when youweren'thuntingand wearing any cover scent, doesn't mean that it should exclude you from trying to stay scent free. There are many factors that could attribute to you seeing these deer at certain times.

For example, I have hunted in woods no farther than 600 yds. awayfrom large neighborhoods (were the deer are used to human scent)and I have had many deer buck out on me as soon as they caught my scent. Keep in mind that most of these deer go into these neighborhoods to eat the yummy landscape plants and the deerare in these people's backyards all the time. I rememberone time thatI was invited over to a freind's house ( in this particular neighborhood ) We were having a cook out when all of the sudden 2 does popped out of the bushes and started grazing in my freind's back yard. The 2 doe were well aware that we were there, but they just kept on eating. Why?

With this being said, THE DEER AKNOWLEDGED THAT WE WERE THERE, they just felt no harm (atleast not a great sense of danger) A deer will flee faster than anything you have seenif it feels even the slightest doubt that it is unsafe.
Now I will bet that ifI seen those same deer about 2 months later out in the woods, Ill bet they wouldn't stand around to aknowledge that I was in the woods. Thats because it isn't my freind's backyard anymore, its THEIR back yard. Its a whole different ballgame when you stumble into a buck's bedroom and try to harvest him when he knows you are trying to get him.

Studies have shown that hunters walk by whitetails all the time and don't even know that they are there. Thats because they dont expect them to be there!!!!
Cornell did a study with 12 people (portaying hunters) on privately owned land of 450"fenced in" acres. The land consisted of feilds woods and hedgerows. Some of the feilds had been cut some where allowed to grow wild. 28 whitetails were released on the property and allowed to acclimate for about 2 weeks. All 28 of the whitetails were radio collared so their positions would be known. The 12 "hunters" were told to meander around the property and report how many whitetail sightings they encountered. the " hunters" broke up into groups of 2 and partnered up. Each hunter was also radio transmitted, so their position could be tracked as well. The hunters were allowed to walk around for 8 hours, Stopping and going along the way. At the end of the day, only one group reported a sighting and that was because they bumpedthe deerout when they were walking through the uncut feild. The other groups said that they seen nothing. The group iconducting the study were astonished to find thatALL the "hunter" groups had walked by atleast (1) whitetail an average of 5 times throughout that day and one group had walked by 8 whitetails. Radio collars showed that most of the whitetails didn't even move when the hunters walked by them and actually waited untill the hunters were well out of range before they moved off. But the most astonishing part was that there was a few whitetails that actually walked almost in parralel to the hunters as they were walking by. It was almost like the deer were keeping an eye on the hunters so they would not sneek up on them. The study also showed that when most of the hunters walked by the whitetails " THEY WERE ALL WITHIN 15 YARDS AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!!!!" and in one " hunting group " the 2 hunters were only about 7 feet away from a deer and didnt see it.

Deer are out in the big woods, but most hunters are suprised to find that that big buck they are tracking wanders into the smallest hedgerow in the whole woods or they end upfollowing his tracks to a bedding areathat is right behind someone's house.

So why is it that we see deer in people's back yards and some of the largest bucks inthe smallestpatches of woods. Its The same reasonwhy the deer in those people's yards will be almost oblivious to human activity but whenyou seethem in "THEIR WOODS" they will head for the hills and put as many acres between you and themas soon as they catch your scent. The big buck feels safe "all day long"in the hedgerow next to where you park your truck because he sees you walk by every day and dont even consider the fact that he could be right there.

" I know about Big Bucks in small hedgerows....Right next to were people park there trucks" BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO ME. When it happened, it reminded me of an old articleI read from the North American Hunter magazine"Ironically called" ......FINDING EM' WERE THEY AINT.
I just have to laugh whenI think back to that particular day.

Your best bet is to try to stay as scent free as possible " without breaking your bank" And always expect the unexpected. Look in places you think you will never find deer........And dont be suprised at what you might find.
Good luck





The best bet is to be asscent free as possible.