The question was:

Sooo... if deercan't see what's not there,will they also not smell what's downwind?


I hope I didn't confuse anyone including myself with that question because reading it back to myself just now it started to sound like a double negativedue to thewording. What I was asking really was kind of a rhetorical question because obvioiuslyno living creature cansmell what's downwind.

Mike, you bring an interesting element into the equation which actually can change the answer to yes, it is possible for deer to smell you though you are downwind. Imagine a situation in the afternoon when the thermals are falling and you happen to be in part of the stream of a swirl pattern. Though you never actually feel the wind change directions, the thermals may be taking your scent down to the ground then injecting it intothe swirl stream which takes it upwind where the deer can smell you. It might not be a strong potent smell to the deer but they will know that something is in the area. Hope that wasn't too hard to follow.

I'm not totally anal about scent control but I do practice it. I do the Atsko/plastic bag deal. I do have woods only footwear. I try to walk slowly to my stand so I don't look like I just ran a marathon by the time I get there. I don't however, spray all my equipment and stand down each time I go to the woods. That would probably cost me another hundred bucks a month on top of my monthly $400.00 hunting fuel bill.

I do understand that minimizing scent lessens the chances of getting busted because yes, deer can pop out from anywhere, not just upwind. I think that in perfect scenarios where you have your back up against say like a river and the wind is blowing in your face then there's probably very little chance you'll get winded. In the middle of the woods though, anything can happen including the lucky net I fell on jumping into the woods stinky after a long days work.