lure
I know everyone is going to say we do it all wrong. Many years ago (I killed my 1st Archery Deer in 1958) b/4 many commercial drips, drag rags ect. my brother & I started with this. No gloves, no rubber boots ect.
We take an old SOCK, wash it in no soap & then hang to dry outside then place in a baggie. When we go out we ALWAYs lay scent trails. We get to where we want to start the trail, slip the sock over the end of our boot leaving 1/2 of the sock flapping. We soak the flapping end with our lure (always a sex scent). We walk along & freshen the sock every few yds with a squirt or two. We WALK the way we WANT the DEER to WALK & then place the rag just below waist high (freshen it) where we WANT TO SHOOT. I want that Deers head looking DOWN.
I have video of Bucks & Does following exactly where we have walked. Unfortunatly (I guess) some ends up on your boot & I have YOUNG BUCKs & DOES SMELLING where I went up my ladder to my stand after they've gotten bored wondering about the rag hangin in the tree IF I don't shoot them. LAST YEAR I had a Button Buck licking my tree steps-I had a Forky go exactly where I walked-to my rag & then 10 yds past my stand on to another small Buck 15 yds away & they fought (all on video from the time he hit my scent trail). About 1997-98 I was walking out of the woods at dark & walked within 10 yds of a young Doe-she started Displaying for me-I set everything down & video taped her trying to TEMP ME to follow her. I've had Bucks PASS the end of my scent trail & come back-2 have died within feet of my stand. We have both had Bucks RUB Their Antlers on the tree we are in after following scent we put out. I let one Doe go that was licking my steps & she followed the scent my brother had left after helping me with the video equipt.-he killed her right under his tree.
We have LOTs of proof it works for us. It's not the "keep all human scent off" scenarion-but it definatly works for us & pretty cheap. DON't get me wrong-WE have tried MANY products that come on the market over the years (53 of Bowhunting for me & about 45 for Brother) & yes, they work but so far, not any better than our old worn out sock.
We have NEVER spooked a Deer (Buck or Doe) with a sex scent OR RATTLING HORNs. We have had them spook from coverups & Skunk & Fox scents.
What do we like BEST.
(estrus) Buck Stop, Tinks69 & Pete Richards in that order. Yes, we try others but these have ALWAYs worked for us. I have even mixed them with the same good results.
To this day we do not spray our cloths with scent free or cover up. I usually start Bowhunting mid Oct. (season opens 1st) & hit it hard right through mid Nov. when season closes or I've filled my tags. My brother took a decent 8 pointer last year (we usually don't specifically hunt for BIG horns though we do let small ones walk now) that followed his scent trail & I passed on several "little' Bucks but did kill 2 Does-one that followed my scent trail. I "AM" now hunting horns in my downhill side of life & I've set my sights pretty high since I have taken ton's of Whitetails & some decent Bucks in 53 years of Bowhunting. I'm guess i have let at least 50 Bucks pass within 15 yds the last 3 years & some pretty decent-some I hope my 2 kids that started to Bowhunt will get a crack at.
We scent trail faithfully-laying from 2 directions to our stand-grunt & Doe Bleets, rattle horns starting around 3rd week of Oct..
It may not be scientific but it works for us - we have a blast-KNOWING where that Deer is going once they cut our scent trail.
Oh, once the vrag starts being used it is used over & over (yep-gets REAL RIPE) & NEVER comes back into the house-in the trunk & in the baggie.
This is one Buck-late 80s