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Old 09-12-2009, 04:49 PM
  #4  
4evrhtn
Typical Buck
 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Central PA
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I would rather have a deer see me and run off rather than have him smell me and run off. Unless you are talking about deer that have never experienced a hunting season where there is alot of human traffic and scent than maybe there wouldn't be much to worry about. However this example is unheard of and almost every deer where hunters have access have learned to associate human scent with danger.
The sense of smell has a much clearer association with an experience as compared to sight. There are many times we see things which are familiar but we don't put much thought to it but when we smell a specific odor we are taken almost instantly to the place, time, and experience associated with that smell. A deer's sense of smell is greater than our vision in many regards and they rely on their memory of scent experiences to survive and determine what is a threat and what is not. Whether they have been shot at or not is nor more relevant than if they have heard thunder, they don't associate gunshots as a threat (unless they have been poorly shot and survived) but rather the influx of human scent with the increased disturbance of their home gives them reason to be alarmed by any human scent. So trying to reduce your odor as much as possible is something that cannot be overdone if you have any hopes of shooting a mature buck by anything other than luck.
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