Scent “inhibitors”

Ok I thought you were talking about attractants. This changes everything!!!!!

Except wasting money on scent-lok suits, I think doing everything we can about scent control is very very important. Being in the right tree on the right hour is nice but unfortunately it doesn’t happen every day. What we have are day after day of hunting in different locations. If you’re lucky this will include different properties or several hundred acres. If you’re not conscious of scent control you are burning up your chances at a mature buck faster than the guy that strictly manages his scent control. What I’m saying is, every second you spend in the woods your laying down you scent. You can go weeks on property and not hit the magic moment in the “best stand location.” What better way to really burn the property than to spend two weeks working different stands and spooking deer to the point they decide not to move until nightfall manly because you did absolutely nothing to control your scent. I’m having a hard time typing my point here.[&:]

All of my stands are in the best locations; otherwise I wouldn’t have put them in the tree! More than not I score on the first sitting of a stand but not always. It may take a few sittings in a two-week period and a couple of short moves before I connect. When this happens I point my reason for success heavily on the fact that scent control was utilized threw out the weeks.


You gave three factors in your post, Scent, Camo, and Stand Location. Everyone on the forum can think back on successful hunts and point out key factors that made the hunt successful. Every hunt will be different. Most will more than likely side with the fact that stand placement was vital to connecting but you can dig real deep into the hunt and all the way to the events leading up to and compile loads of reasons for individual success. Let me take for instance the eight point I killed last November. While doing some in season scouting I came upon a flat with a fresh scrape. Normally I don’t hunt scrapes but this was a hot looking spot, pre-rut and this thing had a big ol’ hoof print in the middle of the thing. I spent at least a half hour walking around (wearing rubber boots and not touching a thing) picking out a tree. I hung the stand, took a compass reading and picked a tree for an opposite wind. The following day I had the right wind and decided to hunt it. Before climbing I had two small saplings that needed to be trimmed. I was supper careful not to touch the ground with my hands while cutting and only touching the upper half of the trees witch I dragged downwind from my treestand. I then freshened up the mock scrape I made the day before. (next to the real deal (the one I pi$$ed in.)) An hour in the tree I hear a deer walking the side hill above the flat just out of sight. I immediately grunted not knowing its direction of travel. Suddenly he appears walking in my direction. Enters the flat and walks to within 20yds into the lane I cut a mere hour ago sniffing the ground around the area I was just standing upon. He then lifts his head and takes the two steps I was hoping for and THUD He’s on his last run. He didn’t seem a bit alarmed, just curious as he inspected the ground. Had I not taken my normal precautions towards scent control on that hunt I think things would’ve turned out VERY differently and my stand placement wouldn’t have been worth beans. That half hour picking out the right tree was well spent indeed. It allowed me to pick the tree with the best chances at a shot without cutting many saplings and gave me the edge concerning the wind. On this hunt, camo didn’t mean squat. He never looked to my direction.

Other factors that did or could have made this hunt successful was my ability to preplan hunts from home regarding wind direction, taking a leak in the mock scrape the day before and or freshening it the day of, grunting at first sound of his presence, edging my way into the core aria throughout the season, I could go on…..but you get the point. There is always more than one factor in a succesful hunt. Two hunts are seldomly the same so we stay prepared for whatever gets dished to us.