Actually, BS makes a pretty good cover in cattle country.

If you put your hunting clothes in a plastic garbage bag with a bunch of pine limb tips, hang the bag and beat it with a stick, you get a pretty good cover.

I dont use any cover scent. I do take showers in unscented soap and shampoo and use scent killer. Two places I hunt has cattle on them and I will rub a cow pattie on my boots for a bit of cover scent.

Last months F & S or perhaps it was Outdoor Life did a test on scent blockers. They used a K9 tracking dog to see if the scent blockers would slow down Rover from finding the hunter.

Absolutely no difference between placebo and the scent blockers. I know this is about cover scents but if you're up wind, they know your there. My personal strategy is to just accept the fact that I stink and to play the wind.

Another story: We were rifle hunting in Western SD years ago. We knew that if the deer were bumped from a particular thicket, they usually would run down this flat bottomed draw that was about 200 yrds wide. I set up about a mile away from the thicket in a good ambush point over looking the draw. The wind was quartering toward the thicket but I had no choice due to property restrictions.

My Buddy pushed the thicket, sure enough, here comes 4-5 Whitetail bouncing down the draw in my direction and I'm getting pumped. When they hit line of where the wind was carrying my scent, they hit the brakes like I jumped up and spooked them. I was still at least a half mile away. They spun around and took off over the hill. Since that time I've never questioned the value of playing the wind.

Deer smell at the level of bloodhounds or higher - have the ability to process multiple oders at the same time. They is no way to add an oder that will hide another from them. They simply smell you and your urine of choice.

Essence Of Fall. I have been using there product for over 20 yrs now.

You can't control Mother Nature. The wind will not always be in your favor. I use a cover scent and have for many years now. I started with fox pee at the base of the tree I was in and on my boots for walking in to the stand. But then, one morning before dawn, a fox picked up the scent and hung around the tree I was in, howling for 2 or 3 minutes. That, plus the idea of having the smell of fox pee on me and being in a tree, didn't make sense, since a fox can't climb trees. After that I switched to Raccoon pee and still use it religiously to this day. When you place a climbing tree stand in a tree it is nearly impossible not to get your scent on the tree. One day I was scouting an area and after placing my climbing stand on the tree I sprayed some 'coon pee on the tree and climbed the tree to about 12 feet high. Later, a doe came by and walked right up to the tree I was in and stuck her nose up to the tree and started smelling it where I had sprayed the pee. She payed it no mind and started eating acorns right at the base of the tree I was in. If I were a rich man I would personally give you a money back guarantee that it will work for you. But I'm not so forget that and take my word that it is some great stuff. I won't go deer hunting without it.
https://buckstopscents.com/virtuemar...category_id=36
And as for smoking, I used to smoke cigarettes and never had a problem with deer down wind using this product. Now I can't speak of deer I never saw that refused to come in because of my scent or the cigarette smoke, but I see no difference in the number of deer I harvest now that I don't smoke as compared to the number of deer I would harvest each year when I did smoke.

I saw that too and was surprised about it. But it made me feel better about not using any cover scent.
Growing up my dad always laughed at the guys that you would see decked out in full camo with a backpack full of cover scents and all the other stuff that people use to try to hide from deer. We always (and I still do) wore jeans and a coat and tried to play the wind.
There were several times we would sit on a hill glassing deer and watch hunters get busted walking with the wind coming from straight behind them. Always wondered if those were the ones covered in some sort of pee that figured they could walk right up to a deer unnoticed.
I figure it doesn't matter if you think you smell like a deer just peed on you and then you rolled in a turd, if you can't work the wind done either way.

Now this might sound silly but in Mexico I purchased a case of liter bottles of pure vanilla. (it was so cheap it just was crazy. Also the women love it when I give them a bottle of it for baking) I take a strip of white cotton cloth, dip that in vanilla and hang that waist high on a bush up wind of me. The scent blows across me, and smells great. It covers my scent very well. Deer seem to like the smell as I have had does walk right up to the cloth and sniff it. So it does not seem to scare them. And when they get near that cloth, it is a measurement marker as well.

The bad thing is bear love the smell of it and bear will often times come in to check that smell. I used to pour a cap full of vanilla on bear baits when I bear hunted. The smell of vanilla, and when you're down wind of it, its amazing how far the smell travels. It is very strong and covers a lot of mistakes I make.

I use fox pee to stop deer. I will go up trails I hope they don't move off on, and spray that. I have watched deer scent that fox pee, back up and walk around it. Also the smell is terrible.

When rut is on, I have a drip bag that I hang in a tree. It has doe in heat in it. Then I make a mock scrape to be more attractive. This bag only works when the sun is out, so its not running all the time. I have only had small bucks come to that mock scrape though, never anything large.

Plus my blind is carbon lined. Whether that works I have no idea. The blind is old. So I de-scent, and sit in my blind.

IMO no scent is the best scent. I never use cover scent but rather spray down with a scent eliminator before heading into the woods. I've found that just prior to the rut (around the end of Oct here in PA) that buck scent actually works better than an estrus scent. I've had more than several buck's meet their demise while coming in to check out the intruder in their territory.

I have a friend that uses Vanilla with very good success.. I think it was the Fitzgeralds that had the VK (VanillaKiller) scent.. Always seemed to work for them...