Cover Scents
 

I was never big on this. Usually just caried fox piss in my pocket. When I got to my spot sprayed it all around the tree. What fo you guys like or do? I'm thinking I might need to change for Bow hunting.

i use the cheap stuff from walmart to spray down with if im walking. If im taking the ATV theres no reason to use the cover scent as the exhaust smell never goes away LOL.

I think being able to use the wind to your advantage, weather it be to blow your scent away from the game or just to use the wind to cover your foot steps is a lot more important than a bottle of cover scent.

I'm probably one of the few who doesn't use cover scents. I de- scent as much as possible but no cover scents

I use HS Scents Fresh Earth waffers for a cover scent.

I have been investigating what the deer on my hunting place think about it.
The deer are used to me on a tractor And will stand and watch while I work.
To take advantage of this I placed different scents out where I see deer a lot.
Skunk scent and fox pee make deer walk widely around a spot for several days
doe in heat scent they walk around when its very far out of season but the buck will check the area out when it is getting close to season. I make my own cover scent now out of wild onions. Some times I use skunk scent to keep them from going the wrong way when I want them to take the trail I am on instead of an other one. I have a friend who has tame wolves and tried fresh wolf scat for that purpose but it made them very spooky.

I don't use them. I try and play the wind but I've seen way too many big deer killed by guys who reak of smoke. Heck, my step brother has killed many deer with a cig in his mouth.

Obviously, I don't do dumb things when it comes to scent control, but I don't waste money on those products.

I don't use cover scents. Nothing will cover the smell of my pipe anyway. If the wind isn't in my favor I'm screwed. :s2:

yeah I think you are out of luck, they don't have anything that will cover BS... better use skunk piss instead of fox.....

ugh man! My brother in law used to use skunk urine. You'd be sitting there with tears running down your cheeks due to the aroma of it. Like burning tires.

Putting it down wind would make sense to me.

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

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...

Tom,
I wasnt a big fan of cover scents but check out one called Ever Calm Deer Herd. It just flat out works.. Can't imagine paying $20 for a underarm deodarant size thing but we did. We all had more deer close that never spooked..wind blowing at them. Also we hunt 20ft+ in lock ons and this scent was rubbed on base of our trees.

I store my hunting cloths in a scent lock bag with earth wafers all year long. I shower with scentless soap and leave it at that!

Now during the rut, i will use doe estrus.

Vanilla is an attractant/curiousity scent.
Again - it is impossible for one scent to hide another from a deer.
They simply smell both.

I don't normally use cover scents either. I try to take a shower in scent free soap, and I spray Scent Killer or Scent Away on me sometimes, but I don't usually use cover scents. I've tried them and never had any luck. Infact, when I've had them out, I've never seen a deer. I've got a few friends that swear by them, but I've just never had any luck.

That being said, I was helping a guy cut up some ply wood and hang it in his shed while taking a break between hunting in the stand that morning and afternoon. I had saw dust all over my coveralls I hunt in since it was cold and I didn't want to take them off. One of the guys with us, that is a good hunter I might add, laughed at me as I left in the evening to go get in the stand. He told us we'd never see anything as deer would smell that fresh scent of cutting dry wood and they'd know that there was nothing like that around there. Well, boy was he wrong. Not only did the biggest deer I've ever seen come out to me, but it was the biggest deer than most people including ones in their 60's had ever seen in that town.

That coupled with the fact that one of my friends smokes in the stand, has made me wonder if these things really work. I'm sure being scent free is better than not, but it seems like people kill big deer just as often when they aren't anywhere near scent free. I don't think it's as big of a deal as they make to out to be on tv shows.

If using cover scent works or not is up for each individual to decide I guess, since the deer are not about to let us know.
But I find using it is a huge confidence builder. And without confidence in your hunting spot and the methods you use, weapon, clothes, scents (cover or attractant), decoys, tree stand, ground blind or still hunting to hunt deer I believe you are setting yourself up for failure.
Without confidence I have found myself restless and non-attentive to my surroundings and much more likely to either not see a deer or miss an opportune moment for a shot when it arises.

I use Fitzgeralds Deer Dander with great success. I also de-scent shower before hunting. I spray down at truck with de-scented clothes in a tupper ware tub and use a Scent-Lok suit. I spray down again at tree with scent-away spray. I place the cover scent on my boots and a dash on my pants legs walking in. I have a photo of a 139" 8pt (My brother killed him later) licking my screw in step of my lock-on stand with deer dander on it and the tree base. Works for me. I have used it all over the US and Canada hunting bear and never had an animal spook cause of it.

Thanks guy's:cool2: A lot of options and decisions to make. No real reason at all, but the deer dander sounds like i might need to try it.