hennyhog

Hello All,
Nice to read the stories & see the pics of all you succesful bow hunters so far this year! I've been out 4 times & have only seen does & 1 small buck. Anyhow heres the one thing I've never felt confident about when it comes to hunting white tails....especially with a bow.

What works & what doesnt? For years I end up throwing a way 2 1/2 empty bottles of tinks, HS scents, or whatever is the rave that year. I use them on a drag & on scent wicks in which I hang around my stand. So far....cant say I've seen any results.

This also leads into the 2nd part of my question...calls? I've used various grunt tubes & bleat calls for years at various times, intervals, tones, etc. & have absolutley nothing good to say about them. For the heck of it...Im gonna but a rattlin bag this year so I can say I've tried that too!

My main concern is attractants/lures. Give me your honest opinon on what works for you & more importantly how you use it. I greatly appreciate all your responses.

Henny

Fieldmouse

I prefer to hunt residential neighborhoods where a lot of deer hold up. I'm always looking while driving down the road and making mental notes about where I want to hunt. At social events, I always bring up deer population problems or work it into conversations if they live where I want to hunt.

hennyhog

Uhhhhhhh...ok.....not sure how that ties in??????

jamiebuck

h/h i never really had any luck with scents, i usally set up tinks bombs around my stand , about 25 yards out ,but my hunting partner setup one tinks bomb out and had a spike run right to it,about a hour later,sometime the stuff works sometimes it dosnt. calls same thing i have the can call some people had good luck with it ,i havnt

Rich Baker

Here you go, the secert!!! But don't tell anyone. OK? I have taken 36 bucks with this method. deer don't come in a bottle. you can't buy a magic deer lure. it comes down to stand placement not what is in your scent bomb.That said don't hunt heavy used trails. Those are doe/young buck trails. The only scent I use any more is vinilla extract mixed with water in a spray bottle. (use as cover scent and lure) 13 P&Y bucks can't be wrong. Hunt close to bedding areas if not in the middle of them. Forget food plots, field edges and such unless you see big bucks in themduring daylight hours. (Most big bucks are nocternal this is why you hunt bedding areas) Most guys sit on a food source and see a lot of does and spikes because the wiser older bucks get out of there and back to cover before day light. Ya sure some guys get a dandy once in a while but not the rule. If you hunt a rub line near bedding area 's You'll get a nice buck. Try the vinilla. Pee and that stuff is crap. To many gadgets and gimmics in hunting today. "If you use buck seamen you'll shoot the buck of a life time crap". There is a sucker born every minuite its kind of like activated carbon suits Junk it takes 700 deg.f to reactivate the carbon and most suits are saturated before you get them home from the store. Wool naturally doesn't hold scent. there you go the real truth about hunting the majestic whitetail

davidmil

"Stinky free" and being downwind will work, but you already know that. None of the stuff in a bottle is worth a crap, or should I say Pee. In those few instances where someone thinks the stinky stuff did the trick for them, they probably would have shot the deer without it. For everyone that gets curious, I'd say another gets spooked by the stuff. It' s billion dollar con industry.

Rich Baker

As far as calls. Yes they work in the rut. there not magic deer magnets but they work. In elk hunting they are a must.

hillbilly17

I can't speak for all the gadgets, but i can speak for these Tinks #1 and #69 work great for me. I don't use it to attract deer, more to cover up my scent. That and Carbon Clean in a spray bottle. It works good . At least I think these all work good. i could just be a deer killing Ninja and not even know it. But hey I am sticking with what I know.

Oh and it helps if you are in a decent spot.... I am between a rub and a food scource. So that may be why Ihave had good fortune.

hennyhog

Dave & Rich,
I really like your take on the subject! You guys are on the side of the fence that I've been leaning towards for years! Anyhow tell me more...& why the vanilla extract & water...how much are you diluting it?

Also havent tried the scent bombs...are they generally the same thing as the s$%T in the bottles? Love the responses!

Henny

Rich Baker

Deer like the sweet smell of vinilla, as far as the mixture it doesn't matter at all. not to mention bears, love it also . Its kinda like anis oil on salmon lures they just like the smell and it draws them in. Try it !!