Am I getting busted...
 

even if I'm not actually getting busted?

Let me explain - Back in the early to mid season, deer would actually see or smell me before I'd see them. This no doubt resulted in the ritual weezing and stomping followed by the white flag. This is my first full year bowhunting so as you could expect, I'm getting a little smarter with each trip to the woods, hopefully at least. ;)

Now... I'm not getting busted anymore but am seeing deer out of range. I have a spot set up actually inside the wrappings of a big Christmas tree like pine. One day last week I watched from 70yds away as 3 deer crossed a tall grass field leading to a cornfield. The odd thing is, it was15 min before sunseton a weekday, I was the only person out there, the deer were making their way towards the cornfield which is in the direction I parked and walked from, yet5 min after they came by me they all stealthily made their way back from where they came. I think they must've seen my fresh footprints in the snow when they were going to the cornfield and decided they weren't sticking around. What do you think happened? Mind you I was downwind and motionless the whole time.

Well, since then I've been back to the same spot once for a morning and another for an afternoon with no luck. The other question I have is - Since there's snow on the ground and my prints cross their travel route, have they figured out when and where I am even if they don't actually bust me there? My thinking is that like hounds, deer can probably tell how old a scent trail is?

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

i don't think deer follow or pay attention to tracks in the snow , i could not tell you the number of times i have had deer walk right in my tracks in the snow but it has happened a lot . they must be seeing or smelling something else.

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

Are you wearing rubber boots? IMO they are smelling your footprints in the snow. Deer have no way of knowing what made the tracks in the snow but they can smell very well. I had 26 deer walk in single file behind a mature doe several years ago. She was very alert and when she came to my tracks in the snow, she put her head down and smelled the tracks and raised her head and looked right in my direction. I was downwind and sitting in a tree about 200 yards away but she knew which way I was walking. She quietly turned around and walked back the way she came with every single deer in the herd following her. Mature does are slick!

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

I agree with Hunter 59, a mature doe is at least as wary as any buck, if not more so because they have to watch out for thier young. They know all the tricks.;)

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

Face it , dude , you stink ... j/k ;)
You're leaving a scent traiil and they're smelling it . Change your entry route if you can and pay more attention to your scent control .

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

That's kinda hard to do when Wendy's chillie is the main staple of your diet. :D

Serious note - I thought that "woods only" boots were enough for footwear scent control but apparantly not. Will probably start wearing grocery bags around those boots too. Now if only I can get all the bird hunters and their dogs to wear grocery bags too that would make my spot an excellent place to hunt! Shoot, better include the hikers, snowmobilers, and horseback riders too. Public land, ya gotta love it.

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

Your scent trail can be hours old but she only has to smell 2 tracks to tell which is older to determine what direction you went. Even a beagle cansmell an old bunny track and can tell the difference in age of 1 second to get the right direction I know it's hard to comprehend. scent control is a constant battle. good luck.

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

I don't know if any of this works or not but I figure it can't hurt. I only wear my boots in the woods, as soon as I am back to the truck they come off and go in a container. Also, everytime I am going to and from a stand I am watching the ground for tracks and signs of deer. While doing this if I ever see deer poop I step in it and rub my boot in it, I figure (total guess) it would only help in me leaving more of a deer smell than a foreign smell as I walk to my stand.

Mark

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

buy those walking pads that strap around your boots. You can apply deer urine directly to them and it will soak in so that it will cover your trail. Just re-apply about every 150 yds. Or, you could get a walking stick and cut a piece of cloth to tie around the end of it and drag it along, just make sure that you use somekind of cover scent

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

It's a proven factthat a bloodhound dog can track a human sent that has past a given area and trail it up to a week old. Also a fact that the longest trail of a human by a bloodhound was over 50 miles. How old do you think that trail was? These animals do exist on this big blue marble (earth) and I personally believe after hunting all my life deer are NO different. They may have a different degreeof a nose maybe's it's not quite as powerful but still you have to compare with the facts of some other species to put things into perspective. I've witnessed Whitetail given the optimal condition's pick up a none moving stationary human (being myself) pick there sent up at over 500 yards. Something that if you learn now will be the most truthful thing you could ever learn in your journey of becoming a great whitetail hunter is "A deer's eyes can fail them, and sometimes thier ears, but NEVER, thier nose". Good luck in your journey.

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

One other thing I forgot to mention is do you remember as a kid ever lighting a firecracker in the snow? Do you recall how the smoke just lingers around for awhile? There's a reason for that. Have you ever noticed that when you walk out into a fresh snow covered woods everthing smells so much more powerful. Snow is porious and will hold sent down closer to the ground and will contain odor. It's small little things like these that as you spend time in God's magnifesent glory we call the woods that you will begin to hone these skills and develop as you go on. okay I've reveiled enough secrets for this Christmas.

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

Im not buying all this. I personally dont wear rubber boots very often. I shot 1 deer this year that came down the same trail that i walked in on. I shot her from the ground didnt even make it into the tree. There is always someone running around out there, weather it is a farmer checking fence, small game hunter, kids building their famous forts and we see alot of deer. I have seen deer hunderds of yards off walking through a alpapha field, just stop pick up their head and haul! For what reason? Who knows, they are mysterous critters. Have you ever had one coming in and all of a suden it 45 off the other direction. Did it bust you, maybe but probly not. It just wanted to head that way. Next time it will 45 to ya who knows. If they arent picking their tail up and 86ing out of there i dont think it is you. Heck the one I shot from the ground as i was trailing her i had to wizz. So I did. Walked back throught there 45 minutes later and 2 deer had not only walked on top of my tracks but the peed right next to where i did!

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

You could try Elimatrax over your boots. I have not used them but have a few buddies who swear by them. I use all the scent free soap, deodorant, body and hair deodorant, and scent blocker. Everything including my equipment (bow,treestand, etc.)is wiped down with White Lightening or something similar. My buddy and I never enter the woods without doing all of the above, and right before we step into the woods the boots are doused in White Lightening. We see more deer every year than anyone we know, and we do alot of videa taping which means twice the scent in one area at a givin time. Our theory is you cannot do enough to beat the nose of a whitetail as they live by what it tells them.

Shane

RE: Am I getting busted...
 

I don't discount scent control at all but I have similar thoughts as you. There is always someone out and about in the woods. The deerjust cannotbe doing a 180 at every set of humanfoot printsthey come across. Ifthat were the case, they'd be running around in circles 'cause there's people tracks all over the place.

While out today I was extra paranoid about my prints and thus was wearing the grocery bags I talked about. I was even so careful as to not step on other prints I saw out there in fear I'd pick up someone else's scent and drag it along with me rendering my plastic bags pointless.

Where is the line between reasonable scent control and plain paranoid silliness?