I am a hard sell on aggressive whitetail tactics to say the least and value objective reports from "real" people. I have used aggresive tactics on occasion with some success but usually let things happen naturally.

Lately there have been a ton of posts on calls and scents with a wide array of responses. I would love to have an objective discussion about these methods.

For instance, Scrape Juice's Bowhunter's Set-Up has been discussed out the wazoo. I would like to hear an objective discussion about it - What state were you hunting in(seems a lot of the positive plugs come from alot of the same areas); what were the weather conditions; was the deer clearly attracted to the scent or was it coming in anyway because you had good stand placement; did other deer have the same reaction or did some spook; etc, etc.

This is the format I would like to see on all scents and calls. To truly benefit from others experiences we need to leave emotions out of it and concentrate on substantiated facts.

I'll start out by giving two examples that may be of some help to others:

1) Two years ago I was hunting the last day of Pennsylvania's bow season. I saw a small buck approximately 50 yards down the mountain from me. I wasn't planning on shooting him so I decided to play a little. I blew semi hard on my grunt tube - nothing. To me it seemed he should have easily been able to hear it from that distance. I tried a couple more times but he just kept browsing out the side of the mountain. Well, i had nothing to lose so I blew rediculously hard on the call, taking it to its limits. Immediately, the bucks hair stood straight out all over his body and a grunt followed mine by only a second. He walked stiff legged right to my area.It was a cool calm afternoon.The moral of the story - if he is just gonna walk out of your life anyway, let him have a oud one!

2)On several occasions I have had bucks follow a drag line that I had put down using Excite estrus scent. The conditions varied but it was always during the 1st or 2nd week of November. I have not seen any deer completely spook on Excite but one small Ohio buck juked a bit when he stuck his nose in it and then acted a bit nervous.

Now it is your turn....

Jon E. Silks



Hunt hard and be safe!
Jon E. Silks

Hmmmmm, thought this would be a great way to share experiences and facts concerning calls and scents.

Let me ask you: is there a better way to do it? I am truly interested in getting some collective data on calls and scents. With this many hunters from all over the country it would certainly be beneficial.

Hunt hard and be safe!
Jon E. Silks

I agree with teh frunting thing, sometimes it pays off to get more aggressive. As for the Excite estrus scent, I never heard of it, where do you sell it?

sorry, I meant "the grunting', not teh frunting.

I don't sell it, again this is intended to be an OBJECTIVE discussion. If I sold it I would not be as objective. I think it is made by Wildlife Research or Robinson's. Sad, I wrote a review on the stuff and can't even remember who makes it....

Hunt hard and be safe!
Jon E. Silks

I've posted this story a couple of times, so bear with me all who have read it already.

This is my first year of serious hunting with a bow or rifle in nearly 12 years. I like to try all the gadgets in just about everything I undertake, just to see for myself if they have merit or not. So this year I tried Hawg's Buck Fever line of scents. Here's the facts without a story:

Date: September 22, 2002
Time: 6:00ish PM
Temp: Mid 70's
Location: Near Plattsmouth, Nebraska (where the Platte River runs into the Missouri)

Product: Hawg's Buck fever Pre/Post Rut Scent and Gland scent

Method: Created a mock scrape along trail that ran under my tree stand using p/p rut scent on ground and gland scent on branches overhead. This is a heavily traveled trail and a funnel point where a hole has been cut in an old barbed wire fence. The hole was approx. 30 yards south of my stand site. 3 different trails converge on this hole on either side. I had my stand sitting between the middle one and the western most one, watching the middle and eastern trails to keep the sun out of my eyes as it set. All three trails run north south, more or less.

I also used Hawg's scent on a drag rag to lay a scent trail through the hole in the fence and approx. 30-40 yards further south, making it about 60 yards long and crossing as many trails as possible along the way.

Result: As fate would have it the buck (a young 1 1/2 year old 4x3) came in from the north on the western most trail, the one I had my back to. He sneezed/snorted/sniffed loudly behind me, as if catching a wiff of something, but laid down 30 yards off and over my right shoulder. He was currently less than 10 yards from the scent trail I laid. He laid there 10 minutes or so and got up and started heading towards the hole in the fence. He hit my scent trail and turned and came back towards my stand with his nose to the ground. 18-20 yards from my stand he came across my scrape that I made two hours earlier. This turned him broadside to me as he sniffed at both the ground and the overhanging branches. After about a minute or two of sniffing and such, he took two steps forward and began to urinate in the scrape. If this would not have been my first chance at getting a deer with a bow, I probably would have watched what all he would do, but the excitement got to me and I poked him.

Those are the facts. The <u>young</u> buck was headed one direction until he hit my trail and then turned and came back towards the stronger side of the scent trail, in the opposite direction. He sniffed and licked his nose a lot the whole time. He came to the mock scrape and did not hesitate to explore it and to start marking it himself.

-Brad
Eastern Nebraska Bowhunter

Edited by - by23856 on 10/26/2002 09:52:24

The best method I have used is setting up in an area with alot of scrapes during the rut. I will put out a couple of scent cannisters and freshen up the scrape, I use Tinks69. I killed a 171# 8pt last year in the early afternoon (peak of the rut) like this, and have killed a couple of other bucks coming into it to, but only during the rut.