RE: smelling deer
 

This summer I went out to a foodplot in the woods to recharge a mineral lick, you could pretty
easily smell the deer odor or at least that it what it seemed like (bovine) and we don't have cows
or elk and there was plenty of deer sign.

So when its hot and they've been bedded down or hanging around in an area a while, I'm sure that
there is plenty of scent. But on the move I don't see them leaving much of a scent trail for a human.

I don't know that it would be much of a hunting tool, but you are pretty extreme KP.

RE: smelling deer
 

I have smelled deer but usually during warm weather scouting. i think it is near impossible to smell them on a cold fall or winter day.

RE: smelling deer
 

Deer have a distinctive smell and our brains are geared to remember things like that. I knew the other day there was a deer somewhere along a stretch of corn along a road I was driving. Happened to be in my daughters convertable. Sure enough and typically, when I came up to the cross roads and stopped a deer was right there, almost close enough to touch. I knew it a good 1/2 mile before. Something was right. My brain was talking and since it's almost always on hunting...:D

Of all the places to be this big doe decided to hang out where it could be clocked by vehicals from both directions. Go figure.:D

RE: smelling deer
 

As far as “hunting tools” go, I really can’t think of a better one. My thoughts are; suppose you’re hunting a square piece of property, some swamp some field and some hardwoods. The wind is coming out of the north at a steady 5mph. If you walked the southern boundary slowly, paying close attention to smell and there was a group of deer bedded down in there, you may get a sniff of them. And the wind will tell you where they are. Now you just need to figure out how to get there quietly with out getting up wind of them. Seems to me like a great plan, if you can get your sniffer to cooperate, which is why I mentioned spicy food. Maybe a small amount of cayenne pepper on the tongue every thirty minutes or so would do the trick. I just know that during the scouting I smelled them played the wind and found them. I’ve smelled them in the woods many of times but usually after I’ve bumped them before I’ve seen them I imagine. I’d just like to reverse the scenario. I have two new properties to hunt this season and I’m going to be on the ground. I’m going to give the sniffer thing a try.

RE: smelling deer
 

KP,

Are you pulling our legs here? I'm skeptical it can be done successfully.

But I don't do much of any stalking, so I have no frame of reference.

RE: smelling deer
 

They smell the best when they're on the grill. ;)

RE: smelling deer
 

You took the words right off the tip of my fingers!!!:)

RE: smelling deer
 

when you can smell mountian lion..then you know you have a good sniffer.. ;)

I smell whitetails sometimes..and elk all the time.. elk like Jim said are really easy, even for the poorly equipped human nose to pick up.

RE: smelling deer
 

Shed,

My question is; do you use that as a tool?

If so, any tips that might help out?

Thanks,

KP