How important is sent, really...?
 

Ive been huntin off and on for years, one thing I have a problem believing is how your sent will scare off deer. I have grown up in the country in the woods. Ive seen more deer tramping through the woods, no cammo, no sent block anything.....

Why should I wear it, my buddies tell me Id see more deer....but it seems like I see about as many as though do...


Thanks

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

You don't have to wear it, and you'd probably just be wasting your money if you did. If you're in the woods and you're seeing and killing enough deer to suit you then you definitely don't need it. I intentionally scent up my property just to get the deer used to the smell of me, I have deer in the freezer and will take more.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

I hunt in a big cattle area, and the smell of manuer chokes me some times....if they smell me over it then they are doing good.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

I'm big on scent control during hunting season, I even go a little overboard, but to each his own.

As for seeing deer, I see them ALL the time. During spring and summer, the wife, kids and I will sit together in a blind or in our two man stands and watch them feed, etc. in our food plots. No scent control.

BUT, during bow season, to ensure a close sighting and opportunity to harvest one, I take extreme measures in the scent control department.

During rifle, I still do, but admit at times I may not go to such lenghts to cover my scent, I just play the wind more.

Bottom line, if your seeing deer or scenting up to your hunting area, thats great. Hope everyone has a great hunting season, Good Luck to all!!

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Ive never worried about scent cover really and i see lots of game every year, one thing i do take into account sometimes is the wind cause with that wind it can carry scent and noise that you make, but i dont worry too much about scent , the only thing i stay away from is using fabric softner or anything on my camo to add extra perfume to it plus i dont wear deo-odorant or anti-persperiant due to the perfumy smell, thats as far as i go with scent control.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

To me sent is only a factor in archery season, at least where i hunt. Rifle season i can take shots at deer at a pretty long distance so im not too worried. but archery you need to get close.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Excelent point. I've hunted next to rotting things and it is a help. Bales left too rot,next to a stand are a good cover scent.

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Your seeing all the deer you want. Do you really need us to say the obvious, George. Then again, mature deer travelwith thewind in their face. They aint trying to smell feefeewith the windup their arse. How do you know you are seeing all the deer you want? Can't hurt to give some of it a try.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

The good Doctor finds this to be an interesting point ...please post pictures of all the big bucks you have harvested over the years so we can enjoy admiring them and ponder thevalidity of your statement....pictures of your successful upwind hunts would make your position much more convincing.

dd

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

One thing for sure, I wouldn't use Aqua Velva or Old Spiceon hunting day!:)

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Scent control is very, very, very, important. If you have hunt deer very much you would know that. And if your talking mature deer then you will not kill them very often if your careless with your scent. Use unscented everything and play the wind and you will be much more successful.

Cover scents are a waste of time. Every scent has its own molecular finger print. Thats why a deer can smell where another deer stepped many hours before with no trouble. The smell of the dirt, weed, corn stalks, leaves, etc. is much stronger than the spot the deer stepped but the deer can track the other at a fast pace with no trouble. This is also why a dog can smell a body on the bottom of a lake or in a huge pile of rubble or drugs hidden in all kinds of stuff.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Have you ever heard a deer snort? Thats usually what happens when the deer smells you! Scent is the most important thing when you are hunting deer. I dont use cover scent everytime,but I do use unscented everything!!!!!

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

They can't smell you at all if you're down wind of them. If you're up wind, you have a problem. No matter how much you have tried to get rid of your scent. No matter what kind of clothes you have on, if conditions are right, the deer will smell you. Period.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Though I agree that scent control is very important but there are times when I believe, to the big bucks it really doesn't matter. I always hunt the wind but the biggest buck (not antler size, though he had a 21 in. inside spread, 4x4 with one tine broken off. I believe because he was a real bruizer. Field dressed on an official weigh in scale at 265 3/4 lbs.) I shot when the wind was at my back and I was finishing a smoke. It was last day with 30 min. to go and I was walking back to the truck, down a ridge, and across the last frozen swamp when I thought my season was over so I sat on a rock, had a smoke and just contiplated how good the season was, even though I didn't harvest a buck during the rifle season (had havested a nice doe during archery, and a good buck during ML). After finishing the smoke, I stood up and grunted one last call not thinking that there was anything around (due to a good wind at my back), and to my total surprise out of the willows not 50 yards from me, dead down wind, this big bruizer jumped up snorting, grunting and looking me straight in the eye. I lifted the gun and dropped him. He was so full of piss and vinegar (I can only guess a real late rut), that he just stood there and challenged a hunter with a gun. Two months before would he have acted the same way? Most likely not but when they are in the rut sometimes anything goes. Over the 30 plus years I have hunted I have seen this reaction a couple of other times but I know it isn't the norm. Yes practise scent control but also know that whitetails are very unpredictable and that's why they are the most ellusive game to be hunted in North America.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

The reason I ask is I always pretty much use it when I hunt, but it seems that I see more when Im not hunting, just out running around. Sometimes the places I hunt on post has so manypeople running through it during the week that the deer are used to them...

When I would go training out in the "back forty" on post Icould literally walk right up on them. And at that point I know Id smell like a dogs butt cause I wouldnt have bathed in a few days and be chain smoking like a fool....

I know of a guy back home that kills lots of deer every year who smokes in his stand....

And yes Ive heard deer blow...generally when they are less than about 30 yrds from me.


Good luck in the Woods!

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

A deer's best attribute to his survival over many thousands of years has been his nose. With this being said, a whitetail'ssense of smellis the most imortant ofall hissenses in his quest to stay alive.

Awhitetail can smell odor down to 6ths parts of a million. which basically means he can smell you from about 400 yards away. In other words his sense of smell is about 10 times better than your average dog.

Awhitetail is a creature of survival. WhenI go into the woods I try to stay as scent free as possible. I also play the wind. Most whitetails have smelled humans before. And as a matter of fact most are used to the smell. However, this doesn't mean that if you go into their homes ( the woods) that they wont buck on you once they catch your scent.

Just because you have seen deer when youweren'thuntingand wearing any cover scent, doesn't mean that it should exclude you from trying to stay scent free. There are many factors that could attribute to you seeing these deer at certain times.

For example, I have hunted in woods no farther than 600 yds. awayfrom large neighborhoods (were the deer are used to human scent)and I have had many deer buck out on me as soon as they caught my scent. Keep in mind that most of these deer go into these neighborhoods to eat the yummy landscape plants and the deerare in these people's backyards all the time. I rememberone time thatI was invited over to a freind's house ( in this particular neighborhood ) We were having a cook out when all of the sudden 2 does popped out of the bushes and started grazing in my freind's back yard. The 2 doe were well aware that we were there, but they just kept on eating. Why?

With this being said, THE DEER AKNOWLEDGED THAT WE WERE THERE, they just felt no harm (atleast not a great sense of danger) A deer will flee faster than anything you have seenif it feels even the slightest doubt that it is unsafe.
Now I will bet that ifI seen those same deer about 2 months later out in the woods, Ill bet they wouldn't stand around to aknowledge that I was in the woods. Thats because it isn't my freind's backyard anymore, its THEIR back yard. Its a whole different ballgame when you stumble into a buck's bedroom and try to harvest him when he knows you are trying to get him.

Studies have shown that hunters walk by whitetails all the time and don't even know that they are there. Thats because they dont expect them to be there!!!!
Cornell did a study with 12 people (portaying hunters) on privately owned land of 450"fenced in" acres. The land consisted of feilds woods and hedgerows. Some of the feilds had been cut some where allowed to grow wild. 28 whitetails were released on the property and allowed to acclimate for about 2 weeks. All 28 of the whitetails were radio collared so their positions would be known. The 12 "hunters" were told to meander around the property and report how many whitetail sightings they encountered. the " hunters" broke up into groups of 2 and partnered up. Each hunter was also radio transmitted, so their position could be tracked as well. The hunters were allowed to walk around for 8 hours, Stopping and going along the way. At the end of the day, only one group reported a sighting and that was because they bumpedthe deerout when they were walking through the uncut feild. The other groups said that they seen nothing. The group iconducting the study were astonished to find thatALL the "hunter" groups had walked by atleast (1) whitetail an average of 5 times throughout that day and one group had walked by 8 whitetails. Radio collars showed that most of the whitetails didn't even move when the hunters walked by them and actually waited untill the hunters were well out of range before they moved off. But the most astonishing part was that there was a few whitetails that actually walked almost in parralel to the hunters as they were walking by. It was almost like the deer were keeping an eye on the hunters so they would not sneek up on them. The study also showed that when most of the hunters walked by the whitetails " THEY WERE ALL WITHIN 15 YARDS AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!!!!" and in one " hunting group " the 2 hunters were only about 7 feet away from a deer and didnt see it.

Deer are out in the big woods, but most hunters are suprised to find that that big buck they are tracking wanders into the smallest hedgerow in the whole woods or they end upfollowing his tracks to a bedding areathat is right behind someone's house.

So why is it that we see deer in people's back yards and some of the largest bucks inthe smallestpatches of woods. Its The same reasonwhy the deer in those people's yards will be almost oblivious to human activity but whenyou seethem in "THEIR WOODS" they will head for the hills and put as many acres between you and themas soon as they catch your scent. The big buck feels safe "all day long"in the hedgerow next to where you park your truck because he sees you walk by every day and dont even consider the fact that he could be right there.

" I know about Big Bucks in small hedgerows....Right next to were people park there trucks" BECAUSE IT HAPPENED TO ME. When it happened, it reminded me of an old articleI read from the North American Hunter magazine"Ironically called" ......FINDING EM' WERE THEY AINT.
I just have to laugh whenI think back to that particular day.

Your best bet is to try to stay as scent free as possible " without breaking your bank" And always expect the unexpected. Look in places you think you will never find deer........And dont be suprised at what you might find.
Good luck





The best bet is to be asscent free as possible.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

I'm with the Doctor on this one for sure!

And seeing how your first and second post don't jive, I'm done listening. Guess I've wasted enough time just replying.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Sorry guys all my pics are back home 7 hours away, lets just say I really dont have any to brag about....Not really been hunting a whole lot last 10 years....lots of time overseas as well....But, Im getting the point guys...use sents see more deer, all those other times most likley just been luck, or the wind was on my side.

Hopefully I can post a nice one Monday Morning

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

No need to prove anything to me. If your happy I'm happy.:D

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

I don't go overboard like some people. I do put on some scent killer spray and wear rubber boots while bow hunting but that's it. I hunt in a club with 300 members and a high deer population, so most deer are use to human scent. Most of the does and some bucks don't even run of when you drive up on them, especially beforehunting season.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

There are two high-level observances I would like to make. Scent control is not equally important to all hunters. Bow hunters who have to get relatively close to their quarry to succeed -- on the order of 35 yards maximum for bow hunters versus 200 yards maximum for deet hunters (very general range chacterizations here, cut me some slack please) -- probably need to control their scent more carefully. I suppose you don't need to worry too much about scent control when you hunt into the wind and are 100 yards or more from your quarry. Secondly, scent control is not equally important to trophy hunters versus meat hunters. I would guess that bucks are more scent warry than does and big bucks are more scent warry than young immature bucks.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Georgiahickhas a point; you can't compare where most of you hunt to our region. Let me give you an example: I rode in the woods for 45 minutes last Saturday. I saw18 deer,6 of which were bucks. Hardly any of them broke and run except the bucks that where together. There were 2 bucks I know arewere at least 2.5 yearsold in the group.I ride around all the time and see this many deer, so youcan't really compareyour region to ours.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

True enough! Some places are just that way. Guys that hunt there just don't understand all the fuss others of us go through. Lucky bastards:D

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

I think scent control is a huge factor just like the wind. During archery season I go a little overboard with my gear as well as truck. If the wind isn't right then I think it is time to move to another location so that the wind is in your favor. There sense of smell is often greater than our eyesight through the trees and just because you haven't seen a deer wind you doesn't mean he didn't wind you way before you can see him. Plus, I think does and immature bucks are a little less uneasy about scent than the big boys are and thats maybe why they get a little closer and make you wonder about the importance of scent, but I think the big one might take the long way around a stand that has scent contamination.

JMO

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

If deer could only smell as well as me, I would have a trophy buck every year.

The deer's sense of smell has been definedas incomprehensible to man. We cannot begin to imagine how well they can smell. It is their number one defensive mechanism.

Sure you can see deer with no regard for scent control, but IMO that's simply because there are more deer. Trying that same strategy when you hunt woods with less than 10 deer per square mile will prove disastrous.

There's no doubt in my mind that any hunter that does not realize and appreciate the deer's ability to smell you is making a crucial mistake.
The biggest mistake of all!!

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Only the most important aspect of hunting.

It's the ones you dont' see that you should consider.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

good point!!

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Hunt the wind. I try to limit the obvious human scents when I hunt, but I don't get dressed in the field.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

Good point.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

As stated in my earlier post it depends on time of year. It would be interesting to see a study on when the majority of the real big bucks are harvested. My guess would be during a time when they are in the full rut. At this time their reproductive urges far out weigh their safety concerns. With this said, it's not that I will be smoking a big Cuban and eating doritos in the stand during the rut, or not using the wind, I just will not be worried about wearing the scent blocker suit.

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

If you want that Buck or Doe 10 feet below you scent is very important..If you use a rifle and shoot them at 75-200 yrds then eat chilli, smoke that cigar...but scent dose make a differance exspecialy when you get into older and wiser deer....I alway put dirt,leaves and twings from the area I huntin my tub(replace every year)I put my hunting clothes in its free and it works,the only other thing I do is shower with scent free soap and spray it on my bow,boots,gloves and hat...

RE: How important is sent, really...?
 

this guy is full of bs