Over-hyped and Overrated?
 

I'm beginning to think that much of the hunting stuff being marketed is more about financial profit than killing deer. I swear that I see more deer when I don't use calls or scent lines than when I use them.

I'll grant that doe pee on a rag can attract some deer some of the time but I'm increasingly convinced that it steers deer away rather than toward me. Same with grunting.

What's your experience?

I cant help but agree with you on this... the biggest deer i ever killed was last year and i was running late, got in woods right at day light, and was in the stand for maybe 10 min and he chased two does right to me i didnt have time to do anything but spray down on the ride and plenty of other times im setting out sent bombs and drags and a mock scrpe and kinda for what, you know??

I agree with you. I'm not sold on all the scents/cover scents and calls. I use a little bit of cover scent but that is it.

I also believe this as well. The first time I ever used a call, I had a nice 8 pointer come in about 45 minutes after I sat down. I thought, wow this thing is awesome. However, once he got into the field I tried to call him closer and he just ignored it. Since then, I have never had another deer come out to the call, which makes me think he was just coming to the field anyway. I quit using it and have killed more deer. I'm not say that it turns deer away, but it certainly doesn't seem to bring them in.

As for the scents I agree on that as well. I've only used things like Tinks a few times, but I've never had a deer come to them when I have used them.

I also don't think that hiding your scent matters that much at all. I originally bought scent free laundry detergent, scent free soap, shampoo, etc. I killed a few deer while using it, but when I haven't used it I've killed just as many. With one of the larger deer I've killed, I had taken a shower a few hours prior with Axe shower gel, and I just decided to sit in the stand over my lunch and see if I happened to see anything.

The biggest deer I've killed, and one of the biggest ones in the area, I killed after cutting several pieces of plyboard and putting them up in a shed. I didn't have time to change before going to the stand. I smelled like sweat, pine dust, and everything else. The guys I were hunting with told me I'd never see anything smelling like that. I decided to give it a try anyway. Turns out I killed the largest buck I've ever seen that evening.

The way I look at this stuff is it certainly doesn't hurt, but I don't think it matters either. I've quit using the majority of it, and I've killed just as many deer and I've never had one bust me.

A friend I hunt with fairly often has shot lots of large deer in the past couple of years and he also has come to the opinion that this scent free stuff is just a marketing gimmick. Like me, he always used it for everything. He killed a few deer like that, but then decided to quit using it and see how it worked. He has killed just as many deer and just as big of deer as well. He has now quit using all of it, and just goes out into the woods smelling however he smells. He has yet to see a difference and has gotten pretty much the same results as I have.

Surprisingly, he has also killed several while he has been talking on the phone. He tells me that he chats on the phone in the stand, and as long as he doesn't talk loudly, the deer still seem to come in. I don't know that I quite believe that, but I do believe the scent part as I've experienced the same results.

90% is for the hunters, and the suckers buy it every day. There are some useful products, but not many that truly make any difference.

Like I said I use a little bit of cover scent. The woods I hunt my dad is in at least once a week cutting wood and cleaning up/property management. I figure the deer are used to people/scent being in the woods.

Being in range of where deer your targeting wants to be without it noticing anything unusual including noise makes for a good ambush.
That said i,ve tried scents,calls,wash, i do still wash most hunting cloths in baking soda and try to keep household and loud odors off them. Gear has scent and i don,t know of any proven way to be in a deers nose without it knowing. I expect any that wind me to have me figured.
Calls a favorite, doe or young buck, fawn has worked for doe but awfull noisy. Last few deer were bushwacked. No idea i was around.
I smoke when hunting,drink coffee and wheelchair has foreign oder too,playing the wind most important. Staying out of deers route,still in range has produced better success than getting found out coming and going after i leave. To many times i,ve seen where they checked where hunters set up. Watched them "track"people too. Best investment, being a bump on a log or equivalent.

It depends. I have only been hunting a few years, but what I have learned so far is that you have to find the right time to use that stuff. The more experience you have, the better you'll be and knowing what those times are. I know without a doubt that I killed my biggest buck due to the Primos can call (the "estrous bleat"). Someone told me to blow thru the call to increase the volume. One morning, I waited about 30 min after sunrise and blew through the call. Immediately, a nice 9-point came out of nowhere and into the open woods with reckless abandon, looking for the source of that sound. The next sound he heard was muzzle blast. :D

But, I also know that calls and scents can hurt you. I sprayed a buck bomb the opening morning of muzzleloader last season, and I will tell you what, I saw any deer that got even remotely close start to act extremely skiddish, and not the same way they act when I know I've been winded. This was different, and I believe it was the buck bomb that did it.

This year I'm going to use the can call, and perhaps a grunt call, but no estrous scents.

I even stopped using cover scent. I get odorless deodorant and thats it. I wash my clothes in nothing but water and always leave them outside in the fresh air. I get dressed outside and undressed outside. That way they wont get normal house scents on them as well as my dog.

I find attractant scents totally worthless. I tried using them a few years ago and never saw a thing for the rest of the season. I started just making mock scrapes and pissing in them myself or using scents bottled here locally from processed deer and that seems to work better than the bottled crap u can get at walmart or other sporting goods stores. More expensive but better than that Tinks garbage. Also will go over to the local processing plant and cut off tarsal glands to use as well.

I decided many moons ago, ESPECIALLY when chasing old bucks... the LAST thing you want to do is start them looking/smelling/expecting ANYTHING! It's hard enough to fool them long enough to have them come sauntering by you without figuring out you are nearby and about to drop the hammer on them. The LAST thing I want to do is cue up their senses and put them on the lookout for whatever it is xyzpdq product may or may not cause them to do.

"3-d camo", scent containment, sprays, scents, bla bla bla... just a bunch of CRAP whose BIGGEST purpose is to seperate the consumer from his $$$. That's fine and dandy, this is America and we are a consumer driven economy but for alot of these clowns I think they honestly believe their own garbage and I REALLY get mad when they induce the young/novice hunters into believing that WITHOUT all these gadgets, gizmos, tricks and hooey that success is impossible. :s8:

JUST GO GET DOWNWIND OF A LIKELY SPOT AND WAIT!!! This aint "rocket surgery". :s1:
HL

hello everyone. I'd like to throw my .02 in. I personally have never had a deer come in due to calls or scent. The only thing i do is wash my clothes in water and baking soda, and use a little scent killer upon getting dressed. Have had alot of deer come from downwind. I;ve had more deer get spooked by calls than not. To each his own.

I've hunted for a lot, a whole lot of years and tried a lot of things.Some work sometime,none work all the time.
What I've found that have worked the most often for me are,True Talker deer call,scent killer,Tinks rut smoke sticks(the rut HAS to be on),leaf suits(the only camo I buy you can wear anything under it),Wal-mart doe pee(great cover scent that I spray around me never on me).That's about all I need to hunt.

funny thing about this article
 

Funny thing about this article, I had the same thought. Well, I have always been a little skepticle about all these scent products out there.. I guess as hunters we want to believe, so badly, that all this stuff works, and we try to not question the legitimacy of these companys. But I just had to know, so I did somthing I have thought of doing for a long time. On monday, which was 4-days ago, I e-mailed Tinks. I asked them about there tinks 69 product. I purchased a bottle last year and wondered if it would still be good this year, I also asked them why they don't put an experation date on the product, so we can purchase the freshest scents from our retailer... guess what !! They didn't respond. I kinda figure they wouldn't. Then I tried to put myself in there shoes. Look, if they dated there product there dealers would not order anymore than they think they could sell in one season, because who would buy an out dated product, and you know the company would loose money if they had to buy unused out dated product back from dealer. I, as a consumer of other goods, don't fall for other's advertising hype. but when it comes to hunting or fishing, ( I regret to say ) ' I Jump in with both feet"... I have a little story I need to tell that somewhat applys here, I worked at a boat factory in Minnesota for over 30 years, there was one occasion, where one employee was chosen to get a chance to fish with the pro's, these two guys had a fishing program on televison, which is broadcast through out the midwest. Now this lucky employee was a good friend of mine, and we had fished a few tournaments together. so he was very excited to get the chance, maybe to learn from the pro's, well he met up with the two brothers, along with the TV crew and there people, they were there promoting a new lure that was suppose to be deadly on walleyes. ( or so they said ) Heres the deal, The two pros, along with my buddy would cast these lures out, they would then shut the cameras off, real in the lures, cast it out again, but into the camera boat, were they would hook on some nice fish they had brought with them ( apparantly from there tanks back at there facility) put them in the water, and turn the cameras back on, as these pro's would fight them back to there boat, and then begin to tell the story of how they where working a small hump in middle of the lake, when in actuality they were only in three foot of water, right off the public access. Oh, and some of these fish were used many times throughout the day ...
This is just one example, that makes me question. can we as sportsmen, honestly believe what we are told, Personaly, I can no longer watch a fishing or hunting show , without thinking of this instance.
Just My Opinion, Stevie

99.8% commercialized (opinion). My strategy is take a dump at home before hittin the woods, then be very still once on stand.

Of course it is all hype.

Most of these toys are gimmicks, and work marginally at best. I've grunted & bleated at deer that I could see, all they did was look over for a second & go back to eating. I know rattling works occasionally when there is a large buck/doe ratio, but I don't hunt these kinds of places.

The estrous? Occasionally a SMALL buck will fall for it when bucks are chasing does full throttle, but that's about the best you'll do.

Save your money, put in your time, and try to keep the wind in your face. It's not really rocket science.:confused0024:

exactly!!!

Myself I don't buy into al the hype and sales pitching. I guess I'm kinda set in my ways and a tough sell.

To me though it seems that at least 50% of hunters will see the latest, greatest hunting gadgets and throw money. That 50% will increase steadily because that is just how so much of the younger generations are. Gotta have it. Can't go without it. All my friends have it......

And the manufacturers of the products invest greatly in their advertising to make sure they get the attention of those guys.

Not only hliarious...effective as well!

99% of the attractant/deer scent stuff is bogus along with all the other things that aren't needed. Take the Acorn Cruncher for example!!

My thought.....if you like to hunt and put your time in on stand, you will be successful. Those that want to walk in 100 yards off the road, 15 minutes before sunrise and sit until 9am are those that buy this stuff. Any perceived edge they can get they will try to purchase because walking a mile in on public land and sitting all day is not something they will do.

This stuff wasn't around 30 years ago when I sat stand all day with my dad, changing stands as the wind changed and we have put many deer in the freezer over the years.

What every young hunter should do
 

Nothing wrong with over-rating and over-hyping hunting. But every young hunter should go to a big box store and look at all the items available to the hunter, and realize they'll only be able to afford some of them in a lifetime of hunting.

I hate the stuff. For every time it works it screws me up 10 times. I was in northern Wisconsin way back on public chunck of land Saturday. I see this deer so I grunted. Half hour later it comes grazing. An old doe. 5 yrs for sure. It didn't have a care in the world till it got down wind of my doe in heat bottle. From then on it was stomping feet, quick head turns, and looking around all nervous. By the time I pulled back my bow it takes off snorting. I don't know if I would have gotten the deer but that stupid doe in heat bottle put the hurt on me. Ironically if it happened to be a buck when I grunted and it came in I would have thought it worked. I won't use it at all anymore. Wash your hair, arm pits and butt and you will be better served.

The key is knowing WHEN and HOW to use stuff... I have been hunting for almost 10 years now and have been studying hunting and learning every year. In the past 3 years I have put down 2 wall hangers. They will keep getting my money because I have seen them work.

No offense but 10 yrs while commendable aint jack. Keep paying for the hype and keep us posted on yer success.

Good luck this year.

hope I'm not giving away my secret here...

but I'm sold on washing my clothes in scent free wash/no UV brightners etc...

and using scent killer spray before I go out...

those 2 I'll take over "scent lok" any day!

as for cover scents and attractants, doe pee, etc... I'm not into that stuff, more hassle than production... and I've never seen any success from it either.

I'm probably in a high doe area.... and believe in part that doe estrus works less well when bucks have many does to choose from vs. none/very little, if you were in a high buck to doe ratio area I'm sure doe estrus would work better, as would calls etc....

I always have a grunt tube...

Calls and rattling do work. I've been a avid bowhunter for 23 years and can honestly say that i would have never brought in the bucks i have from just sitting in the stand. With a drought of property to hunt i've settled for small parcels that require calls and rattling to attract the bucks from long range to my area(during pre and rut only) Have i screwed myself by calling and rattling (yes) but for the times I did it right there was success. I use deer urine for mainly scent cover. Figure it this way... If its authentic whitetail urine it will do you no harm and only benefit you because it symbolizes traffic. I've called bucks in from hundreds of yards away that had no intentions of heading my way. Use a call and rattle but like everything in life use discretion.

Same here!! Plus hunt with the wind in your favor.

My brother was deer hunting last week and used the scent killer spray. A fox came along and when it got to the trail my brother came in on it stopped and started looking around. Apparently it smelled where he walked in.

I heard one time that people smell vegetable soup and deer smell peas, carrots, corn, tomatoes, etc. I don't believe for a second that any spray or cover scent works.