Trailcam pics

[BuckSutherland]

I liked how this ended.

 

[PatinPA]

Now that I have a small patch of land I can finally start my experiments. lol
I took a bar of Irish Spring soap, rubbed it all over a tree, then stuck the rest in the crotch of the tree. Checked the cam three weeks later and there wasn't any less or any more pictures than usual. (surprised) I want to try some dirty socks and underwear, maybe an old pair of shoes.

I've always semi joked about putting aftershave in a drip bottle and leaving it in the woods year round. Get the deer used to it. Then on opening day you slap some on and head out. Sort of reverse phycology / gorilla warfare.

I tried washing my hunting clothes in normal detergent this year. My neighbors are always outdoors and the deer bed right up against their houses so I thought maybe it's weirder to the deer trying to be scentless or having a cover scent. It was inconclusive. I don't feel that I saw any more or less deer and I don't feel I was winded anymore than normal.

 

[Electrodigical]

I can only imagine what deer smell and what they must do or not do with that information. I have smelled deer in the woods several times. Every time I have it's been sort of like "the idea of a smell". Usually I think to myself "you're nuts, there's no way you smelled a deer you're crazy". And then sure enough a minute or two later...

Same with when you shoot one, they stink. You think "how can they smell anything else, stinking like that?" I guess like your own bad breath, the brain shuts it off. We get so used to things like laundry soap the same way that we barely smell it. I've had that a couple times while hunting, "thought" I got a whiff of laundry soap, then thought it must be my imagination. Only to bump into a woman walking her dog about 20 minutes later. Thought to myself "How far away did I smell her that it took that long to walk into her, heading towards the each other on the same trail? If I could smell her, imagine how far away a dog or a deer can". Had the same thing with another hunter's residual cologne. "You're crazy." thinking it must have been a brain/memory thing, since I'd slept near (smelling) their jacket the night before. Found out later they were about 400-500 yards up the hill from me.

What I do now is, for about 3 weeks before season I wash all my clothes in scent free soap, so I don't accidentally bring things "stinking" like underwear that went through the regular wash. It's also amazing how long stuff holds the smell. Holding a hunting sock to my nose, I don't smell anything. Stretch the sock out and suddenly I'm whacked in the face with the smell of laundry soap. (Despite it having been washed in scent free stuff several times, and it been years since it was washed with regular soap.) Or when I'm in camp and can smell the laundry detergent, so I'll dig through my bag of hunting clothes and find the one sock that accidentally got in the regular wash. "If I can smell it that strong, good lord what the deer must smell." That's why I thought I'm never going to have them not smell me, maybe I can get them used to smelling me. If you lived in a state where baiting was legal, this would probably be pretty easy to do. Get them to associate certain smells with food.


Then we have other things, scent issues we can't do anything about and I've always wondered how the effected deer travel. The cabin is heated by an old kerosene stove. You can't help but smell the chimney exhaust when you're in the yard or down wind of the cabin. And that time of year and where we are, they wind direction is constantly changing. Are we causing a giant plume of new unusual, unnatural stink around the property that keeps the deer away and changes their normal travel routes? Wouldn't surprise me. But we can't really do anything about it.

 

[Electrodigical]

Zippity-do-dah The first deer on my cell cam since Nov. 14th. The mountain is just bustling with deer activity! lol

 

[Mortenson]

There's a guy who lives near our farm entrance. He burns wood in his fireplace all chilly season. Westerly winds take that scent towards the majority of the deer. Maybe I'd be a good candidate to smoke all our hunting clothes in a wood smoke??

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I went hard down the wormhole of scent this year (maybe we can make a thread about this not on trail cam section). I was getting busted despite having a crazy scent routine, it was driving me insane. Listened to a couple podcasts with a guy who trains trailing dogs particularly for law enforcement. The gist of it, you can’t fool a deers noise. That soap, smoke, cover scent, all being smelled by that deer, dog, bear, etc BUT he also smelling you. I think he said 88% of human scent is just a genetic footprint we all have, in fact certain European countries carry a “scent bank” of criminals in case they ever need to track them later on. This is our odor from hair, skin, breath, farts and so on. Then a certain amount is from diet and last a small percentage from soaps and deodorants and the like. So animals like deer have the ability to break down each individual scent and react without processing it. This particular olfactory organ they have (we don’t) is hardwired directly to their brain. So they don’t think about scent, they react. You can fool their eyes and ears because they have to go through multiple processes before the brain interprets it. Essentially our eyes are more like their noses. We see something and we don’t have to break it down. We see and react.

So if you covered your self in coon piss to mask your scent you aren’t. The deer will smell the coon piss and you. He can smell both plain as day. If by some means you were to overpower a deers noise with some means, he will likely get spooked by that and leave anyway. He can’t use his number one like of defense. This is above my scientific pay grade, but scent molecules attach at the atomic level not the molecular level. So without some ability to change scent particles atomically we are just introducing other scents by using some form over cover scent as opposed to actually changing what is being distributed through air currents. The example was, we walk into a kitchen and someone has just baked a cake, we smell a cake. A deer or dog walks in and he smells the egg and the flour and the icing, etc.

Sorry long winded but scent control fascinates me. I would go through all these painstaking steps as a bow hunter to try to make myself indistinguishable to deer and was still getting popped. The morale of the story, understand wind and thermals and play them to the best of your ability. Everything else is most likely comfort food.

 

[Electrodigical]

understand wind and thermals and play them to the best of your ability.

My nephew and I talk about this constantly as we're always perplexed by it. A least how it relates, or usually doesn't to where we hunt, or the fact that we're at a loss as how to apply it. Sitting in my tree stand opening day... winds at my back, then it's blowing in my face. Then it's at my back again and so on. Thermals are carrying my scent down the hill. So it's carrying it either towards or away from deer, lmao. Who knows? Because that only means something if I know where the deer are.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

My nephew and I talk about this constantly as we're always perplexed by it. A least how it relates, or usually doesn't to where we hunt, or the fact that we're at a loss as how to apply it. Sitting in my tree stand opening day... winds at my back, then it's blowing in my face. Then it's at my back again and so on. Thermals are carrying my scent down the hill. So it's carrying it either towards or away from deer, lmao. Who knows? Because that only means something if I know where the deer are.

Speaking my language, it’s so difficult. I wrestle with it all the time. I have a plan where I think the deer should come from, and then they come 180 degrees opposite. I just look to play the odds. Most of my deer should come from x and end up at y (usually a food source) so that’s the wind I play. Thermals may be more important than wind on most days. Wind generally doesn’t beat thermals until it hits 5 plus mph. Thermals are fickle and funny. There’s a mixing period in the mornings where they will fall before rising so that’s a factor, and then then you have to play the fact they will settle in cooler pockets low to the ground even if the air is warming in the am. Think shady spots in a field or something like that. Evening they should be falling consistently and I try to put some kind of creek or ravine at my back where they will be pulled to.
The best days are a steady, consistent wind. At least you know what you will get. Worst, dead calm. And you have to factor where your wind is blowing when accessing the stand too! Also stand placement plays a huge factor. I try to stay high as to avoid swirling or inconsistent winds. I’ll drop low if I have a steady, strong wind.
It’s a crazy chess match, and I lay in bed thinking about all the variables. I love it that way and wouldn’t want it to be any easier!

 

[Electrodigical]

I've spent most of my life wandering those woods and I have no idea where the deer should be coming from. We joke about "identifying feeding areas and bedding areas" We say "yes, the neighbor has a 200x200 yard field that's a feeding area. It's surrounded by 3k acres of nothing but bedding area."

40 years ago, this was field, that was an apple orchard, this was a field etc etc. Back then I had a clue. Now it's all woods of varying degree of density and I'm lost.

 

[hillrunner]

I went hard down the wormhole of scent this year (maybe we can make a thread about this not on trail cam section). I was getting busted despite having a crazy scent routine, it was driving me insane. Listened to a couple podcasts with a guy who trains trailing dogs particularly for law enforcement. The gist of it, you can’t fool a deers noise. That soap, smoke, cover scent, all being smelled by that deer, dog, bear, etc BUT he also smelling you. I think he said 88% of human scent is just a genetic footprint we all have, in fact certain European countries carry a “scent bank” of criminals in case they ever need to track them later on. This is our odor from hair, skin, breath, farts and so on. Then a certain amount is from diet and last a small percentage from soaps and deodorants and the like. So animals like deer have the ability to break down each individual scent and react without processing it. This particular olfactory organ they have (we don’t) is hardwired directly to their brain. So they don’t think about scent, they react. You can fool their eyes and ears because they have to go through multiple processes before the brain interprets it. Essentially our eyes are more like their noses. We see something and we don’t have to break it down. We see and react.

So if you covered your self in coon piss to mask your scent you aren’t. The deer will smell the coon piss and you. He can smell both plain as day. If by some means you were to overpower a deers noise with some means, he will likely get spooked by that and leave anyway. He can’t use his number one like of defense. This is above my scientific pay grade, but scent molecules attach at the atomic level not the molecular level. So without some ability to change scent particles atomically we are just introducing other scents by using some form over cover scent as opposed to actually changing what is being distributed through air currents. The example was, we walk into a kitchen and someone has just baked a cake, we smell a cake. A deer or dog walks in and he smells the egg and the flour and the icing, etc.

Sorry long winded but scent control fascinates me. I would go through all these painstaking steps as a bow hunter to try to make myself indistinguishable to deer and was still getting popped. The morale of the story, understand wind and thermals and play them to the best of your ability. Everything else is most likely comfort food.

I gave up on all the scent stuff years ago. I'm a happier hunter for it and have noticed 0 difference. I sure don't miss dressing out in the cold.