BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
I liked how this ended.
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.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.
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.understand wind and thermals and play them to the best of your ability.
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.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.![]()
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.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 approach sent control like sound. If you're out in the woods with a hunting partner do you yell at each other or do you whisper?I gave up on all the scent stuff years ago. I'm a happier hunter for it and have noticed 0 difference.
I need to do the smoke bomb test some day in the off season. I have some really weird thermals going on I think. One of my stands is down low along a creek and the thermals always seem to pull towards the creek which is opposite of my typical W/WNW wind there. I watched a video where a guy tried to fool a former drug dog with various scent control methods and the dog found him immediately every time and they said a deer's nose was 10 to 20 times better than the dog.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, 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 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.
Milkweed seed is your friend. Use it often. Unfortunately, our best ground is down in the creek bottom. Always looking for a better way to hunt down there.I need to do the smoke bomb test some day in the off season. I have some really weird thermals going on I think. One of my stands is down low along a creek and the thermals always seem to pull towards the creek which is opposite of my typical W/WNW wind there. I watched a video where a guy tried to fool a former drug dog with various scent control methods and the dog found him immediately every time and they said a deer's nose was 10 to 20 times better than the dog.
Yes I do too. That's how I first noticed it. I thought the wind was blowing out of the west on top of the hill but down here I thought I felt it on the back of my neck so I threw some milkweed and sure enough it was pulling right down to the creek bottom (where the deer come from and probably why they come from that direction). I wanted to light some smoke bombs to get an even better understanding of how it moved and where I might be able to put the stand next year to get away with it.Milkweed seed is your friend. Use it often. Unfortunately, our best ground is down in the creek bottom. Always looking for a better way to hunt down there.
I have the same issue. My property basically slopes down from south to north but the northwest corner is a creek bottom and the north east corner goes up a small draw that goes to the east. Then then neighbor to the north goes through a bottom and up a slope to the north. My biggest problem is I have one access point and it's a poor one.You guys have an interesting idea about taking smoke in during the off season. I'd have to carry a stand and sticks on my back to get an accurate idea of what the wind is doing 20' up but I like the idea of searching out those bullet proof stand sites.
I hunt where we have a lot of elevation change mixed with walls of cedars on the ridge tops and ditches going up the sides of some ridges. This creates some pockets where scent simply goes straight up.