Deer scents
- Thread starter Jetman
- Start date
Waste of time and money. If they can smell the scent, they can smell you. Play the wind the best you can, and hope for thebest.
I'm a scent junkie and use them throughout the early bow and gun season.
I do not buy into the "cover scent" stuff. The last three deer I have taken with either rifle or bow have come in, under 30 yards, while I was smoking a cigarette (figuring that it was late enough in the morning and I was going to knock off for breakfast).
I do use curiosity and attractant scents.
I will say that I can not tell you that they absolutely bring in deer, BUT I can say that they do not "chase away" at least the deer that came in and ended up in my freezer. So for me "I think they help" so I continue to use them.
In the early bow season I use curiosity scents in the form of the Tinks smoke sticks or Remington Apple sticks. I also put out feed (mixed seed and corn) and apples, salt blocks (apple, acorn and corn flavoured), plus bury the loose minerals (like deer crack etc).
Again in the early bow but closer to the rut (so this time of year) I add deer urine to the loose minerals.
As the rut comes on I add in the doe estrus scents - like you, in Ontario we have to use synthetic. I'm not overly brand loyal. I use Code Blue, Tinks X69, Estrous smoke sticks (there is a number of different brands but they all have the same patent number - so don't matter what it says on the pack) and just recently Monette pheromones mixed with doe urine.
I will add however, that as a vendor the suppliers usually kick me some "free samples". If I had to dump the funds from my wallet I might cut back, but not totally eliminate my attractant scent usage.
Like I said, "I believe" it works and have no evidence to show that it "keeps deer away" (it may well keep away more than it attracts ??), but where I hunt deer are not travelling from their bedding area to an AG field so I need to give them "some reason" to enter my shooting lanes.
The deer in my area are well familiar with "people" so I don't think they are spooked if they "smell human" - at least no where near as much as the makers of scent control would have you believe.
Maybe if you hunt somewhere with incredible amounts of "hunting pressure" the deer are more spooked - if bambi gets shot at a few times he might start equating human scent with danger, but in most parts of Canada that just isn't the case - an enclosed deer ranch in Texas might be different...
Last note - I "party hunt" with one other guy. He doesn't use any attractants. Our stands are a couple hundred yards apart (at least in the bow seasons). In the last 5 years I am 4 for 5 - he is 0 for 5 - coincidence? luck?
I do not buy into the "cover scent" stuff. The last three deer I have taken with either rifle or bow have come in, under 30 yards, while I was smoking a cigarette (figuring that it was late enough in the morning and I was going to knock off for breakfast).
I do use curiosity and attractant scents.
I will say that I can not tell you that they absolutely bring in deer, BUT I can say that they do not "chase away" at least the deer that came in and ended up in my freezer. So for me "I think they help" so I continue to use them.
In the early bow season I use curiosity scents in the form of the Tinks smoke sticks or Remington Apple sticks. I also put out feed (mixed seed and corn) and apples, salt blocks (apple, acorn and corn flavoured), plus bury the loose minerals (like deer crack etc).
Again in the early bow but closer to the rut (so this time of year) I add deer urine to the loose minerals.
As the rut comes on I add in the doe estrus scents - like you, in Ontario we have to use synthetic. I'm not overly brand loyal. I use Code Blue, Tinks X69, Estrous smoke sticks (there is a number of different brands but they all have the same patent number - so don't matter what it says on the pack) and just recently Monette pheromones mixed with doe urine.
I will add however, that as a vendor the suppliers usually kick me some "free samples". If I had to dump the funds from my wallet I might cut back, but not totally eliminate my attractant scent usage.
Like I said, "I believe" it works and have no evidence to show that it "keeps deer away" (it may well keep away more than it attracts ??), but where I hunt deer are not travelling from their bedding area to an AG field so I need to give them "some reason" to enter my shooting lanes.
The deer in my area are well familiar with "people" so I don't think they are spooked if they "smell human" - at least no where near as much as the makers of scent control would have you believe.
Maybe if you hunt somewhere with incredible amounts of "hunting pressure" the deer are more spooked - if bambi gets shot at a few times he might start equating human scent with danger, but in most parts of Canada that just isn't the case - an enclosed deer ranch in Texas might be different...
Last note - I "party hunt" with one other guy. He doesn't use any attractants. Our stands are a couple hundred yards apart (at least in the bow seasons). In the last 5 years I am 4 for 5 - he is 0 for 5 - coincidence? luck?
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im just starting to become a more serious hunter, walked some fields before but never sat and called a deer in, this is something I'd like to start doing more. Even if it helps 10% for what some scents cost in terms of gas, license, ammo, time , it's just a small expense to improve my chances. Decided to try it out this year I'll see how it goes
Scents have been used for centuries in trapping. Least that sound like high praise, consider that if a scent can consistently make an animal walk ten feet from where it wanted to be in the first place the maker and user will be down-right giddy with excitement.
Mount Sweetness
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Ontario
I used to really like the Wildlife Reasearch Active Scrap, but that was back when we could use the good stuff.
All the fake piss is junk.
All the fake piss is junk.
I've had several bucks over the years follow my foot prints into an area when I have put a dab of estrous scent on my boots. I have also had bucks come in from down wind like they are on a fishing line to estrous scent. I do think however it has to be right on the rut, or close to it. If it isn't the right time of year for them to smell estrous, I would think it turns them away.
I've had a doe with her nose against the ladder to my stand after I had sprayed the soles of my boots with a big buck scent of some sort. She ended up getting nervous and ran her fawn off into the thicker bush. After two quick buck grunts she immediately came back to smell my ladder. Not only did the scent keep her interested, but it kept a doe in heat around for a while, unfortunately no buck came by afterwards.
Mount Sweetness
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Ontario
It's usually young bucks that come to the scent. From what I've found, the scent used to work early season on the 1 to 2 year old bucks.
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
I watched an episode of Michigan Outdoors years ago and they were testing scents. They filmed more deer coming to a scrape scented with human urine than commercial scents on a scrape. They used real doe urine from a deer farm as well and had just as good of results with the human urine. Conclusion? Pissing in the woods surely won't spook them!!
