Making
Sense about Deer Scents
(Originally
published in HuntOnly.com)
©
By
Othmar Vohringer
Commercial
Deer Scents
Two
basic types of commercial
scent are marketed: Attractant scents and masking scents. Attractant
scents
come in two varieties, sexual attractant scent and curiosity attractant
scent.
Sexual
attractant scents
contain doe or buck urine interlaced with various glandular scents and
hormones.
Curiosity
attractant scents
contain plain doe or buck urine. Others may contain different deer food
scents.
Such scents can be interlaced with urine and other scents such as
vanilla,
anisette, peanut and herbs. Although these scents are not a deer food
their
smell is pleasant to the deer and appeals to their natural curiosity.
Masking
scents contain a
wide variety of substances intended to cover up human odor. Most cover
scents
imitate the smell of deer and food sources or other animals such as
coyote,
skunk and raccoon.
The
value of the scents is
a controversial topic. There have been no scientific studies to prove
or
disprove the merit of scents, but many accomplished hunters will attest
to
their effectiveness. However using scent to attract deer is not a
strategy that
will work by itself but is rather on small part of a hunting strategy.
In order
for scent attractant to work it has to be applied where deer are
traveling at
the time the hunter intends to hunt a given area. No deer will make a
long
detour just to investigate a scent.
Deer
Smells and Scents
Honed
by the constant struggle for
survival, the whitetail's senses of smell, sight and hearing presents a
formidable challenge for hunters. In the day-to-day struggle to
survive, the
whitetail deer’s nose may be its best protection. Few animals
have a better
sense of smell than the whitetail. They can detect odors much better
and from
considerably longer distances than humans. A large portion of the
whitetail's
brain is devoted to odor reception and interpretation, and its nasal
chamber
can concentrate odors so they're more identifiable. A deers sense of
smell is
directional, meaning a deer cannot only identify the source of the
smell but
also the approximate distance and direction the smell comes from. It is
assumed
by scientists that a deer even can tell how long ago a deer has
urinated just
by smelling the urine.
Scents
in Nature
Weather
conditions affect how well
deer detect scents. Steady breezes carry odors long distances,
especially in
flat, open country. Gusty winds disperse odors, making it hard for deer
to
locate the source. Dead calm conditions limit the distance at which
they can
detect intruders. Warming and cooling air can move scents toward or
away from
deer. In the morning, warming air carries scent uphill. In the evening,
cooling
air carries it downhill. Humid conditions, including a light drizzle,
greatly
improve a deer's ability to smell, but heavy rain washes odors from the
air.
And it's usually harder for deer to detect the odor of a hunter above
the
ground than one at ground level.
How
to Use Deer Scents?
When
using deer scent, you don’t
want to confuse it but give the nose what it expects. Whether
you’re after a
buck or a doe, the right scent at the right time can put more animals
in your
shooting lane. Many hunters don’t clearly understand how to
use deer scent and
often have disappointing experience when using scents. They must
realize that
using sexual-based scents too early will chase away does and bucks. The
whole
idea of using deer scents is to bring deer towards your stand. The use
of
scents should help you position a deer so to allow you to draw the bow,
and
make a good shot. Scents can really help, but you have to learn to use
the
right scent at the right time. Besides using the wrong scent at the
wrong time
of the season is a fact that many hunters use too much scent. Read the
label on
the bottle and if it says, two drops then don’t empty the
content of the bottle
in one place. Too much scent will spook deer away. Deer know what they
smell
like at what time of the season and they also know how strong the smell
is.
How
to Choose the Right Deer Scent?
Doe-in-heat urine is most effective during the actual rut but can
actually hurt
your chances of scoring if used too early in the season. Why? For one
thing,
you want does to come your direction while you’re hunting.
Bucks are often
nearby, often slipping along secondary trails, paralleling the
doe’s movements.
If a herd of does pick up the scent of a doe in heat they will vacate
the area.
Does that are not in heat learn to avoid the rutting bucks.
Buck-in-Rut
Scents
Except for the brief period of the rutting season when whitetail bucks
are
actively seeking does big bucks are very reclusive animals. Things
change quite
a bit once testosterone starts to flow in them. However, bucks in your
hunting
area won’t magically go into rut just because you pour a few
drops of
doe-in-heat scent on the forest floor. Of course, you might get lucky,
and a
buck that’s not rutting might react positively to a scent.
But more often than
not, even the most dominant buck won’t get his buttons pushed
by the scent of a
doe in heat, until his instincts tell him the time is right. Again,
influencing
deer movement with scents is all about using the right scent at the
right time.
When that right time is will be revealed to you by observing deer
behavior in
your hunting area. Are the bucks still together in a bachelor group?
Have they
started to separate and fight with each other? Have the bucks started
to follow
the does around? Answer these questions and you will know what scent to
use.
Scent
For The Early Hunting
Season
During the early season (roughly from September through early October
in most
parts of North America), hunters should play to the
whitetail’s most basic
instincts: Security, curiosity, and hunger. General deer attractants
are what
you want to use. The same applies to food-based scent as to sexual
attractants.
If the deer know that there are no other deer the size of and elephant
then
they also know that there are no acorns the size of watermelons. The
same holds
true for food scent. Using apple scent where there isn’t an
apple tree around
for miles defeats the purpose and will scare the deer away. Also there
are no
cornfields in the middle of a pine forest. Use food scents where the
food you
mimic exists and at the time it is available to the deer. For example
use corn
scent in and around cornfields and when the corn is ripe.
Personally
I do not and
never have used food attractant scent. My point is this. A particular
food is
either available to the deer or it is not and if it is then
what’s the point in
using that food scent. On the other hand if that food is not available
to the
deer then it pretty much is useless to fake the existence of the food
with
scent. Some hunters use food scent as cover scent. Personally I do not
want to
smell like an apple or a corncob and risk that a deer detects me.
Besides apple
don’t grow in pine trees and neither does corn.
Examples
of How to Use
Scents Properly
General scent attractants can be used to not only bring a deer in
close, but to
position it for the optimum shot! Here’s how to do it.
We’ll use one example,
and you’ll see how to adapt it to any type of terrain.
Let’s say you know of a
thick holding area (the classic in many areas is the wooded swamp or
thicket)
near a good feeding area (like a corn or other crop field). You know
the deer
travel back and forth between the two areas, but in scouting, you might
find
5-8 different trails they use at different times. Obviously, you
can’t be
sitting on every trail at the same time. So you might pick a stand
location
somewhere in the middle, and lay down a scent trail that will help
funnel deer
right past you, no matter which trail they start out on.
You’ll use a footpad
or drag rag (both are available from sporting goods stores or you can
make them
easy yourself).
First,
slip quietly down toward the swamp or thicket
from the open area. Notice which way the wind is blowing, so you can
bring the
deer to you on the upwind side. Begin at one end of the thick cover.
Apply the
scent to the pad or drag rag, and lay down a scent trail that cuts
across the
various deer trails and angles up, out of the cover, to the upwind side
of you
stand. Add scent to the footpad or drag rag occasionally, increasing
the
amount, as you get closer to your stand. Go over to the other side of
the thick
cover and do the same thing. Now, you have two scent trails, both of
which cut
across a number of deer trails leading out of the swamp or thicket
toward the
food source. Your scent trails are set so that you will be sitting
downwind of
any deer that follows them. You have increased your chances of steering
deer in
your direction dramatically. To finish setting the trail, squirt a
concentration of the scent onto a tree or brush about four feet of the
ground.
This scent station will stop the deer and position them for a good
shot. Pick a
spot that, should the deer pause to sniff on the scent station, will be
in a
clear shooting lane and broadside from you.
----------------------------------
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