Fooling game with foreign odors

[buckeye_hunter]

If deer are used to your scent they couldn't care less if they smell you. I had my own small farm and like Craig said the deer "knew" my scent. On my farm they would walk within 70 yards downwind(out in the open)of our campfire and not even blink. I could grill on the patio and the same effect. They would feed right there in the woods 50 yards away. I drove the tractor to cut the field and I could get within 20-30 yards before they ran. Same with my mower, they never even stopped feeding except to look over occasionally. I even walked the field barefoot in shorts to show a friend something and I was too lazy to get my shoes. We walked around a corner, down a path a circled right back 5 minutes later. What do we see but a buck eating grass right where I stood 5 min earlier barefoot! The scent never bothered them, but let them catch me moving even once in a spot they didn't expect to see me and all h%ll broke loose!


My point is...if the deer know you, the scent thing isn't huge. However, if you disregard the wind you will never see the GIANT BUCK that otherwise might have run through during the rut!

**Back to the question at hand***

Should you try putting out some kind of soap or dryer sheet scent? I personally would pass. The local deer might get used to it, but any non-local bucks prowling for does during the rut will blow out of there or never come in at all.

[KentuckyTJ]

This will be an interesting thread to watch. During our 2006 season I was hunting a farm that was right by a highway. The diesel exhaust fumes where very prevalent when the wind blew from it to you. I literally kept all my hunting clothes in a garbage bag that I would hold up to a diesel truck tail pipe before going to the woods. Numerous occasions I went undetected that year with my diesel injected gear. This guy came from downwind side of me one October afternoon and had no idea I was in the world.

 

[swamp donkey]

I'm sure you probably could fool smaller bucks n young does that way but I'm not so sure about mature bucks. They don't get mature by being easy to fool. I hunt the wind n put leaves and weeds from my hunting area in the sack with my camos so I hopefully fit into the area a bit better. I've had guys hunting urban areas tell me they smoke in the stand and still see and kill deer. But usually those guys are the ones who always shoot young deer. They tell me thats because thats all thats in their area, but I don't buy it. It may work but I'd be surprised if it did on older deer.