Whiff whiff!

[paleFace]

any of you ever smell a deer before you see em?  had about an hour to hunt this afternoon and i had moved a stand after watching deer use the same crossing time and again for the last two months so i decided to sit it to see what showed.

the wind was gusting here this afternoon so i didn't really expect to see much. any way just before last light i caught a whiff of a familiar smell. Deer!  i checked the wind and then looked in the direction of the odor. i was looking out about 20 to 30 yards when i caught movement right under my stand.  since it rained all weekend the leaves were wet and this fat doe had walked in right under me through the laurel. had i not smelled her i doubt i would have seen her first.

just wondering if anyone else ever gets a whiff of deer before seeing or hearing them?

[K.S.TRAPPER]

I've been down wind a couple of times when a buck was peeing through his tarsal glands  :eek:  

Smelled elk many times but I not sure if I've smelled any deer.

Tracy

[BigRonHuntAlot]

Yep,  Smelled deer several times... All bucks in the rut and actually stalked up following the smell and jumped him out of a lap pile.  He ate good too. LOL

[Danny Roberts]

Yes.

[Lone archer]

Smell rutting bucks and hot scrapes when I happen to be downwind.

[Minuteman]

Eeyup .

[dirtguy]

I'm an ecologist/soil scientist and work in the woods a lot. I spend a lot of time in the really thick cover along the edge of wetlands, often in rose bushes, green briar, barberry etc.  I have often smelled deer just before finding their empty beds and occaisionally just before flushing them out of their beds.

Minuteman - right on with the squirrel comment!

[Orion]

I've smelled a few from the ground.  Likewise with elk.  Never smelled deer while in a tree stand though.

[jonsimoneau]

Hey Rob, if you've got a nose that good, you should consider tracking wounded deer for people.  i really could have used you on my second buck this season!

[jonsimoneau]

What size collar do you wear?

[mmgrode]

[buckeye_hunter]

I've been able to smell fresh scrapes from a distance of about 20 yds, but not an actual deer. Wish I could smell them from about 100 yards though...hunting would be WAY easier. LOL

[Sharpster]

Yup, have smelled deer many times before seeing them, in rut, out of rut, bucks, does, (nose isn't good enough to tell them apart though) from the ground and from tree stands.

You can often smell foxes too.

Ron

[centaur]

Deer a few times, elk a bunch. Antelope are stinky when they are alerted, and I've smelled them lots. Javelina smell like skunks. If our noses can smell like we can, I can only imagine what we must smell like to animals.

[Tom Anderson]

Originally posted by centaur:
..If our noses can smell like we can, I can only imagine what we must smell like to animals.

Very good point!

[paleFace]

Jon better go with a 17 1/2" collar, i've been putting on the pounds since we moved in with the inlaws.  as an added bonus i've been known to howl like a beagle when putting on deer drives.    

[Talondale]

I've smelled musky smells plenty of times in the woods, mostly during damp days or early morning calm when it's real cold.  Most of the time I think it is groundhogs or some other mammal (muskrat) but a few times I've smelled bucks along trails or such but never when the deer was actually there.