My Approach to Scent Control for the Fall

[ahab78]

I hunt family land in Southeast Georgia, so much of what I will say will really only be applicable to people who hunt private property. I have several food plots and corn feeders on my property to mainly attract deer and hogs year round, and to also give them a real alternative to our crops and keep them from cleaning us out of the food we work so hard to grow.

I keep game cameras on my plots and feeders and I noticed something peculiar that I thought was worth sharing with the forum. When I visit my feeders, the deer do not return for a few days, but when my dad fills them for me (he is retired) there are pictures of them there just before he gets there and then immediately after he leaves. I asked him about it and he said that was normal. Deer regularly watch him work in the woods. He said last week he was chopping some wood and two bedded does just watched him and didn't bother running off. Crazy.

So here's the thing: my dad does not hunt, but he is on the property either walking or working every day, pretty much all day. Bottom line: they don't see him as a threat.

So here is what I'm doing for this upcoming season: I'm coming straight from work or working out and going straight to my feeders. I'm going to handle the corn and step all over it. I'm walking in the food plots and I'm regularly walking the property. No scent killers. No rubber boots. No wiping down cameras or feeders. I want them to know my scent.

So come fall, when I'm wearing my rubber boots and I've washed my clothes and my ass in scent killer, and I'm playing the wind, if they do get a whiff of me, I hope it will buy me that extra second or two to make a good, clean kill.

Of course, I may not kill a thing this fall, but I'm going to try this strategy. (I'm not a trophy hunter -- just hunt to fill the freezer, so I'm not expecting this approach to help me bag any P&Y bucks!)

Let me know what ya'll think.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Interesting approach, I just read an article in the last few days that was on the same lines.

But was on "sounds" may have been on this forum it's all running together right now lol.

But same theory  people walking talking and acting normal deer get use to this type of noise activity and it doesn't register as a threat.

Keep us inform on any data you collect along the way.

[Michael Arnette]

One thing you might try, if your dad has a habit of filling the feeders as well as you. You might try accompanying him while he does this. You get in your stand and have him leave. Deer can't count IMO

[Sam McMichael]

I totally agree that deer get used to seeing certain people on a regular basis and don't have an undue fear of them. My place is surrounded by other homes, so human scent is part and parcel of a deer's daily life. However, deer seem to be able to determine if that scent comes from close or far and take that into account. One frightful encounter illustrates that they are very quick learners, though. Whenever I run the tractor in the food plot area, I can come in the next day, and fresh tracks are everywhere. Your idea just may work.

[highlow]

Good idea Michael. Or maybe wearing some of your dad's clothes.

I've always thought that walking around your hunting property on a regular basis is actually a good idea. That is, if you have the time to do it. The deer get used to you being around and leaving your scent so that when opening day arrives, they're none the wiser.

The theory about not entering or walking around the property until hunting season has its advocates and like I said, this is the way to go if time is a factor. The sudden appearance of humans and scent around the start of the hunting season, to me, is a dead give-away that something is afoot. And a big old buck doesn't need much more than that to do a disappearing act.

Just my $.02.

[crazynate]

Interesting approach .  They might get  used to your scent during summer and spring but come deer season I think deer are more alert to scents. You could walk right by the same deer every day during the summer and he might not cares come fall it seems like they know they're being hunted. I hunt lots of state land and people are out there all the time. It doesn't bother the deer until mid October. Then any little scent or noise and they will go nocturnal. Just my observation. I don't use scent products or anymore those well marketed items. I just hunt the wind.

[ahab78]

I think you are all right, but one of the things I think deer pick up on quickly, especially where I live, is the sounds of firearms, which I think gives them the heads up that hunting season is in. The good news for me is that here in Georgia I'll have about five weeks of archery-only hunting and I'm the only guy in 5 miles who hunts with a bow, so I'm hoping this strategy will pay off for me and I can bag a few in those first five weeks.

We've got a few mature bucks on the property, so if I have a shot at one of them I'll have to do it in those first few weeks of archery season. More good news is that I did scouting in the last week of hunting season and I found a couple of sanctuaries used by these deer. Thick, thick places that gun hunters here completely overlook but that are perfect for still hunting with a bow. Of course, there is no guarantee the same deer will be in those spots, but what looked good for one mature buck may look just as good to another. I know where I'm hunting when the shooting starts!

[Valkyrie]

On my property I can almost drive up to any deer on a quad. The second you walk in they are gone.

[Pine]

I read an article several years ago where the author would go to his stand every few days and leave a shirt that he was wearing .
He did that starting a few months before deer season .
He claimed that deer could be down wind of him while hunting and not get the least bit nervous.

[highlow]

We too have a few weeks prior to any gun season so that has no effect on the deer around here. Going to put my theory to work this spring and summer.

[Roy from Pa]

Deer know the difference between a bow and a fishing pole too. We fish our pond very often all summer and the deer just walk on by at 20 yards or so like we are no threat. But let me be in my stand 40 yards from where we fish and they stay 60 yards from me. Might start casting rubber acorns from the tree stand. LOL

[Mike Bolin]

I believe Roger Rothaar wrote about acclimating deer to your presence years ago. Can't remember if it was a magazine article or in one of his books.
He was spooking deer on his way to his stand. After the season he would walk to the stand on a regular basis. After awhile the deer became accustomed to his walking past and paid him very little attention.
It has been several years since I read this bit I think that I am pretty close. I will try to find the article/chapter where I read this.

[degabe]

As soon as it dries up I will start riding my quad into my patch of woods then in Sept I start throwing out just a little bit of corn. They get used to me being there every morning and once I add the corn they will be waiting for me almost every day. When hunting season opens I have my wife drive and drop me off at my blind. It has worked for years.

[ahab78]

We put a lot of emphasis, as we should, on scent control and playing the wind, but I think it is also wise to pay attention to whether or not they can see you. As a few of you have just mentioned, most of the deer respond just as much to what they are seeing as to what they are smelling.

I think it helps to plan how you are going to get into and out of your hunting spots. I plan on mainly still hunting on the ground this season. While I'm walking the property this summer, I plan on constructing ground blinds along my planned routes every 50 to 100 yards. We have two predominant winds here and those dictate how I hunt, but I am thinking now it will be better to go a little bit out of my way to avoid being seen.

I read a G5 article a month or so ago about a guy who nailed a monster buck because he figured out the does were laying on the edge of the bedding areas so they could see when the hunters were walking up the road to get to their stands. This guy slipped through the woods parallel to the road to avoid being seen and he had success.

[George Vernon]

Deer seem to be able to accommodate things that repeatedly offer no threat.  And successive generations seem to learn the same response.  Many farmers will tell you they often have to stop their machinery to let deer slowly move out of the way.  But remove the noise of the machinery and/or put the farmer on foot, and the deer move immediately.

For a number of years, I lived on a small farm in Indiana.  During each winter I would put shelled corn on the long driveway and would rattle or shake the bucket to attract deer.  I could see them coming more than a 100 yards away when they heard the 'dinner bell'.  So just for fun, I took the bucket of corn a couple hundred yards away from the drive to see what their response would be.  Nothing.  Not until I returned to the drive in front of the house did the deer come running. So it's not only the event (sight/sound/smell) but the location as well.

[Slickhead]

I can see it now.
Primos new rattle corn can.
Replicates someone rattling a bucket of corn.
"Deer come running"

That's funny right there.

[maineac]

I have played around with the same idea.  I like to walk the property I hunt as often as I can get there to scout and just be on the property.   I think how you move can also affect reactions.  I think if you walk like a hiker the deer will stay put.  If you start creeping in November they will notice the difference and react.  Like lions in Africa, the prey animals know the difference in a pride just moving around and the posture of hunting cats.

[crazynate]

Rubber acorns hahahahahahahaha That's funny

[Overspined]

The less I've worried about my scent and the more I am careful of the wind, the more & bigger animals I harvest/see. I never wash my outerwear anymore. Ever. It's wool. Since 2005 this has been my experience and it works. The one thing I do is spray my boots, but who knows if that does a thing. Research would say probably not

[NBK]

We do that approach when baiting bear.  Same stinky clothes day after day, then as scent free as possible when we go to hunt.  
Not sure how it'll work on deer.