attracting deer with scent

[boznarras]

Not talking about covering or getting rid of my own scent here....
What I am asking is what those who use scent recommend for attracting deer, and how do you use it?
Before the day you hunt to get them coming to a spot? Where do you put it in relation to where you want to place yourself, playing prevailing wind, etc.?
I see a bunch of stuff sold to attract deer and of course all of them claim to be the very best. What (and how) do you use?
Thanks
Walt

[FerretWYO]

Check out this Sponser from what I am told he has a lot of knowledge when it comes to this.

 http://smokeysdeerlure.com/

I am sure that you will get a lot of info here as well.

[Rebel Yelp]

Doe urine is a good all round scent -- before and after rut. Esterous and Dominant buck are rut time scents.

You can spray or purchase some scent wicks to hang. I like to tie 3 wicks to a string, drag it to my stand, and then hang try to hang it 20 yards away (also helps me judge distance on my shot).

I started using them years ago and I'm not sold that a deer will run up to you. Where I hunt there are usually other hunters moving the deer. Nothing beats patterning the deer and being in the right places.

[hightop_hunter]

I have had some good success with smoke sticks. their a sort of an incense but it smells like piss. the girl fried hates them. me though all i smell is big bucks.

I use it as a sort of active send. the smoke makes a line as carried by the wind. any buck crossing that smoke line will stop and rethink its approach in to the area.

In my opinion sents are to be used in correlation with other decoying device. e.g calls, a pop up doe, rattling. all in order to adjust the bucks regular day to fit your needs. don't put all your eggs in one basket.  

The smoke is thick and sticks to every thing. they burn for an hour and a bit. one usually enough. to do the trick.

timing is every thing. used out of season or in wrong wind set up and all the deer piss in the world wont bring them in.

an expensive lesson I have learned.

[YORNOC]

I never had any luck bringing a deer to me with any of the scents. I've had them stop and sniff on their way by long enough for a shot. Usually the younger deer are more curious. I've never had a mature buck give two hoots about any scent that I have put down. Even real tarsals, they paid no attention, just went on their way.
So if I use any, I will throw something in a shooting lane to maybe get them to stop for a moment.

[owlbait]

Lots of different scents and a lot of different responses from deer. I like James Valley scents and VS-1. This year I am going to make my own. I always try to set-it for prevailing winds if I'm making mock scrapes or scent posts. I think it is another tool to use and makes my hunting more interactive.

[Whip]

I don't use scents much anymore.  Not saying they don't work - I do believe that in the right circumstances they can be effective.

The problem with using them is that in order for a deer to smell the scent you have out they must be down wind of you, and I don't like deer down wind of me!  You can try to place them so that the deer would run into the scent odor before they ran into your own scent stream, but shifting winds can foil that plan quickly.

Also, I like to get in my stand and leave a minimum amount of my own ground scent on my approach.   I am very careful to trim a path to my stand so that I don't touch any brush or foliage as I get near.  Placing a scent canister out means I would need to do more walking around near my stand, thus leaving more of my own scent around the area.  I personally prefer not to do that.

[Cocklebur]

I second what Whip said. I have had very little success with scents. Maybe just the way I used them.

[bobman]

I use a manmade scent that smells like coffee....try not to get any on my boots

[Arwin]

I love playing with deer noses!!!    :D    

 Keep the scents close to you. I learned pressured deer especially will hang-up about 10yds away from your scent wick if it's unfamiliar to them. Keep it at 8-10yds upwind from the base of your tree.

 Be ready to shoot especially the first time using the scent because in most cases the deer is coming in curious and might not hang around for long. They just want to see what that smell is.
 
 Use the right scent for the time of year and be sparse with how much you use per hunt. Too many or too much smells at once can make deer nervous.
 
 Change up your scents too. Using the same one over and over spook deer esp if you get winded. They associate that smell with your presence.

 I don't mix food scents with urine scents come pre-rut/rut. Early season I like a little plain doe urine and Sure Scent. The doe urine more or less is there for a calming agent and the food scent lures them in. Late season I will use both a food scent(sparingly) and Whitetail Mistress estrus urine.

 Starting a mock scrape in late August or early September in my opinion, is better than most scent use methods if you are extremely careful where you place it and how often you contaminate the area to check on it or freshen it up.
 Once you notice the deer are keeping it open and used, back off your pre-season visits to the scrape and re-apply the urine when it comes time to hunt. I might visit a mock scrape twice before season starts.
 I've pulled in deer from outside areas starting a mock scrape. I like Scrape Plus to get it started and switch to estrous urine first week of November.

 Take food scents with you and leave the urine.

 I apply food scent to a cotton ball and put it in a plastic film canister. Pop the top and set it out during the hunt, take it with you when your done.

 Leaving deer urine on a cotton wick or in the dirt helps keep them around or coming back. I like keeping the scent low to the ground vs head height to keep from deer hanging up.

[warbird]

I have used scents and had some good results. It can be hit or miss. Certain scents work better during different phases of the rut and the implement of tactics with each particular scent can improve the odds of success. Cover/curiosity scent I like pure vanilla extract during the early season near feeding areas. Mature buck/tarsal gland scent pre-rut along a heavily used rub line or scrape. Works best when you have competing bucks in your area. Doe in heat scent peak rut thru post rut and I like to be on doe travel routes. I like to circle my stand from about 100yds out with a drag rag and drag toward my stand from a few directions. Then hang scent tabs in my shooting lanes. As always use the prevailing wind in your favor. natural food scents work well during the late season wear bucks hold up in the nastiest thick cover close to a food source while they recover from the rut. I cant say these scents work every year through out the season but they have afforded me enough good harvests in the past not to rule them out.

[Charlie Lamb]

I've used scents a lot over the years and results have been inconsistent at best.

One thing I do like to do and have had good luck with is kicking a bare spot in the dirt cross wind from my stand.... so a deer passing downwind will cross the scent of the fresh dirt before he crosses mine.

It can certainly raise a deer's curiosity enough at times to turn a bad situation good. Keep it within 15 yards.

I'll sometimes do one on either side of me.

[boznarras]

This is all good stuff. Thanks for sharing. I will check the sponsor link, thanks. I had not seen food scents.
I just got a bush in a bag. I am thinking of next season for picking out some spots to set up an amBush, maybe use some scent to draw them in or just get them to stop along some high use areas. When you can't hunt, you make plans for when you can, right?
Another question:
Do you do anything to store scent from one season to next, or is it not possible or worthwhile? Something like vanilla or the smoke sticks would probably not go bad, but urine seems like it would get funky and change a lot from its fresh smell, unless maybe you freeze it? How on that?

[boznarras]

Well, I see Smokey's shelf life is supposed to be 5 years if you tightly cap the bottle...I wonder if deer agree with that?

[frankwright]

I killed my first deer thirty years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. Homemade stand nailed between three trees, Blustery cold December predawn.
A big buck ran under my stand and out towards the fire road just before shooting light.
I was bummed, biggest deer I had ever seen and now he was gone. A few minutes later I saw him walking directly back to me, nose to the ground, smelling the Pete Rickard's deer lure I had put on my boots before I walked in that morning. Giant 8 point down, biggest deer killed on the land that year.
I was pumped on deer scents after that but 29 more years of hunting convinced me it is more or less hit and miss with mostly miss.
I have had some positive results. Deer sniffing a spot where I had put everything from store bought to homemade and also plain vanilla. But if I had to assign a percentage, I would say 90% no results at all.
I have better luck being scent free, making mock scrapes and keeping my eyes open.
I will sometimes still use a deer attractant but more often than not, I will do without.

[Cory Mattson]

Charlie - great tip

and like Whip I don't mess with it much anymore. I think deer are different now. Back in the 70s it was very easy and very common to bring deer in on a scent line. All the usual stuff you already know - even on boots worked - some guys even circled their stand at a 20 yard circle - that would never work now on anything over 9 months of age.  

anyway back to deer being different - I noticed them reacting unfavorable beginning mid 80s - and it has gotten more steady to the negative. Deer herds are older than I grew up on - talking actual average age of the deer in the herd. Herd structure is better now - meaning number of bucks to does - more bucks being an improvement - and there are lots and lots of more deer now than at any time in my lifetime. It is amazing really - I thought deer were maxed out in the 70s and there have been several geometric expansions since. These are all posative improvements BUT ?!

Point is I think deer found each other more by scent back then and did not know the other deer as well as they do now.

Now they do not even need to "find" each other - Constantly bumping into each other and constantly learn each deers particular scent.

That is most places - NC, SC, GA

In one of my best hunt areas we have one of the lowest deer density numbers anywhere and scents wrok well there - WV

Just a theory.
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[YORNOC]

As I said before I'm not too into scent,BUT....as an idea for you guys not wanting to foil your area.I did use a small slingshot from my tree stand to fire cotton balls soaked in urine to spots I wanted a deer to stop. Rubber gloves, open the plastic container, squeeze a bit and fire away. I could shoot a dense wet cotton ball 30 yards.

[brock donald]

I have done what charlie said. I make a sort of mock scrape with no scent, just the natural bare dirt dosent seem to ever spook the deer and most times brings em in clooser.  Killed a really old buck by doing this.

[SuperK]

I also have had limited success with scents.  I did have a small buck last year come straight in to some Tink's 69 with his nose up just-a-sniffing away.  One year I used doe pee on a drag rag to cover my scent as I went to my stands.  I had more fawns hanging around me that year than I ever remember!  Nowadays if I use scent, its doe-in-heat and I use it just before and during the rut.

Whip and Charlie echo my experience with attracting deer with scents.  Along with my three brothers I have used many different "doe pee" based scents - "Tinks" mostly.  Hunted many different areas, all Michigan LP and UP /terraine/pre-rut/rut/post rut...for years.

Personal experince is all I have to go by and I never got a hit!

Now grunting is a different matter...