SCENT CONTROL FOR DEER HUNTING - MYTH OR FACT?
Welcome back to the blog!
Hope you guys are doing well. For me, i never thought a tooth could wear a man down so much as one did for me…! finally fixed and i’m sure a large bill later will come. But enough about me and lets get right into it!
Scent control for deer hunting is a touchy subject and people get into heated conversations about it. I love having normal conversations about subjects i enjoy talking about. Everyone has a opinion and that can be a good thing or a bad thing.
As always i am no expert on this matter. What i am sharing with you my thoughts and personal experience. I have hunted many different ares in several different states. Deer are wild animals. When we step foot in the woods we are in there home. Don’t forget that.
Deer have almost 300 million olfactory receptors in there nose and dogs have about 200 million. Humans are left with just about 5 million. Crazy right? Well what does that mean? It means they can smell pretty much anything lol. Why is it you can hunt one place and never seem to spook deer and hunt some place else and always get busted? It honestly depends on the deer!
buck i killed in ohio . Always staying scent free the best as possible!
I used to hunt a 30 acre farm for about 7 years. It was the best place to hunt then i moved and no longer could hunt there. The property backed up to a state park. Now the park obviously had hiking trails which means deer were used to seeing humans all the time and i’m sure they smelled them all the time as well.
I could pretty much set up anywhere and id see deer. I could have deer all about me wind blowing directly in there face and i wouldn’t get even the slightest reaction. Why? Well its because the deer were used to the smell of humans. It only becomes a issue when deer associate the smell with danger.
Over time hunting the same place deer were becoming alert of my smell. I would have 10 deer about me sometimes and i bust a doe with my bow and then i just spooked 9 others. It took a while but deer finally picked up on it and were starting to associate my smell with danger. Obviously it just wasn’t my smell it was sounds, deer seeing me the list goes on. But you get my point.
Now no one else hunted here except me. Now imagine this situation on public land or in a club when you have 5,10,20 members all using different scent products, hunting bad winds, different deer pee etc. It can get pretty nuts. Sure deer are used to seeing people on public land but now with hunters they now associate that with danger. Its a never ending battle.
So for some people to say controlling scent is dumb, its BS, scent control products don’t work, its a gimmick bla bla bla you are wrong my friends. It all depends where you are hunting. If you say you never been busted by a deer smelling you, then you are either lying, or you have and just don’t know it. YES! by far you can kill a deer, A giant buck at that with doing nothing. You can leave your cloths in the garage next to the gas can if you want and you will kill a deer. happens all the time.
But did the deer smell you? probably not. 99 percent chance if he smelled you he would of been gone with the wind and you walking into the sunset!
BY far, the best scent control practice is hunting the wind. No matter what always hunt a good wind. If you don’t care then just do what you will because this is about helping others. Scent control is a real thing. When you do “nothing” and it sometimes works for you its hard to have a mind set change.
Every time you set foot in the woods you are leaving some sort of evidence behind to the animals. Now as mentioned above the one property i hunted deer didn’t have a clue until they associated me with danger. How does this happen? Well its from hunting a area to much, hunting the wrong wind, bad entry and exit, checking trail cameras to often etc.
Its always best to practice good scent control. I wouldn’t go overboard or become a freak about it but stick with the basics. Washing your cloths with scent free detergent, scent free showers, store your cloths in a air tight container, getting dressed in the woods and not leaving your home already in your hunting cloths. Using a good scent elimination spray like Tingleys northland this is what i use and trust.
No matter what you use, remember deer can freaking smell! If they associate your smell with danger they are gone! Yes you can get lucky and do nothing and kill a giant bucks. Its happened to me. As time goes on more and more hunters enter the woods and makes it even more difficult.
Attached below is a video check that out if you want to. Hunt smart and be safe!!
SEE YOU NEXT TIME! wooooooooooooooooo!