Mikey S.

So I was watching a bowhunting show the other nite on TV, half asleep, drugged up on allergy meds, eyes hurting from sniffing fletching glue and building hunting arrows............and I caught something on the show that got me wondering.

The guys we're getting set to go out for a morning of wackin' monster bucks on whatever "preserve" they had leased or whatever the story was, and I noticed something about all of them. They all had their camo hunting clothes....in the lodge. Why did I wonder about this? Well, because these guy preach "scent control.....scent control" and a bunch of other bs to us back here in real life, and here they are, standing in smelly house in their duds they plan on wearing to the treestand.....to kill a mature, huge buck. Not to mention, they hopped in their smelly trucks, drove to the spot, then hopped on a stinky quad and rode to their treestands. Now I'm smart enough to know that wind direction plays a huge role in how things play out for you in the woods, that's a no brainer, but seriously, it's become second nature to me(from reading tons of hunting literature, and personal experience) to NOT wear my bowhunting duds in the truck, in the house etc. I put 'em on before I leave for the tree. If I have to ride a quad, I at least try to put my outer layer on after I'm done riding.

Now all this thinking going on my head the other nite, made me wonder3 things:

1. How far do we really need to go to fool a deer's nose ?? And how good are these scent eliminating/containing products? The direction on the clothes say "put on downwind of vehicle" right ??? These dudes didn't, and they wacked some hawgs.

2. How good of hunters are these "TV PRO BIG BUCK KILLERS" ??? Are they really really good, or only as good as the property they lease, and the guy who grew the deer ? I'm not conviced these guys are GOOD myself. They know how to shoot, I'll give 'em that, but can they HUNT.

3. What happens in a deer's head when they whiff a human ????? It's not like they think words in english and say to themselves "oh no, there's a human in this oak flat, I better get outta here now!!" and run away. They can't think, they only react to instinct and conditioning right ?? The does don't tell the fawns "smell this footprint, stay away from that, it'sa man, he'll shoot you!" I think I've convinced myself that deer have no idea what a human odor is, or where it comes from. We all smell different I'm willing to bet. So learning millions of different people smells and memorizing them would be impossible, let alone determining which ones are good with a bow or not . I think that deer just simply pick up an unfamalier odor, and react accordingly to avoid it. This goes for deer in the wild. We've all seen pics of people petting deer and that business, so I'm a believer of the "wrong odor, wrong place" thought process. Deer aren't used to our odor in the woods, so they react accordingly to avoid it. However, I do believe they can associate us with danger, and maybe death, as I think animals in general can sense death of another animal, and if our odor is in that area, or they see us, there ya go.......they are conditioned to avoid it. Does that make any scents ??

So this lead me to think, that maybe, if all of us spent all year in the woods, would the deer get used to our odor, and no longer be afraid of us ????? Could we get a 150" buck to eat an ice cream cone out of our hands all summer, on public hunting grounds, then put and arrow in him the first day of bow season ??? [&:]

Should I be put in a padded cell ???

I'm gonna go finishbuilding my arrows now.....and eat some ice cream.

LouisianaTomkat

3 words: Fast-Fletch Detox

Dude you have sniffed way to much.

bigbulls

DING DING DING DING.... We have a winner!



There isn't a doubt in my mind that most of the hunters here on HNI could kill equally large bucks if we had the means to hunt on the same farms and ranches that the "pro's" hunt.

outdoorsmen

honestly i wondered the same things for many years now. i still don't have the answers either. i guess i could say that you can be as "good" as u want to be but it's the luck that counts and luck is difined in many ways.

jkcmerg

Mikey...i've wondered the same myself...We feed deer pretty much all the time from our house. We get deer in nearly every nite. Last nite we had 2 bucks come in to our home feeder (sits 15 ft off the deck) and my kids were loud in the house and the deer still came.

I believe the deer CAN get conditioned to humans. So that leads me down another path. We all state that we should stay out of our set ups as much as possible to not 'educate' the deer of our presence. Maybe, just Maybe..we should get in there as much as possible to acclimate the deer to us. Gain there 'trust' so to speak so that when opening day comes, they are not 'on alert' upon finding us in the woods. just a thought...

I go to my stand 2 times per week, feeding, checking game cam, ect... I KNOW i'm leaving my human scent behind each time. BuT...the deer still come in.

Just my thoughts on the subject....Sorry if i hijacked your thread a little....


Good luck this year!!

txjourneyman

I don't even agree that they are good shooters. I have seen too many poor shots not to mention poor shot selection.

Mikey S.

Aw you didn't hijack, I don't care about that. Just an interesting thought and it seems I'm not the only one to of thought of it. I'm certainly not going to abandon all my scent elimintating and controlling tactics, as I don't have time to live in the woods with the deer.........but it gets you wondering don't it ?

Lamfada

Ya know, that's an interesting question. Deer definitely get used to certain scents and don't associate them with danger. The last time I hunted (which was almost 20 years ago unfortunately) my partner and I had exclusive rights to a small piece of property that bordered a gas station. The best cover scent we came up with was a little bit of gasoline. Now that I'm not 16 anymore, I don't think I'd do that again if I had the same opportunity today, but it sureworked for that place.

kickin_buck

You make some great points here. I have also noticed the guy on TV wearing his hunting clothes every where and then climbing into a tree stand. I have the same approach as you do about dressing for the hunt, IMO it show you just how much of salesman TV hunters are. I also believe that deer do and can become conditioned to human activity. I don't worry about my scent when checking trail cams or hanging stands and I still get pictures, mature bucks as well as dumb yearlings. I cannot tell you how many deer I have seen come out to feed in a hay field while we were out their bailing, or how many deer have walked right up to the combine while dumping corn. So while I agree that deer can and do become some what conditioned to human scent, I still want to be as scent free as possible when I am sitting in a stand with a bow in hand.

DoePeeSteve

Bigbulls said most of it. Here's a bit more.

One thing that I've notice is conditioning. I have a friend who's killed all over North America. He stopped hunting for health reasons. His new passion, feeding deer, not hunting. The deer are conditioned. He drives an electric golf cart to the same place in his land to feed deer. They litterally come running. I've seen it from a distance. They literally eat from his hand. Now when me and another buddy took the cart at the same time with the same food, they came, but they kept their distance. Think they're not conditioned? It took years for this to happen. Those hunters probably spray themselves down as they're getting out of the trucks, off the 4-Wheeler, etc, but they're not hunting in the normal conditions that most of us hunt. That and other factors make it look easy and defy the logic most of us know for our own hunting rules. Deer that are not in a heavily pressured area will react differently to scents. When you're on a protected farm deer do not have the same concern or highten alertness they would on a heavily hunted game land.

Also you have to think about how many hours these guys spend on camera at these ranches, farms, etc. Do you think they shoota monster every time?No there's countless hoursand probablytrips where most of our logical rules took place and they were skunked or did poorly (in their terms... not for TV). Just my thoughts...