c903

Have you ever been given or read about a hunting tip/trick and planned on trying it, but time passes, even years, and you still have not got around to giving the tip a try....just like getting things done around the house?

Many moons ago, when I used to hunt with (just) a stick, a string, and an arrow, there was an old guy who used to come into the local bowshop. He would shoot a few arrows (old recurve), and then sit and watch the activity, hardly saying a word. This guy looked like a thin and sinewy version of Grizzly Adams. His face was so sun-baked and wrinkled, he looked like leather relief map.

He lived on a rundown farm next to a local river. By chance, my brother, also a bowhunter, lived along the same river about four miles north of the guy. He and my brother became friends and we, my brother and I, were eventually allowed to hunt his timber.

We soon learned that the old man was originally from the hills of North Carolina, and that he lived and made his money strictly off the land. This guy harvested and ate wild growing plants I had always thought were just weeds. He hand-hogged snapping turtles and fished with baskets and trotlines. His primary livelihood was from trapping. I soon realized that this guy did not hunt and fish mainly for the sport; he was feeding himself and his family off the land.

One day I was talking to him about hunting tactics and we got around to talking about commercial scents. Back then the primary cover (urine) scent was " Indian Buck Lure." We also used fox and skunk urine. Other attractants were mostly apple spray and acorn paste. Anyway, the old guy growled and said the stuff was worthless and a waste of money.

I do not recall his actual words, but the essence of what he said was that I was not going to fool deer with newfangled tricks. He said that the deer in a shared area knows the individual smell of each other, and that their natural curiosity might allow a bottled scent to fool a young deer, but not often and not more than one time. Regarding fake or real food attractants, he said that deer know what they are going to eat, what they need to eat, when they need to eat a particular food, and where the food is located, and that fake scents would not lure the deer off a survival pattern.

His rules for hunting deer was simple…at least to him; know where they bed, know where they go to feed, know how they get there and back, be waiting, don' t let the deer know you are around, and do not introduce any odors to the area that are not familiar to the deer.

Here is what he did to cover his scent. He said that as a trapper he covered any human scent that might be on his traps and other gear he used when trapping, with wood smoke. When he deer hunted, he used the same processes and would smoke all of his clothing and gear by hanging them near a pungent wood fire. Just before he left for the timber, he would bathe and then put on his smoked hunting clothes. He said, that in most rural areas, the smell of smoke is so common it is natural to deer and does not spook them. That they know the difference between an active timber fire and safe smoke. I recall he pointed out to me how the acrid smell of strong wood smoke is an overpowering smell to humans (cannot smell anything else), and he believed it was the same with animals.

He made sense, and his obvious results tended to give merit to his theory. However, for the last 33 years I have always intended to try his theory but never have. Again, as I have planned to do for the last 33 years, I believe I will give the old guy' s theory a test this coming season.

davidmil

I think you could have the wrong effect on a lot of deer. For one, wood fires are not as prevelant today as they were in the past. Two, a little smoke blowing from over the hill and across the field is not the same smell as a 200 pound man that sat around a campfire hanging from a tree 50 yards away. I would tend to believe this would hurt more than help. ALL OLD HUNTERS and WOODSMEN are NOT always full of Wisdom and knowledge. Sometimes they' re just full of it.

That said, I have a couple places where I hang out in a tree 75 yards from some houses. In fact, one deer dropped dead between a guys tennis court and the patio of his $800,000 home. Anyway, with the right wind on a cold day you can sit up there and smoke or whatever with the guys chimney fire smoke getting in your eyes. BUT, the deer smell it all the time and pass on through like nothing is wrong. I' ve done it. They' re right at home. If you move 200 yards into the woods and try it you' re going to get busted.

c903

Takes one to know one!!

6ptsika

" His rules for hunting deer was simple…at least to him; know where they bed, know where they go to feed, know how they get there and back, be waiting, don' t let the deer know you are around, and do not introduce any odors to the area that are not familiar to the deer."

That' s the essence of deer hunting right there.

I do think his theory has merit, I' ve thought the same thing hunting small farm lots where every house around has a wood stove burning, every where you go in the woods it smells like that, and in areas where controlled burning is done, like where I used to hunt the Pine Barrens. You couldn' t walk a hundrd yards in there without your clothes turning black from the ash, but the deer loved the new growth.

Rack-attack

I can see it working if the situation is perfect. An area close to many wood burning stoves. I also agree with 6ptsika about the pine barrens. I hunt them often here on the island and they can stink like burnt wood if you are near a recent burn. Black soot all over the place.

Just to add something else. I have always wanted to experiment with moldy clothes. You know when you leave them in the washing machine and they stink. It is a natural and strong odor, that may or may not spook them deers

davidmil

Hey rack... I made some moldy clothes one time..many years ago ..... not intentionally. I ground up about 3 quarts of acorns, threw in some pine bows and even some fall leaves. Then I made the mistake of sealing them tight. Of course the first mistake was doing it 3 weeks before the season. Opening morning I open the bag and whew..... everything was mildewed and growing mold. Not a pretty sight. After about 3 hours in a tree---- I had had enough.[:' (][:' (][X(][X(]

c903

Rack

I would think that the moldy smell of laundered cloth left to wet dry in a washer would resemble the odor of body sweat.

Reminds me of my " try everything" days. I remember when I first tried natural skunk essence that is used to train coon dogs. About one hour in my stand I could not tolerate the smell any longer, and ended up with one giant headache.

During my time of hunting frigid weather that a Polar bear would be cold in, I came up with the bright idea of using a charcoal pot on my stand, situated beneath my legs. I became so dizzy I almost puked and almost fell out of my stand.

c903

davidmil

I know that many bowhunters throw various forms of vegetation in the bag or tub that contains their hunting clothes, and the material evetually decays. Beware of the vegetation rotting and creating a fungus/mould. The decayed material can throw off thousands of spores from the " aspergillus" family of toxins. You get those spores in your system, especially your lungs, you could be in a world of hurt.

http://www.mold-help.org/aspergillus.htm

benhuntin

I think it depends on what the deer are used to. I have had deer spook more times than I can remember when i reaked of campfire smoke.[X(]
I have heard (never tried) that turpentine makes an excellent cover scent when hunting the pines. Never know until you try.[:-]

Bulzeye

Nope.
Never heard of it.

I' m curious to hear how it works for you..

but for now, I' ll stick to acorns scent and deer piss.