norsemen

When making an approch to a stand location, I make great effort' s not to go near
my shootin lane' s or were I expect mr big buck to come from, while watching a
tape last night, I watched a so called pro, walk up wind, into all his lanes and
spread scent all over, this gave me reason to think he was hunting fenced deer.
within 1 hour he had a 140 class buck on the ground, with my many year' s and
3 P&Y buck' s, even with rubber boots, if mr big hit' s human track' s it most likely
over, do you think I' m wrong with staying out of shooting lane' s, ? and do you
think my observation' s on the pro, might be a fenced deer? and by the way, he
was try to push his product, big buck lure!!

DaveC

Good question.
Sometimes I have to cross my shootingl lanes to get to my stand (woods are too thick to get through). But then again there is no P&Y deer where I hunt. Potential P&Y maybe, but none ever scene by humans.
Speaking of adds on hunting shows
The words " Big Buck Crunch" makes me want to throw up!!
" Just watch as I harvest this 400" buck while using BBC" next thing you see he' s holding the bucks head for picture time. I never saw it eat the stuff or get shot!!

Antler Eater

I feel the same way you do on this issue. If I can avoid walking on any of the area that I expect a deer to come from I will. It isn' t always possible to avoid a shooting lane but your way ahead of the ball game if you can. If you spread your scent around your asking for trouble rubber boots or not.

Often times atmospheric conditions will help or hinder a deer' s keen olafactory senses. Sometimes a guy can do everything humanely possible to keep his hunting site from being contaminated but gets busted anyway. Now and then by the " luck of the draw" a person kills a big buck in spite of numerous mistakes. There are those who cannot tell the difference between the two.

As far as judging a deers smarts by the size of it' s rack, well, IMHO that can be very deceiving. I have seen a number of free ranging P&Y bucks that were not as wary as some fork horns I have run across. The difference was hunting pressure. The forkies had got educated by hunters who made mistakes. The bigger fellas I' m referring to lived in an area where they didn' t encounter that kind of hunting pressure hence as far as deer goes, were on the naive side.

Rack-attack

The size of his rack really means nothing when it comes to smarts. Some areas 2-1/2 yr olds are bigger racked then some areas 6 year olds. Who is smaarter.

I will like you do all I can to stay away from my shooting lanes and all areas around my stand. With that said I have had some mature bucks cross my path a couple hours later and they never knew

norsemen

rack attack, I do have a little working knowledge ofantler development in younger
mature buck age structure, especially since the current world record typical is aged at 3 1/2 , the point I was when making on an approach to a stand location,
the majority of bowhunter' s would NOT like to have an approaching buck make contact with human track' s weather there 2 1/2 or 8 1/2, dont you think? and
if he does, well then you have to play the hand your dealt,

Rack-attack

norsemen - I think I agreed with you

And if I claim that smaller racked bucks can be smarter than larger racked bucks - I am simply patting myself on the shoulder[:-]

J Pike

I think its better to be safe than sorry, Does every precaution we take need to be taken ? probably not, but will we still take them? Heck ya!! but I can honestly say I have had many deer cross my entry path or were i walked to doctor a scrape and I have never had one of them spooked from my scent, even when a doe family group came past and hung around for a half hour feeding acorns right where I had just entered 20 minutes before their arrival. And where I Bow hunt here in PA. you will not find an area that gets more hunting preasure. For example; One of my precautions each and every time I begin a hunt since my first day ever hunting I have sprayed fox urine on my boots and it worked great here in PA. and in MD. well last season I started hunting in OH. and in OH. we have a million yotes, because of the yotes i decided not to wear any fox urine because I thought it might spook the deer, This really worried me because of the thought of deer cutting my trail, well it happened on numerous occasions last season and not 1 deer smelled my scent!! Does this mean Im going to stop wearing fox urine on my boots in PA. & MD.? heck No!! But the moral of the story is still its better to over due your scent precautions than not take enough of them, over doing it wont cost you a deer, but at some point not taking all the precautions possible might. Pike

norsemen

I follow you rack pike I also use fox urine as a cover if it' s a tree I plan on
hunting more then once, if there' s a particular resident mature buck I' m hunting,
many many times I' ve had family groups and yearling buck' s cut my track' s and
pay no attention at all, have also had very large buck, with a bunch of hunting
season under there belt, lumbing along, glassy eyed, not a care in the world except finding the next hot doe, then cut my track' s, stop look around, come back
to his sences, then buggie to the next county, like he was late for a job interview just a little note about fox urine in yote country, yotes are foxes biggest
preditor, because they compete for the same food source, mole' s and mice,
rabbit' s and so on, i have seen with my own eyes yotes destroy fox, so be carful
in using it, because you could be drawing in yotes, and that' s not going to make
the deer feel comfortable[X(]

J Pike

Norseman, thats the exact reason why I wouldnt even consider wearing fox urine in OH., Only here in PA. and MD., I have also on numerous occasions had mature bucks and even more mature doe' s, cross my trail etc. ( Nock on wood) and never once had them pick up my scent. Pike

norsemen

PIKE, I also bow hunt p.a. o.h.,, this fall it will be kentucky, But I have really
been hearing alot of good thing' s from maryland, I hope you kill a big slob[8D]
any place you hunt this year