Hunting with scents?!?! Help me figure this out!

[Miketodd]

Anyone hunt using scents? I have never used any but it seems like there is more pressure this year and I'm not seeing as much as I usually do. I hunt private land surrounded by more private land but the deer traffic seems to be down. I am ready to maybe try some scents but have never used them. It would be nice to shoot a buck but I'm just looking to fill the freezer this year. It is the first year I have been out in several years due to school.
Does anyone have any advice on what to use and when to use it?!?

 

[Chase515]

My hunting boots stay in a tote in my jeep and only touch the dirt in the field. I reapply ever calm deer herd scent when putting my boots on it works for me. Scents are expensive but I run 1 regular doe pee, and 3 different brands of doe in heat applying a different one each time I visit my mock scrape and giving a shot of it out of my tree stand to let the wind carry. I had 21 trail cam pics from my mock scrape in front of my ground blind in one day. Hung the camera Saturday morning a little after 9am and checked it Sunday evening around 5. I've got a scent dripper going and I'm tweaking my set up, not getting the action I want from it. I've got a brand new hs scent drag with doe and buck scent I've been procrastinating using not sure why. Saving it for desperation I think.

 

[Grass]

Would using scent killer work as well on wild boars

 

[MRP2003]

I have found that scents do work but they do not work miracles. If the deer are not in the area and there is a lot of pressure, they are useless. I believe that scents as well as scent killers give you an edge and the harder you work with them, the better they become in attacking deer.

I have used scents mainly on private property where there is little pressure. Only once did I have several bucks come to my doe in estrus scent. In that case, I did not realize that most of a 20 oz bottle had leaked out of the bottle and soaked my hunting pants. There was a slight wind that morning. Had a 4 pt come up over a hill at a full sprint and run to a small patch of trees to my left. I noticed he was with two other deer that I thought were does. He hung with them for about 2-3 mins and then made a bee line right for me. I watched him from 15 yards away stop, nose in the air sniffing and then he trotted back down the hill stopping every 25-30 yards to sniff again. About 10-12 mins later the two antlerless deer came right over to me as well. I shot both of them. When I got down, I checked each one to find out that they were both button bucks. When I went to dress them out, I started cleaning out my pockets and put my hand in my lower thigh pocket and felt that it was all wet and the bottle was empty. It dawned on me then that was why I could smell estrus all over the place. As I was dressing the first BB, I thought to my self that I better be careful as you always hear of a hunter who got attaced by a buck for having estrus smell on them. I continued to look over my back while dressing out both deer and when I dragged them out of the woods.

When I got home, I took off my pants in the garage and went into the house in my under armour tights and my wife asked what the hell smelled so bad. I laughed and realized that the estrus had soaked through. Toom a shower right after that and still had to spray my leg with cologne just to mask the smell.

Tried soaking a rag with a bottle of estrus every year and just keep it stored in a ziplock bag that was inside another ziplock bag thinking that if I just soak the rag and put it out high enough that it should work the same way. Well, it has never worked since.

I do pour a little estrus on my boots once I am in my stand during the rut but have had no results doing that as well.

Well that's my scent story. Good luck to everyone else using scents

 

[clfergus]

When I started using scent elimination and masking scents, my deer encounters improved a bunch. I read a study once that was done by a independent lab that tested Hunter Specialties Scent Away, Scent Killer and a few others. The Scent-a-Way products tested the best at killing the bacteria. I started taking a shower in their soap, washing my clothes in their detergent as well as spraying down before walking to the stand and every once in awhile while I am in the stand.

I also read a study in my bowhunting magazine that a police dog was used to test scent masking products like earth scent, pine, acorn, apple. It took the dog double the time to fine the mark when sprayed with acorn scent. So now I buy the acorn scent as well and when I get into my stand I spray the tree trunk all around me with the acorn spray and even my rubber boots.

I haven't had a deer look up and bust me since implementing these two but I would say the acorn masking scent has really made a huge difference.

I have tried the deer scents and had hung some special golden estrus this year. Most bucks walked right by it without evening noticing so I am not sold on that stuff.

 

[gregr]

I launder ALL hunting clothes in Scent Killer scent-free laundry detergent. I shower in Scent Killer scent-free shower soap. I spray boots and hunting clothes liberally with Scent Killer Spray before entering the woods. I wear a Scent-Loc suit under my hunting camo.
As for using attractant/cover scents: once the seeking phase of the rut starts, I begin to use doe-in-estrus urine that I get at Hoosier Trapper Supply. I`ve killed 2 bucks that I KNOW came in to the does pee, but that`s only two deer in 30 plus years of deer hunting. It can help, and it does work, but it`s no silver bullet. It also doesn`t hurt to have fox urine, and to put just a bit down near your stand, as fox are extremely people shy, and not a threat to deer, and that seems to put them at ease.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Use the deodorants, and the cover scents. Do use attractors but also do read the instructions and check the manufacturers' websites. Make a real effort NOT to contaminate yourself with attractors. You want the deer coming into the scents in your kill zone, not in to you.

 

[phylodog]

The only scent which has shown much of a benefit has been Evercalm. We've had a few deer follow our path to the tree since we put it on our boots before walking in. It seems to make them curious but not anxious. We usually leave the lid off and leave the stick on the ground at the base of the tree, forgot it a few years ago and caught a doe on camera eating it.

Every once in awhile we will have a buck freshen up a mock scrape we put out but for the most part they pay them no attention. We've used quite a variety of brands and have yet to find one that performed well enough to spend the money and go through the hassle. We have yet to have a buck follow a scent trail from a drag rag into our area. I'm pretty much over spending money on these. That said, they may work fine in other places, we also have yet to get a buck to change directions with a grunt or bleat call and have never had one do anything but look our direction while rattling antlers. Ours simply don't follow "the script" as they like to say on television. Don't know if it's got to do with the buck to doe ratio or what but if we kill a buck it's because we managed to get between where they were and where they're going.

My partner and I are pretty religious about scent control. Shower with scent free soap before heading out (normally two showers/day), all clothing washed in scent free detergents, stored in totes and this year we used the ozone generator from a Scent Crusher duffle bag and turned a closet into an ozone filled storage area for all of our clothes. I know many don't believe in the scent free attempts and I was skeptical of the ozone approach but we hunted the better part of 16 days this year, had deer downwind on numerous occasions and never once had a deer do anything more than stick their nose in the air for a moment or two. Proof enough (for us anyway) that the efforts aren't wasted.

 

[sugarcreekbrass]

I don't use any scents. I tried them in the past and only had luck with a coyote stopping at the scrape and gave me a chance to put an arrow through him. Like others I shower and wash clothes in scent free soaps. I keep my clothes in a tote and get dressed at the woods. Since doing this I have only had a 140-150" buck stop one step short of my shooting lane. He was just under 40 yds but came in from downwind. With a gun I would have had a shot. I don't remember the last time I had a deer blow at me in doing this. After shooting a buck I will cheat and dress with under layers at home. I will spray down when I get to the woods and that helps but I will have deer wind me when I cheat.

 

[rabidsquirrel]

Word of warning, use caution if you are carrying doe estrous on your person. Iv'e been chased out of the field TWICE by aggressive bucks on my way out after sunset. One of which I was carrying a doe decoy back to my car that had scent on it and I ended up throwing the decoy at the buck and running for it (bow season) (stupid, I know). So yeah, Id say they work.

 

[chubbs]

I've tried a handful of attractant scents with little positive result. I'm not really sure if it helped or not. But, this year made me a believer in HS cover scent wafers. Long story, but I seen deer all morning way away from my stand. So in the evening I moved to where they had been. I set with my back to a tree on the ground. The buck I killed walked 10 yards behind me 2 different times that evening. He was down wind too. He felt calm enough to walk out and broadside right in front of me. So I'm sold on the fresh eartg scent wafers.