I know you can’t be 100% scent free, but I was wondering if studies have been made on what is the best cover scent available?
Thanks!
Thanks!
I've been a smoke proponent for a long time, but this year I'm going to try hunting without it. My plan is to smell like "nothing" and not use any cover scent at all. I have never had a deer flat-out spook after smelling the smoke... BUT, last year I had some concerns... I hunted a particular stand every day for a week straight (during peak rut) and there was only one way in and one way out. Despite making every day an all-day sit and limiting my foot traffic, there was no way to avoid leaving a scent trail on my way in. I even altered my path daily to try not to concentrate the scent in one trail. Unfortunately my scent trails bisected a major travel corridor in a field of reed canarygrass. I had half a dozen deer that week stop dead in their tracks when they hit my trail. They never did spook, but several of them DID alter their path and not in a good way. I am fanatical about keeping my hunting clothes clean and free of human scent. This, and the fact they didn't spook, leads me to believe they were smelling the smoke and not my human odor. So long story short, this year I'm going without the smoke because I'd rather they smell nothing at all.
Synthetic scents are becoming more and more popular. Might be worth trying if wanted to.Nowadays with the widespread of CWD in North America, I try my best to stay away from companies that support & produce products like 'Evercalm' or any other kind of deer attractants that come from captured deer, such as urine ('Tinks', 'Deer in Estrus' , etc. etc).
Natural attractants or cover scents that I do use during a certain times in the season are, White Pines (PLBs in pre-rut & rut) and/or corn, pumpkins, apples and/or salt/mineral licks (during late winter early spring for herd inventory purposes).
I can't say it's the right thing to do, it's just what I have been doing over the past 3 years or better.
I have experienced this exact same thing. I can't say that it's the smoke, but they picked up on it after awhile. Maybe smelling the smoke on vegetation near the ground instead of just in the air makes them think twice, I have no idea.... I got away from smoking since I started noticing this. I just try to be scent free as possible and play the wind the best I can.I've been a smoke proponent for a long time, but this year I'm going to try hunting without it. My plan is to smell like "nothing" and not use any cover scent at all. I have never had a deer flat-out spook after smelling the smoke... BUT, last year I had some concerns... I hunted a particular stand every day for a week straight (during peak rut) and there was only one way in and one way out. Despite making every day an all-day sit and limiting my foot traffic, there was no way to avoid leaving a scent trail on my way in. I even altered my path daily to try not to concentrate the scent in one trail. Unfortunately my scent trails bisected a major travel corridor in a field of reed canarygrass. I had half a dozen deer that week stop dead in their tracks when they hit my trail. They never did spook, but several of them DID alter their path and not in a good way. I am fanatical about keeping my hunting clothes clean and free of human scent. This, and the fact they didn't spook, leads me to believe they were smelling the smoke and not my human odor. So long story short, this year I'm going without the smoke because I'd rather they smell nothing at all.
Yea, for sure. There's no way to avoid it completely. But I, as a human, can smell the smoke plain as day, and I can't smell my own human scent.... So imagine how strong the smoke is through the nostrils of a whitetail deer, who's got something like 30-times the number of scent receptors if I remember right. I think the smoke is fine for up in the tree. I've had lots of success with it as a cover scent in that regard. But I think if it's on the ground in an area you can't avoid, especially in a cumulative fashion, it might be an unnecessary red flag raiser for the deer. Like I said this is all just my own theory so I'm going to give it a try this fall. I just didn't like what I was seeing last fall in the deers reactions.I think they'll smell you, Jim. Could be wrong but unless you have a jet pack and fly to your stand I think they'll still pick up traces of your scent.
See above Jimbo.Yea, for sure. There's no way to avoid it completely. But I, as a human, can smell the smoke plain as day, and I can't smell my own human scent.... So imagine how strong the smoke is through the nostrils of a whitetail deer, who's got something like 30-times the number of scent receptors if I remember right. I think the smoke is fine for up in the tree. I've had lots of success with it as a cover scent in that regard. But I think if it's on the ground in an area you can't avoid, especially in a cumulative fashion, it might be an unnecessary red flag raiser for the deer. Like I said this is all just my own theory so I'm going to give it a try this fall. I just didn't like what I was seeing last fall in the deers reactions.
Yea, I get it. Like I said I've had smoke help me plenty of times. Last year though, I saw it not help a handful of times too. I'll say this, I usually hunt in areas where smoke is a common odor. But last year, that was not the case.... So that may have something to do with the results.See above Jimbo.