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Human Scent

I get the male hormone thing in piss, and the non threat thing ie tractors, farm trucks, etc but…… idk. I punt, lol.

The first buck I killed in Iowa was a 179” buck standing in the wet leaves I peed in 30 seconds before I killed him back in 2012


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Hunting the wind is overrated…I never pay attention to it and have 0 issues killing big mature bucks! Now, with that said different areas/deer are different. If the deer in your area don’t see your “scent” as alarming it’s a non issue. I had this theory and then upon reading one of Roger Rothhaar’s books he explained it very well as leaving residual scent all year long so they would learn to not see your scent as alarming. I believe it’s 100% true! I’m a pre rut hunter and that’s when I kill my big mature home bodies. I’ve only hunted the rut 1 year in the last 12 that I wasn’t already tagged out and didn’t have a mature deer on camera or seen on the hoof that year. I’ve taken 3 over 187” in that time span and the hunts were on 3 different farms but eerily similar in that all 3 bucks at 1 pt watched me climb into and out of my stand, I was within 10 yards of all 3 while walking in and I hunted all 3 with different winds for several days straight while seeing them almost daily and they would be downwind/upwind/crosswind and they all 3 resulted in the same fate. In fact I do try to make sure the wind is downwind where I can shoot because once you rattle they will head downwind and you better be able to shoot there…..


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Are you still using a smoke cover scent?
 
Are you still using a smoke cover scent?

Hit or miss…..I’ve learned to hang the clothes on my clothesline and smoke them with the bee smoker so it’s not as strong. When I would do it right before going in, they would not like it. I’ll wash them in scent free detergent and wear the outer layers 2-3 times then smoke them, then wear them 2-3 more before washing and repeat. Outside of that I don’t use any other “scent control”. I tried that cedar cover scent made in Iowa a couple years back (Big Buck Ruiner) I think it’s called and the deer smelled it and would react instantly…..


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Here’s a good one for you…I have killed 2 in wet leaves where I’ve pissed from my stand just minutes prior. I have a buddy hunted with me for years from out of state…we were sitting in blind over corn. Bucks in field down wind…I said watch this I’m going to get down and piss and at least 1 of them will come check it out….boom 5 min after pissing the buck was kidding in same spot I did and made a scrape. People overthink and use way to many gimmicks


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Ok I am the buddy that bkcrrtnps was talking about when peeing just at the base of the blind we were in. We video taped the buck at the base of the blind in the excate spot he just peed in.
That evening I shot a 6 1/2 year old.
This is so unbelievable stuff but it happened.
I was with him another time bow hunting, he stands up and while he is taking a leak our no. 1 buck comes out down wind at 39 yds.
He didn't get him that time but did the next year.

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Roger Rothhaar must have been on a game farm too
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I have read several of his books and while I think marginal winds can be really good as he mentions because those are the directions mature bucks like to travel, i think you really need to understand how to hunt those situations (stronger winds, correct thermals, etc). I think ignoring the wind is a bad idea and bad advice for most hunters. I think 99% of people would say the same thing unless they have the ability to walk around there farm constantly and have human scent always around. I would also bet that very few people have the opportunity to do this. I do believe people get away with hunting what appears to be a bad wind because they don’t thoroughly understand how scent travels in an area but I do not believe you can have a whitetail standing <100yds from you with your scent blowing right at their nose and get away with it too often.

Also,, 100% agree on piss, they cannot tell what kind of piss it is and have had several bucks come to the base of my tree and smell, lick branches that I pissed on. There have been a number of studies that have demonstrated that different piss does not bother deer (human, coyote, etc).
 
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I have read several of his books and while I think marginal winds can be really good as he mentions because those are the directions mature bucks like to travel, i think you really need to understand how to hunt those situations (stronger winds, correct thermals, etc). I think ignoring the wind is a bad idea and bad advice for most hunters. I think 99% of people would say the same thing unless they have the ability to walk around there farm constantly and have human scent always around. I would also bet that very few people have the opportunity to do this. I do believe people get away with hunting what appears to be a bad wind because they don’t thoroughly understand how scent travels in an area but I do not believe you can have a whitetail standing
Also,, 100% agree on piss, they cannot tell what kind of piss it is and have had several bucks come to the base of my tree and smell, lick branches that I pissed on. There have been a number of studies that have demonstrated that different piss does not bother deer (human, coyote, etc).

I’m on those farms once every couple weeks or so, it’s no where near constant. I just don’t try to hide my scent when I’m there like a lot do….luck maybe with 1 big mature buck but I’ve been able to do it multiple times…honestly the craziest part to me is the fact they watch me climb in and out of tree and still stay around with 0 issues


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If they are smelling you over 100 yards away on a lighter wind, you may want to change something up in your scent control game.

Lakosky also believes in conditioning the deer with his scent basically year round. On the flip side, most of us including Mark Drury, try to keep intrusion and scent to the bare minimum. I don't make it to my hunting ground enough to attempt the conditioning method.
 
Also,, 100% agree on piss, they cannot tell what kind of piss it is and have had several bucks come to the base of my tree and smell, lick branches that I pissed on. There have been a number of studies that have demonstrated that different piss does not bother deer (human, coyote, etc).

I agree, been pissing in mock scrapes, real scraps and from the stand for 30 years. Curiosity kills the buck!

Don't laugh, I even had a bad episode of diarrhea come on in a stand one hunt, tried to get down as fast as I could but didn't happen. Leaned over the stand and let er rip. Shortly after a herd of doe came running by from the neighboring property within a few feet of the tree, a couple minutes later a small buck came by and put the brakes on to smell the mess splattered all over :eek:.

I said don't laugh ;) This was the first day of gun season and I killed my biggest buck to date as of that year. Don't plan on EVER using that method again though!

As far as wind I select stands that the wind blows high enough over my set up whether or not I'm upwind of where I expect them to show up or not. Never been winded using that approach unless I have to shit LOL.
 
Roger Rothhaar must have been on a game farm too


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Roger Rothhaar must have been on a game farm too


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One of the best scent control sprays is make your own put walnuts fill half full in a bucket fill with water fill bucket leave for three to five days strain with cheese cloth than add to your sprayer
 
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One of the best scent control sprays is make your own put walnuts fill half full in a bucket fill with water fill bucket leave for three to five days strain with cheese cloth than add to your sprayer

Interesting. Does that stain your clothes?


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I haven't read all the responses but I will give some experience I've had. I will also state I don't think age matters much in terms of being able to smell you but rather their experiences may have them more reactive to the scent. I was doing an urban doe hunt about 10 yrs ago and I had sprayed some apple scented attractant on some branches around my setup. Later that night I had a doe come out into an adjacent field and was lifting her head up. She obviously could smell the attractant and she was probably 350yds away from my setup and marched all the way into within bow range (including jumping a fence). This experience really illustrated how far these deer can smell. My guess is deer can smell for hundreds of yards out in an open field and probably slightly less in the timber due to the trees diverting the scent. The amount of scent I would think would be less 300+ yds out so it will depend on the individual deer to determine how much scent is too much for them. Also scent dispersion will depend on wind speed and temperatures/elevations with thermals. I think people often think they got away with something when the wind is blowing towards a deer but often it is thermals causing the scent to miss the deer or it could be the individual deer's personality with how it reacts to scent. Scent is a complicated thing and I would recommend paying as close attention to it as you can as you're hunting. It's a continual learning experience you will get better at over time but is hard to perfect because weather conditions can change quickly. One last thing I would add is a lot of guys don't think they've been winded if a deer doesn't blow at them but I have seen many mature bucks end up down wind of me and without any notice turn on a dime and head right back to where they came from. If I hadn't seen them I wouldn't have even known they were there.
 
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