Which Deer SCENT and When?

[NaturesRespect]

I will be huntin deer in archery around late september and mostly around october and late october also going to firearms for deer as well.

I hunt the 300 zones and were we are most hunting action is from deer travleing and i have a spot were they most travel from public land to do whatever and into private land to feed and find saftey when gun shots fire everywere. well i plan to give scents a try since last season my uncle proved his scent trail worked. The thing is i have no idea how to use scents and which ones to use and how to use them with game calls as well and what scents to use in which rut phase.

So some help would be apreciated if someone can explain to me what scents to use during each phase of the rut and how to use them plus using them with game calls.

Also planning to use apple juice to attract deer from the apple scent and if theres something else that has a more powerful apple scent please do tell.

Another question i have is that since we hunt the public land the only food source around the public areas is the oak trees with fallen acorns scattered about, is this a good place to hunt around the oaks?

[Bear55]

Honestly I gave up on scents a long time ago, sure they might work every now and then and you can probably fool a young buck but a lot of the time you end up paying money for something that doesn't work or can even tip off deer that you are in the area or hunting them.

Think about the 100's of thousands of people that buy scents every season, you really don't hear a ton of stories about deer and especially big bucks coming into the scents, sure it can and does happen but I can guarantee it won't happen on a consistent basis. These scent companies only need to fool a tiny % of the bucks out there to get the word out about their scent.

Your best bet is to scout and study the deer in your area to learn their patterns and stay as scent free and quiet as possible. Also try and keep any movement to a minimum.

You can have a little more success at calling but again a lot of the public land deer have been hearing calls all season long and many times you can scare them away. If you do want to try calling use some soft grunting to pull in bucks or bleating for does in the early season. In late fall you can try grunting a little more aggressively and even try to do a little more rattling, but I must stress keep it to a minimum, if you are calling ever half hour you are probably just telling the deer right where your locations is and tipping them off.

I have had my best luck calling in buck with two or three short grunts and I might only do that from 1-3 times a sit. Grunting can often work best when you see a buck and he isn't coming your way, a couple of grunts just might be enough to pull him in.

[sticknstring]

Bear gave good advice. Leave the scent at home. Do some scouting, pay attention to the wind, and bring a grunt tube out with you instead.

[Bear55]

How could I forget to mention the wind?

Thanks sticknsting.

[NaturesRespect]

Honestly I gave up on scents a long time ago, sure they might work every now and then and you can probably fool a young buck but a lot of the time you end up paying money for something that doesn't work or can even tip off deer that you are in the area or hunting them.

Think about the 100's of thousands of people that buy scents every season, you really don't hear a ton of stories about deer and especially big bucks coming into the scents, sure it can and does happen but I can guarantee it won't happen on a consistent basis. These scent companies only need to fool a tiny % of the bucks out there to get the word out about their scent.

Your best bet is to scout and study the deer in your area to learn their patterns and stay as scent free and quiet as possible. Also try and keep any movement to a minimum.

You can have a little more success at calling but again a lot of the public land deer have been hearing calls all season long and many times you can scare them away. If you do want to try calling use some soft grunting to pull in bucks or bleating for does in the early season. In late fall you can try grunting a little more aggressively and even try to do a little more rattling, but I must stress keep it to a minimum, if you are calling ever half hour you are probably just telling the deer right where your locations is and tipping them off.

I have had my best luck calling in buck with two or three short grunts and I might only do that from 1-3 times a sit. Grunting can often work best when you see a buck and he isn't coming your way, a couple of grunts just might be enough to pull him in.

thanks for the tip man i guess using scent is just for that extra edge kinda like using scent for fishing

[Bear55]

Another thing to think about, if scents really worked all that well they would probably be illegal, like shooting deer at night or baiting.

[fr0sty]

I won't be using any scents this year. I haven't had any luck with them the past 5 years.

[jnorm1984]

Ive never had luck w/ scents...But I will continue to use them, might pay off once. I guess I just like wasting my money

[pulleye16]

I agree that scouting and patients are the two most important things but I've had some good luck with scents...during the rut. I've had the largest buck to date in our party shot a buck checking out my mock scrape with doe scents. They have their place in hunting. Doe urine on boots have worked a few times with a party hunters as bucks had their noses to the ground following their foot steps... but in all those scenerios, good scouting got them in the right area and staying around long enough to have those deer come in where the biggest factors. If anything-they won't hurt.

[Bear55]

If anything-they won't hurt.

This isn't entirely true, especially in high pressured areas or on public land. Like I said earlier they can and do work but I think its fairly rare with mature bucks and probably takes a fair bit of luck. I really don't have any info to back this up but I believe mature deer can easily tell the difference between the real thing and the scents, if they couldn't I think we would hear of just about everyone scoring a nice buck over scent.

Over time I think the deer have become accustom to hunters using stands, scents, and calls. I suspect its even more true of high pressured deer, they learn to avoid these things if they want to survive.

[ScottsShopInHawl]

Quote:

....I believe mature deer can easily tell the difference between the real thing and the scents' date=' if they couldn't I think we would hear of just about everyone scoring a nice buck over scent. [/quote']

Just my $.02, but with all the trophy mounts I see daily (doing service in houses all over WC Minn.) I think those that consistently get trophies keep tight lipped unless you see them and ask.