Scent Control

[DeanoZ]

You know you live and you learn by these experiences.  We are fortunate to have this forum as a vetting process for all these situations and issues.  If the hot chocolate is the difference between you staying in the stand longer then do it...just be smart about it...and by that I mean if your ALWAYS hunting the wind it will probably make little difference.  Have a plan as you suggested for what your going to do if that shot starts to materialize as you have your cocoa cup in hand.  Above all else, don't beat yourself up silly....there will be other opportunities, lesson learned, keep it tucked in your brain housing group for next time, and move on.

[Ohio farms]

There is a long list of things that can go wrong when a deer materializes. Not knowing where to put your cup is is just one of them. When I smoked I had a small jar with sand in it to sick my lit smoke in if a deer came by. I learned that one the hard way. It happens to all of us. Gotta have a plan.
Good luck. 

[buckhunter21]

Yes, as stated, it all depends on what kind of deer you're hunting.  Talking about hunting those big boys, I'm sure you can get away with a little bit if you play the wind right, but just make sure you have everything closed up in a zip lok bag, etc, and only take it out quick when you're eating or drinking it.  I've started using gum-o-flage two years ago and love it...I'm always chewing it when I'm on stand and in-between eating/drinking anything.  I think it helps a lot....JMO!

[shaman]

I've had THE BIG ONE (TBO) come in several times in my life.  During the rut, TBO is generally oblivious to anything other than deer poontang.  They're stupid about it to the point of being ridiculous.   The rest of the time they're pretty cagey. Charlie is right about them turning inside out when they get the full picture, but I question how often they get the picture. 

I've had deer bust me while copping a squat, and I've had it happen enough times to think they're somewhat attracted to it.  It has me wondering if they're not like little kids and  curious how we do our doody.  I've had them come in while I was eating my lunch.  Based on my experience, I can't tell you TBO is completely adverse to strange smells.

I just put a post up on the "spotty" success of deer scents thread.   A lot of it pertains to what's going on here, so I'll quote it:

It's funny, but I remember a time before scents were big. I remember a time when nobody paid attention to scent control and walked around the woods in wool jacket reeking of moth balls. Guys still shot deer.  I don't believe success ratios have changed all that much-- it's still about 1 in 4

It was really back in the late 80's when this whole scent thing went throught roof.  I remember one writer explaining that deer could not only tell apple vs. pear, but could tell what sort of apple it was, where it was, and what condition it was in.  For a few years, I was buying in. I believed deer had super senses. They don't. Don't get me wrong.  They've got good noses.  They are much better than ours, but dogs are far superior.  I've had the neighbor dogs follow my scent trail a good half mile--  smelly farm dogs .  I've then had deer walking that same trail 20 minutes later. You make your own conclusions.

You either drink the Kool Aid, or you don't.  You either believe deer can tell the difference between a bottle of single-doe pee and me whizzing in the bottle or you don't.  If you do, you also have to admit, that deer can smell your naptha-smelling rubber boots, and the stink coming off your clothes. 

Have you ever really smelled your clothes? They reek! How can you expect a charcoal MOP suit to work if they leave it hanging in the store?  How can you expect that charcoal to work for you when you can smell that jacket yourself?  The reason why it works is because deer don't have THAT great a nose.  It's good.  It's just not THAT good.

How good is it?  When I shower before hunting, pull fresh clothes out that have been dusted with sodium bicarb, and do all the stuff I do,  I can fool a deer 70 yards downwind.  When I've missed something-- when I wear yesterday's shirt-- I can get busted 20 yards upwind. My deer follow me all the way to the stand, snorting all the way.  These girls are serious critics:  "You stink!!!"

How good is it?  I've had a doe follow a boot pad soaked with Interdigital for 50 yards, stand at the foot of the ladder and lick the pad.  I've had two bucks follow a scent line made with tarsal its entire length.  In the latter case, I watched them come in like bird dogs with their nose to the ground.  It was a long time later it finally dawned on me that they were coming up that trail anyway.  I'd done this on a major travel route along a fence line.  Yeah, they were interested, but they would have been walking up that trail anyway.  Putting a line of tarsal down just made them more wary.

Why is it all so spotty?  Hunting pressure.  Exposure to humans is not a big problem for deer.     Exposure to humans that mean to kill them is.   Once they get the idea y'all mean to do them harm, they'll figure out every stink you have on you and associate it with danger.  That goes for the foot odor coming off the top of your smelly rubber boot.  That goes for that $10 bottle of single-doe estrus scent.  You can forget those tablets that are supposed to make your farts smell like roses too. They'll be onto that.  In fact, they'll be able to smell what you had for breakfast. They'll be able to smell what brand of gas you buy. They'll know the mfg date of your ATV .  They'll . . .

.  . .That is, if you believe the catechism.  If you don't-- if you've gotten past that-- you can sit back in your stand and feel a bit safer-- the noses that seek you aren't THAT good. 

[Woods Walker]

If you're hunting from a treestand, a good share of any odor you or your food emits is going UP anyway, so for the most part it doesn't matter. After the sun's up, and the ground is warming, when that warmer air rises, it also takes your scent up with it. This is especially true of a calm day.
 
When I did treestand hunt more, I would try to NOT eat or drink anything when I first got in my stand in the dark, because depending on the wind (or lack of it), and more importantly the humidity and barometer, any scent you have tends to pool on the ground (cold air settles) until the sun comes up.
 
This "warm air rising" phenomenon, is also one of the things that makes treestand hunting so effective, as it does get your scent above a deer's nose if your stand is set up right. This, and the fact that too many hunters fidget and move too much, and an elevated perch helps to mask it to an extent. Not 100%, or even 75%, but you still have a lot more leeway than if you are at eye level with them.
 
I'd be more concerned with noisy wrappers and "loud" food than I would be their odors. There's nothing better for hunting food than good crisp apple. but I always cut mine into segments first with my hunting knife before I ate it, as that CRUNCH that announces a good apple I felt to be way to loud.

[Squirrelhawker]

Some foreign odors are just more alarming in their nature too.
 
To farmland deer of any age, chocolate, coffee, cow manure and diesel oil for example, in small amounts can be completely ignored. But the smell of cigarette smoke mixed with the surface area of the human respiratory system is never gonna fly for a mature animal of either gender.
 
Hot coffee and a big bag of trail mix is SOP for me, as are apples. I am such a nut about wind direction and direction of deer travel anyway, that I don't usually find stuff like this a problem.

[Woods Walker]

ORIGINAL: Squirrelhawker

Some foreign odors are just more alarming in their nature too.

To farmland deer of any age, chocolate, coffee, cow manure and diesel oil for example, in small amounts can be completely ignored. But the smell of cigarette smoke mixed with the surface area of the human respiratory system is never gonna fly for a mature animal of either gender.

Hot coffee and a big bag of trail mix is SOP for me, as are apples. I am such a nut about wind direction and direction of deer travel anyway, that I don't usually find stuff like this a problem.

For the most part I agree with this, but the farmer who owns the farms we hunt smokes like a chimney, and every year on opening day he will go out hunting on his home place after the sun's up if he's not shelling corn. He puts on the same old tobacco laden, diesel reeking coveralls, drives his quad up the bluff behind his house while puffing a Marlboro like a locomotive, and shoots a buck that any of us in camp would be proud to show off. If this only happened once or twice, I'd pay it no mind, but he does this darn near every year!
 
I know, the deer that live by him know him and his odors, and are NEVER harrassed by him at all until that one morning a year that he puts a sabot through one. But it sure does give one say "what the hell!!!???"  [:D]

[wware2009]

the best way to solve this problem would be use the wind stay down wind of deer and they wont be as likly to bust you. i use lots of scent eliminator why im in the woods.

[Squirrelhawker]

I think most of us have stories like this. I sure do. I often wonder if it isn't some level of habituation to the farmer on the tractor that makes it possible. That coupled with the farmers often constant and consistent opportunity to observe their local deer.

[Vikinghater]

I don't know what to think sometimes,  I had a young buck walk right up to within 20 yds  behind me during a light mist one year while smoking a camel playing blackjack on my cell phone.  I was out cutting firewood and shut the chainsaw off and turned to see a nice 10 pointer (and I mean nice) watching me. That one caught me off guard and was just a week before the gun opener (about nov 15th) and thought it was rut activity but not a doe to be seen.