Scent Elimination is part of the key to a successful Hunt
When it comes to the Whitetail Deer and hunting one of the areas that we tend to forget sometimes is the deer’s sense of smell. Their nose is so acute that it can pick your scent up and not even be within eye sight of you.
As you walk to and from your stand or even just sitting on stand you give off a smell and in certain areas that have a high hunting pressure the deer will combine that pressure with our scent and basically stay away or become nocturnal.
It is important to us as hunters to be as scent free as possible. Yes it is true that we try to hunt with the wind in our face but what we forget is the down wind side. I myself have gotten busted so to speak because I was concentrating on what was out in front of me and did not realize what was circling around behind me.
There was this one time I was hunting on the edge of a thicket and I had a mature doe coming in and I was ready to take a shot all I needed was for the deer to take two more steps into my shooting lane. The doe took one step and just as she was going to take that second step I was waiting for I all of a sudden got blown at from another deer that had come from my down wind side and I did not know was there.
We need to pay more attention to the wind wether it be a variable wind, swirling wind, changing wind, cross wind, thermals, gusts, down drafts. It really does not matter what we do to prevent instances like the wind because it will always be there.
What I usually try to do is in the morning when I get up I try to take a quick shower and use odorless soap. I always hang whatever I am going to wear for hunting out on the porch away from any human smells that are lingering in all our homes. I know this does not totally leave us scent free but it certainly helps.
On very windy days I will not generally hunt for one reason and that is the wind can be very uncooperative and I tend to find that deer will move less on high wind days for two reasons, 1.) their sense of smell will be diminished because of the heavy wind and 2.) their hearing will be impaired because of the noise that comes with heavy wind. I find that deer move more on light wind days and calm days.
Another thing you can do is try not to wear everything you need as you walk into your stand. What I mean by that is as you hike in you will undoubtedly work up a sweat that will flow with the wind. So by wearing less as you go you will minimize your smell and when you get on stand you can always put that extra clothing on to keep you warm while sitting there.
Another item that I want to touch on is about those of us who smoke and that means me included. I have picked up the bad habit and not that I haven’t tried to quit it just means that you need to work twice as hard to hide your scent. I personally am trying to cut down at least so I will be able to sit on stand for hours at a time and not goes crazy. I will generally not bring cigarettes with me. Someday I will have as much determination to quit as I have for deer hunting. I have been fortunate while hunting deer to not have smoking interfere even though I realize I might only be seeing half of what i could be seeing for deer if I did not smoke.