Scents Whitetail Deer

When do you want to use a scent?  Scents come as sexual attractors,  food scents, cover ups scents like dirt, and almost everything.   Why and when should you use a scent or should you use it at all? 

If Deer can smell a scent you use on your body, then Deer can normally smell your scent.  It is unlikely that any scent will mask or cover over your own human scent.  Humans have a very strong smell even skunk will not hide human odor to an Deer.  What happens is that Deer will smell you and the other scent.  Research shows that deer can identify at least six and up to nine different scents even if mixed together and even strong odors wont mask the human scent. 

If an Deer can smell you then it is gone and outta there and traveling away from you like a bat out of hell.   However you can use scents if you remember that any scent will always be carried downwind.   Rather than place a scent on your yourself or your stand where it rarely does any good, try placing a scent on a tree where you want the Deer to stand for your bow shot.  

This requires that you somehow get the scent on the tree or place you want it without walking to that spot and polluting it with your smell.   If you walk to a tree and place scent on a tree the Deer will often also smell where you have walked.  A common way to spread scent without you walking there is to use a slingshot and cotton balls to shoot the scent to a spot.   There are other methods but this is just one way to explain how keen a Whitetail Deer's sense of smell has developed so that he can survive. 

Regardless of the scent that you use how you use it is far more important.  Sexual attractors have been shown to work at any time not just in October and November when does are breeding.   Food will also work all of the time but food attractors will have a more subtle reaction than a sexual attractor.  Don't be fooled by sale ads.  The only way to mask your smell is to not be up wind.  Period!  Special clothing will diminish your smell but unless you are completely wrapped up enough scent escapes from your head alone to scare Deer for 100's of yards.  Buying stuff isn't enough learn how to use it properly. 

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