A Picture Story of a Mock Scrape Buck

[hunting170]

dave-t. said:
I fully believe you can fool a deer's nose everytime, if you are meticulous with washing gear and body. I swear that you can.

I totally disagree with this dave. Robin pretty much covered it all. I don`t think you can take a chance on the wind being "iffy" when you are targeting a mature buck (or doe for that matter). I have seen yearlings walk downwind of my stand, and not give any indication that they smelled me. However when mama walked the same path a few seconds later, her reaction to smelling me was immediate. If a deer gets downwind of you, it will smell you. It may, or may not, give a negative reaction. I still believe that it helps to be meticulous about scent control just in case you have an "iffy" situation.

[Warmouth]

I'll state it again. You can beat a deers nose everytime. I've never fallen for the carbon super suits, they are total chit.



With good care towards keeping scent free, and layering clothing appropriatly, you can beat them, everytime.



The problem is, the way you find out that you didn't cover all gear appropriately, is that you get winded, but it hasn't happened to me at all this season, and I don't remember it last year either.



Every freakin time, I swear.

[Keith@AimLow]

Here's the deal with suburban hunting..at least what we are faced with:

Forget scouting. All scouting must be done from arial photos and trail cameras. The deer just show up. It's dang near impossible to really get an idea of where the bedding areas are and also to know their travel patterns. Unlike other hunting,even if you did know this info you can't make adjustments to another stand location if you find the deer are traveling a different route. I am confident if we could hunt anywhere we wanted and were not restricted to one or two properties that we could easily adjust and get on these bucks. You kinda feel handcuffed at times. At the particular property where the picture was taken there is a property two properties over where there is a perfect funnel. Every deer I have seen from this property has either came out of or went to that funnel. When they come out of the funnel it is pure luck from there if they come over to our property within bow range. There are many places they can go. One thing in our favor is the honey suckle that will stay green for a while longer. It's too bad the property owner hasn't accidentally dropped a bag of corn each week in the corner of our property like Rafe says.

[Warmouth]

It may not be 100% scent free, but by the time the scent gets to the deer, is is diluted enough to go unnoticed, or otherwise not affect the deers movement.

[PoisonSnake]

There have been times where I would swear to you that the deer did not have a clue I was within 100 miles of him or her. There have been times like the other evening when I had deer smell me for sure, but it would have been to late. There have been times when I have been smelled by deer that were 100s of yards away that I never even saw. I'll take my chances late season most of the time. Early season, I have learned to hunt only a perfect wind, however.

[hunting170]

That`s bullchit, dave. Bullchit I say.

[Warmouth]

Keith- Forget the corn, they feed at night, and restricts movement through day light hours. When the deer have to fend for themselves, they have to feed more by volume on lower grade feed than corn, so they are on their feet longer. You get better movement without baiting imo.

Keep hunting that property. You will find patterns that will seem obvious after you figure them out. I have hunted an urban jungle for 6 yrs. You can pattern the deer, I think I've proved that with the 10pt this yr and saying what I would kill, and when, a month or more before I did it.

The nuances of when and how the deer use areas will become more clear when you have hunted the place for a couple years.

I aint saying I have it all figured out, but I've got a good jump on it. There are patterns to the deer movement, even in thicket type conditions.

I also got a line on another good buck last night from a neighrbor. I need to move some stands to the south, and start my hunt for that bastard. I haven't even seen him yet, but the neighbor knows a big one, so the info is good.

[Warmouth]

PoisonSnake said:
I'll take my chances late season most of the time. Early season, I have learned to hunt only a perfect wind, however.

I totally agree with this. No need to tip off the deer before the good hunting starts.

[hunting170]

Keith@AimLow said:
Here's the deal with suburban hunting..at least what we are faced with:

Forget scouting. All scouting must be done from arial photos and trail cameras.

Can`t you just ask the neighbors where they have been seeing the deer go through?

[PoisonSnake]

I can tell you this with respect to my in-laws place in Wildwood. You could kill a doe there any evening or morning it doesn't really matter. I wouldn't even call it a kill it is so darn pathetic. But, very seldom do you see the bucks, and I know they are there. They are pretty ellusive.

On another note, with respect to wind in an urban area, I sure wouldn't worry about it nearly as much as I would anywhere else. Those deer are used to humans tromping around. You keep mentioning a ground blind; can you not use a stand on that particular property?

[Showme]

I keep plastic milk jugs with me in the early fall and use them to fart in. I then quickly put the lid back on.

I keep one with me while "on stand" and being my farts smell like roses, if a deer gets downwind of me I simply open the cap and the deer smells flowers.


Now on to this serious part. I don't think scent matters much when hunting urban areas. Here is why.

A few years ago, I hunted a muzzleloader hunt at Bur Oak Woods. A have to kill and check an antlerless before taking a buck. The area I hunted was within 150 yards of houses. I smelled coffee and bacon and there were kids in backyards. There were trash trucks and school buses...all kinds of scents...and the wind was blowing towards me.

The first day I saw 6 different bucks ranging from basket rack 6 points up to 140" class 10 points....none of them were affected by the scents. There was also a porta pot within a hundred yards.

I was black powder hunting, but had each buck within 25 yards of me at one time or another.

dab

[Warmouth]

I can't, the ground cover is just to thick.

Scouting is very important guys. Get out there and look for sheds etc. in lat FEB-early March, and you'll see every traill that's ever been walked on the place. Find oaks, persimon, honey locust, and mark the honeysuckle vines. You'll have 80% of the food sources known before next season, and the travel lanes like funnels, creek crossings, fence crossings etc. Put it together, and you don't have to scout during the season.

Folks in the city don't walk the woods like you'd think. Deer will freak out when they scent humans where they aren't supposed to be. With the smaller areas of land to hunt, they can't miss your scent, unless you are very carefull with scent control. The plus side to this is that sex and curiosity scents work well.

[PoisonSnake]

I agree that city-folks don't necessarily walk the woods, but I can walk around my in-laws back yard and the deer might get a little skittish, but most of the time they'll just watch me to make certain I'm not gonna pull a fast one.

[Rafe Hollister]

PoisonSnake said:
most of the time they'll just watch me to make certain I'm not gonna pull a fast one.

[Warmouth]

Where/when they expect to see people, they aren't spooky at all, but leave scent where they aren't used to it, and they freak out.

I've seen a hunter get winded from over 300yds, so I don't belittle a deers sense of smell. At the same time, I've seen deer in my yard when I've had my bb-q burning, and just after I've gassed up my boat, lawn mower etc. They just expect people smells in my yard and accept it as normal.