All experienced deer hunters know there is a difference between buck hunting and doe hunting when it comes to whitetail deer. As a hunter we always tend to see more does and small bucks than we do monster bucks and as we know this is for good reason. As we head into deer season I just want to recount some of the major factors that experienced hunters use to ensure they see those monster bucks, starting with scent.
Scent is possibly the single most important and easiest to overlook aspect of buck hunting. If you manage to make it to the stand and a doe is in the vicinity she may flag you and run. In the same event a buck may have been in the vicinity but you’d never know it. Perhaps it is God’s implanted survival of the species, but the largest male bucks will always approach an area from downwind and may smell you even if you are careful. Whitetail deer can smell seven separate scents at the same time and identify them, so throwing on your carbon suppressed and silver lined clothes and spraying down may be relatively useless if you skipped the other steps to avoid scent.
Additional areas successful hunters keep in mind to ensure a scent free approach to the treestand are:
- Keep your clothes separate from scented clothing (soaps, cleaners, or other scents)
- Use scent free soaps on your body and hair
- Avoid lotions and colognes like the plague
- Spray off with a scent killer and be sure to get the bottoms of your boots
- Avoid gassing up the vehicle on the way to your stand site
- Walk to the stand with heavy clothes off to prevent too much sweating then put them on in the stand
Got any other things that work great for you? Post them in the comments below and we will try to update this article to include them.