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Post by cambygsp on Oct 10, 2005 14:20:11 GMT -5
Do you feel that your area is washed or clean of scent after a good rain?
If I was in an area and stunk it up pretty good, I normaly won't go back till after a good rain.
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Post by Rick Lyon on Oct 10, 2005 14:29:07 GMT -5
I like to scout and/or hang stands during a rain. However, I read a study on this very topic and that study concluded that while a rain did help reduce scent, some deer where still able to detect where a human had walked even after an all night rain. I found that hard to believe, but short of being able to conduct my own study under controlled parameters, I can't argue their results.
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Post by Woody Williams on Oct 10, 2005 14:29:16 GMT -5
Do you feel that your area is washed or clean of scent after a good rain? If I was in an area and stunk it up pretty good, I normaly won't go back till after a good rain. Nope.. I had a forky smell a tree that I had bent over with my hands (dumb I know) after there had been two hard rains since the bending. Everytime we go into a stand we compromise it. Sometimes more than others.. The very best time to kill a deer on a stand is the first time it is hunted.. |
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Post by Rick Lyon on Oct 10, 2005 14:30:49 GMT -5
There ya' go. Proof positive I'd say.
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Post by cambygsp on Oct 10, 2005 14:53:47 GMT -5
I laughed at a fella here at work last weekend.
He has been bragging for several months about a little 50 acre spot he gained permission to, from a customer of ours. The place is ate up with deer....or at least it was.
He scouted the place several times and seen plenty of deer.......opening weekend he seen NOTHING...and now he tells me he got skunked on sightings this past weekend.
Make a long story short....they have been going down and CAMPING at the gate to this property on Friday evenings....and camping all weekend.
They got the whole 50 acre stunk up....with their camping and tromping all over the woods ,....all the deer took off...lol lol
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Post by DEERTRACKS on Oct 10, 2005 15:28:48 GMT -5
I think it all depends upon the amount of extra effort you take to not lay down scent in your hunting area prior to the rain.
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Post by duff on Oct 10, 2005 15:40:11 GMT -5
Really in most areas I hunt people are all over the place. working, living, playing in and around the wood lots. No shortage of deer. It might be a problem in very low population areas but I know for certain in my hunting grounds a little extra human scent is the norm not the exception. Then factor in dogs, live stock, tractors, and vehicles if a guy was to worry about "stinking up a spot" you'd never hunt anywhere.
My bro in law has an exelent spot up along the MI line. On this property he deer hunts, traps, and waterfowl hunts. Basically he is around that property nearly every other day or so doing one or the other if not every day. He doesn't seem to have a problem harvesting a deer off that property every year. Granted he isn't in it to get a wall hanger, but meat.
What about the public land that has people on it everyday?
I don't get to consumed about leaving a stink. But that is just me.
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idhmc
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Post by idhmc on Oct 10, 2005 16:03:58 GMT -5
I dont worry about it after a few hours. It also depends on how much I touch and the terrain. High grass area's I try and avoid.
Woody, could it have been that the deer smelled the stronger scent of the tree where it had been bent? I know once the bark has been broken the heart wood has a much stronger scent. For a young deer, this could have been the case. Just a currious nature of the young.
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Post by Woody Williams on Oct 10, 2005 19:55:00 GMT -5
I dont worry about it after a few hours. It also depends on how much I touch and the terrain. High grass area's I try and avoid. Woody, could it have been that the deer smelled the stronger scent of the tree where it had been bent? I know once the bark has been broken the heart wood has a much stronger scent. For a young deer, this could have been the case. Just a currious nature of the young. I guess that is possible as ANYTHING is possible in deer hunting. He did run his nose up and down it. He didn't seem alarmed. It did make a believer out of me to not manhandle any more saplings around my stand.. |
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Post by trapperdave on Oct 10, 2005 21:08:30 GMT -5
I dont buy into all that stuff about deer smelling you several hours or days after going thru an area, if that was the case, hows come a coondog cant pick up a trail a few hours old,or bloodhounds for that matter? You gonna tell me a deers sense of smell is that much better? JMO
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Post by mbogo on Oct 11, 2005 7:48:51 GMT -5
As Duff said, much of a deers reaction to human scent is dependent upon the amount of contact they routinely have with humans. That being said, I believe deer have a more difficult time detecting ground scent in warm dry conditions than they do in wet conditions.
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Post by Hawkeye on Oct 11, 2005 8:21:43 GMT -5
I agree, to much is put in to this smell thing I wonder at the amount of money spent on scent control. No doubt deer can smell very well, so what?, many deer I have shot have came up the same trails I walked to get to my stand just minutes befor. also I see deer all the time in fields that farmers have been in all day working. Have seen deer follow hunters on a trail thru the woods. Deer adapt very well living next to humans. Have hunted deer most of my life, even befor all the liquids,lotions and such came about to kill human scent. Have never had any problem taking my share of Deer. I believe if in some remote areas if deer are not use to human scent ,then maybe it can be a problem.
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Post by dec on Oct 12, 2005 8:03:38 GMT -5
I always say that 100% scent free is about 95% over rated. I don't think that we do that much impact on the woods here in Indiana. Deer are so desencitized to humans it is amazing at what you can get away with. Now there can be exceptions, but in general the whole scent free thing is over rated if you ask me.
When I go into the woods, I wear my Lacross rubber boots. I think that is the #1 thing you can do. They leave no scent on the ground or the grasses. Outside of that, I pretty much just try not to touch the trees. I don't think you leave any appriciable scent on your ladders to your stands either. I can't count the number of times I've had deer walk right up to my tree. If I'd left appriciable amount of scent from my hands on the ladder, they'd be gone in a heart beat. It all comes down to common sense. If you minimize your contact with the surroundings, then obviously you will minimize the impact on the deer.
Now, if you go out there all flowered up with smelling soaps and other strong human manufactured smells on you, then yea, you will ruin a good hunting spot the moment you step foot on the property.
It all comes down to common sense.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2005 10:38:35 GMT -5
Camby,
The farm we lease is only 80 acres. We have a camper within 200 yards of some of our best stands. Every time I get up in the night to go out and pee, there are deer within 35 yards standing and watching me. We do take scent precautions when we hunt, but deer routinely watch and smell us at the camper. We are absolutely covered up with deer there. We have killed (between 3 of us) over 30 deer there in the last 7 years. I have had deer bust me hundreds of times on my way from the camper to the stand in the mornings and still been covered up with deer on stand. So I don't think that all small farms are ruined by camping on them and spreading a little scent around. At least not in Franklin County. But that being said, American Hunter magazine just released deer density numbers for all counties in the US and Franklin County was in a red zone, meaning more than 46 deer per square mile. That means there are probably more deer than people in Franklin County. So perhaps our place is an exception.
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Post by Woody Williams on Oct 12, 2005 10:42:28 GMT -5
....................................... But that being said, American Hunter magazine just released deer density numbers for all counties in the US and Franklin County was in a red zone, meaning more than 46 deer per square mile. That means there are probably more deer than people in Franklin County. So perhaps our place is an exception. Is that deer density anywhere on the net?? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2005 12:50:07 GMT -5
I don't know Woody, but it is in the latest issue of the NRA hunting magazine. It had a very cool map with every county in the US. There were two red zones in Indiana (red being the highest 46+ deer per square mile). One of the red zones was up in the Stueben County/Northwest Corner area with a couple counties. The other was the very Southeast corner from Franklin County down to about Switzerland County. There were really not all that many "red zones" in the US. Just small areas scattered here and there. One exception was the entire Northern half of the state of West Virginia was all red. It was a very interesting map.
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