Interesting read…and I do follow some of the hints that you provided but in no way shape or form do I think it’s a total deal breaker if you don’t follow any of these tips.

Maybe I’ve had some really dumb luck over the years but my hunting buddy and I have been very successful deer hunting over the years and we typically camp during the weekends when we hunt.

With the smell of smoke in the air I try to have my clothes in bags, etc but over the course of several days it is inevitable to smell like smoke a little bit and we both manage to harvest whitetails.

Posted by illinibowhunter on February 08

Marc, It seems that even if I do all the steps, some deer still know I’m there and some don’t. What do you think is happening? I had coyotes come in @ 15 yrds looked at me on the ground and didn’t even spook. Then some deer came in later to the side of me (up wind) and still knew I was there. I use UV wash & have your suit and just don’t know why some don’t care and others don’t like?

Posted by OvercupArcher on February 08

Marc, 2 questions:
You stated scent control is more important on public property.  I would have thought the opposite is true, particularly on highly used areas (like Starved Rock, for example), and the deer would become less sensitive to human scent since they are exposed to it all the time and most often, it’s not a threat.
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Do you use any sort of covering agent for your breath (gum, apples, etc.)?  I wear glasses and can’t wear a mask in cold weather because it cause my glasses to fog from my breath.  Any other suggestions?

Posted by Murdy on February 08

Murdy, Public ground that has places for picnics and other non-hunting activities can actually aid a hunter regarding scent. I should have been more clear. Places like the Mackinaw hunting areas that are designed for hunters and not the general public are places that deer associate fear with scent. The masks I use do a great job keeping your face warm too! I understand what you mean regarding your glasses fogging up so maybe you should try the type I use. These masks look like the same thing you see in a hospital. They are adjustable and fit pretty good, although they do leak a little.
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Clint, I have had deer spot something strange and walk right up to me (and around me) trying to analyze me often. I killed a doe while she looked right at me two years ago. Now that was a rush! Bottom line, most of the time if they spot you, they won’t panic if they can’t smell you. If they can’t figure what you are, I have very rarely seen them flag and run. Check the videos I have from last year on my website http://www.marcanthonyoutdoors.com . They’re all small bucks but they wouldn’t leave until I made them leave. I didn’t want the bigger bucks to see them hanging around me. Those scenarios are a prime example of what usually happens!

Posted by Marc Anthony on February 08

Marc, i have that happen alot too.  I was actually sitting on a scrape line this year and had a 120s 8 pointer making a scrape at 7 yards.  It was dusk and i was ready to leave but he decided to not take a run at head right at me. Do you decoy any with a ghillie?  It seems like magic.  WE shot a 170s gross this year over a decoy with a ghillie on.  Hes a local that stayed in a woods we hunt every day but wouldnt do the same thing twice.  He avoided us for hundreds of hunts over the years without offering a shot.  First decoy hunt i was defending my thesis and get a call from a buddy while i was returning home saying he was going to try the decoy.  This was about 230, at 3 i get a garbled call saying he just shot hooks.  He said he sat the decoy up on a 50 yard long farm road used to connect the corner of 2 cut corn fields.  Then he walked into the woods and sat up in a honeysuckle clump.  He put on his suit and looked at the decoy and the deer was 20 yards away from it coming right at it.  He said he actually hunted less than a minute to kill the deer.

Posted by clintharvey on February 08

Murdy…I wear glasses and have had the same problem.  I now wear a tight fitting silver lined mask that I fould at BPS.  Helps cover scent and has no fogging affect on my glasses.

Posted by Treehugger on February 08

Phil, deer see and hear much better than humans. Humans have a trichromatic set of eyes which means we can see reds, blues and greens. Deer, on the other hand, can see only blues and greens because of their dichromatic eye construction. Humans have a built-in UV filter in their eyes and deer do not. Ultraviolet colors, or UV’s, can easily be picked up by whitetail deer mainly because the UV color falls in the color blue side of the spectrum. Both whitetail deer and human eyes are made up of cones and rods. Cones are color receptors and rods detect low light conditions and movement.
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Whitetails don’t have the same cone make-up as humans, so their ability to see certain colors is limited. What limitations they have in their color seeing ability is easily made up with their abundance of rods! Since a rod is responsible for aiding them in low light conditions, its by-product allows them to see movement many, many times greater than a human can ever dream to do. Their ability to see movement and to see in low light conditions is a phenomenon of nature! This is why it is so important to remain completely still when hunting for a mature buck. Many times they’ll sit from afar and just comb the area with their eyes looking for movement.
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There’s a big difference between a deer’s sense of sight and hearing than a human. I thought it was important to point that out

Posted by Marc Anthony on February 09

Marc hahaha …you basically say you disagree with me, then …… you say a few scientific details about their eyes… then say pretty much say what I said!!.. sounds like you just wanna be right!

To say deer see much better then humans makes little sense…. When u talking, poaching deer in the dark, or hunting during the day?! Because actually during the day humans see “better”

Sorry “better” is a relative term.. humans see certain parts better and deer see parts better….example…they cant see details like we can, and like I said they see movement and better in lowlight conditions!

Just like when a deer that sees you at lets say 40 yards, you sit still and they stand there and move their head around trying to make out what you are… if they saw “better” then us.. they would know what we where.. But they don’t…

So yes deer see better then us in the dark…but to say they can see with our detail is false…

As for hearing,  they don’t hear a 100’s times better then us… maybe a bit better… but the point was nothing like smell…

“There’s a big difference between a deer’s sense of sight and hearing than a human. I thought it was important to point that out.”

Hahah that’s correct, they are different….once again that’s what I said… they’re different and pretty close to humans relatively speaking.. saying they don’t have high magnification eyes like an antelope

Ooh Marc, your funny!

Posted by foodplotPhil on February 09

For what it’s worth…a deer being able to see better than me in the dark does give him an advantage.  A huge advantage actually.  I walk to my stand in the morning darkeness and out in the evening darkness.  We have all been busted MANY times by deer a hundred yards away (both deer and hunter in thick timber) only to hear snorting and running feet.  Not arguing for or against anything said by both sides above, but I do think a deer’s night time vision helps them a ton.

Posted by Treehugger on February 09

One deer abliity that i think is equally as impressive as their nose is their ability to pick up the smallest movement. I get busted more times by tiny movements than i do by smell. I like to think i manage my scent very well with washing camo in scent killing soap then storing in a scent free tub,showering before every hunt with scent a way to spray, getting dressed outside of my truck when i get to my land, and then spraying down my boots, clothes, pack, and bow..but as soon as i tweak my head an 8th of an inch the deer stops walking and looks right at me. Kind of funny actually..all that work to control my scent and an 1/8 of an inch movement kills the hunt… But thats what makes taking a nice one so great… I also discovered that peeing in a bottle isnt worth the hassle.. I have done that for years and this year i left my portable relief bottle at home and had no choice…10 min later a bunch of does came walking right on top of where i relieved myself. I thought i just got lucky and decided to do it the rest of the season and it never spooked any deer…what a relief…no pun intended

Posted by BucknBass84 on February 10

The property I do most of my hunting on is kind of a heavy pressured property…Between the guys that hunt, cattle, farmer and just whoever thinks they have permission to just wander around on it, GRRRRR…I do my best to control my scent bowhunting…And have shot many nice deer and missed or just plain screwed up on bigger…I can say one thing for sure though, smoke if used properly can be a great cover scent…I get VERY, VERY lazy during gun season…I hunt from a enclosed/cabin style stand with a recliner and a wood stove…I have had more mature deer within 20-30 yards of that stand that have had no idea I was even there…I will say most of it is because of the fact you take their eyes away because you eliminate movement…But the fact still remains they walk right down wind like it is nothing…Now the kicker, the neighbors burn wood 247 and the deer are used to the wood smoke smell, would I do this on other properties out in the middle of no where with this luck, probably not…

Just my 2 cents…Also remember to check out what is going on over in the HO forum…Would love to see some more traffic over there…

http://heartlandoutdoors.com/HOforum/

Posted by outdoorlivin247 on February 10

Thanks for the great post.  I come back to your blog often because I really appreciate your approach to hunting and the way you write about it. 

Like a lot of people I get so much enjoyment in being out in the woods and spending time with my family while out hunting.  It feels great to be part of such a time-honored tradition and feel connection to the generations that came before you, and to connect with nature in a way that isn’t easy to describe unless you’ve experienced it. 

But another large part of what makes hunting so consuming for me is the science of it all- the observation, analyzation, and the process of trial and error in different hunting situations.  I enjoy learning about the qualites of the deer, like their senses, their habits, their strengths and their weaknesses.  I enjoy the process of examining our own human strengths and limitations in the woods, and what tactics we can think of to be successful.  It’s all fascinating to me. 

That’s why I enjoy your posts.  I think the evidence you present is verifiable and factual, the conclusions you form are sound, and the immense amount of experience you demonstrate to support your take is really interesting.  So thanks for the good reading.

The best part is that no matter how hard you think and plan and try, those whitetails always seem to keep us guessing!  It’s never boring!

Posted by logancounty on March 02