Deer scents, worth it?

[razorsharptokill]

I have had luck with watered down regular ammonia, do you think commercial deer scents are worth it?

 

[Honyock]

Tinks 69 during pre-rut and rut, it's cheap and it works. I haven't used the latest greatest scents.

 

[Rich M]

I like Evercalm on my rubber boots. Have watched bucks/does/bobcats cross scent-trail w-out getting excited.

 

[peaches]

No

 

[dreadi]

I keep wanting to believe in the aroma of piss products to bring in deer, but it never does for me.

 

[DKennedy951]

Before VA banned a lot of the scents, I had good luck with Evercalm.

 

[whitetails_wi]

I've never had any luck with commercial scents. I've had good results with making a mock strap and urinating in it.

 

[brancher147]

The only scent I use is common sense

 

[Yoder]

I've only had a couple times where a buck came right into a scent. My dad uses them all the time and has pretty good luck with them. I think the last brand he used was Raw.

 

[switchback7]

+1 for Evercalm

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Evercalm works and during peak rut tinks works...IMO

 

[WCB]

Only scent I have seed actually 100% conclusively work is when we cut the tarsals off of a deer and used them as a drag. Might try saving some urine out of deer this year and have some real and real fresh stuff.

 

[Molon Labe]

Nope. Scent does not fool a mature deer nose.

 

[Davyalabama]

Clorox, it’s a big deal in Bama!!!! This is the ticket! Lol. Is it as a drag, pour it on a stump, etc.

 

[CAH2873]

I wash clothes and myself in baking soda and Scent Gold. Use pine limbs to rub on when walking to the stand. I have been bowhunting for 30+ years. No, you will never eliminate or beat a whitetail's nose, but you can help eliminate some of the human scent.

 

[cnelk]

Nose Jammer

 

[Bubblehide]

I've successfully used doe in heat urine several times. However, based on my experience during season and after season (not hunting after season) it only works with mature bucks if breeding is actually happening. There are several stages of the rut, and immature bucks chasing tail is not breeding. But, it works well on young bucks at any stage of the rut. If you're not picky, it's a good way to fill tags if you're doing everything else right. If your after mature bucks, the immature bucks can be an issue.

With that said, I've found heating/warming the urine and putting it in an atomizer seems to be more effective. I've done the same with ferral pigs. However, pigs are polyestrus (capable of continuously cycling). Subsequently, I have more experience doing this successfully with pigs. But I'd expect it to be more effective with pigs considering their superior nose. I've pulled in many big lone boars doing this, primarily in the spring as there are typically multiple sows in heat during that time of the year.

 

[Macintosh]

Ive never used scents or “scent cover” products, real or synthetic. What I HAVE seen multiple times each is variations on the below two situations:
1) deer follows my trail in to stand—not on a deer-trail, but follows what appears to be my ground scent—directly to me. Since I doubt I smell like an estrus doe (?), it makes me think that stories of deer coming in to attractant scents is just as likely to be curiosity as it is to be an actual attractant.
2) deer gets downwind of my ground scent or downwind of an object I touched, and immediately bolts. Even if Im literally bathing in the scent, I am still putting out human scent that is dispersing downwind, and deer absolutely smell that…whether or not they spook is inconsistent. Covering this up may not hurt (it might hurt, I just cant say for sure) but it seems unlikely to be as effective as some stories make it out to be.

My takeaways are that the anecdotal stories of scents working on deer are just that—anecdotal—and without a large sample set with a control group to actually determine if its the scent that actually caused peoples observations, or if it was random or something else, its just as likely that they dont work as that they do work. In the absense of a actual scientific study to show that they work more often than they hurt, I havent bothered. It probably doesnt hurt in many cases so perhaps it increases your odds slightly, or maybe the confidence boost is helpful…Im just very, very skeptical that in the big picture it does more than very, very slightly assist. If anything that is legit scientific on this topic exists Id love to see it, maybe Id change my tune.