In my younger days I often used synthetic and natural rut scents and had success with both. Some deer literally came in like they were on a string. I ran a scent line once that went 90 degrees down to my stand and had a buck follow it right to me. But I don’t use scents anymore and kill as many big bucks now. I also use to spray down before every hunt with scent elimination sprays but don’t bother with them anymore and haven’t seen any difference in my success rate.
I agree with the poster who said to hunt travel lanes near doe groups during the rut. That’s where the action will be with or without scents.
One thing I do think is worth setting up are licking vines. Easier than messing with scents and they are visited all season.
Also on human scent. You can get away with some human scent hitting a buck that is hot on a doe but you never know how much will make him bolt. Human scent hitting a buck’s nose is never a good percentage play as bucks will react differently to human scent concentrations. Then factor in wind swirls you can’t detect moving your scent around and it becomes more of a crapshoot.
I agree with the poster who said to hunt travel lanes near doe groups during the rut. That’s where the action will be with or without scents.
One thing I do think is worth setting up are licking vines. Easier than messing with scents and they are visited all season.
Also on human scent. You can get away with some human scent hitting a buck that is hot on a doe but you never know how much will make him bolt. Human scent hitting a buck’s nose is never a good percentage play as bucks will react differently to human scent concentrations. Then factor in wind swirls you can’t detect moving your scent around and it becomes more of a crapshoot.
