Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer Bow Talk leaving human scent

Went to the stand this mornin, got settled in before daylight, had deer all around me all morning long eatin acorns. 8:30 a nice buck shows up, there is only one problem, he is comin in downwind of me. Somehow he never smelled my stinkin a** until he smelled where I had walked in. Then he looked everywhere he could to try to figure out where I was. He quietly tiptoed back the direction he came from and then he smelled me. The whole time he was 40 to 50 yards away. Anybody know how long your scent stays on the ground where you have walked? I'm sure there are a lot of factors involved, but I have always had a problem with deer smelling where I have walked into the stand. I take every precaution. Even wear rubber boots sometimes. I have had deer smell where I have walked 4 hours later and get spooked because of it. I heard a strong cover scent on your boots is the only way to get rid of it. But then tall grass and limbs will hit ya and you leave your scent on that. I was wandering if anyone has a solution to this. I know rain washes it all away. But say it doesen't rain for a week and it is dry as a powderhouse and no dew. Would a deer be able to tell you were there for hours or days or what? Buddy of mine just told me old timers used to pour turpentine on there boots.

wear rubber boots ALL of the time, leave in the garage or somewhere away from everyday scents. By some dead down wind, spray boots liberally before heading into woods.

I wear my rubber boots all the time, but sometimes I think the deer can smell the difference in the earth being disturbed, not necessarily our scent but that something has disrupted the normal state of the ground.

Just a thought.

Agreed. ALWAYS wear rubber boots. I have hunted 4 days so far with deer within bow range 3 days and they have yet to even hint they were aware I had walked around prior. On one of those days, I scouted the area and cleared some lanes for an evening hunt and deer walked all over where I had been scouting and working just 2 hours earlier. I'm not saying I never get busted by my boot scent, but it's rare.

I read an article once saying that you can spray all your gear down and your boots, which is ideal. But there are ground disturbance smells. For example, if you were to step on a twig or some leaves causing it to have a differant smell.
They can tell what it might be because of the amount of smell coming from the area. For instance, a deer's hoof is small, but a persons foot distributes a much wider surface causing a bigger ground disturbance.
This information was kinda meh, iffy, but next time you go in the woods push some leaves around on the ground and you can get a strong earth smell.

Ive had deer fallow my trail before without ever knowning i was there. It was in the same open field. I do not know if that made any differance.

Good Luck and i hope you find your solution.
:-)
Brian

I know the they can sense your trail for at least 24 hours from the time you last visited, or at least they can smell me that long.

I don't think anything you do, even rubber boots, can 100% prevent them from smelling your trail, but taking every precaution you can might help. I know there are lots of products that are supposed to make hunters invisible, but I have spent enough time in the woods with and without them to know they are all crap. Deer are better smellers than the products we think we can come up with.

I read a recent article where they used a german shephard, which is supposed to have a nose similar to that of a whitetail, and they crossed hunter's paths who had walked by several hours earlier. There was absolutely no difference in his ability to pick up a rubber boot vs. leather boot trail. He nailed them every time. :rolleyes:

I never get busted on my foot trail...ever. I use fresh fawn pee sprayed liberally on my boots when I leave the truck, redo maybe 100 yards from the stand and walk directly to the stand. Ususally right thru a good shooting zone.

I've had a lot of does, some bucks, stop and smell where I walked. Some, maybe 30%, will track me for a while. NEVER seen one spook from the walk in trail.

troy

Dang Troy, what are you doing beating them fawns to death with a shovel and draining their little bladders.

dang idjets...ya can't use a shovel cause there will be no bladder left to drain.....

ya gotta hand catch em and squeeze them tiny bladders....

troy

The place i bow hunt has a trail that runs right under my stand and the deer will never even step across it where i cross. As soon as they hit the spot where i cross the nose hits the ground for a minute, then they either turn around or circle way around it. My boots are rubber and i never wear them except in the woods,not even in the car. Also last year i shot a deer and he ran about 20 yds up the trail and died and for two weeks after that every deer i saw stopped and smelled that spot. After I witnessed that i knew there's no way to fool them! I think some are just more "spooky" than others.

I once walked down a trail to my stand only to have three nice bucks walk right down the same trail, 3 hours later, and never knew, or at least never acted like they knew, I had ever been there. Then I once had a doe feed out in a food plot and start to cross the dirt road I walked in on and she scted like I had sqeezed off a shot, when she got to where I had walked.

I've had deer walk across my trail, at times, completely oblivious to my presence and I've even had some walk so close to my ground blind that I could hear them breathing.

Other times (like this morning) with the wind in my face, they act like they've got a 6th sense and scatter like a bomb went off.

i think ill just parachoot into my climber in the morning then!..wander if they will smell me then? haha The only reason i where these cover scents is because i feal necked without it! its just a confidence thing for me! and all those shows that swear its 100% effective are hogwash

That's what makes them so damn fun to hunt....Unpredictable

Don't put your boots on until you get out of your truck headed to the stand. And when you get back to the truck take em off and put them in the toolbox of your truck r whatever. I use the little rubbermaid containers. Trust me, you will tell a difference the first time you do it.

My boots never leave the hunting camp, I keep them on a boot rack I built outside the cabin. They never even go indoors. I still have deer wind the trail on occasion.

I heard of a guy up north that has invented a teleport machine. That's the way to go.

I never put my boots inside my truck, I never where my boots into my house, I usually wear house shoes while riding in my truck, and keep my boots on the back, I never knock the mud off of my boots neither, and of course I spray my boots down with sent-a-way before I enter the woods. The steps I take are very easy to do, Ive been doin this for the past three years, and my problem with deer smellin where I walked in has not been a problem not one time.. Back to the part where I keep mud on my boots, I dont keep 10 lbs of mud on my boots just enough so that my boot has kind of a mud shield around it, this tactic realy works, atleast on the deer in Bibb Co. AL

I think it has more to do with human "breath"....

I've had the wind at my back many times blowing my scent right at the deer, but kept my mouth "closed" and the deer never winded me.

Other times I've had the same thing come up and at a slight sinus infection and was breathing out of my mouth and got winded....I swear that they can smell human breath, more so than your body scent.

I agree aggie, I believe breath does have a lot to do with it. Maybe we should invent some fawn pee gum! Lol