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Hunting Tips | Scents

All natural scent

Two to three weeks before hunting season go to the general area/areas you will hunt and gather a sample of the leaves, grass, soil, etc. in a scent free bag. After laundering hunting clothes, hat, gloves and face mask with unscented detergent, store them in the scent free bag. Be sure to store all hunting attire in the scent free bag, boots, gloves, etc. If possible have a second set of clothes in an additional bag. This permits rotating hunting attire frequently to remove any additional body scent. If another area is to be hunted, a second bag would be representative of the scents for the area. Another tip is to lightly mist the sample with water before storing the hunting attire. The moisture in the scent free bag will help the scent absorb into the clothes faster.

Always be down wind

When deer hunting always check which way the wind is blowing. The reason is so that the deer will not smell your sent on the air currents. If they do smell your sent they will turn around and leave or bed down. They might bed down and watch you for as long as you stay at your stand. Always place your stand down wind of the place where you expect to see deer. Sentlock or some other product to take away your sent will help, but it is always best to be down wind.

Attracting more bucks

Use your cover scent and spray it on your boots and clothes. Then take your doe decoy and place it within shooting range of your blind or stand. Put a good amount of your doe in heat scent around the decoy. Then take your cover scent and spray more on your boots and walk to your blind or stand. After you get set up, use your doe bleat call. This will let the bucks know that they have a doe in the area.

Avoid leaving scent with your hands

For years we have been working on minimizing our scent. Keep in mind that everything you touch with your hands from your boots and clothes to your decoys and tree steps you are leaving the oils and dead skin off your hands. Not to mention everything that you touch and scents that you have absorbed on your hands, before your hunt even began. I use camouflage latex gloves for everything, they are convenient to have in you truck and back pack. They are inexpensive and disposable. They also work well for bear hunting and early season hunting because Mosquitoes and black flies can't bite through them. Also field dressing your game and handling the meat. You can get them at most hunting stores or on the web. You can also buy real good odor eliminating gloves made by ScentLok.

Barn yard cover scent

If you hunt in the rich farm lands of the mid west or any cattle farms are nearby your hunting turf try this! Get some fresh cow manure and place it in a bag, when you get out of your truck wipe it on your hunting boots. It makes a wonderful cover sent. I also take some out to my stand and put some around it. Where I hunt, deer are use to being close to cattle farms so the smell is a natural thing. I have two Pope and Young bucks hanging on my wall to prove this really works! My last deer that I shot came in and went down wind to check if it was safe to my surprise he came back up wind and I took my shot at seven yards!