catscratch
Well-Known Member
Predominant wind direction?
Stand access vs. a deer's sense of smell
- Thread starter Brian
- Start date
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Here's my take for what it's worth:
Assuming a north or east wind this is what I would do. Enter following the yellow line. Walk in the creek to the north and have a stand on the banks edge at the yellow x. This will allow you to use the wind, trees, and low elevation to access your stand without alerting deer in the field or on the path from the north.
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Assuming a north or east wind this is what I would do. Enter following the yellow line. Walk in the creek to the north and have a stand on the banks edge at the yellow x. This will allow you to use the wind, trees, and low elevation to access your stand without alerting deer in the field or on the path from the north.
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catscratch
Well-Known Member
With a south wind I would set up farther up the trail that leads to food plot. I suspect south wind is predominant and you are seeing bucks scent check the field and leaving if nothing interests them. In this case I would try an enter/exit that kept my scent from blowing towards where they come from, but still give you a shot as they entered the trail. Adjust if you are too far away from where they enter the trail.
What does the creek do north of your picture? Does it curve back to the west, go north, or angle northeast?
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What does the creek do north of your picture? Does it curve back to the west, go north, or angle northeast?
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Tap
Well-Known Member
I've had almost 100% success with crossing deer trails the last few years. I can't say for sure why that is. I believe it's mostly due to treating my knee high rubber boots with ozone. I've employed a dedicated odor regimen for quite a few years now and I know it's helped, but I'd still get some trail crossing busts until I started blowing ozone inside my boots while they are inside a Rubbermade tub. I used to scrub my boots inside and out with Scent-A-Way type detergent but that was time consuming and the boots would need extra time on the drier. Ozone has eliminated the need to wash boots. I'm pretty sure that my success is due to the total combination of odor control measures and not just the ozone. Keeping boots odor-free is made up of several little details.
I tried Elimitrax several years ago and I hated them. They were noisy, clumsy to walk in, and weren't safe to climb screw-in steps.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
I'm 100% with you on that! I put up with it because it works very well for me.
Tell me about your ozone. Have you seen any degration of the rubber in your boots? Are you just hosing it into the boot and then sealing the tote, or are you giving the outside of your boots a good dose too?
Tap
Well-Known Member
I can't say for sure if the ozone degrades the rubber, but I assume that it does to an extent. I figure that it's just the price of doing odor control...risk vs reward. I get about 3 years out of my boots. I'll gladly buy new boots every 3 years, even if it means I'll wreck them with ozone. My goal is odor reduction, not boot preservation.
My ozone generator has a hose discharge. I wish some of the better quality, high output generators had hose discharge. I chose this model strictly because it had hose discharge.
I'll set the ozone timer on 15 or 20 minutes, then stick the hose in one of the boots, then place the pair either in the tote or into a garbage bag and turn the generator on. After a few minutes, I'll switch the hose to the other boot. My aim is to get the ozone dispersed deep into the boot. As the ozone "spills out" of the boot, it'll stay contained within the tote (or garbage bag) which will deodorize the outside of the boots.
I'm a firm believer that ozone helps eliminate odors but there's more to boot odor control than just using ozone. BTW, an ozone-cleaned garbage bag makes a good seat cover for driving to the hunt. I believe that cloth seats hold, and re-disburse human odor when we sit on them. We go to extra pain to shower and deodorize ourselves, then we get into our truck and sit on nasty seats. I cover my seats with clean garbage bags for driving to the parking spot. I've come to like garbage bags more than totes for ozone containers. The clean garbage bag has other uses, like seat covers.
Here's a few other things I pay attention to...
I never wear the boots anywhere but on soil or in the field. I'm not wearing them in the vehicle...never, ever.
I always put them on the boot drier after every use. Even the slightest sweat moisture inside will allow bacteria (odor) to start growing. Keep them as dry inside as possible. Yes, feet will start to sweat as soon as you start walking in them the next time, but the goal is to minimize odors any time I can. And odor inside the boots will pump out the tops of the boots with each step. That's the reason that keeping the inside of boots odor-reduced is important. Cinch the tops or use gators to help contain the air (odor) inside the boots while walking.
I always treat my legs from the knees to my toes with antiperspirant/deodorant as soon as I get out of the shower before the hunt. It doesn't completely stop sweating but it does reduce it. And dry(er) socks help feet stay warmer, too.
And I never, ever use my bare, or socked foot, to push a boot off. I see hunters do that all the time. They push the 1st boot off with the other boot, then the push the 2nd boot off with the stocking foot that spent the last several hours contained in an odor chamber (the inside of the boot). Touching the outside of a boot with bare hands or a sweaty stocking foot will contaminate it with odor. Use one boot to push off the other, then either use a boot jack, or the upper boot to push the 2nd boot off. Try to never allow skin oil (fingerprints) or foot sweat to contact the outside of the boots, especially below the ankle.
And carry and use pruners to clip away anything where you cross trails. The only contact I have with anything when crossing deer trails is the soles of my odor reduced boots on the ground. I touch nothing but the ground when crossing deer trails.
One last note, it's a lot easier to get away with crossing trails when conditions are dry. Damp or humid weather magnifies and holds ground odor much more than dry and windy conditions.
So, which, if any of my practices help me to avoid trail busts? I doubt any single thing gets the credit, but when all the little details are combined, odor is minimal enough that I can not only walk across trails, I can walk on trails without a major bust. Under the worst (damp) conditions, deer do sometimes get a little nervous but it's seldom major, or disruptive.
This is about the time where someone chimes in and compares odor control for hunting to the dog detection tests that have been done. I agree that we can't become odorless to deer. But we can reduce our odor to the point that it's not overly alarming to deer. Yeah, they most likely still smell my trail but they sure don't act like it.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
I’m interested as well. The Ozonics works so well for me I’m considering buying the tote.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Lol, Tap we do a lot of the same stuff. It's probably hilarious watching me drive while trying to not touch the wheel and not lean back against the seat... or put my coveralls and boots on without touching the outsides of the clothing. I don't touch the environment if I can help it, to the point of wearing rubber gloves to climb my stands. I spray feet and lower legs with antiperspirant also. Even with all that my terrain allows me to enter well thought out sites without crossing trails... so I do.
Tap
Well-Known Member
Wearing gloves to climb is part of boot-odor reduction. Using bare hands to install or climb steps puts skin oil on the step and when we climb back down the oil is transferred to the boot sole. I really hate wearing gloves when I climb. I just feel like I don't have as good of a grip on steps while wearing gloves, but the less skin contact we make with anything in the woods (including our steps) the better.
How many of you guys have watched deer walk up to your tree and smell your steps?
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Yep, used to happen from time to time.
Similar story... I learned about a deer's ability to catch scent in 1986 or 87. I was 14 (youngest law allowed a person to deer hunt). I missed a deer because mentally I miscalculated the yardage in the alfalfa field I was hunting. So after my morning hunt I stepped off yardages and poked a couple of sticks into the ground as markers. First doe to hit the field that afternoon walked up to my farthest stick, smelled it, and bolted. Snorting and stomping the whole way. It hit me immediately that I had merely touched a stick 6yrs before and it was enough to freak her out. What was happening at 10:00pm three hours after I left the stand? No wonder I was burning stands out!
Thus starting an almost unhealthy obsession with keeping deer from scenting me or where I had been. It took a while but I finally figured out just don't go where the deer are. But that only works with certain habitats.
Tap
Well-Known Member
Similar story...
I had a stand near a transition area...between the beds and the field. The beds were very close but I had some of my approach trail partially raked out so I could sneak in. The last 15 yards laid a large log I could walk down to the base of my tree. The area was well screened from the beds so deer couldn't see me sneaking in. It was a decent approach, but the one day new leaves had fallen and covered some of the raked trail so I couldn't be totally silent. The new leaves were crunchy and I could hear deer already on their feet working their way toward me. I was pretty much gonna get nailed unless I quickly made it to the tree so I pulled out my Judo arrow and raked my way toward the fallen log. Yes, I made raking noise so I also made some turkey yelps. I really did sound like a turkey scratching and feeding. If I could get to the log I could silently finish my approach.
It was working. I started quietly walking down the log but I lost my balance and was gonna slip off the log so I reached out and steadied myself by placing a single thumb on a sapling. I continued to my tree and climbed up, undetected with deer less than 50 yards away. Or so I thought. A doe did hear something and got suspicious so she came over to investigate. She walked right up to that sapling and smelled that single thumb print of mine. She put her nose right up to it...one single thumbprint from a freshly washed hand. She blew out and took the herd with her.
There is no doubt that deer smell fingerprints.
Hey, when law enforcement dusts for fingerprints at a crime scene, it's the skin oil where something that was touched that leaves the fingerprint. Anywhere there is a fingerprint, there is odor. Once again, never touch anything in the woods that you don't have to. Carry pruners and use them.
I use the pruners not just to clip stuff. I also use them to steady myself while walking. I use the pruners rather than my hands to touch stuff or push sticks or whatever out of the way so I don't brush against things. Sometimes along my approach where there is nowhere to place a foot while sneaking in because there is a tangle of stuff exactly where I need to step. I'll use the pruners like pliers. I pick up the branch with the pruners and clear a spot for my foot. That type of noise is much less alarming to deer than the sound of a boot breaking twigs.
Each future approach to the stand gets easier and quieter and leaves less residual odor when you use pruners.
Crossing deer trails is not much of an issue for me any longer. I used to avoid hunting in certain trees because I thought I couldn't get away with crossing trails. Odor reduction and paying strict attention to not touching anything has opened-up more stand opportunities for me.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
Sounds too familiar ! Once I was sitting in a ladder stand that had a trail cut to the back of it. From the front it was thick enough to hide me halfway up the ladder from any deer in the plot. One afternoon I had slipped in from the woods, rubber boots on, and climbed the ladder. A couple hours later I heard a deer walking behind me. She was coming down the trail I cut to the ladder ! As she approached the ladder I was watching her walking along naturally, but when she got to the ladder she suddenly sniffed the rung and turned inside out getting away from there and of course taking the other doe with her. Lesson learned !
I now wear freshly washed cloth gloves from the time I leave the cart/truck even if it's 80*.
ALwoodsman
Member
I wear rubber boots that I am very careful not to touch. I keep them in a plastic bin with activated carbon and only touch the top of them with gloves on to handle them. I rarely get busted on my trails in to the stand. I have watched deer pick up on where I walked in and follow it directly to the base of my tree. They never spooked only acted curious. I believe that they picked up on the ground disturbance and not human scent.
