What human scent do deer smell?

Brushpile

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Deer could care less about human urine and scat. Over the years I have bathed in apple juice and tomato juice. I have bought all the latest products, like Nose Jammer, and I still get busted!
 
Part of it is our breath, our dander, and the other part is our environment. They smell everything that we do and where we have been. From cooking sausage in the morning to the gas pump. If you wear your hunting clothes while you do anything other than hunting, it stays with them and you transfer it to the woods while you are in them. Most people don't think about their vehicle and the drive to your hunting spot. There is months and months of scents built up in your car/truck seat that is stuck to your butt and back every time you sit down and drive to your hunting land and then you get out and rub the brush and leave some of it there. You can spray your clothes all you want, but unless you soak them down(dripping wet and cold), you aren't going to get everything and then you might miss some. I wear my base layers when I am going to my hunting spots and keep my clothes in vacuum bags(as seen on tv type) that we have scent wafers in and I squish the air out of them between hunting trips. I use a vacuum on them when traveling to save room in my totes and keep them air tight. The only complaint I have with those bags, is durability. They are meant to hold clothes, pillows and blankets and sit in a closet or storage area, not to be tossed around in a truck for hunting usage. They can tear if you get to rough. I do everything that I can to control my human odor on my hunting clothes and my body, but can still be busted. I bought ScentLoc clothes and it seems to help, but isn't an end all answer. I have a friend that is going to let me use his Ozonics for a week and if I see a difference, I will probably try and build one to use for myself. We are trying ozone units for our vehicles and a couple of buddies built totes with ozone generators in them, for their clothes, to use between hunts. It seems to be the new rage. They can be built by the end user cheaper than they can be bought from ScentCrusher. He built 2 of them for $150 and used almost identical units and totes. The first pics are the ScentCrusher, the second is what my friends built and a pic of the tote he bought a Walmart.
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I balked at the price of the Scentcrusher units so I bought a ~$60 ozone generator instead. My truck has a cap and after washing out the bed I hung an old shower curtain rod across it and put all my clothes on hangers. I left my bow, case, pack, gloves, and hat in there too. I'm not sure I buy all the hype, but after a 2 hour run on Friday night, I hunted Saturday morning and I had a nice buck and two separate mature doe approach me from straight downwind (~10 mph breeze) without detecting me. One of the doe stopped, looked straight at me, hesitated, then came within ten yards of the stand in passing. Big doe are tough to fool. Interestingly, my boots were the only thing that I didn't treat and I have the same doe later on camera checking out where I walked in; she obviously smelled something despite the Evercalm I applied to my soles...of maybe she smelled the Evercalm itself? There could be something to this ozone craze. Don't breath it though. It can damage the lungs and exacerbate existing conditions like asthma.
 
I've been using smoke vs ozone. Smoke is free. According to what I have read the carbolic acids in smoke kill the bacteria that causes human odor. I still shower before a hunt in scent free soap and dress in the woods instead of home. I still hunt the wind. I've had enough instances where deer should have winded me and didn't to believe that it works. I think they still smell the human scent, but the smoke kills enough of it that it's not alarming to them.
I also carry a smoker with me in the woods. I made one that is best described as a battry operated bee smoker. The smoke goes where my scent goes.
 
This subject is near and dear to my heart. I've gone to just about every length to reduce game alarming odors. I have not done the vegetarian diet yet...doubt I ever will go that far.
My thoughts on this stuff continue to evolve. I'm really starting to believe that deer may not be all that alarmed by chemical odors especially in areas that have lots of human activity like farms and suburbs. It might be different in more remote areas but deer that live anywhere near people encounter petroleum odors, cooking odors, perfumed products of all kinds.
Just look at a typical farm. It's saturated with equipment odors...diesel and gasoline, grease, hydraulic fluid, herbicides...it's all there and deer actually feed and live right there.
Take a logging operation... chainsaw and skidder odors and deer are drawn to logging sites.
Then there's the suburban deer. They often bed as close to homes as possible to avoid hunters that are waiting outside of the safety zones. Those deer smell it all every day. I've walked through backyards in the dark going to/from stands and smelled the strong perfume of laundry products blowing out of dryer vents.
I've sat in stands on a warm fall day and could smell barbecue wafting through the neighborhood air.
I truly believe deer have evolved to fear predator odors, not the incidental chemical odors that are present in modern air. If those odors alarmed them then deer would be constantly paralyzed with fear.
However, I realize that we are dealing with thinking creatures that make decisions. None of us really know for sure how a deer will react on any given day. What they accept one day they may reject the next day. So I still do everything I can to avoid the chemical odors but I'm starting to wonder if it's those odors that are the culprits.

Deer have been alarmed by true human odors ever since primitive man killed them with spears, even before the bow was invented.
And while we can't totally eliminate our natural human odor, we can reduce it.
I believe the major odor producer is our mouth. If we humans can smell someone's breath, we know deer can smell it. I employ a few things to reduce breath odor for hunting. I can share in those if you want to hear them.
Followed by feet, pits and crotch, and the one thing these odor producers have in common is sweat moisture. Odor producing bacteria thrive in sweat. Reduce sweat in those areas where skin folds (like pits and crotch), where the airflow is reduced and bacteria will be reduced. Antiperspirant in the pits obviously, but also in the crotch and feet (up to the knees). And the insides of rubber boots should be deodorized after every hunt.
Ears are another odor producer. My springer spaniel taught me that ear wax stinks. That dog never went into the trash, not for anything (not even food garbage) until someone dropped a waxy Q-Tip in there. She would smell it almost immediately and pick it out and eat it. Get your ears clean before the season starts and keep them clean.

Reduce human odors as best as you can, and then hunt the fickle winds as best as you can and hope that when the moment of truth comes, the red gods look kindly upon you and you go undetected.
 
I have a good supply of "Dead Down Wind", "Scent Away", and "Nose Jammer"; none of which appeared to work. I had the spray, soap, the laundry detergent, dryer sheets... Last year I used a tote with scent wafers, and I left my hunting clothes in the tote all off season. When I opened the tote it stunk up the house with such a strong odor that I washed my clothes to get the wafer scent out of them. The only thing that has worked for me is wind, but I haven't tried smoke or Ozonics.

I believe that some hunters emit more odor than others so they have better "Luck" than other hunters. Years ago I hunted on a military base where hunters were assigned their area to hunt, and if a deer was harvested the hunter's name and deer's sex and weight were listed on the board. Every day of the season, dozens of hunters left the game station to hunt, and maybe one deer would be harvested, maybe none. The limit was 5 deer per season/2 deer per day! There was one hunter who almost always got his deer, often out hunting all the other hunters combined. I believe there was something about that hunter either not emitting odor or emitting odor that might even attract deer.
 
You can spend an unlimited amount of money on the scent free clothes, sprays, ozone products, etc. but after seeing my neighbor kill the biggest whitetail I've ever seen in my life in a pair of cheap thrift store camo clothes, using basic anti-scent spray, it made me rethink my anti-scent process. I believe habitat, winds and "right place, right time" kill more deer than these high end anti-scent and ozonic products.
 
This subject is near and dear to my heart. I've gone to just about every length to reduce game alarming odors. I have not done the vegetarian diet yet...doubt I ever will go that far.
My thoughts on this stuff continue to evolve. I'm really starting to believe that deer may not be all that alarmed by chemical odors especially in areas that have lots of human activity like farms and suburbs. It might be different in more remote areas but deer that live anywhere near people encounter petroleum odors, cooking odors, perfumed products of all kinds.
Just look at a typical farm. It's saturated with equipment odors...diesel and gasoline, grease, hydraulic fluid, herbicides...it's all there and deer actually feed and live right there.
Take a logging operation... chainsaw and skidder odors and deer are drawn to logging sites.
Then there's the suburban deer. They often bed as close to homes as possible to avoid hunters that are waiting outside of the safety zones. Those deer smell it all every day. I've walked through backyards in the dark going to/from stands and smelled the strong perfume of laundry products blowing out of dryer vents.
I've sat in stands on a warm fall day and could smell barbecue wafting through the neighborhood air.
I truly believe deer have evolved to fear predator odors, not the incidental chemical odors that are present in modern air. If those odors alarmed them then deer would be constantly paralyzed with fear.
However, I realize that we are dealing with thinking creatures that make decisions. None of us really know for sure how a deer will react on any given day. What they accept one day they may reject the next day. So I still do everything I can to avoid the chemical odors but I'm starting to wonder if it's those odors that are the culprits.

Deer have been alarmed by true human odors ever since primitive man killed them with spears, even before the bow was invented.
And while we can't totally eliminate our natural human odor, we can reduce it.
I believe the major odor producer is our mouth. If we humans can smell someone's breath, we know deer can smell it. I employ a few things to reduce breath odor for hunting. I can share in those if you want to hear them.
Followed by feet, pits and crotch, and the one thing these odor producers have in common is sweat moisture. Odor producing bacteria thrive in sweat. Reduce sweat in those areas where skin folds (like pits and crotch), where the airflow is reduced and bacteria will be reduced. Antiperspirant in the pits obviously, but also in the crotch and feet (up to the knees). And the insides of rubber boots should be deodorized after every hunt.
Ears are another odor producer. My springer spaniel taught me that ear wax stinks. That dog never went into the trash, not for anything (not even food garbage) until someone dropped a waxy Q-Tip in there. She would smell it almost immediately and pick it out and eat it. Get your ears clean before the season starts and keep them clean.

Reduce human odors as best as you can, and then hunt the fickle winds as best as you can and hope that when the moment of truth comes, the red gods look kindly upon you and you go undetected.
Good stuff
And i just had my ears cleaned by the doc 3 days ago. I thought id be able to hear them coming better. :)Now i think itll help me not get smelled. :cool:
 
This is an excellent idea Brush you have brought up. I firmly believe that the deer are afraid of not just human scent but of every scent that they are not accustomed to. They simply are afraid of anything today that is different in their environment from yesterday whether it is detected via audio senses, visual senses or thru scent senses.
 
I’ve drawn some conclusions over the years. Many of my lessons were learned bowhunting waterholes for muleys in lion country where waterholes are a dangerous location. Anti scent spray and scent loc type clothing help but are not foolproof. If going this route, it is my experience scent free head masks are critical. It is also critical you don’t touch grass, brush or limbs. I’ve watched deer sniff grass I’d cut 36 hours before to clear a shooting lane for a pit blind. If you have to hike a ways to your stand, don’t do it in your scent loc clothing thinking your sweat will be completely masked. I would walk in with my scent locks in a scent free bag, change and put the clothes I hiked in with in a garbage bag. If you are in country with reliable winds or thermals—they are your best ally.

Rubber boots sprayed down and then rubbed heavily with a season sensitive scent really helps (I use evercalm for white tails). I’ve observed dozens of deer cross my trail the last couple years. Most don’t even notice. Those few that do are curious but not spooked. They smell something but don’t equate it with humans.

It is essential to spray down your equipment, particularly anything your hands touch like your bow, binos or range finder. Pay special attention to your day pack—I spray down before every hunt.

When winds are fickle, I use evercalm on the tree behind me. I might touch it up a couple times during a sit. I have more confidence in this then I do estrous scents or buck bombs.

I store my clothes on the front porch where they get nonstop wind to air out. When they do need washing, I have the wife do several batches of clothes with the scent free detergent to clean the washer. I always dry on a line. I nearly saturate them with anti scent spray before every hunt. I’ve ordered a ozone clothes closet to make things easier when temps drop significantly. I haven’t pulled the trigger on a ozonics to hunt with because of lung issues.

During rifle season, I’m convinced solvents and gun oil are real scent producers. This is harder to remedy if you’re using a weapon capable of rusting in rainy weather. As a matter of course, I choose to hunt with a fouled barrel for precise first shots so fresh solvent smells are reduced.

These things have helped enough that I’m convinced they’re worth the effort. They are not 100% foolproof—nothing is when it comes to a deer’s nose. Just my experience, yours may well be different.
 
You may get away with a little smell if you don't move, the majority of the time when a deer snorts it's because they saw movement. I make my own body spray out of a gallon of distilled water, 4.3 oz of baquacil swimming pool peroxide, 1 cup baking soda, and 1 or 2 oz. of scent free laundry soap. A few dollars a gallon, safe to spray right on yourself right after showering, keeps the smell of your sweat down for a while. A long soak in a hot bathtub with a cup of apple cider vinegar in it, before you go hunting, makes a big difference too, the acid neutralizes your sweat pores for a while. And, eat an apple to neutralize your breath. For really good scent control, nothing beats wind and water. A hot shower right before you go, brush, floss, and mouthwash, and all your hunting clothes hanging out in the breeze for several days before. Do this and zero overpriced cover scents that don't work well will be needed. Most important, don't move!
 
Sometimes it pays to go back to the beginning and the beginning here is what are deer smelling that makes them feel wary and unsafe? As Tap said most of the smells many of us presume to be the culprits are common in deer environments today so they may or may not instill predatory fear in the deer. Is it possible that as a group we could we run tests in different parts of the country to determine how deer react to various scents? Is it possible we could develop a standardized test that could be done simultaneously across the country? Here is a half baked idea that maybe can generate other ideas to develop such a project and implement starting next September.

What if we took a scarecrow made out of old clothes and straw and set it up "scent free" in a food plot with a small hanging post beside it and then monitored it for two weeks with a trail camera or two to record the deer reaction to the unscented scarecrow. And then in the next two weeks put gun cleaning solvent and oil in a rags and hung it from the post by the scarecrow and monitored that for one or two weeks. And then the next week would be another scent like a dirty tee shirt or something. We could do this for a couple of months using different scents to better determine for sure what the deer are most afraid of. The timing most important to us is hunting season so maybe the timing could be from Sept. 01 until December 01. Maybe just the hanging post with no scarecrow would be better as the question really addresses scents and not visual stimuli.

If this is just a dumb idea and there is no interest its ok to say so. I come up with lots of dumb stuff that just makes work. But if it an idea that might help us learn something and there is interest in participating then speak up and we'll get to work on soliciting ideas and developing a plan, that is we'll get on it after the rut which evidently is exploding in some parts of the country already judging by some of the great deer shown on the "Live From the Stand" thread and others.
 
This subject is near and dear to my heart. I've gone to just about every length to reduce game alarming odors. I have not done the vegetarian diet yet...doubt I ever will go that far.
My thoughts on this stuff continue to evolve. I'm really starting to believe that deer may not be all that alarmed by chemical odors especially in areas that have lots of human activity like farms and suburbs. It might be different in more remote areas but deer that live anywhere near people encounter petroleum odors, cooking odors, perfumed products of all kinds.
Just look at a typical farm. It's saturated with equipment odors...diesel and gasoline, grease, hydraulic fluid, herbicides...it's all there and deer actually feed and live right there.
Take a logging operation... chainsaw and skidder odors and deer are drawn to logging sites.
Then there's the suburban deer. They often bed as close to homes as possible to avoid hunters that are waiting outside of the safety zones. Those deer smell it all every day. I've walked through backyards in the dark going to/from stands and smelled the strong perfume of laundry products blowing out of dryer vents.
I've sat in stands on a warm fall day and could smell barbecue wafting through the neighborhood air.
I truly believe deer have evolved to fear predator odors, not the incidental chemical odors that are present in modern air. If those odors alarmed them then deer would be constantly paralyzed with fear.
However, I realize that we are dealing with thinking creatures that make decisions. None of us really know for sure how a deer will react on any given day. What they accept one day they may reject the next day. So I still do everything I can to avoid the chemical odors but I'm starting to wonder if it's those odors that are the culprits.

Deer have been alarmed by true human odors ever since primitive man killed them with spears, even before the bow was invented.
And while we can't totally eliminate our natural human odor, we can reduce it.
I believe the major odor producer is our mouth. If we humans can smell someone's breath, we know deer can smell it. I employ a few things to reduce breath odor for hunting. I can share in those if you want to hear them.
Followed by feet, pits and crotch, and the one thing these odor producers have in common is sweat moisture. Odor producing bacteria thrive in sweat. Reduce sweat in those areas where skin folds (like pits and crotch), where the airflow is reduced and bacteria will be reduced. Antiperspirant in the pits obviously, but also in the crotch and feet (up to the knees). And the insides of rubber boots should be deodorized after every hunt.
Ears are another odor producer. My springer spaniel taught me that ear wax stinks. That dog never went into the trash, not for anything (not even food garbage) until someone dropped a waxy Q-Tip in there. She would smell it almost immediately and pick it out and eat it. Get your ears clean before the season starts and keep them clean.

Reduce human odors as best as you can, and then hunt the fickle winds as best as you can and hope that when the moment of truth comes, the red gods look kindly upon you and you go undetected.

Tap, I'd love to hear what you do to reduce your breath odor.
 
I do a lot of scent control but honestly its a joke. If not, how'd we kill deer hunting out of tent all week with smell of body, eggs, beans, beer? Wearing the same boots and clothes we wore year round? Using soap from home? Guns and clothes thrown in trunk of car? Couple pair of socks and undies for the week? It's not the scent.
Predators, that is what they fear and they know the difference of their intent. I've got pics of deer watching bear pass within yards. I've watched an alpha coyote pass thru a bedding area with in few yards of deer yet they did nothing but get up and feed. A worker enters the woods and deer pay little attention.
My contention is that it is not the smell but the accumulation of what we don't ever realize that spooks them. The rustling you pay no attention to. The slight sniffle, squeak of a boot, sound of a leather belt against fabric, deep inhale of breath. You want to hear what they hear? I once bought one of those cheap hunting hearing aids. Try that, you won't believe the noises that I'm sure those 7 inch ears can detect. If deer ran from every man scent, they would never stop. We have 20-40 hunters/sq mile in this state. No escape. But give them a couple of signals, then mix that in with odor that no one can control, and then you have a spooked deer. We just think its the odor, I don't think so.
Do your stuff, play the wind, and pray you don't make a wrong signal, they know predator when it is in hunt mode.
 
I take leaves, dirt, bark, etc from the woods and put it in a plastic tote. I then put my clothes in there and cover them with the leaves and such.

Never tried the other stuff, but have been thinking about it. I'm just cheap lol
 
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