What's Your Favorite Cover Scents and Deer Scent for different times of year?

I'm a huge believer in the local product made by Vapor Trail Scents. Only thing like it. Have seen some people starting to use that type of technology here lately. I use the 33 point buck scent as an attractant and cover scent. Along with the body wash and detergent. In my personal experience (in the field) this stuff has worked better than anything I've ever used

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I have zero faith in cover scents. Its a bit naive to think deer cannot simultaneously sort out a thousand different odors. You can roll in a dead skunk, and to a deer, you'll smell like a human that rolled in a dead skunk.
I suppose some lures can work, but for bowhunting purposes, they need to be set out close to the stand. I figure if the deer are smelling the lure that's hanging 20 yards away, then the odds of them busting me are pretty good. Plus, I don't like the disturbance of placing, then retrieving the scent before/after the hunt. The more you walk around your stand, the greater the chance of educating the deer.
 
I have only ever killed one deer for certain due to the use of a scent. I had a doe of all things fallow a scent trail drag I used on my way to my stand. Otherwise, I have seen deer totally ignore scents to blow and spook from them. I typically try to remain as scent frees as practical (I say that because some folks go much further with scent control than I do). The deer who live on my place know what I smell like and know where to expect that smell. If the does are at ease - typically so are the bucks looking for the does.
 
j-bird said:
I have only ever killed one deer for certain due to the use of a scent. I had a doe of all things fallow a scent trail drag I used on my way to my stand. Otherwise, I have seen deer totally ignore scents to blow and spook from them. I typically try to remain as scent frees as practical (I say that because some folks go much further with scent control than I do). The deer who live on my place know what I smell like and know where to expect that smell. If the does are at ease - typically so are the bucks looking for the does.
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I wonder how many truly mature deer, both bucks and does (in higher pressured areas) have been killed by hunters using drags? Yeah, you hear stories from guys that swear ours worked for them, but when they show you their pics, you find out it's immature deer they shoot, or an area that receives low hunting pressure.

The last thing that I want is to attract deer to the trail I walk in on. And then you need to walk out of your way in order to get the scent trail where you want it. I want to enter and exit as efficiently and low-key as possible.
 
Tap said:
I wonder how many truly mature deer, both bucks and does (in higher pressured areas) have been killed by hunters using drags? Yeah, you hear stories from guys that swear ours worked for them, but when they show you their pics, you find out it's immature deer they shoot, or an area that receives low hunting pressure.

The last thing that I want is to attract deer to the trail I walk in on. And then you need to walk out of your way in order to get the scent trail where you want it. I want to enter and exit as efficiently and low-key as possible.
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I did lots of dumb stuff early in my deer hunting days. Not having a mentor and being self taught, my biggest mistake was watching the hunting shows on TV! Use this scent and that brand and this product and this call and bla, bla, bla. Well, I am sure I smelled like some road-killed whore of a doe that was drug 1/4 mile and then swinging from 20 feet up in a tree in some sort of death throws because of my calling......yep, not really a real efficient means to attract a deer! Once I turned off the TV, and tried to simplify things as much as possible and simply stay quiet and try to stay scent free, things got much better!
 
Last season was the first time I "smoked out" my clothes and gear. I had good success. I'm gonna do it from now on
 
No cover scent here, but I do wash my clothes in Scent Killer, and use various scent killing sprays, mostly on my boots. My main routine to manage my scent is an Ozonics unit. While I'm skeptical about its efficacy in a tree, there is no doubt that it works in a blind. I've had many deer, and a handful of hogs and coyotes come downwind of me while using it. If you fool a hog or coyote, it works !
 
I'm still an amateur but I think it depends on the area you are hunting. Like the above I can go in certain areas any time of the year and deer don't even run if I can see them from a distance. Get out of this "zone", they freak. They also avoid these more common areas during the season.

The biggest difference I noticed was using my bogs rubber boots vs. leather boots. I've had tons of deer walk right over my trail using rubber boots.

Using my climbing tree stand, all bets are off, scent goes all over the place. I've still had does circle my tree though. They aren't very pressured where I hunt.
 
Native Hunter said:
My deer are so used to me working, I rub down with a sweaty pair of shorts so they think everything is normal......;) If I want a big one, I add a few drops of chainsaw gas.....
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I had no idea that you actually worked on your property...I thought that slice of heaven you have just magically happened all by itself...:D
 
Tap said:
I had no idea that you actually worked on your property...I thought that slice of heaven you have just magically happened all by itself...:D
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My supply of Magic Pixie Dust ran out, and I had to go to work...........;)

Hoping to grow a 1-fiddy or a turdy-point-buk..................................
 
Deer can figure you out by your Cover Scent as well. One year for Archery in Pa I was using Red Fox piss for my cover. After hunting the stand about 4-5 times I watched a big doe enter the area and walk a big circle smelling the ground. Once she hit my Fox Trail she blew right away and chased all the deer out.

She had learned that the Fox scent meant that the "man" was in there and wanted no part of it. That was the last day I used it there.
 
Deadeye said:
Deer can figure you out by your Cover Scent as well. One year for Archery in Pa I was using Red Fox piss for my cover. After hunting the stand about 4-5 times I watched a big doe enter the area and walk a big circle smelling the ground. Once she hit my Fox Trail she blew right away and chased all the deer out.

She had learned that the Fox scent meant that the "man" was in there and wanted no part of it. That was the last day I used it there.
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Maybe. But I think its more likely she was smelling where YOU walked. She spooked because she smelled YOU not because she smelled fox pee.
A human can roll in a dead skunk and what a deer smells in a dead skunk AND a human.
No such thing as a cover scent.

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Tap said:
Maybe. But I think its more likely she was smelling where YOU walked. She spooked because she smelled YOU not because she smelled fox pee.
A human can roll in a dead skunk and what a deer smells in a dead skunk AND a human.
No such thing as a cover scent.

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Could be. It WAS effective for the first several days however. The main problem with that stand was there was only one way out and you had to at some point walk across the field. The deer had busted me walking out after dark a couple of times when they were spread out all over the field. Maybe it was the Human Smell. Maybe it was the Fox Smell that she had learned to associate with Danger.

I know that I used it on my Rubber Boots in several other areas that year and that was the Only Place I ever had a deer react to crossing my trial.
 
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