Deer hunting Indiana NEWBY

[Jedi_7.62]

O.K. I am fairly new to deer hunting in indiana. I've gone out a couple times but honestly know very little of what I'm doing.

My major question is of scents what and when to use wich one. There is so much on the market it is completely confusing.

Is it just for cover does it actually atract deer. Do you use Buck or doe scent urine or estras??????

Just looking for tips from real hunters not people trying to make money.

Thanks for any help.

 

['Card]

Complex topic.

Most scents are designed more for cover than they are to actually attract the deer. They work to a certain extent, but you have to be careful with them. Choosing a scent that is unfamiliar to the deer may actually be worse than using none at all.

See... let me explain this with an example. Most deer will spend their lives without travelling more than a few miles from the place where they were born. If there are apples in that area, and the deer are used to smelling those apples, then a commercially-available apple scent may be a good cover scent for those deer (though sticking an apple in your pocket to munch on might be better). If it's a smell the deer aren't used to, or it's at the wrong time of year for apples, for example - then the scent can be alarming to them, and that's bad.

Doe-in-estrus scents are pretty much the same way. In most of the US, gun season for deer is scheduled to begin immediately after the rut, once the bucks have impregnated all the does they're going to for that year. Now if you're hunting during the peak of the rut (which in most places occurs during archery season) then the bucks may well be interested in it. At others times, they aren't.

So I guess the point is, scents are OK when you use the right scent for the time and place where you're hunting. If you don't know, then you're probably better off using nothing. Just try to control your own scent and leave it at that.

Personally? I'll occasionally use estrus scents when I'm bowhunting, and the signs have indicated that the deer are rutting. During rifle season, I may use some acorn scent, because there are large stands of oak in the area where I hunt, and acorns are still common on the ground in late November - but that's really about it.

 

[redneck2]

IMO, important thing is YOUR scent. Wear rubber boots that you keep just for hunting and limit your exposure to "human" stuff (filling your car with gas while wearing your hunting clothes, smoking, cooking, etc). When you walk thru your hunting area, try not to touch any more brush, etc than you have to. Think of everything you touch as being painted with bright orange paint. Deer just smell it rather than see it.

As for cover and attractants, I suppose it depends on your situation. I've had deer come directly in and sniff at attraction scents. You ask 10 people and you'll get 10 answers. What works for a yearling doe may be far different than what works for a 12 point buck.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Read "The Still Hunter" by Theodore S. Van Dyke. All the scents and gear in the world won't help you if you don't know the basics (imho). It will help you avoid common mistakes. The book is available in reprint from Stackpole books.

LD

 

[killzone]

Keep your clothes clean and use baking soda to wash'em before you go out in the woods.
Don't ware any colone and things like that. Don't even use soap.
Being scentless is better than being in full of scent cover. At least until you get the hang of what you are doing out in the woods.