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Using Scent in both Pressured and Non-Pressured areas

Category: article

 Nov 29th, 2011 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Nov 29th, 2011 at 12:00 AM

Yesterday I received a couple calls about the use of Estrus scents under two totally separate circumstances’ and I would like to share with you these insights as most every one of us hunts under one or both of these in any given year.

First, an archer from Iowa who has been hunting during their RUT and asking if he should be using a drag system or simply hang some scent from a scent wick…

During our conversation it became clear that Tom was hunting a track of private land that in turn had little to no pressure other than his own and a few poachers who drive his back roads and are driving him nuts. Other than the poachers, Tom is in a very good situation as he can literally use anything from making his own Moc scrapes to creating those tear drop shaped scent drags (that close the loop) so that no matter which way that buck turns to follow the scent he will indeed end up at your stand location.

Ok, so this is what we recommended to Tom.
• Understand you are hunting non-pressured Whitetails who are clearly well on their way during the breeding season. Receptive does will be interested and non-receptive does (particularly those with young) may not and have a tendency to back out of that area without flagging and this is quite normal.
• Never use your fingers when handling wicks and disposable (non-leather or cloth) gloves are best.
• Use a good quality scent drag and wick combination and employ one of our “closing the loop” techniques, either the tear drop or figure 8. If the terrain (or time) does not allow for such then make sure you are starting that drag on a crossing trail or scrape and pull it thru your shooting lanes.
• Once at your stand pay close attention to the wind as it’s key to the placement of your wick locations making sure that you are placing them so that the bucks entering downwind and to the side or well in front of your stand location so that his attention/focus remains on the scent and not the archer caught in the middle of pile of scent.
• Use no fewer than 3 saturated wicks that are placed knee to shoulder high and 5 to 8 yards apart.
• Take your wicks out of the woods with you each evening. If you’re hunting over an active Moc or real scrape and you want to “refresh” the scrape directly, that’s fine, just pull out the wicks.
• Do not place our Estrus on your boots or clothing, this can be very dangerous, just ask me sometime about what had happened to us several years ago. Using straight doe urine as a cover scent on your boots is fine, just not our DoeToDoor Estrus.

Second, a hunter out of Wisconsin who just finished his firearm season and about to enter his black powder season on private land alongside a section of Public land…

Chris is hunting in a state where the firearm season is only 9 days long and they put over 600,000 hunters in the woods on opening day. He is about to hunt the black powder season which follows their 9 day gun season and those whitetails are on high alert, so this is what we advised.
• Picture this for a moment,
a) 600,000 gun hunters the woods the week before.
b) Gallons of store bought “In-Heat” deer scents/attractants were hanging from tree limbs all over the state land in Chris’s area.
c) Chris’s land is right up against 700 acres of state hunting land where the deer were driven (by deer drives) and clearly pressured.
d) A nice buck trailing back say 60 or more yards behind a few doe trotting down a trail headed your way.
• This might sound funny coming from a company that sells deer scent, yet I recommended that he not apply any Estrus scents on hanging wicks. What is bound to happen is that those already nervous doe’s run smack into your airborne (hanging) scent bombs, stop in their tracks, turn and move off in another direction taking that buck with them, provided you even saw him.
• Ok, so the best stunt for Chris is to keep the scents on the ground and not in the air hanging.
a) Applying it to active scrapes (Moc or natural) and using it on a drag setup where the buck that will pick it up is the one dogging the ground looking for that next doe in cycle.
• Chris is now hunting with black powder and so there is little need to place that Moc scrape as close to his stand as he would during the bow season. Placing it 40-50 yards out will proved you with better peripheral vision of what’s coming in.

• If the majority of the deer in his area had not just been put through this 9 day intense education, the tactics that Tom was looking at using would apply to Chris as well.
Whitetails are great challenge to hunt no matter what season we hunt them, yet we must adjust and remember that;
a) They are indeed creatures of their environment and we humans impact that environment greatly, seasonally.
b) No one tactic (nor scent product) will work on every whitetail every time, trust me, they have varied personalities, moods and learned experiences to base their next move on, and if this were not the case the “wild” whitetail species itself would fail.
c) OL’ Drop Tyne® simply provide the finest, freshest products it can to place greater odds of success in your favor, Mother Nature’s way. No games, No tricks, just quality…

So, as a good rule of thumb, when you are hunting highly pressured whitetails keep that Estrus scent lower to the ground than normal where only those buck looking for fresh scent (heads low, dogging the trails) should find it and apply good quality doe urine as a “calming” cover scent.

Have some Great Hunts this Fall,

Chip

920-526-3474
www.doetodoor.com
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