Scents or no Sense

[tscott]

Ok, after shooting deer in 6 decades, I feel my only constants: to stay clean, always hunt the wind, hunt escape and travel corridors, and avoid crowds. Over the years I have tooted, grunted, smelled like a dairy farm in heat, etc. Never could I attribute the taking of a buck to tooting, or whatever doe cologne, seems to be marketed at the time. So what do I do? last week I buy (on sale) my umteenth bottle of "Tinks 69"! The reality of this is my question. Given my success, am I crazy to buy, when I suppose the woods smell like some deer farm somewhere, because I'm not alone?... Also any tips on use. Don't know if I will even use!!! I will be hunting in a wilderness area about 2 miles in... no wheels and few hunters. Why would I jeopardize success with a marketing ploy? 

[.54]

I've taken my share of deer from the ground using no scent....just staying clean and hunting the wind. I figure pioneers and indians took plenty of deer without the benefit of Tinks or scent remover.

On the other hand I've also hunted with scent and had deer walk right up to my scent bomb and stand there sniffing it long enough for me to take a shot. Last week I watched a buck jump a fence and run right up to a doe in heat scent bomb that I set right in front of my stand. He obviously turned and ran right up to it so I know he was drawn to it.

I also think sometimes using the wrong scent can spook deer though. I've had does come up and stop and sniff regular Tinks doe pee but at other times I've seen them shy away from doe in heat scent. I think they know it just ain't right. Then I've smelled some cover scents that are supposed to cover up human scent and they just down rite stink and ther's no way I want to be in the woods smelling like that.

Bottom line, I think alot of the stuff on the market is just a bunch of hype. Best bet is to stay clean and hunt the wind I think.

[Tn Jim]

I've taken my share of deer from the ground using no scent....just staying clean and hunting the wind. I figure pioneers and indians took plenty of deer without the benefit of Tinks or scent remover.

On the other hand I've also hunted with scent and had deer walk right up to my scent bomb and stand there sniffing it long enough for me to take a shot. Last week I watched a buck jump a fence and run right up to a doe in heat scent bomb that I set right in front of my stand. He obviously turned and ran right up to it so I know he was drawn to it.

I also think sometimes using the wrong scent can spook deer though. I've had does come up and stop and sniff regular Tinks doe pee but at other times I've seen them shy away from doe in heat scent. I think they know it just ain't right. Then I've smelled some cover scents that are supposed to cover up human scent and they just down rite stink and ther's no way I want to be in the woods smelling like that.

Bottom line, I think alot of the stuff on the market is just a bunch of hype. Best bet is to stay clean and hunt the wind I think.

[Graybeard]

Like you I've tried many different scent products. Never one time have I seen any positive reaction from deer when using any of them. However I do have one old grunt call that has given me several deer including my biggest yet. Without it there would be several deer that it brought directly to me I'd not have taken. But I also have several others and not one single one of them have ever elicited a positive response from deer.

[joshco84]

graybeard is your grunt one of the old modified duck calls, or is it a newer style grunt tube. sorry for the hijack.

[Graybeard]

graybeard is your grunt one of the old modified duck calls, or is it a newer style grunt tube. sorry for the hijack.

I don't know nuttin about no modified duck calls. What I have is I think a Primos Deer Grunt made in the late '70s or extremely early '80s I think. I've had it so long I don't honestly remember just when the heck I got it. Your chances of finding another like it are some where between slim and none. But they are making one these days that "looks" much like it but doesn't sound like it.

I own at least a dozen different deer grunt and bleat calls and this one is the ONLY one I've ever had a deer act positively toward. I know I've had at least 20-25 deer come directly to me as if on a string when I use it.

The very first time I used it that I can recall I was bow hunting. I first heard then saw a really nice buck rubbing a sapling with dead leaves. It was quite noisy. I grunted to him as he was going parallel to an old logging road I was on using a pine for my treestand and was up about 18'. When he heard that call he turned 90 degrees and came for me as if on a string. He got my scent when the breeze shifted at about ten yards and bolted away and up the road I was on. It was all grown up in pine saplings where he was offering me no shot.

I'm pretty sure he's the same buck I later called in and shot with a rifle but can't be 100% sure of it. If it was him he is an eleven point with drop tine. I didn't see the drop tine that first day with bow but judging by the size I think it was him. I was in the same tree when I shot with rifle and took the 11 point.

[HuntingGuy]

We'll start the bidding for GB's call at $30 

[nabob]

The only thing I can say really helps is to be clean, be aware of the wind, and be on a travel route. I also use scent eliminator. I've never had any luck with the Tinks-type scents, though other hunters say they have. I think it just depends on the particular deer. It might also be a question of where you hunt. I hunt the big woods, where the deer have no real constrictors such as hedge rows to make them smell a particular scent. If a deer happens to smell a scent where I am hunting, that deer will be on a travel route that I'm on as well, so the scent really isn't doing anything except maybe slowing them down to check it out some.

[GRIMJIM]

I have on more than one occasion had a buck stick his nose right in a bottle of doe in estrus urine. I usually put a scent bomb about thirty yards from my stand, and check for a cross wind.

On the other hand I have seen deer spooked by using it too early in the season. I don't know if it is too strong for the earlier season or if later on they just don't care.

Of course I don't overlook the basics either, cleanliness, stillness, wind direction, food, water and escape routes.