Scent Drift

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headgear
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Scent Drift

Unread postby headgear » Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:26 pm

I wanted to touch on an experience I had last fall that relates to Dan's great treestand article. viewtopic.php?f=159&t=1329

Quote from the article
"I also avoid letting my scent blow across these same trails, and for sure not into the bedding area. Just like a blood hound can pick up a 3 day old trail, a deer's nose can smell where you have been, and can even pick up where your scent has drifted to."

There was just a mention of this scent drift but after experiencing it I can't stress enough how important it is and how sharp these bucks are. Late Oct last year I slipped into a buck bedding area I had scouted once but this was my first time hunting the area. The wind was primarily out of the NW which was perfect so I headed in early and got setup, saw some nice sign on the way in and I was ready to go.

Then the unexpected happened, there was a sudden strong gust of wind from the SW, then a half hour later another gust. I kind of cringed and stuck it out thinking all was well, the SW wind didn't blow my scent into the bed but it was going towards one of the trials I was watching. A little over an hour later things calmed down and I not only had the wind in my favor or a long stretch but there was a strong thermal coming off a large hill maybe 150 yards away.

So a half hour before closing time I hear grunting in the distance from the direction of the bedding area. Time passes and the grunting gets stronger and stronger and they are heading my way. Now they have to be right on top of me, some crashing and grunts maybe 40 yards away. Finally a doe appears and crosses an opening perfectly at 20 yards. Then the long painful wait followed by nothing but silence. Its been too long and I know it, the buck smelled my scent drift from those two gusts of wind, turned tail and snuck out of there. I sit a little longer, congratulate the buck on a nice move and head out for the night. I don't know what size he was and never got a glimps of him but there were good tracks and rubs in the area and it was likely a buck I was targeting.


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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby NatureBoy » Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:14 am

I really like the post, but I'm skeptical that the buck scented you from a "scent drift" that you left an hour or more earlier. I'm not saying it's impossible. But I'm skeptical. Still, some bucks are amazingly sharp. More likely though, I would assume that your current scent was whirling around in there and he picked that up. We all know that the wind plays tricks on us and can make a big circle in the wrong or right direction. Or, maybe he sensed something was off and backed out. I am a believer that mature bucks and does develop a sixth sense. Maybe my thinking is flawed, but I believe you would have to be really stinky to leave a "scent drift" that a buck could pick up an hour or more later. But I would really like to hear what other guys with more experience think about this.
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headgear
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby headgear » Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:56 am

I can promise you there was no wind swirl, it was dead calm and as planned there was a strong thermal coming off the hill, milkweeds confirmed the thermal but they didn't have to because I could feel it on my face. Other than the two gusts of wind that blew my scent right at the deer I had the wind in my favor the whole time. I was kind of puzzled at first but figured he had to have smelled something to leave that doe after grunting behind her for 80-100 or so yards. Dan's article just reminded me of the encounter and re-inforced what I thought happened actually did happen.

Anyone else get busted this way?
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby phade » Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:58 am

I understand the importance of scent control and the wind/thermal factor. I try not, however, to lay blame 100% when I can't rationally justify it. I'm not saying this is the case, but there could be other factors in play.

Maybe that doe wasn't primed up and he was following her to check it out, decided that she wasn't worth the effort, and retreated to check more does. You could have just been a victim of bad timing.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby headgear » Fri Sep 07, 2012 3:11 am

Phade I will admit anything is possible and he could have gotten bored and headed elsewhere, or maybe he did 6th sense me and I should have had that new suite that blocks electro magnetics. :D

I should add that when I first saw the doe she did give me a head-bob and hesitated for a little while before she kept moving and crossed my shooting lane. No doubt she could have caught some movement or she could have just seen my outline but it's also possible she caught a little scent drift and got a bit nervous before dismissing it. She was a good sized mature doe.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby dan » Fri Sep 07, 2012 4:22 am

No such thing as "6th sense"..... I don't know why the buck in the scenario did not come thru, but it is certianly possible that he smelt human predator scent ( dead skin cells that we constantly shed ) that blew over and landed...
I have seen deer react to my ground scent where I walked in from 20 feet away from the trail I walked... We are talking about an animal that can smell millions of times better than us... Millions...
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby Southern Man » Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:11 am

NatureBoy wrote: I'm skeptical that the buck scented you from a "scent drift" that you left an hour or more earlier. I'm not saying it's impossible. But I'm skeptical. Still, some bucks are amazingly sharp. More likely though, I would assume that your current scent was whirling around in there and he picked that up.


Isn't that basically the same thing?

Down here they grow tobacco, most of it called "Dark Fired". What that means is fire cured. When the crop is cut (harvested), it's hung in barns and a fire of smolderin sawdust burns underneath it. This smoke goes out the barn and whereever the wind takes it. There are very few places around here where you can hunt and not be somewhat close to a barn firin tobacco. I've sat in stands many times watchin the smoke move through the woods. What's amazin is how long the smoke will linger after the winds shift. Or on an off wind gust that pushes the smoke in a different direction of where the wind is blowin. Same with the smell. It's not a cigarette or cigar smell at all, actually smells good, but you'll smell it before you see the smoke, or long after the fires are gone. Watchin those barns will teach you a bunch about the wind. I'm sure scent is the same way, especially for a deer. That may not be the case of the buck in the story but certianly possible.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby Jdub » Fri Sep 07, 2012 7:08 am

Scoutlook.com is a great site, it shows where your "scent cone" is traveling over an ariel map depending on the current wind direction.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby MOBIGBUCKS » Fri Sep 07, 2012 7:13 am

Jdub wrote:Scoutlook.com is a great site, it shows where your "scent cone" is traveling over an ariel map depending on the current wind direction.


Very Awesome man. Thanks for sharing that.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby jboswell » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:01 am

just grabbed the android app... deerlog from scoutlook... hope it works well
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby dan » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:12 am

If a skunk sprays, and then moves on... His airborn scent goes thru the air and lands on and sticks to stuff down wind... Even when the wind changes direction, you can walk down wind of where the skunk sprayed and still smell skunk even though its not airborn from the source, and the skunk has not been over there... Well, to a deer, we smell worse than the proverbial skunk.
There is no reason a deer should not be able to smell our scent drift that has stuck to foliage.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby Beason » Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:31 pm

Back last year hunting 300 ft bluffs on a side hill near a large washout cut, I was throwing out a ton of milkweed seeds but they never swirled the way I had imagined, instead, they hesitantly went slowly downhill off to an angle. I guess it wasn't all too sunny out but I was still surprised and sat there wondering how far my scent was drifting in this area. I ended up passing on a big broken 8 uphill of me wondering if he had a hint of me or not...guess we'll never know.

Sometimes I'm so caught up in the tactical approaches and the things I can do to up my odds of killing a big mature buck and lose sight of just plain hunting...has kind of taken the fun out of it honestly. But don't get me wrong, still love trying to outsmart a big deer! :D
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby NatureBoy » Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:40 am

dan wrote:No such thing as "6th sense".....


I disagree with this statement 100%. Even humans have been know to develop it. Most of us react to it without even thinking about it. Why do you think we look over when someone is staring at us? I'm a firm believer in 6th sense. The orientals call it "ki" (Japanese) or "chi" (Chinese). It's an essential element of the martial arts and is much older and well established than Western civilization.
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby dan » Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:49 am

I have never had a deer react in a way that could not be explained. And deer are not people, and do not have as sophisticated minds as we do...
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Re: Scent Drift

Unread postby NatureBoy » Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:56 am

dan wrote:I have never had a deer react in a way that could not be explained. And deer are not people, and do not have as sophisticated minds as we do...

I believe that the way we as humans "explain" animal reactions is often far from factual. Animals don't rely on sophisticated minds. They rely on their senses.
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