Is it possible to cover my tracks?

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GRFox
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Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby GRFox » Fri Jul 16, 2010 2:12 pm

I am planning on hunting a nice little funnel in my hottest spot this year. Unfortunately the only place I will be able to get my climber brings me about 10-15 yards into the funnel which means a deer could potentially cross my tracks.

Now in the past I have never worried about that sort of thing, but I am on a pretty good buck here and don't want to mess it up.

I always wear rubber boots and spray down with scent eliminating sprays, but as far as I'm concerned, there is NOTHING that can beat a mature bucks nose. Am I wrong? what do you guys suggest?


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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Autumn Ninja » Fri Jul 16, 2010 2:52 pm

From my experience....NO, you cant cover your tracks!!! But someone on here may know something I don't.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Liberty-Hunt » Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:09 pm

Autumn Ninja wrote:From my experience....NO, you cant cover your tracks!!! But someone on here may know something I don't.


X2 sorry...
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Zap » Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:14 am

Try a mountain bike. :mrgreen:

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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby DropTyne » Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:54 am

Nope, can't cover em'
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Sat Jul 17, 2010 1:50 am

I might be all wrong here, but I have had great luck wearing the rubber boots and I spray coon urine on the bottom and top of the boot... I have actually had coon come walking through the woods before dark, hit my track, and nose to the ground, come walking right up to my tree like they were looking for that coon that left that scent on the ground... I guess my point is, they must think it's a real cool track walking in the woods, so I'm hoping the deer think the same thing...

Not sure if you have any coon where you are from, but where I am they are all over the place, so it works good for me...
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:39 am

Some people say that Elimitrax work but I guess these can be looked at the same way as people look at Scent Lok. Some believe and some say it is a scam. Use your own judgement.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Black Squirrel » Sat Jul 17, 2010 3:13 am

Dewey wrote:Some people say that Elimitrax work but I guess these can be looked at the same way as people look at Scent Lok. Some believe and some say it is a scam. Use your own judgement.
http://elimitrax.com/

Steve Bartylla, swears by these, there are suppose to be made of a scentless vinyl or something. I have no experince with them, so can't really comment one way or another.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby dan » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:36 am

No matter what you do your going to leave some scent and the deer that cross your path will know you were there. I do not believe you can eliminate or reduce your scent enough to make much of a difference. However, there are things you can do...
#1 don't over hunt the spot.
#2 get a portable stand so you don't have to hunt the straight tree in the middle of the funnel and set it back farther.
#3 use patience to wait for the right time to hunt the spot.
#4 Hunting just before, or during a rain gives you a free hunt by washing away your scent after you leave.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Sam Ubl » Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:03 am

I dunno, Dan, I think digging a tunnel to the tree might be the best method in this circumstance... :lol:

Just kidding. Well, Dan's always got a great response to these scenarios - scent scenarios especially. Taking into consideration that $ isn't the easiest thing in the world to come by, going to the store and buying a climber that's no less than $200, or investing in a good pair of climbing sticks just may not be in your best interst - I don't know, maybe it is.

If it is, or you already have the equipment, go ahead and take Dan's advice and back off the funnel a little bit. If that isn't an option, than take his suggestion to be patient and pick your most opportune times to sit.

Myself, I oppose Dan's firm stance on scent elimination, or lack there of in his opinion. I have so rarely seen a deer cross my path and watched it make me, I can't say for sure if it's ever happened... Perhaps it did and was out of sight, I don't know, but I smash cow pies with my rubber boots as I walk through the pastures at the farms I hunt. In the woods I rub them in the dirt before making my trek.

Surely they might smell the rubber, but I haven't seen that little bit of scent affect their travel routes when crossing my footsteps... Maybe I've been lucky? 8-)

In the grand schem of things, Dan's point of view over scent is THE most effective, however, as his way of avoiding the scent spook is the best way to go IMO. He rarely sits the same tree twice, etc... I just haven't started hunting his way yet.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby str8shooter » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:03 pm

Just a thought here, but if you have permission to do a little cutting on this ground you could hingecut some trees to create a "protected" entrance exit route to the base of your tree. Essentially blocking the path so a deer can't cross you're entry/exit unless it leaves the funnel.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:45 pm

Since I started wearing knee high rubber boots I have not had any deer react to ground scent around my stand set ups like they frequently did when I wore leather boots.
I agree that you can never eliminate all of your scent but I believe rubber boots do help to some degree.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby dan » Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:22 am

Dewey wrote:Since I started wearing knee high rubber boots I have not had any deer react to ground scent around my stand set ups like they frequently did when I wore leather boots.
I agree that you can never eliminate all of your scent but I believe rubber boots do help to some degree.

Its not the scent on your boots that spooks deer... Its the scent your skin releases. If you watch a hound track a human you will notice he don't follow the trail where the subject walked but rather just down wind of where he walked, where his scent landed.
I do agree that rubber boots leave less scent. I also agree that you can reduce your ground scent. However, I don't believe you can eliminate it with any product or system that is available right now. I also don't believe the slight scent reduction makes much of any difference to the increadable nose of a whitetail.
Deer smell your scent whether they show reaction or not. I have seen bucks totally ignor human scent, then the same buck later freak out at human scent because its near his bedding area or where he don't expect it.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby Dewey » Sun Jul 18, 2010 5:23 am

dan wrote:
Dewey wrote:Since I started wearing knee high rubber boots I have not had any deer react to ground scent around my stand set ups like they frequently did when I wore leather boots.
I agree that you can never eliminate all of your scent but I believe rubber boots do help to some degree.

Its not the scent on your boots that spooks deer... Its the scent your skin releases. If you watch a hound track a human you will notice he don't follow the trail where the subject walked but rather just down wind of where he walked, where his scent landed.
I do agree that rubber boots leave less scent. I also agree that you can reduce your ground scent. However, I don't believe you can eliminate it with any product or system that is available right now. I also don't believe the slight scent reduction makes much of any difference to the increadable nose of a whitetail.
Deer smell your scent whether they show reaction or not. I have seen bucks totally ignor human scent, then the same buck later freak out at human scent because its near his bedding area or where he don't expect it.

The point I was trying to make was that to me it seemed like my skin scent passes much less through rubber boots than it does with leather or fabric boots. I totally agree with you about other scent landing on the ground and the deer picking this up but I think deer pick up much more scent from brush that rubs against your body as you walk through the woods. That is when they seem to bust me most often when I walk in some tall grass or thick brush and as soon as they put their nose on a particular patch of marsh grass or brush they totally freak out. I try to prevent this by not touching anything if I can help it. If I need to trim any branches(where legal)around my stand I use a hand trimmer instead of breaking branches off with my bare hand. I also agree that you cannot eliminate human scent but I believe you can take measures like this to reduce them.I'm sure other deer scented me before I ever see them but I base this on deer sightings around my stand on deer I pass on and just watch their reactions as they smell around me. You can tell they smell something but don't react as negatively when they cross your path you walked in on. Since I started paying more attention to things like this I have seen much less negative reaction from deer around me. In my younger days I never took any precautions and it seemed like I was getting busted every other time I went out hunting and now I rarely hear a deer snorting at me. Last year I only had one doe snorting at me but that was because I was careless again in the early morning and took a short cut through some tall marsh grass but I did kill my buck a few hours later.
Scent reduction works for me and I can't argue with the results since I started paying attention more. I say whatever makes you feel the most confident stick with it.
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Re: Is it possible to cover my tracks?

Unread postby UPbowhunter » Sun Jul 18, 2010 6:03 am

On one of the farms I hunt I have an 80 acre bedding area that I try not to penatrate to far into. I wear rubber boots, spray down from waist down, and apply a little coon urine. This year I have went in and placed stands now in the summer cut some light trails around deer trails and made them short runs into the area. I normally hunt with the stand on my back and hit a new tree each time, but I think this approach will help this year. If the deer arent coming to my stands and areas to shoot them I can go in and adjust during rain storms or as a storm is aproaching. This farm has hired farm hands that are in the feilds, and close into the cover most of the year so deer are used to some human scent, I'm not expecting to elimante my scent just keep it down to a level that they may talorate in areas that they are used to some human scent. The #5 shotgun buck was taken off of this farm a few years ago, that guy lost his hunting rights because he only wanted to shoot bucks I have to shoot alot of deer out of here to keep the privelage from the farmer. so I will extract as many does as I can early and wait on the rut to get my chances at the big guys that are on this farm. It is in any area where bucks will float in as the rut heats up also. So I guess what I'm saying is there is no real way to keep your scent out of a deers nose, but there may be ways to keep them down to an exceptable level in places where they dont come completely unglued by picking them up.
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