Rutting buck an his nose.

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Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby Ghost Hunter » Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:19 pm

I have thought about this from time to time. Just how good can a rutting buck nose be when he's in full rut. I understand if he has a breeze blowing straight at him. But what about the times when the wind is light or his odor on his body over comes the smells around him? They can smell pretty rank at times. Or, maybe they get use to the odor an do not pay it any attention.

What are your thoughts?


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Re: Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:39 pm

A buck smells different than we can relate to. He can smell and differentiate odors form other odors. It's like a rainbow of odors. He can smell all the colors not just red or blue.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:44 pm

His nose will work just as well as any other time. In fact, in a sense, it will be working better because he will always be paying very close attention to detect even the slightest trace of a doe in heat. He can also differentiate between multiple odors simultaneously. Plus, as he is walking along trolling for does he is not really smelling himself anyway because he is constantly moving into fresh air space.
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Re: Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby dan » Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:59 pm

yOU CAN'T OVER POWER A BUCKS NOSE... They have the ability to separate odors and smell multiple odors at once. They certainly use air currents and wind direction during the rut... Travel direction at other times of the year seem more random, but rut they walk the thermal tunnels of ridges to cover multiple air currents. They walk cross winds, cruise down wind of feeding and bedding areas to locate does, cross doe trails to catch ground scent, etc...
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Re: Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby xpauliber » Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:50 am

My buddy has a German Shorthair that he uses as a bird dog and when she was young, he took her through some training courses to sharpen her skills at pointing. When he asked the instructor a question about how good she can smell, the instructor told him that we can't even begin to understand how well they can smell. He even explained it to him like this: You take your dog and go to the drive-through at McDonald's. You put your window down and you smell fast food cooking but your dog smells burger, ketchup, lettuce, pickles, onions, etc.

My buddy also told me that his dog loves to eat grouse but hates woodcock. She will point woodcock but won't eat the meat. After a hunt one day, they had gotten a couple grouse and a woodcock. He cooked all the birds up and gave her some of each but mixed all of the meat up together before he put it in her dish. He watched her nose around the bowl and only pick out the grouse chunks to eat and left all of the woodcock in the bowl. He said that that convinced him just how good a dog's nose is.

I believe deer can smell even better than a dog?
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Re: Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby Ghost Hunter » Wed Jul 31, 2013 3:12 am

I never thought it could be beat, unless he overlooks the warning signs from the nose. Would be nice to have an access to an in depth study on something such as this topic.
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Re: Rutting buck an his nose.

Unread postby Ghost Hunter » Thu Aug 01, 2013 3:28 am

I was hunting this white oak ridge about eight years ago. Mommy doe was feeding in the area an there was a real nice eight following her around. She started up the ridge toward me an got to within about 15 yards an locked up. She stuck here nose in the air. She then started taking samples an slowly worked her way up an looked straight at me. She then turn an walked off an I was never offered a shot on the buck. They went down an went up another ridge to where they were going. She was smart. She was trying to locate where the smell was coming from, it was like she was locking on an target. Her head was back an forth in about a foot area an slowly rising until she looked straight at me. I missed an opportunity at that buck which was right around a 125 but that is the way it is.

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