Scents and Attractants for early season Deer

To understand scents and attractants we must first understand what they are. Over many years of making deer attractants I’ve found that we use different words to describe the same thing. I sometimes do the same and inter mix words when I talk to people about our products. But here is how I define a few words when talking about deer lures.

First is the word SCENT. My definition of scent is that it comes from an animal (urine, glands etc.). 2nd would be ATTRACTANT. My definition is a smell that would entice with a sense of pleasure such as food. 3rd would be LURE. My definition is any scent or attractant that will bring them to the set. Yes I’m and old time trapper also, and the set was made so that the animal would place is foot exactly where I wanted them to step. 4th is curiosity and is something they don’t smell everyday. And 5th COVER scent. Any odor other than our own human scent.

I consider all the above to be a type of cover scent as it lends a deer’s attention to that odor and not ours. Most cover scents are made to smell like earth, trees, etc. So any scent or attractant can also be used as a cover scent as I see it. I will not use any type of cover scent on my body or clothing when hunting. I only use a scent eliminator without any smell to it.

Deer hunters should know that there is not a deer lure made that will work 100% of the time. Some hunters think that you can just pour a bottle of scent out anywhere on the ground and deer will come. Wrong! You have to know where the deer are and their habits to utilize your lures to there best drawing ability. When used properly, in the right location and the right time of year you will increase your chances of bringing a deer to your stand.

Our goal as deer hunters is to get the deer to walk to where we would like to get a good shot at it. So how do we go about doing this and what do we use for early season deer hunting? When setting up over a trail or spot that you think deer will pass, you want to be on the down wind side of the trail. I like to have a shot of about 20 yards from the trail.

Note: this for early season, during the Pre-Rut and Rut when the big boys are doing allot of scent checking, I place my stand about 40 yards from the trail. This gives room for the big boys to circle the down wind side of the trail for that Doe in Estrus Scent. If you want to use your stand in the same place all year then place your scent 20 yards on the other side of the trail.

For now though we are in the early season and deer are using trails and making rubs so I place my scents and attractants about 20 yards from my stand. Food and curiosity attractants work well this time of year. Food attractants used, should be common to the area you are hunting, you wouldn’t want to use sweet corn where no corn is found. I have found that food attractants work best from early afternoon until darkness has you heading for your vehicle. Deer have been feeding all night long and heading back to bed down in the mornings, so they are not really interested in food. I use a curiosity attractant such as our MO~NILLA or L.C. BERRY early in the mornings as they work allot better than our food lures early in the morning. The scents I use are Doe Whiz or Y-Buck Whiz to drag to my stand and then along the trail where I’d like to take my deer. I place some of my curiosity scent at the place I want to take my shot. I never place Scents or Attractants more than 2 feet off the ground.

I don’t know where or how it got started, but it seems to me that all the TV PROS and magazine writers haven’t been in the woods long enough to really observe or study deer.
So popular belief is that the higher you place your lure off the ground the farther the scent will carry. I say HOGWASH, the only thing placing your lure high is going to do is make the deer look up a whole lot more than by keeping it close to the ground. The more a deer looks up scent checking, the better chance it has of spotting you in your tree stand. You might get by with it on younger deer but your chances of being picked off by and older deer are great.

The same holds true with putting mother earth, acorn wafers etc. on your hunting clothes. How many times have you seen the so called Pro up in his tree stand with scent wafers hanging from his hat or pinned on his shoulder, get busted because the deer picked the hunter off. The camo might have helped to hide him but the deer knew something wasn’t right. Please, Please use a no scent spray on your clothing and give yourself a better chance of getting Mr. Wallhanger if he should show himself.

There are times when I make a 20 yard circle around my stand with Doe Whiz in case the wind shifts, but by doing this you must be very keen to having deer come in from any direction. When I’m hunting Trophy Deer I don’t use this tactic, its just way to risky.
If you are like many hunters and try to get in a couple hours of hunting after work and you are worried about how you smell. Spray your clothes with non scented spray and if you have some other spray like mother earth or whatever, spray it on the ground about 10 yards from your stand.
Deer are wild animals and you can’t always tell what they will do and how they might react to scents and attractants etc. I really do spend over 300 days a year in the woods testing, studying, photographing, and hunting-(during season) the great Whitetail Deer.

Also one last note about Doe Whiz and Buck whiz. A doe will not always check the scent of a buck and a buck will not always check the scent of a doe. But a buck will check the scent of another buck scent most of the time to see who the new kid in the block is, and during the rut a buck wants to know who the intruder is.
I developed our Trophy Blend to aid in the better chance to bag a buck during the pre-rut and the rut. I believe it to be better than estrus by itself and feed back from others has been great. Visit our website often for more info and to just say hello at HighNoon Deer Scents also known by many as Swansnest Botanicals We also love to see your pictures and like to know what you were using to bag your deer. My wife and I love to see others having success and fun and hope that we have helped in some small way.


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