Hunters can be well knowledgeable of many deer hunting tactics, but those who don’t consider it important to understand the role of scents in whitetail deer hunting, are doomed to season after season of frustration. This is an area that will make or break a hunter’s season!
Whitetail deer hunting in reality is more of a science than it is a sport. We aren’t throwing or hitting a ball around or displaying our marksmanship at paper targets, we are dealing with living animals who want to stay alive. And they’re equipped with well-tuned senses and skills to help them avoid predators, natural or human. The whitetail deer’s sense of smell is one of their greatest assets to enable them to detect the presence of potential predators. Hunters should understand the whitetail deer’s sense of smell well before its time to enter the woods. Hunters, therefore, need a thorough understanding of scents in whitetail deer hunting.
Whitetail deer can smell hunters a mile away. That’s because we enter their world (the woods) from our human world with all its various natural, unnatural and artificial/chemical scents. These scents are all on us and on our clothes. If you just walk into the woods smelling like that, the whitetail deer will be as aware of your entry as if you had blown your truck horn and yelled “I’m Here, I’m Here”. Back in the early 80’s when I was a teenager I was told I just needed skunk scent to keep the deer from smelling me. Expert deer hunters do much more than use skunk scent nowadays. They understand the role of scents in whitetail deer hunting and will go to great length to control these scents. Everything from bathing to washing and storing hunting clothes to keeping scent free while headed to the deer stand is critical. Once on the deer stand other scent control measures are necessary to combat the whitetail deer’s sense of smell.
As one can see, its a major challenge to take on the whitetail deer’s sense of smell. Its probably the most important factor in whitetail deer hunting. Lower on the totem pole are things like the hunter’s type of gun or bow, his camouflaging, his marksmanship. The hunter who seriously works at controlling his scents as well as employing other expert whitetail deer hunting tactics will have a better chance of success.
For more in-depth information on scents in whitetail deer hunting as well as the whole field of whitetail deer hunting tactics as explained by an accomplished, expert guide and hunter, I recommend Charlie Hicks’ new e-book, Deer Hunting Secrets Exposed
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kirby_Dean
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