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The world of deer scents is one
shrouded in mysterious claims and fantastical declarations. The hundreds of products that adorn the
shelves would have you believing that by just shelling out a nominal fee whitetail
bucks will literally stampede your stand and in doing so fulfill your wildest
hunting dreams. If you have logged
more than a long weekend in the tree stand you know this is just not the
case. It could be easy to become
cynical or down right fed up with the idea of using commercially produced deer
attractant. All deer scents are not created equal. I am not for a second going to lead you to believe
that I have all the answers. I would like to address this highly debated
subject by shedding some light on why scents should work and how they can be
used more effectively. To do this I will draw from my experience as a biologist
and also a deer farmer. As a hunter it is easy to picture the earliest
adversaries of the whitetail observing a buck following another deer’s trail
nose to the ground, thinking hmm?
What would it take to get that deer to follow me? You can almost see the light bulb
turning on as that same primordial hunter watches, as a buck smells the ground
where a doe has recently relieved herself. The idea was born! It is not clear when urine was first used
to harvest whitetails, but the knowledge of the attractive power of scent was
not limited only to the deer. For centuries native hunters used urine and feces
to entice other fur-bearing quarry into traps or snares.
The principle that all scents operate on is
communication. Be it a Whitetail
buck, a coyote, or a beaver, the compounds they secrete are sending a message
to other individuals in the area.
Recently I was speaking at a career day and I was trying to convey as
much about deer scents to eighth graders in 20 minutes as I could.
I likened deer scents to the now very popular Facebook webpage’s.
A deer’s urine is like its profile, no it does not tell everything there
is to know about it, but it does give a glimpse of what life is like at that
time for each deer. It is agreed
by most researchers that deer in a wild setting can differentiate between the
sexes by smelling the urine. In other words, bucks know the smell of doe urine,
and can differentiate between that and the urine of other bucks. It is unclear if other
specific characteristics i.e. health, diet, age of urine, or over all
reproductive state are included in the urine. It is my belief after performing
chemical analysis on deer urine that if I can detect changes chemically than a
deer can probably smell those differences also. I realize saying “probably” is
not very reassuring, but allow me to give an example. The simple home pregnancy test is based on changes in the hormonal
levels in females during pregnancy; if this is detectable chemically then it
would make sense that the superior nose of a deer can distinguish it also.
It is widely debated whether or not indications of heat, or as has been
exploited by scent producers “estrous” can be detected in urine. Many top researchers debate whether
bucks can smell breeding readiness in doe urine. Some maintain that the pheromones degrade so quickly in the
urine that it is impractical to try and bottle it. Others say that the pheromones were not even there in the
first place. It may sound crude
but like rutting bucks urine has a smell, a doe in ovulation readiness (hot
heat) has urine that is a pungent almost tart smell. Don’t ask me why that is,
but there is a definite difference in urine from a doe not in heat and one who
is. If I can smell it then most
certainly a buck can. As far
as degrading of pheromones making bottling impractical, I feel that while some
may dissipate during the collection process if the urine is properly chilled
during and following collection some can be preserved for a short period of
time. In many cases urine
sold as pure estrous or doe in heat are everything but. The whitetail doe is capable of
ovulating every twenty-one days this heat period usually lasts only 24
hours. If she remains unbred a doe
may cycle 3 times. (November, December, January) I have found mature does produce an average of 16 ounces of
urine during a typical fall day. Do
the math, at top production each doe is only able to produce 48 ounces of
“estrous” urine, and that is if she cycles three times. There is no way on earth that there is
enough does in captivity to produce the volume of urine needed to fill all the
estrous urine bottles in America each season.
So what are you using if what you are buying is not actual
estrous urine? Since there is no
quality control organization for deer scent the majority of scent on the shelf
sold as estrous was collected and bottled the previous year. So already the pee in your bottle is
minimum 12 months old, a long time to be sitting at room temperature. Most of us are familiar with the
burning ammonia smell released when a bottle is opened for the first time. This comes from the degradation of the
urea, which is excreted through the kidneys from dietary proteins. In my own research I found that over a
2-week time urea in urine degraded to ammonia by 50%. Bacterial growth is another factor that degrades urine
quality. To overcome this, many
popular scent companies add the preservative sodium benzoate. It is a salt that acts as an
antibiotic, hampering the protein production and other basic bacterial cell
functions. Most maintain that a
deer cannot smell the difference, but when used as a food preservative research
suggests that as much as twenty-five percent of the human population can taste
it.
It may seem easy to completely
write off using all deer scent after reading this, but don’t lose heart. There are companies who are addressing
some of these problems. A handful
of companies have realized that the public was getting fed up with the inferior
deer scents on the market and went to work building something better. First to
be addressed was collection procedure.
In the past urine was collected on a graded cement floor to a center
drain. This type of collection put
the urine into contact with high levels of bacteria, and fecal material leading
to a rapid breakdown and loss of effectiveness. Today top deer urine producers collect only on high density
plastic, or stainless steel. This
allows for the facility to be properly sanitized reducing the bacterial load in
the urine. Second addressed was
freshness, rather than bottle and sell the following year these companies
painstakingly collect urine in season only and ship it to the customer within
days of collection. Like mentioned before, bacterial growth and conversion of
urea to ammonia are the two biggest enemies facing fresh deer scent. To combat these we have found that
keeping the urine cold during and after collection, and during shipment does
wonders in keeping the scent fresh.
Hunters are also encouraged to keep their scent bottle in a refrigerator
once they receive their product.
Some companies advocate freezing their product. In my personal opinion this is far and
above off the shelf products, but when compared to fresh chilled scent its
falls to second. If you have ever
used frozen deer scent you are probably familiar with the white precipitate
that forms at the bottom of the bottle upon thawing. This is actually part of
the product that was suspended when the product was fresh. When any molecule is frozen then thawed
the molecule swells and contracts and this causes fractures of the highly
complicated organic molecules. An
example is milk. Milk that has
been frozen then thawed is never the same. Probably the most interesting advancement
in urine collection is fresh estrous production. Fresh urine producers are now using a hormone therapy
commonly used on dairy farms for ovulation induction. This process starts by inoculating does with a progesterone
implant restarting the doe’s cycle.
After ten to fourteen days the implants are removed, and a shot of PMSG
is given. PMSG
is derived from pregnant mares, and stimulates development of the ovarian
follicle in does. Ovulation
occurs within sixty hours. Once in
an ovulation state does are brought to the urine collection stalls. The urine
collected for the next twenty-four hours is the most potent estrous urine
available. We have had several
customers who literally had to chase off younger bucks form their stand because
they just did not want to leave the smell.
So
now we have been through why deer scent should work, and how the best urine is
collected, now lets go through how to present it for most effective use. When we walk through the woods we are
using our sight to put together a picture in our minds of what or who is
there. We key on visual sign as
indications of deer activity. Deer
rely on their nose first and their eyes second when making decisions. Their eyes can play tricks on them but
their nose never lies. So, how
does a deer present its scent?
Deer typically urinate down the back of their legs onto their tarsal
glands and down the ankle. As they walk a small amount of urine is spread on
the trail. To duplicate this, tie
a four-foot nylon cord to a clean (not reused time and again) rag. I have found a clean new paper towel
works best, and can be thrown away after each use. Squirt some fresh scent or estrous on it, tie the free end
to your boot with a short cord and walk to your stand. As you approach your stand be sure to
walk through at least one shooting lane.
Also do not walk all the way to your tree with the scent. When you are about fifteen to twenty
yards out in a shooting lane untie the string and hang it on a small tree
branch. If possible make a mock
scrape below the drag. To do this find an overhanging branch and break it.
Second, rake away the leaves in a 3 square foot area below the broken branch.
Do this with a stick to reduce human scent. Finally, apply a generous amount of scent or scent volumizer
into the fresh dirt. to the scrape.
In many instances mock scrapes I have made were taken over by deer
within a week for being built. You can also squirt additional scent on the drag
at this time. This can be an extremely good spot to put a trail camera. Deer crossing the trail you have made
will sometimes follow it right to your stand.
If you are doing this it is very important that your boots
are free of human odors. Also
never let the urine contact your skin or your hunting gear that will be up in
the tree. First you want to make
every effort not to have the deer smell anything up in the tree and second it
can be very dangerous to have fresh deer scent on your person. We have had several customers claim to
have been snort-wheezed at from ten yards as they left their stand. And in one
case a young buck followed the hunter all the way to his truck. Another way to
use fresh scent in the field is to make a mock scrape.
Over time these tactics that were
developed to give sustenance hunters an extra edge have been turned into a
commercial industry. There are
products available that in my experience are of the utmost quality and speak
for themselves, other products talk a good game, but in the woods they end up
being more of a hindrance than a help.
I hope this has helped shed some light on deer scent and it’s uses. For more information visit www.timbervalleyfreshscent.com
. If you have any questions please
feel free to call, or drop me an email.
Office (217) 632-7597
Email Sullivan@tvfreshscent.com
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