Do deer get used to human scent?

[ThereWillBeSpuds]

If I am hunting a property that has neighborhoods on the easter edge can I use the expectation of human scent from those houses as cover when wind is coming from the east?


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[Wyatt_burp]

In my experience, it depends on hunting pressure. I've hunted 2 acre parcels in developments and dogs blow my hunts more than people. I wouldn't ignore scent control though. If they smell you they will look for you.

Recap- do your neighbors have dogs? Don't stop showering and doing laundry.

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[Westdesign03]

I think this can depend on where you’re hunting. If you can hunt some suburbs I’m sure they are quite used to it. Every year in early mid fall I see several giant booners smack in the middle of the industrial area of the town in the small green areas here and there. Around small chunks of woods or even just tree lines between industrial properties. They HAVE to be used to human scent. Of course they don’t get hunted in there either. Never seem to see them anywhere else for miles around either.


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[ssramage]

Nope. I hunt and have hunted a lot of suburban areas and deer know where people are supposed to be, and where they're not supposed to be. They see you, or smell you in the woods, and they'll bust. I hunted a place last year that was suburban and had likely not been hunted in a long time. Doe busted me before daylight based on scent alone.

 

[Letemgrowitllshow]

I feel like deer are more skidish when there is always human scent around. It's that constant smell of danger and it don't take much to trigger that natural flight instinct.

Where I live there are more people then where I grew up. Where I live the deer don't even like it when a car drives by slow, they head straight for the woods. Where I'm from is very scarcely populated. This time of year the deer let you drive the truck 20 yards from them in the field.

 

[Wlog]

Nope. I hunt and have hunted a lot of suburban areas and deer know where people are supposed to be, and where they're not supposed to be. They see you, or smell you in the woods, and they'll bust. I hunted a place last year that was suburban and had likely not been hunted in a long time. Doe busted me before daylight based on scent alone.

They accept it where they are expecting it.

 

[Allegheny Tom]

I believe deer sort out the odor of individual humans just like deer recognize individual deer.
The deer around my home are used to smelling ME, and they accept MY odor, around my home in the areas I frequent. I have a mock scrape close by the house. I don't worry about any odor reduction when I check that camera and I have many thousands of deer pics on that scrape. These deer know me just like they know a farmer.
But deer recognize the odor of individuals just like we recognize a face of individual people. I don't think humans can comprehend the level and complexity of a deer's sense of smell.

 

[Westdesign03]

I think this can depend on where you’re hunting. If you can hunt some suburbs I’m sure they are quite used to it. Every year in early mid fall I see several giant booners smack in the middle of the industrial area of the town in the small green areas here and there. Around small chunks of woods or even just tree lines between industrial properties. They HAVE to be used to human scent. Of course they don’t get hunted in there either. Never seem to see them anywhere else for miles around either.


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Quoting myself here, I didn’t mean deer stop acting like deer in the scenario I described. I just mean in my area, deer know they’re safe in town, aka the woods right around and within town. There are deer out in the country part of my area but they are a lot smaller and buck to doe ratio is WAY scewed out here. There’s a lot less places to hide some everything is essentially wide open. In town with the surrounding woods there’s a lot more opportunity to stay covered. In the rut you will catch a big buck cruising out of the city though but it’s few and far between compared to what’s in town. They know they’re safe there.


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[Knik]

I have no scientific evidence of this only my own personal experiences, but I firmly believe that they can somewhat age the scent too. Just as a hound can hit a hot trail and go with it, versus a cold trail he has to work for. If your scent is strong then they are more alarmed by it and if it's weak then maybe they think you passed through and are not as much of a danger. That applies to ground scent of course, assuming any scent in the air is fresh since it hasn't settled yet. I've always looked at it this way and try my best to be scent free, knowing full well I'm not 100 percent scent free, just trying to calm it down as much as possible. Sure deer get used to human odor around houses, bike paths, hiking trails, and farms....but let them smell human odor where there normally isn't any and they associate that to danger. Mature bucks i don't believe will tolerate human scent period.
Just my 2 cents

 

[Exhumis]

I agree with all the above and will add my own, they become more tolerant as they're accustomed to it. I hunt a farm and landscaping company, both of which have folks out and about in the woods all the time. My interactions with deer there, they've been more tolerant of bs and grab ass'n than say the gas line property I hunt where their interaction is less. Example, hunting partner and I were hunting the landscaping. Doe came down the trail and wind had shifted blowing our scent her way. She didn't even respond until she was about 30 yards away.
We hunted our gas line property property a week later. Again wind shifted and was blowing toward the bedding area. Buddy said does were blowing in the woods a good hundred yards out.

 

[redsquirrel]

Nope. I hunt and have hunted a lot of suburban areas and deer know where people are supposed to be, and where they're not supposed to be. They see you, or smell you in the woods, and they'll bust. I hunted a place last year that was suburban and had likely not been hunted in a long time. Doe busted me before daylight based on scent alone.

I agree with this. When I'm hunting county parks the deer know where the people use the trails and are very tolerant of the activity on the trails. Once you encounter them when you're off the trail or in a tree they know something is up.

 

[sojourner]

I agree with this. When I'm hunting county parks the deer know where the people use the trails and are very tolerant of the activity on the trails. Once you encounter them when you're off the trail or in a tree they know something is up.

Exactly the same experience here wrt parks and trails.

 

[SNIPERBBB]

It's all about context. Fresh scent from the stand is going to cause more alarm than the farmer that went by two hours ago or two weeks ago. Of course, how well the deer have been trained will determine how much the alarm is.

I can practically pet the deer at the golf course all year. The farms, can pet them till gun season comes in. Wildlife areas or big properties that don't see much humans it's random.

Same concept applies to coyotes in case you're wondering.

 

[ThumbsMcGee]

Imagine deer have a dosimeter for human scent. They know acceptance levels where they frequently visit. If the human scent is stronger, say 10 yards into the woods than usual, they’re gonna know something is up.

Taylor Chamberlin of YouTube channel “Hunt Urban” covers this topic.


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[Bwhana]

It's pretty simple, we just make it complicated by chatter. When you smell a skunk, do you not automatically know whether it is close or distant? Even If you smell it all the time in a certain area, then walk out the next day and it is closer, are you not going to notice it right away? Deer live and die by their noses that are way better than the analogy and can tell immediately and better. The real variable is that they have different personalities and tolerances, so you will get an occasional buck that is just lazier or less fearful than most and we call them trophies.

 

[gameflogger]

It's pretty simple, we just make it complicated by chatter. When you smell a skunk, do you not automatically know whether it is close or distant? Even If you smell it all the time in a certain area, then walk out the next day and it is closer, are you not going to notice it right away? Deer live and die by their noses that are way better than the analogy and can tell immediately and better. The real variable is that they have different personalities and tolerances, so you will get an occasional buck that is just lazier or less fearful than most and we call them trophies.

Suckas!!!!

 

[SNIPERBBB]

It's pretty simple, we just make it complicated by chatter. When you smell a skunk, do you not automatically know whether it is close or distant? Even If you smell it all the time in a certain area, then walk out the next day and it is closer, are you not going to notice it right away? Deer live and die by their noses that are way better than the analogy and can tell immediately and better. The real variable is that they have different personalities and tolerances, so you will get an occasional buck that is just lazier or less fearful than most and we call them trophies.

Some bucks seem to not take the hint sometimes...years ago I shot a doe in gun season and she fell in the creek(its a magnet for deer on this property when they get shot). The basket 6 she was with just stared at her. I really didnt want to spook him but I didnt want that doe in the water for longer than I had too so after 5 minutes I started walking towards him before he finally took off.

 

[Loopwing]

I don't think they really associate a human smell, a dog smell or anything like that. They notice a DIFFERENT smell and that puts them on edge. Kind of like an office space, all the colognes, perfumes, hand lotions, everyone gets used to them, but let someone fart. Everyone notices the DIFFERENT smell and puts you on edge. I have seen deer dogs and deer touch noses in the woods. The deer did not spook and the dog never barked. I could smell the dog in my stand, so the dog smell did not scary the dog, but the deer was definitely on point.

 

[John Eberhart]

There are many circumstances concerning deer tolerating differing amounts of human odor. In suburban areas there is always some risidual human odor drifting in the air and in certain areas within suburbia where deer expect humans to be, they tolerate a lot of it. Once they go to areas where there is not supposed to be humans, they will still tolerate it to the extent that they think it a distant threat, but if it's strong in areas where they know humans typically don't go, then they will spook from it.

Obviously in all TV situations and in managed areas all mature bucks will tolerate some amount of human odor because they have grown to maturity with no threatening consequences when they have passed by hunters while growing up and that's why they are so simple for the TV guys to kill. There are a lot of them, they fall for about any tactic and they tolerate hunting intrusions unlike bucks in heavily pressured areas. I can't ever remember big bucks walking into open picked corn fields and short crop fields like I see on TV while flipping through channels. It's very amusing to me.

 

[Chimney7]

In my opinion if you're hunting a property that has people living on the edge of it, the deer are absolutely used to human scent. The only problem with that though, is in my experience, suburban deer are excellent at knowing where that human scent is supposed to be. For example every day I walk from my garage to my house, about 15' away is a wood line and I've had deer stand on the edge of it and watch me walk to my house. They know where I belong. I take one step into the woods and they would bolt. The only way i know of to take advantage of this I guess is to set up as close as you legally can in your area to where people usually are.