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PINE SOL

I dont pick up that chemical smell at all, not saying it isn't there, just saying I don't catch it. I kill my share of decent bucks, but I wasn't trying to give credit to this, just wondering if anyone else used it. I read it in a hunting mag years ago and decided to try it. I like it.
But I've long ago given up on using any type of gimmick to solve a scent problem. I belive its impossible. Im good friends with a prominent hound tracker here in Michigan. Hes done a lot to change my hunting habits more than anyone but Eberhart.
The dog and deer comparison is valid, with deer having a strong edge to boot. I truly belive nothing can fool them.
If it's working for you then keep right on doing it. Why change if it's working?
 
Anybody besides me wash their hunting clothes in Pine Sol? It has I believe 17% pine oil and its very strong. I use one or two cap-fulls in the wash, and hang dry my clothes outside if at all possible. I have said in other posts that scent control is a fantasy, and I do believe that. This is easy enough to do though, so why not? My hunting lands are full of pine trees everywhere, and many types at that.
Bro, wash them in apple juice. They'll try to climb the tree to get at you.
 
I remember back in the 80’s my dads friends putting splashes of vanilla extract on their boots or on some cotton balls that they’d clip on a tree limb & killing deer


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My Uncle does this every season and I give him crap about it constantly because he smells like a candy store but it literally is like Pavlov’s dog when the bell rings and I’ve seen deer walk directly to his stand multiple times when he wears this stuff.
 
This past deer season made my 50th year of deer hunting. Most of these years I was hunting in north eastern NC. As a cover sent I used red fox urine sprayed on my boot soles and placed a 35mm film bottle with cotton balls filled with the urine up in the stand with me or on the ground beside me. Deer never payed me any attention. Tried the same stuff around home in east TN mountains and it spooked the deer.

My cousin had been telling me for a few years about using vanilla extract and I thought it sounded foolish until out of desperation I tried it this season. It is true, old dogs can learn new tricks. A mix of 50/50 with water in a spray bottle. Spray your boots and clothing LIGHTLY. Don't over do it.

I also learned how to properly use a "CAN" doe in heat caller. I called two bucks in on public land during the muzzle loading season which was during the pre through peek rut.

Both bucks circled trying to see or wind that doe they heard. Where I was hunting in the evening the wind thermals do some crazy moving and switching direction. Both of these bucks were ridding the wind trying to wind that doe. Both came into me directly down wind and never knew I was in the world. I shot one at 20 yards and the other at 45 yards.

I just made a pouch the other day to hold my spray bottle of vanilla to attach to my pack so I will always have it with me.
 
My CAN is a few years old and is the small one. It's bleat is only one and a half seconds long. Some of them are longer but I heard that the new ones have had the bleat length shortened.

After deer hunting for 49 years I FINALLY heard a doe making an esterase bleat during the 2019 season. Each bleat was about one and a half seconds long and was 5 bleats in a row.

Now I combined this call with what I have learned over the years on calling turkey, fox and and a few coyote. You need to direct the sound of the call away from you and need to make it sound like it is moving. This keeps what you are calling from locking right in on YOUR EXACT spot.

This is how I use the CAN. I start by holding it as far right or left as my arm will reach in the direction of where the thickest cover area is. This is where deer bed up usually. If bucks are not bedded up resting they are cruising this area in search of a hot doe usually. With each activation of the call I move it back toward the other direction about two feet each activation switching hands and reaching out as far as that arm will reach in the other direction. I used 5 bleats about 5 seconds between each.

In my situation I usually got to hunt about the last 3 hrs. in the evening. I would get into the stand and let things settle down for 30 minutes before making the first call. Then DON'T MOVE AT ALL. I would wait 30 to 40 minutes and if not hearing or seeing anything I made another call. Both of the bucks I called in I heard them about 10 minutes after the the last call I planed on making which was about with 45 minutes of light left. Both of them moved with the wind as it shifted from the movement of the wearied mountain thermals staying down wind of me.

There was a old logging road which deer traveled and had scrapes on that the ladder stand I was using was set up on. I will start saddle hunting next year. On my far right from about 1 o'clock to 6 o'clock was THICK laurel bush which the logging road came through 60 yards to my 12 o'clock and turned straight to me for 30 yards then turned to my left slightly angling closer to me following the lay of the land. From my 12 o'clock going left to my 6 o'clock is pretty open timbered woods.

First buck was a young buck which is what usually comes first to the call I am told. I needed the meat and had limited time to hunt because of life situations this year. After moving with the wind on my right for a few minutes I hear him come back up the hill toward the logging path. Then I see him come past the last bush and turn in the path and walk straight down the path toward me which the wind has shifted going up the mountain and is down wind of me. He stops every few steps looks and sniffs the air looking for that hot doe. He comes on down and turns to my left out the path and when his head gets behind two big trees I raise my old 50 Cal. Knight T-Bolt mag muzzle loader to my shoulder and when he walks out from behind the trees I pop him with a 250 Hornady XTP at 20 yards and he drops like a sack of brick.

Second buck 4 days latter basically did the same ride the wind walk but waited until it almost got too dark to shoot before he pops out of the laurel thicket into the logging path down wind and broad side at 45 yards. Light was so low that I could tell it was a big body deer but since I only had one buck tag left I wanted a good mature one. When I lowered the muzzle loader which was resting on the shooting rail and got it to my shoulder s-l-o-w-l-y and looked through the scope I could see a nice rack on a BIG BODY buck. Cross hair to the shoulder squeeze the trigger BOOM. Dropped in it's tracks. Nice 7 pointer for this area.

That is how I did it. Your mileage may differ.
 
I remember back in the 80’s my dads friends putting splashes of vanilla extract on their boots or on some cotton balls that they’d clip on a tree limb & killing deer


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Yep and there was a scent cover up company aptly named "Cover Up" and it smelled like vanilla. I always thought it sounded hokey so I never used it but I did buy a soap crystal that he sold for deodorant and it worked pretty well I thought. Now I just use whatever bottle of scent killer spray there is a and keep my clothes relatively clean and try to set up with the wind or thermals right for my hunt. I do use the Atsko detergent for my hunting clothes when I can find it otherwise all or tide free and clear detergent. For awhile I was using the earth scent wafers from hunters specialties and I think they worked ok too. There was a great early season spray sold around here made from Goldenrod it smelled good but like a goldenrod field... kind of. It worked ok too I think. The thing with these is use them to augment your setup strategy not in place of it.
 
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