lone wolf sticks. (stinking )

[Harder&Deeper]

I boil and scrub any gear that cannot be washed. I climb with SCENT LOK gloves per Eberhart's recommendation.

Lately, I have been experimenting with using the straps on my sticks as a seent wik. I have actually had young bucks try to rub sticks treated with EverCalm!!!!

 

[huntingjamesbuck]

I have used that stuff before it is pretty good .Not sure it's legal anymore in my area due to cwd .

 

[Allegheny Tom]

...if you mean they’re literally walking up to the stick and smelling it, why don’t you shoot them?

Reasons why I might not shoot a deer directly under me...
1) The deer never offered an angle for an ethical shot.
2) The deer never walked thru a shooting lane.
3) I don't have a tag for the sex of the deer.
4) I have a tag, but the deer doesn't meet my criteria.
5) The buck is the one I've wanted for years, but his rack is either all busted up, and one or both sides are shed.
6) The deer is a decent one, but he's with a slammer and I'm waiting for an opening on the big one.
7) Too many eyes on me at the moment and I need deer to calm down before I attempt to draw.

Yikes, bowhunting is hard. Sometimes it's impossible to explain to people why you had multiple deer right under you and you still ate tag soup.

 

[kyler1945]

Reasons why I might not shoot a deer directly under me...
1) The deer never offered an angle for an ethical shot.
2) The deer never walked thru a shooting lane.
3) I don't have a tag for the sex of the deer.
4) I have a tag, but the deer doesn't meet my criteria.
5) The buck is the one I've wanted for years, but his rack is either all busted up, and one or both sides are shed.
6) The deer is a decent one, but he's with a slammer and I'm waiting for an opening on the big one.
7) Too many eyes on me at the moment and I need deer to calm down before I attempt to draw.

Yikes, bowhunting is hard. Sometimes it's impossible to explain to people why you had multiple deer right under you and you still ate tag soup.

Right on! I certainly don't discount that these situations arise, especially for really good hunters in really good areas, over a long hunting career. I guess I was just curious how specifically MATURE does and bucks were smelling sticks often enough for it to be a problem worth fixing. He specifically said MOST of his encounters with those mature deer end in them smelling his sticks. My question on why not to shoot them was more rhetorical/a joke.

I have only hunted for 20 years. And I've only had a couple hundred deer within bow range. And for most of those hunts, there was some form of climbing method at ground level. Granted, I'm likely to shoot the first deer that comes in bow range on most hunts. Having said that, there's been more that have met one of the criteria above than those I've killed. Some have been mature, most have not. But none ever smelled my climbing stick and ran away.

I am not comparing myself to you, or the OP. I'm just trying to extrapolate, and see how we get from none in my situation, to enough to need to completely change a routine for climbing the tree/scent control in the OP's situation.

I'm taking the fella at his word that it's an issue. And in doing so I have to make a couple of assumptions - He's a freakin' master woodsman, and/or he's in an area with a pile of mature deer that are comfortable moving during daylight. Those things simply have to be true for this to be an issue on MOST of his hunts, and worth addressing. Hence my jokes.

In all seriousness, One sticking is an option. If you're hunting where drilling is legal, 2-3 bolts at base of tree will reduce amount of scent down there before you start attaching sticks. Maybe leave a permanent stick at base of tree then attach your portable ones further up. Using a 5 step aider that you remove from first stick would get you 6-8' up to your first stick depending on how tall you are.

I'm of the opinion that if the deer smells your stick at ground level, he's gonna smell it at 5' off the ground too. With that in mind, I wouldn't do any of these things, and just spend all my time laughing at the suckers who don't get near the mature deer encounters I do!

I wasn't joking about wanting to come hunt with you @huntingjamesbuck - i promise ya, if you put me in those spots, I'll make darn sure those deer never smell your sticks again!!!!

 

[Allegheny Tom]

Right on! I certainly don't discount that these situations arise, especially for really good hunters in really good areas, over a long hunting career. I guess I was just curious how specifically MATURE does and bucks were smelling sticks often enough for it to be a problem worth fixing. He specifically said MOST of his encounters with those mature deer end in them smelling his sticks. My question on why not to shoot them was more rhetorical/a joke.

I have only hunted for 20 years. And I've only had a couple hundred deer within bow range. And for most of those hunts, there was some form of climbing method at ground level. Granted, I'm likely to shoot the first deer that comes in bow range on most hunts. Having said that, there's been more that have met one of the criteria above than those I've killed. Some have been mature, most have not. But none ever smelled my climbing stick and ran away.

I am not comparing myself to you, or the OP. I'm just trying to extrapolate, and see how we get from none in my situation, to enough to need to completely change a routine for climbing the tree/scent control in the OP's situation.

I'm taking the fella at his word that it's an issue. And in doing so I have to make a couple of assumptions - He's a freakin' master woodsman, and/or he's in an area with a pile of mature deer that are comfortable moving during daylight. Those things simply have to be true for this to be an issue on MOST of his hunts, and worth addressing. Hence my jokes.

In all seriousness, One sticking is an option. If you're hunting where drilling is legal, 2-3 bolts at base of tree will reduce amount of scent down there before you start attaching sticks. Maybe leave a permanent stick at base of tree then attach your portable ones further up. Using a 5 step aider that you remove from first stick would get you 6-8' up to your first stick depending on how tall you are.

I'm of the opinion that if the deer smells your stick at ground level, he's gonna smell it at 5' off the ground too. With that in mind, I wouldn't do any of these things, and just spend all my time laughing at the suckers who don't get near the mature deer encounters I do!

I wasn't joking about wanting to come hunt with you @huntingjamesbuck - i promise ya, if you put me in those spots, I'll make darn sure those deer never smell your sticks again!!!!

Yeah, I assumed that your question was not totally a serious one.
But even one odor bust every few years can be the difference between an empty wall and a large taxidermy bill. I always try for a zero-bust policy. I know I will never achieve zero, but if I can improve "X%" then the odds of a satisfying hunt improve.
I had a doe teach me a lesson years ago. My final approach to my stand had me walk down a 60 foot log to the base of my tree. Halfway down the log, I started to lose my balance and I reached out and steadied myself by putting one thumb against a sapling.A nearby doe must have heard me climbing and she came over to investigate the noise. She walked up and smelled that single thumb print on that sapling and I'd just showered and washed that hand within a half hour. My hands were about as clean as can be and it still left enough odor to get busted. Had she been with a target buck, I would have not got a shot.
My point...Never touch anything that you don't have to and if it's gear like sticks, then handle them with gloves. 99%of the time it might not matter, but the 1% could cost you the buck of a lifetime.

 

[IkemanTX]

I’ve had them come up and smell the stick because they saw them and are investigating. At that point I consider myself busted regardless.

Anything unnatural on the tree that catches their attention will get further checked out.

 

[enkriss]

I don’t think they would smell the sticks. I am worried about them seeing aiders swaying in the breeze and picking me off.

 

[KYRanger]

Yeah, I assumed that your question was not totally a serious one.
But even one odor bust every few years can be the difference between an empty wall and a large taxidermy bill. I always try for a zero-bust policy. I know I will never achieve zero, but if I can improve "X%" then the odds of a satisfying hunt improve.
I had a doe teach me a lesson years ago. My final approach to my stand had me walk down a 60 foot log to the base of my tree. Halfway down the log, I started to lose my balance and I reached out and steadied myself by putting one thumb against a sapling.A nearby doe must have heard me climbing and she came over to investigate the noise. She walked up and smelled that single thumb print on that sapling and I'd just showered and washed that hand within a half hour. My hands were about as clean as can be and it still left enough odor to get busted. Had she been with a target buck, I would have not got a shot.
My point...Never touch anything that you don't have to and if it's gear like sticks, then handle them with gloves. 99%of the time it might not matter, but the 1% could cost you the buck of a lifetime.

This is spot on.
I have hunted many years, we won’t go into how many, but let’s just say 30 plus. I have personally observed deer, walk directly to a sapling limb I touched with two fingers, and smell exactly where I touched and then go on alert. I have also experienced the same situation on climbing sticks. However, wearing gloves I have never experienced this. I once worried gloves or clothing would leave a scent, but I now believe the human touch or skin carries the most scent or leaves the most scent behind. If your clothes left much scent, you would never have a deer walk in on the same path you walked. But they do all the time. If you are physically touching limbs, tall weeds, and your climbing sticks, they CAN smell it guaranteed. As someone else mentioned, it’s traces of oils we leave behind. Clothes do not leave those traces, or at least not as much.