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!!!!