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Rutted up deer smell

MattMan81

MattMan81

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2020
Messages
4,989
Location
The Mitten
Has anyone experienced that heavy smell a rutted up deer makes? I can recall a few times I smelled it, and ignored it. Should have followed it.
Last season towards the end in December I was headed out to the big box blind in hopes to knock down a late season doe. Along the way I smelt that heavy deer smell. I kept walking to the blind anyway. Later that evening I saw a few bucks and doe or two come out from where I was smelling it. Kicking my self I watched them not come any where close to me. I can recall a few times years ago at my parents house smelling that same smell blowing in from the corn field and grassy area behind the house. Is this my imagination, or can a rutted up buck really put out some stank? And if you do, seems it is a definite hunt this area.
 
Yea absolutely. If you cant smell that in november your nose dont work. I cut off the tarsals on a buck, put em in the fridge, and hang em in the tree if i can hunt the next day. not sure how long it stays fresh or if it is even that effective. I do it anyway haha. Its a task getting that smell off of your stuff though. i hate it.

Even outside of the rut you can usually smell a heavily used bedding area. The nose knows...
 
Yep...I've definitely smelled it. It's a very distinctive smell.

I've run across the smell numerous times close to my spot walking in the dark. Many of those mornings I've had deer come and check out what the sound was after I'm set (I'm not as stealthy as I'd like to be). Before shooting light of course. But I've had enough light to make out antlers on multiple occasions.
 
Oh yes, you can definitely smell it and if you do it is sort of like hearing a turkey drumming...he is pretty close. I too save the tarsal glands off bucks I kill and also the same glands off does. Sometimes I will drag a stinky tarsal along a ridge or trail and hang it in what I think is the dominant buck's scrape. I try to find a scrape in cover or very near cover. I hope to get him mad and make him territorial. For the doe glands I sometimes add just a drop of doe in heat to the real gland then attach it to the same string as the buck gland. I try and paint a scent picture of a doe in heat being pursued by an interloper buck. Sometimes it works. John Eberhart mentions using buck tarsal glands quite often with good results.
 
I have. I was hunting my friend's grandmother property heading up a hill (hind site I was moving through bedding) when the smell hit me. I looked around for any sign such as the flicker of the tail but didn't see anything. The smell went away and I kept moving.

The grandmother was over the hill from me on a road and when I got to her she told me the biggest buck she has seen just jumped the road. I do pay very close attention to that smell now.
 
I have smelled it while tracking / recovering deer, smell them before you even lay eyes on them. They can get pretty stinky.
 
Many times. Get downwind of good bedding and/or a rutted buck and it has quite the odor.
Dander is one thing. Rutty buck smell is another. Means he's real close.
 
I smelled rutty buck a few years ago and didn't stop to get the milkweed out to see which way the air was moving. We had snow on the ground and about 75 yds further into my stillhunt I saw running tracks coming from a bed...Lesson learned
 
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell!!

You know your a whitetail addict when that smell gets you amped.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
MattMan81 said:
Has anyone experienced that heavy smell a rutted up deer makes? I can recall a few times I smelled it, and ignored it. Should have followed it.
Last season towards the end in December I was headed out to the big box blind in hopes to knock down a late season doe. Along the way I smelt that heavy deer smell. I kept walking to the blind anyway. Later that evening I saw a few bucks and doe or two come out from where I was smelling it. Kicking my self I watched them not come any where close to me. I can recall a few times years ago at my parents house smelling that same smell blowing in from the corn field and grassy area behind the house. Is this my imagination, or can a rutted up buck really put out some stank? And if you do, seems it is a definite hunt this area.
Click to expand...

i have a bad sense of smell (caused by a sinus surgery)

but even i will once in a while smell something that is like a deer but stronger (almost a wet dog smell to it) or something in the woods....the hair on the back of my neck stands up and i expect to see a buck....but rarely do.....which makes me wonder if i'm really smelling a deer or not

one good thing is if the wind is blowing their scent to you, then they probably can't smell you
 
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