As you can well imagine, after so many years on radio, that I likely have many people offer tips to me to make their Whitetail hunting season and therefore your Whitetail season successful.
These tips and recommendations have to do with the Whitetail’s extraordinary sense of smell. That’s his chief mechanism for staying alive. I’m told that the Whitetail has a scent detection capability 10,000 times more sensitive than we have.
With that in mind, I gathered up a passel of new tips mainly within that category of concern from trusted, seasoned Whitetail hunters, and combined some of my own to help.
Here goes:
1) Wash your clothes in scent free quality detergent manufactured and sold for that purpose and then hang them outside to soak up “natural air” for a few days. Same with your hat. And don’t forget about your boots. Put them outside also and place a generous supply of baking soda or another commercial product to help handle those smelly shoes. OK, you’re all set. Wait!
2) After all that you get in your truck and sit on the same seat you’ve been spoiling for the last year. Whatayado? Put unscented garbage bags over the bottom and back of your seat and wrap one around your seat belt.
3) Then too, don’t stop at the local breakfast bar and eat bacon and eggs. The deer can smell that too.
4) Wipe down your rifle too. It still smells of powder from the last time you sighted.
5) Lastly, play the wind. It’ll come out of the sunrise and likely stay there for your hunting time. If not, move to the stand on the other side of the plot. I’m sure you have one there, also. If you’re hunting over a food plot or a travel route you’ve scouted, be sure the wind is in your face. One more thing about that and I’ll shut up. When you’re walking to the stand on the edge of the plot, walk in the middle of the plot, not on the side. If you do leave some scent after all that, you can be assured he won’t know you’re there from your tracks until he gets to the middle of the shooting area.
6) A couple of other things. If you shoot, hit and he runs off, from the stand, take a photo with your cell where he entered the woods. It’ll have a different look once you climb down and venture to where you expect to start the tracking. Don’t be in a hurry.
I’ll tell you a tale. I was in Arkansas for a TV hunt at a special place. People do that for TV shows. I downed a good one but without any indication he was leaving. I should have waited. Why? About 30 seconds after he fell dead, a GIANT, walked out of the trees and he actually “antler” flipped my buck up in the air and stepped on him. It was the rut and, he was obviously a rival. Had I been more patient, I would have had a chance at a true 180-plus. As I have learned over the years from so many seasoned hunters … patience takes game.
Finally, want to give the hunt a memory to share for decades? Take along your grandson, son, daughter or the little child in the neighborhood whose father is not an outdoorsmen. They will enjoy the memory forever.
