Deer smelling your trail

I'm not totally anal but I wear rubber boots and hit them with some scent away before leaving the truck. Never had a problem with deer winding my scent and bolting.

Even if you take precautions your body still emits scent pheromones that hang around for hours. Be quiet, move slow until you get to your stand and let the Devil take the hindmost.

Like a lot of things that involves deer, their all different. I've had mature deer walk down my same trail and never act up. And I've had the opposite happen with young bucks, even yearlings deer and swear they just got hit with a bolt of lightning.

Woodsman69 said:

Big fat waste of time, enjoy changing outside your truck in the cold for no good reason at all.

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You keep on believing that,makes it easier on us real hunters

I wear all rubber boots that I put on at the truck only, I wash them every time as a pre hunt condition. They still put their head down, give it a whiff and look around most of the time. Since I started doing that some decades ago they usually cross over anyway and all is good.
Ya'll must be walking in the middle of a road or you got some dumb deer if they don't know something has passed. Lucky you.

I like the bowhunters gamechanger by buckmaker. Ive had deer trail me my tree and get to the base of my stand wondering what happened! Makes for easy bowhunting

When I put out corn and other treats in the offseason I always cover it in vanilla extract. I also spray my boots with it too, year round.

I teleport to my stand, as teleportation leaves no scent

lolliepop said:

I teleport to my stand, as teleportation leaves no scent

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The problem with that is being able to re-materialize on the other end with all your parts where they are supposed to be.

Maybe 15 years ago I had a very stunning experience with this.

I was hunting a permanent stand on the edge of a BIG rye field. I had 2 options for approach:

1) Walk the edge so as not to be seen from a distance (field was somewhat hilly). This approach made it more likely that I would walk right up on some deer in the edges and spook them. Also if my scent trail (or just lingering scent) bothered them they would hit it as soon as they emerged from the woods and I might not even see them, much less get a shot.

2) Walk straight out into the middle of the field and take a 90 degree turn straight into the stand. This made it more likely deer would see me at a distance but they would not encounter my scent trail when coming out of the woods until I had a good long look at them.

This particular afternoon I was going with option #2. I had just bathed with scent free soap and used scent free deodorant (why ADD scent, I've always wanted to smell like NOTHING). I wash my clothes in scent free detergent, keep in plastic containers, etc. I keep my rubber boots in a plastic bag and only put them on after I get out of the truck because I know I have gasoline, etc. on my brake and gas pedals as well as the floormat. The approach was through a beautiful rye field, nothing to rub against you more than a couple of inches above the ground so I know I wasn't leaving my scent on leaves brushing against me or even high grass against my legs. It was a cattle farm so I may have also stepped (intentionally) in a cow pie. I don't smoke, chew, dip, etc., and I don't even carry food or drink to the stand with me. It was cool enough that I was not sweating and I made sure to walk slowly enough not to work up a sweat.

I had been in the stand for a while when a doe emerged from the woods. I wasn't going to shoot her and I watched as she walked farther out into the field and eventually crossed my path. At the approximate location of my path going in she acted like she had hit a brick wall. She didn't like it AT ALL. I've never seen it so dramatically. The wind was not blowing in her direction. It is depressing what they can smell when you think about it. On the other hand, if I had walked the edge of the field she would have hit my scent much sooner and I might not have spotted her at all.

Yes, I've had deer right under my stand when I had been sweating like crazy and I've had deer pass by me downwind giving no notice as well. It is enough to drive a man insane. There is absolutely no telling how many deer we spook with the scent we leave coming and going each time we hunt.