Wildlife Research Center
cover scents

I hope the corporate hunting industry doesn’t catch wind of this…

Goodness. It seems these days you really have to buy a lot of gear in order to fill a deer tag. Wasn’t it nice when all you needed was some warm flannel and a shotgun iron-sighted in to hit a pie plate at 50 yards? These days, if you don’t have high-tech camo, an ATV, deer calls, an expensive tree stand and some fancy scope, you just don’t stand a chance. Well maybe you do, but you have to have an array of cover scents and attractants, right?

Some of that stuff is nice, but I have to stop you right there with those cover scents. In fact, I stopped using them altogether last season, and the results were somewhat shocking. After thinking about it, it’s hard to imagine a $10.00 bottle of fancy water can fool 1,000,000 years of evolution, but I guess strangers things can happen.

cover scents
highroadhunting.com

This will now be year two of using absolutely no cover scents whatsoever while deer hunting. Absolutely nothing has changed at all other than I have more money in my wallet towards the end of the season. Now, I have to laugh at myself at all of the expensive cover scents I’ve sprayed on myself over the years believing I needed it, when in actuality, playing the wind is what makes the difference.

Using cover scents may have made me a more lazy hunter, as I never used to pay attention to the wind much. I was sure that $9.99 bottle of fancy water was going to fool the deer’s nose into gun range. Well, it rarely ever worked, if at all. However, I was confident it would. With nothing at all but the wind to play, I have to pay a little more attention in the woods, but I feel it makes me a little more aware of my surroundings. In turn, I focus more on the strategy that goes into getting a shot.

Do you love using cover scents and think they make a big difference in your hunt? Awesome. The corporate hunting industry has paid a lot of money to make you think so. Me? I’m going to save my money and just stick to paying attention to the wind.

NEXT: “NEVER GUT A DEER NEAR YOUR TREESTAND”: MYTH OR TRUTH? 

The post I Stopped Using Cover Scents For Deer And This is What Happened appeared first on Wide Open Spaces.

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