Kansas Hunter

By Drew Palmer

Mile North Outdoor Co.

Every hunter should be conscious of their scent control when hunting whitetails. With today’s technologies making scent control and scent elimination so readily available, I feel as if we are selling ourselves short by not making an attempt to understand it all.

Deer vs. hunter logic

One of my favorite lines I hear from hunters when I ask them about hunting a stand with marginal winds is, “Well the wind wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t hear any deer blow or wind me. Just didn’t see any shooters today.”

Mature bucks aren’t stupid. In fact, very rarely do they ever blow or give away their location after they smell you. They could have been there and run off after winding you from 200 yards away to never come back again. Just because you don’t hear deer blowing you doesn’t mean they didn’t wind you.

When we are at risk

Now that we have taken all the steps to prepare ourselves to be as scent free as possible, what’s next? The trail in. This is when we are most at risk to leaving behind odor and scent. The wind blows, it and we leave a trail. Our steps and our hands touching things is where I firmly believe we so often go wrong. It’s a tough balance between walking in scent free and sweating and becoming over heated! Is there a right answer to it? Who knows? Walking in with the wind in our face is always the best option, but there are times when we play more aggressive and we may cross trails to get to better trails. I’m a big believer in wearing rubber boots and stepping in a cow patty whenever possible. The other area of weakness is our hands. I try to avoid touching anything if at all possible. This goes for trail cameras also, I spray them down every time. The most important part of scent control is just being aware of it. It can make or break your hunt!