By George Rowe

With the opening of the archery deer season only about three weeks away, it is time to give some thought to a relatively new tactic among deer hunters - the use of scents.

Scent can be used both offensively and defensively. That is, scents can be used to attract deer and they can also be used to cover human scent. Now, there are some very popular products that mask or absorb the human scent.

Attracting deer with scents is a fairly old ploy. The native Americans may even have used scents in their hunting because they had to be close to their game, just as modern archers must be very close for that telling shot.

It is a bit difficult to tell just what is good and what is just plain expensive in the world of scents for deer hunting. There is no scientific research I know of and the manufacturers claims are probably not be to believed, at least not totally. There is a sufficient number of archers using attractant scents, however, for one to believe that such products can be effective.

The only time I have used a scent (doe urine), I soaked a pad which was worn on my boot and walked to my elevated stand. A couple of does came by late that evening with a young buck in hot pursuit. He chased one of them up the ridge, but came back shortly. He was walking right up the scent line, nose to the ground and was within 10 feet of getting punctured by an arrow when he spotted that other doe and took off after her.

Doe urine can be particularly effective in creating false scrapes, although man-made scrapes without urine are often effective as well attracting and holding bucks, at least for a few minutes. Many times, a buck will convert a man-made scrape into a real one in his first visit, rubbing the scent branch overhead with his head and urinating in the bare spot on the ground.

Scent control or the defensive side of scent control is a relatively new tactic. Scent control garments have been around for around a decade now and they are finally very popular, at least for bow and arrow deer hunters. Some of these garments have an inner layer or membrane that contains charcoal or carbon. Others use silver filaments as the absorbing agent. Still others rely on a breathing plastic film to simply contain any offensive odors.

All of these garments are rather pricey, but they have been thoroughly tested and they do work. If you go this way, it is important to go ALL the way and include gloves, a hat and a good neck covering in your outfit. The human head is a sort of exhaust surface for body heat and thus a great source of human scent. A mere hat does not do a great job of containing scent so the scent-suit makers have developed a heat covering that incorporates some of the features of a face mask and warps around the neck area. These do a good job of containing scent.

The error many hunters make is to wear leather or fabric boots. Any material that is at all porous is going to absorb odors and leave human or other offensive scents on the ground, the leaves or brush as the hunter walks through the woods. I remember well from my early days of bow and arrow hunting the number of deer that spooked away after encountering the path that I followed to my stand.

Even the hunting boots with the rubber bottoms and leather tops are really unsatisfactory for deer hunting. Tall rubber boots are the answer and even those rubber boots must be looked after, if they are not to pick up scent. They should not be worn for any other activity or stored where they might pick up odors. If the modern deer hunter takes no other precautions relative to scent, rubber boots should be worn and that goes for the firearm seasons as well as the archery season.

Scent free hunting goes beyond clothing. The careful hunter stays squeaky-clean and avoids any scented products like after-shave or cologne. Many archers store their hunting clothing in a plastic bag and don it out in the woods. I recall that my youngest brother experimented with scent control 30-40 years ago by storing his deer hunting coveralls in a cardboard box filled with apples. Unfortunately, some of the apples started to spoil and the coveralls subsequently attracted yellow jackets like mad.

Many hunters are also using spray products to help control scent. These products are also based on charcoal or carbon and they may be used to spray the outside of garments as the hunter goes to the stand. Apparently, they work as well as scent-control garments and some hunters even use both.

While some hunters, particularly some firearm hunters, reject scent control measures as too "high-tech," others and especially archery deer hunters have adopted scent control as a reasonable and basic ploy for successful deer hunting.