When I started deer hunting as a kid 50 years ago with my Dad and uncles, there was, as I recall, little talk of how you smelled in the woods. These hunters never agonized over what deer scent to buy or use. But I remember their smells like it was yesterday.

These unshaven men, including my late Uncle Bud, who was an exceptional deer hunter, smelled strongly of wood smoke, tobacco, bacon grease and sweat. Yet at the end of the hunt week, there was always deer on the game pole.

Today, most serious deer and bear hunters, unlike my uncles, give a lot of thought to this scent thing and how they smell in the woods. Trouble is, like so many other commodities, from breakfast cereal to body deodorants, the market is flooded with countless brands and types of scents for the deer hunter. Why, there is even a sequential doe-in-heat scent for the various stages of the estrus cycle! Excuse me, but it’s tough enough for a deer hunter to remember to bring the basics, let alone a special calendar to track a doe’s estrus cycle.

Adding to the confusion for the new deer hunter trying to puzzle his way through the assorted deer scents on the market are the deer attractants (apple smells, etc.) and pre-rut scents intended to provoke an aggressive buck to stake out his territory near your treestand.

These are basic scent techniques that I have come to believe in as a result of trial and error in the field. My uncles, who were kind enough to share their old hunting hovel with a wide-eyed kid like me, were wrong to carry so many giveaway smells into the woods. They bagged deer inspite of themselves. Truth be known, they probably never got a shot at a deer that was downwind of their position. So keep your hunting duds either hanging outside the camp, or in a plastic garbage bag with some cedar boughs. Don’t suit up until it’s time to hunt. No smoking in the truck!

Next, you must decide whether to mask your human scent or attempt to emulate a doe in heat. Both approaches are effective. A few years ago, while deer hunting up North with my then-boss, Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Ray “Bucky” Owen, I saw first-hand the value of doe-in-heat scent. While still-hunting my way along a game trail near a stream bed on a misty, drizzly morning, I deliberately worked my way downwind to get to higher ground. By 7 a.m I was field dressing a fat, crotch-horn buck that presented a standing shot not 30 yards downwind from me.

Much has been written about when the rut takes place, which of course is the key to the use of doe-in-heat scent. My uncles used to talk of the moon, or tie the rut peak to the colder weather. According to Gerry Lavigne, Fish and Wildlife’s whitetail biologist and one of my heroes, weather and temperature are not rut triggers. Length of day is key and the peak of the rut in Maine occurs Nov. 15, period. Every year, it’s the same, no variation.

So here’s what I do. Early in the season, before the rut is in full swing, I steer clear of the doe-in-heat scent. My tactic is to try my utmost to blend in, to try not to be seen or smelled. Scent-wise, a good way to do this is to spray your cedar-boughed hunting clothes with a good Earth Scent. When the rut peak approaches though in mid-November, I abandon the Earth Scent, dose my hat patch in doe urine and learn to live with the smell.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WCME-FM/96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

His e-mail address is paul@sportingjournal.com.

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