3 Critical Tips for Deer Hunting Scent Control

From the towering Canadian timber to the pancake-flat Texas deserts, whitetails are extremely in tune with their surroundings. They can detect even the most minuscule changes to their habitats. A subtle waft of human odor can suddenly upend a buck's routine and make your hunt substantially more difficult.

There is a saying that goes: “You can only control what you can control.” While deer hunts are subject to countless variables that can make or break the hunt, you can have dominion over your odor.

Now, the elementary basic of consistent whitetail success is playing the wind. But from there, you can further boost your odds with strict odor management. Many steps go into an effective scent-control regimen, but let's focus on three of the most important ones.

Plot Discreet Access

Suppose you walk into your home and smell an apple pie baking in the oven. This likely isn't a daily occurrence, and so it grabs your attention and probably influences your thought process and even your next steps. Multiply your awareness many times over, and that's how in tune whitetails are with the habitats they roam.

This makes entry and exit routes the key to success. Regardless if you spot and stalk or hunt from a stationary ambush, how you enter the property and approach your specific hunting location matters. Here are a handful of pointers that can help you clean up your access.

• Know where deer will likely be when you enter or exit, and avoid those areas. You can draw some conclusions by studying a map-based app, such as HuntStand, to identify bedding and feeding areas. Trail cameras can also provide insightful deer-movement data.
• Hunters generally prioritize their hunts around the wind direction relative to a specific stand location, but it's equally important to have the wind in your favor while entering and exiting. Even if your access route avoids bumping into deer, an unfavorable wind direction can deliver your scent to unwanted places and alert deer to your presence. HuntStand's HuntZone feature reveals how your downwind airstream will disperse into the area, so reference it religiously before and during access.
• Because weather forecasts aren't 100 percent trustworthy, and because wind is unpredictable — especially in varied terrain and when thermals are at play — a simple tool like HME's Wind Indicator Directional Powder can provide real-time wind info, which can inform your access decisions.

Manage Your Gear

Apparel and other gear constantly have opportunities to come into contact with odors that are foreign and alarming to whitetails. Vehicle cabs, fuel, food, and many other odor-rife substrates are the things you have to watch for, so be sure to avoid shortcuts. To that end, here are some pointers for minimizing odor on your gear.

• Wash your hunting clothing in scent-free laundry detergent and dry with an unscented or scent-eliminating dryer sheet. Be sure to spray your hands with a scent-eliminating spray, such as Hunters Specialties Scent-A-Way MAX Field Spray, before handling the dry apparel to transfer it into a tote.
• Always store your apparel and other gear in an airtight tote, gear bag, or ozone closet.
• Run a portable ozone generator in your vehicle cab (be sure to ventilate) to destroy odors that would otherwise contaminate your binos, weapon, and any other hunting gear transported in your cab.
• Always dress in your camo once you've reached your hunting property, and be sure to hit your clothing and other gear, such as your backpack, with Hunters Specialties Field Spray before heading afield. Stow it in your pack and manage odors that could emerge during your hunt, especially during hot conditions when perspiration is inevitable, or during all-day hunts. HS Field Wipes are also great for addressing perspiration.

Don't Over-Hunt an Area

If you hunt your best stand — or any stand, for that matter — repeatedly, you'll surely burn it out. It's impossible to erase 100 percent of your scent, noise and movement. In other words, the more you're in a spot, the more aware whitetails become, and the more it can negatively impact their movements and patterns. So plan your hunts wisely around the following details.

• If possible, map out multiple hunt locations well in advance of the season with boots on the ground and HuntStand e-scouting. Select enough different spots so that you'll have at least one option for every wind direction. Spread your hunts across these different locations to avoid applying too much pressure on any one given spot.
• Harvesting a deer is great, but it introduces commotion and scent dispersal via blood-trailing and game retrieval. If you plan to harvest does, do it early in the season, then give the spot a rest before you pursue bucks. Also, try to harvest does at stand sites that won't disrupt the stand sites you believe have the greatest buck potential.

Tighten Up Your Scent-Control Game

There are a ton of different steps in the scent-control process. While doing something is better than nothing, the more you do, the better your results will be. Pay attention to the fine details, including the ones outlined here, and don't take shortcuts. They say you can't beat a whitetail's nose, but scent-control efforts reduce your impact on the whitetail woods and even buy you more time in instances when the wind shifts at just the wrong time. So tighten up your scent-control program this fall and see the difference it makes.