I am new to hunting this year and have fallen hard for my new love. I have been out 3 times since the gun opener here in Michigan, but have seen nothing. I did have a buck circle me for about an hour making rubs. He even made a rub about 30 yards behind my blind on a tree that I had been using to take a leek on all day!! Go figure. Anyways, It's been right around 30F on all my hunts. Does the estrus urine I'm using in my wicks freeze? How ofter should I re-dip them to keep the scent fresh and strong? Should I rinse out my wicks after each hunt to get the old urine out? And I also just bought an 8-in-1 call. It sounds nice for the grunts, but the estrus bleat sounds more like a party noise maker. Is it meant to sound like that? And when and how should I use my calls? I still have alot to learn about my new passion, but I am very willing and excited to learn. Plus, any more tips you might have for a new hunter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I'm out on that one, never used them, but I'm sure someone here can help you out. Good luck

and welcome to huntingnut by the way!

Not sure about re- wicking/ washing but here is a thought. Make sure you put less on the wick farthest from your stand and the most on the wick closest too you. the bucks will follow the gradient and go to the more concentrated scent. If you do it backwards they will cross the trail and move away from you!


As far as doe bleats, you cannot beat the can. My nephew turned his 8 pointer around on a dime (and away from another hunters stand) with a turn of his wrist. If you are not sure you are blowing the mouth call right you need to practice until you can sound like the real thing.

I use a grunter call, and am pretty pleased with it.

A buck will usually seek the freshest doe sign he can find. I almost said "always", but there are exceptions to the rules. One thing, among others, that can draw a buck away from fresh doe scent is a fresh doe! If he can SMELL and SEE her all that much better (for him if she's real, for you if she's your decoy).

As for freshening your scent wicks, even though I just suggested fresh sign is better, I don't think it's worth leaving your stand site to freshen-up a scent wick. You may well spook a deer that you never knew was there, after all, he'll usually see you moving long before you see him (especially if he's looking for a "hot" doe that he's only located by scent). He's gonna be searching for her, and if he sees you crawling out the side of a groundblind, or climbing down the side of a tree, you'll never see him!

Try reserving some of your "doe pee" and placing it in a "trigger" type spray bottle. This will allow you to apply additional scent if you think you need to. You can adjust the sprayer nozzle to "stream" if you want to apply scent to a specific area. (you'll be surprised at the distance you can expect from 25-30 feet off the ground if you hunt from a treestand), or adjust it to "spray" if you want to flood the entire area with fresh scent (this will simulate a "hot" doe bedded down somewhere upwind). Use a different bottle for dominate buck urine, and you might pull that buck into range.

As for the buck making a rub on your "pee" tree, he was trying to assert his dominance. As far as he knew an intruder(you)had moved into his territory. He was making the rubs, and probably several scrapes, in an effort to establish a "pecking order". Deer don't interprate urine "smells" the way most people think they do. Male human urine smell doesn't = humans, just Male urine. An OLD-TIME hunter around here hunts scrape lines by peeing in the dominant buck's scrape, and on all his rubs to make him mad. He does that for 2-3 days in a row at the height of the rut, and then actually "pee's" his way into the heaviest cover he has.He will ambush his buck as he comes in looking for a fight. It has worked every year, for as long as I've known him.

Take your wife in the woods while Aunt Flo is making her November visit, and she's a camo'ed decoy. Just be ready to kill whatever might come sniffin around.

HMMM,

I was sure that would stir the pot, given this group............

Chuckwagon,
Perhaps a chainsaw is the best deer attractant ever made.
Ed

hunterjoe21 wrote:

HMMM, I was sure that would stir the pot, given this group............

Hey HJ...even though you thought that "would stir the pot", maybe there is a lot of agreeance out there mate.

I am assuming that you are talking about a woman's "monthly visitors"?
I remember a mascot one of our Infantry battalions had...a stallion pony...he is a magnificent horse, holds many show champion titles...well, he could "sniff" out a woman in that condition from quite some distance. His handler had a helluva job holding him once he took it into his mind to find "her"...and his "reaction" to the scent was also a sight to behold. Bought many a chuckle from the guys.

Another unit...a Medical unit...had a male donkey as a mascot, after one of our WW I heros in Gallipoli, PTE Simpson who used a donkey to transport wounded down off the heights under fire...anyway, as you can imagine a Medical unit is probably 80% + female...this poor thing went crazy with the bombardment of scents.

So there is merit to your suggestion about taking the little lady out.

Cheers, Vince

Hey Vince,

I've had MANY "expert" hunters tell me I'm crazy for suggesting that. That's the reason for the "stir the pot" comment.

I know for a fact it works, I've done it. My wife hunts with me a LOT, and although she would rather hunt from a ground blind (she's kinda afraid of height) I insist she get into a tree stand for that week.

Chuckwagon, Try hunting without the scents, and calls. There is a time and place for them. Learn as much as you can about White Tails. Try hunting between food sources and bedding areas. There is a lot more to hunting Deer than hanging out scent bombs and grunting away. \ They do work in certain situations but not all the time, more so on TV hunting shows where the Deer are not over hunted like here in Mich. The more you spend in the woods the more you'll learn. Good Luck. and Welcome to the site.

Most hunters in my area, for the most part, don't use any form of deer scent. I've seen doe urine used, during the rut, which created frantic behavior in bucks. We have a very high buck to doe ratio in my area, so the completion for does is great and seeing bucks fighting is not unusual. We have very good luck rattling horns during the rut. The main thing here is to do it in moderation, starting out fairly loud, then quieter and less frequent. During this time period, search the area with binoculars out to 300 to 500 yards. I've caught them standing very still, just watching my area with curiosity. Once or twice I've had them come barreling in and damn near run over me, mad as hell, with their hackles standing up. That's quite a hunter’s rush. Here we have a long hunting season with a 4 deer bag limit.

Cary

I gotta hunt Texas one year....

The Texas Brush Country, south of San Sntonio, is area that yealds the biggest bucks.

Kind of curious, we start out rattlin' quiet, and increase in intensity and volume...