Outsmarting deer can be easy when hunters think

This buck was photographed smelling a hankie.

 

My problem was the deer always trickled past my tree stand about 20 yards out of my effective bow range. I did as I always do, and kept thinking they would eventually swerve a bit closer but they never did.

Human scent is known to drive deer away, and after waiting for a miracle to happen, my idea seemed a bit far-fetched. It was to lay a human-soiled handkerchief in some bracken ferns about 18 inches off the ground 25 yards upwind of the trail the deer used.

There were no real solid feelings about whether my plan would work. It was about having the human scent drift downwind to the trail, and if the deer smelled it, they may drift downwind and approach my stand within range.

This solution came about because of my need to get deer closer to my stand.

 

The first evening a doe and two fawns came along, caught the human scent, and moved downwind away from it and closer to me. They eased past me at 18 yards, and I was thinking this really might work.

The next deer to encounter my scent-tainted handkerchief was a fork-horn. He stopped, looked upwind, and drifted downwind, and picked up the scent of the doe and fawns. and followed them out of sight. Again, he was close enough for an easy shot.

Just before dark a very nice 8-point came by on the same trail as the doe, two fawns and the fork-horns, and stopped where they had stopped. He too looked upwind, his tail switching back and forth, and sure enough, here he came along the same used by the other deer..

He moved slowly, turning every few feet to sniff the upwind scent, and stepped out in front of me and stopped. The buck stood quartering away, his ears and nose working overtime as he stared upwind for potential danger.

The bow came smoothly back, and as the buck stood motionless to study the upwind scent, my carbon arrow and a two-blade broadhead sliced in behind his front shoulder. The buck whirled, kicked his rear legs back, and ran off with the Game Tracker line trailing behind.

I watched the buck go down 60 yards away. I had a small job to do. I retrieved the small hankie, stuffed it in a plastic bag, and proceeded to pick up the Game Tracker line, field-dress my buck and then dragged him 50 yards to a two-track trail for easy pick-up.

It's not my intention to have people leave smelly hankies in the public woods because some, including myself would consider it littering. This hunt took place on private land several years ago when baiting was legal, and when finished, I cleaned up after myself.

These fell for the one trick I didn’t tell anyone about for a long time.

 

Another time I was hunting a buck only 50 yards from a major bedding area. The deer sldom came out to feed until dark, and the buck always came even later.

A small handful of corn was scattered over a wide area to the left of my pine tree stand. All too often the deer would still be milling around 30 minutes after shooting time ended. I needed a way for the deer to be gently spooked so I could climb down and leave without being seen.

It took two screw-eyes, an empty pop can painted with brown and black paint and allowed the paint to dry outside, got 30 yards of six-pound line off one of my reels, and added some pebbles. A ladder that extended up to 15 feet also was needed.

The area was eye-balled, and a tree 15 yards on the far side of the corn was chosen. I used the ladder to get 15 feet off the ground, screwed the screw-eye into a branch. One end of the monofilament line was tied to the tab opener. I poured several pebbles into the can, and lowered it to the ground and removed the ladder.

The next step meant picking up the slack line, walking over to my tree stand, climbing up and screwing in the other screw-eye. I threaded the line through that hole, and slowly raised the pop can into the air until it hung three feet below the branch.

The line was tied off securely to a tree branch near my left knee. That night, the does and fawns, and a scruffy looking little six-point buck came in five minutes before the end of shooting time, and milled around. They paid no attention to the line over their head and the well-camouflaged pop can.

Shooting time came and went, and the arrow was removed from my bow, the bow and bow quiver was silently lowered near the ground. I waited 15 more minutes, and the deer were still there, and a soft tug on the line make the pebbles rattle in the can.

Nothing happened so another tug, and this time every deer was looking in a different direction trying to locate the strange sound. They were a bit anxious, and about the time they settled down again, another soft tug  on the line made the pop can tinkle softly. The deer all ran off, but didn't appear overly spooked. None of them snorted, and one more tug sent the pop can clinking again and I could hear the deer moving off.

Some soft tugs on the line created just enough "soft" noise to chase the deer off.

 

I gave them five more minutes, climbed down, untied my bow and didn't see or hear a deer on the way out The pop-can trick worked whenever I tried it, and once a black bear came in at the end of shooting time. One tug on the line sent him crashing through the brush for 200 yards.

I've got a great spot to repeat the pop can trick this year. The deer always want to linger in this spot, but just remember some times these tricks will work two or three times, and once the deer learn the tinkling can represents no danger, they will forget about danger and continue to hang around.

Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of ingenuity to solve a deer-hunting problem. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors