I have used a few different liquid scents over the years. Heck when I was a young lad, I would take the bottle of "Buckstop"(I think that was the name of it?)...old age setting in here.. and I would squirt it on the shoulders of my old beat up checkered hunting coat. I must have smelled pretty ripe, when I went into a store "LOL"!
I don't think it ever helped me get deer back then though. It wasn't till I learned to still hunt properly into the wind that I started consistently killing bucks.
"BUT"...There "IS" one commercial scent product that I do swear by. And that is Hunters Specialties "Buck Rut" scent wafers. They smell very similar to a bucks tarsal glands when he is rutting heavy. And the great thing is that they are not messy, won't wash away, and keep their strong smell pretty much forever!
I used these for many years when rifle hunting on crown land. And on many occasions I had bucks follow my scent trails through the woods. I have found rubs made at night after I have been through an area the day before.
Near home one fall I was cutting alders on a Sunday for a shooting lane to just sit and watch with my bow. It was on a well used deer trail and I had the same hunting pants on that reeked of these wafers. The next day I found a buck had rubbed one of the alders I had cut off about two feet high.
Then one fall I was hunting near Malarchy brook for a week, And very day I would still hunt the same area. Every year bucks would lay a scrape line over the same route. I would tie the scent wafers to my boot laces. Every day I hunted it, a few new scrapes started showing up along the route. I even found a rub one morning about 20 yds down the hill from where I parked my truck. The buck had followed my route in the night right to my vehicle.
A couple days later on a frosty (no snow) "corn flake leaves" morning, I was doing my stop and go timed still-hunt. I was stopped with my rifle resting against the tree in front of me. And I heard something coming in the leaves through the hardwood. There was a small knoll to my left, so I couldn't see what it was. But my brain said.. too big for a squirrel. I remember a little voice in my head saying..."pick up you rifle stupid"! And just as I did a huge buck came over the rise! He was going left to right only about 30 yds from me. And I could tell he was on a mission. Eyes straight ahead scanning the woods for the other "Buck" in his territory that he had been running around looking for at night.
I got ahead of him with the crosshairs and the 7mm did the rest. It was only about 8:00 am and I had 210 pounds of venison on the ground! What an exciting morning!
I am convinced that that buck was running around all night looking for "ME"! And that I would never have had that opportunity if I had not been using them.
Another fall, the last rifle buck I shot , and again on public land. My wife and I started hunting on Monday of the last week. As we left our truck we saw a buck track on the woods road heading to the left side. I preferred to hunt my favorite haunts on the right side.
For days all we saw were a couple of does, two coyotes and a few old unvisited scrapes. We did not cut a single buck track in the woods.
On Thursday we spent the morning sitting on a little steep knoll watching the hardwood below. Then in the afternoon we still-hunted a big circle down into the softwood and back around. On our return trip we jumped a deer. I could not tell if it was a buck until we got to his tracks and I backtracked to where we jumped him.
He had been making a rub as we approach him. He was headed right towards the little knoll we had sat on that morning. And since I had my scent wafers on, I thought he might get a wind of our back trail and follow it back around to us. We waited till dark and no dice. So the next morning were on the knoll again at first light watching the scent wafers I had hung over a mock scrape. It wasn't more than two hours that a buck ( most likely "our" buck) came up out of the softwood, and right up to within 60 yds of us.
The shooting part of this story is just pathetic. I was sitting at a very awkward angle and had to lean around a small tree to shoot. I was canting my rifle. I missed that buck twice, (at 60 yds) and he never moved an inch Then I got rattled and pulled the trigger on an empty chamber as well.
Finally I said enough of this and went to the other side of the tree and made a killing shot. That buck must have been plumb deaf!
I tell you, These scent wafers are the real deal!
I don't know if you can still get them here in Canada. For a while there was this thing that Cabelas wouldn't ship them to Canada because of some crazy regulations to do with the wild animal diseases or something. Didn't understand it because liquid scents were. But I think the wafers are available again now.
Try them! They are the best thing that I have ever used. They also make a doe estrus wafer as well, but I have not these enough to comment on "their" effectiveness. I still use the Buck Rut wafers some when bow hunting, but not usually unless I am unsuccessful in bow season and end up hunting with my bow into late November. I don't like to use scents when baiting deer.
We do shower with apple scented soap and shampoo though. I also rub apples all over my stand grate and in the tree around my stand. And sometimes even use a spray bottle filled with cider.
Sorry for the long ramble Cuz…but you "did" ask for it! "he he"
