Deer scents / lures - What do you use? What works in NY for you?

[burmjohn]

Just curious, with all these crazy products out there...

What deer scents / lures do you use (if any) and what works for you?

I've always used tinks, I've only had a few deer actually go up and sniff the area where it was. I'm not sure how many might have actually come over due to the smell..

[JCTheGC]

I use tinks and last year I tired some other kind, cant remember the name now... White tail Institute or Wild something?

I think tinks works well, but the main thing is to not use the rut stuff before the rut, it can scare the deer off.  Use regular doe urine for during archery for example.

[ELMER J. FUDD]

I've used tinks too. I don't think any specific brand is any better than the next. However, I have yet to try the synthetic ones. I feel its all about what works on that day for that deer. I use trails end 307 in the late season.(It seemed to work) I've also re-routed the deer closer to the field edge with an ultimate scrape dripper. I've never seen a buck go apesh*t on a scent wick either. The buck that went to my truck on the hunting story thread did stop and smell 2 scent wicks with the 307 on them. ???

[burmjohn]

Ah yeah, I forgot about all those new synthetic ones.  I'll have to check out the 307.

[Fairgame]

I try using that stuff only as a cover around my stand.  Dont know if it really works.  what has been working for me is a grunt tube and a doe bleat

[NorthernWhitetailScents]

I highly recommend Northern Whitetail Scents.  You can buy from 1 oz. to a pint to a gallon to a 5-gallon pail!  Think 'Intruder', it is a blend of buck urines that will make the buck your hunting curious to come in and check it out.  Add 'Fighting Mad' gel on a scrape, licking branch or tree rub and watch that buck constantly monitor that area!  'Intruder' and 'Fighting Mad' are excellent scrape or mock scrape scents.  The farm is in New York.  Scent is collected and shipped fresh daily.  Nothing added.  Not sitting on a shelf waiting for you ~ collected for you when you want it!  Check it out!  Northern Whitetail Scents has brought in some MONSTERS right here in New York!

[JCTheGC]

How do your scents compare to the other big name brands out there, like Tinks?  Have you done any tests internal or independent that show the difference?  Just curious, because there are so many options out there.  If your stuff is as good or better then the others out their I'd rather support a NY company.

[Doc]

So, how exactly do you know when the scent works? How do you know that a deer wsn't going to come along that trail anyway. Has anyone figured out a good way to prove whether a scent has worked or not?

I'm probably getting a bit cynical in my old-age, but I keep getting a picture of old Tink Nathan standing there with a beer in one hand, next to a whole bunch of scent bottles ready for packaging, with a big grin on his face filling up another bottle for sale......lol.

Doc

[NorthernWhitetailScents]

How does Northern Whitetail Scents compare?  Let's start with basics.  I own my herd and collect, bottle and ship fresh DAILY.  The scent is yellow as urine should be.  There is nothing added.  I do not sell last years products, they are discarded or sold at the end of the season at discount.  Northern Whitetail Scents collects and sells all winter and spring to larger companies who add preservatives and have it bottled, shipped and sitting on store shelves in MAY.  They do not discard old product but simply put it in the back room until the next year or until it sells.  Check out the all the State record bucks and more taken with Northern Whitetail Scents on the website under Testimonials.  Dan Bedell was a skeptic until I sold him 'Intruder' and 'Fighting Mad' gel and he bagged a 195-1/8 BC buck here in New York just last year.  Dan now graces the pages of many magazines just like others across the country who have tried and now believe in fresh scent.

How do I know the buck wasn't coming by anyways?  Test sights (in and out of our pens and across the country and Canada) were used as 'mock scrapes' and monitored.  All of a sudden new paths were worn, the 'mock scrape' was torn up, double the size and really stunk; the rub was seriously abused and used and the licking branch was gone and a new one started.

Northern Whitetail Scents collects, bottles and sells to order not bottled sitting on a shelf waiting for you to order.  Fresh from the deer to your door!

[Fantail]

I would imagine any deer scent used at the wrong time wouln't produce desired results.

About the only scents I've had marginal success with are cover scents like raccoon / fox or doe wizz.

[NorthernWhitetailScents]

Absolutely!  Scents are just an accessory to your hunt and need to be used correctly to be effective.  Like Dan Bedell did!  Dan came into Northern Whitetail Scents last year a skeptic and left with products that bagged him a monster and state record buck!  Dan has graced the pages of some national magazines with this buck and will again in July in RACK magazine.

[A6A6]

hey Norhtern..

Im just curious.. and i hate to sound like a dumb ass but exactlyt how do you collect the urine from the deer ?

does someone actually follow each deer around with a big bucket ?

really how do ya ?

[burmjohn]

LOL I was wondering the same thing.  Maybe they have catheters on 24/7

I was explaining to a buddy at work what I was reading about (this thread) yesterday, and he goes " Maybe they just give it a lot of beer the day of, works for me! "

[Doc]

I believe it's like the old-time maple syrup operations where they used to hang buckets on trees, only in this case they hang buckets on the back end of the does...........That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Doc

[ELMER J. FUDD]

Doc, you're funny.

[fasteddie]

There is a guy in Lyons , NY that has penned deer . He collects deer pee , bottles and sells it .The deer go into a building that has a slanted floor . When the deer pee it travels downhill to a screen and a collection bin . I often wonder how pure it can be as there must be some contaminants and if it isn't bottles instantly , it would start to break down . Anyway the guy uses a blowgun to put the does into estrous .

[capt_terry]

Yes I use them, but I haven't got a clue as to what works.

[gjs4]

scouting works best unless you are after young bucks...

[wooly]

Last fall my processor gave me 2 free bottles of his scent to try out. Used them from October - March at my trail cam sites.

I'm not looking to draw them in with scents, just cause a distraction to take their attention away from me or my cam. The # of pics I got of deer (bucks and does) like this, giving them the sniff test was pretty shocking to me.

I'll be replenishing my supply of his stuff for this fall.

[burmjohn]

Whats his stuff? or is it a private brew?

[wooly]

Yes home brew "hot doe estrous" and a curiosity scent. Don't know how he gets it....don't care, it works.

First year I ever dealt with him.

[SteveMcD]

I think being as scent free as possible and scouting is what works best.

[Buckstopshere]

Over the years I have tried a lot of different scents, it would make a long list. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't.

I do know that some of the scents, including Tinks, seemed to spook deer off. And as Doc posted above, how do you know? I mean, how can we know how many deer we spooked off when we use scents?

But do they work? Absolutely.

One thing I've been fooling with the last couple years is the overhanging branch on a scrape. I think it is much more significant than the scraped up soil.

Last year, to experiment (just goes to show you are never to old to learn) I cut a few overhanging branches over unhuntable scrapes and transported them to a mediocre scrape under one of my stands in a plastic garbage bag. I ziptied the branches to branches on the scrape. I also had some frozen tarsals from the buck I shot the year before.

I experimented with the zip-tied overhanging branches with my tail cam and have tons of photos of bucks and does coming in the same night I put them up! So much for them being spooked by human scent!

The combo of the two things (overhanging branch and tarsal glands) sold a buck I had grunted in. When he hit the scent stream about 50 yards down-thermal, his ears went back, his hair puffed out and he came in kind of sideways, like he was looking for a fight.

Nice 2.5 year old eight point a few days before the gun season started.

No doubt scents work...but they are not a sure thing, every time. Everything else has to be right. Last year the rut was a bit late, not peaking until the middle of November, so tactics that we find effective in the early going, are different than those as the rut peaks and Whitetail Breeding Nucleus (as I call it,) forms.

Check the photos out. I cut the branch the big guy is working on Rich's Prop. and took it to my property. That night I had three bucks come in, including this nice eight-point. Notice the blaze orange zip tie on the branch.

You guys ought to give it a try.

[SteveMcD]

I was using one of the heavily markered scents a few years back, and I watched as an old Matriarch Doe came by. She got a wiff of it. stepped back, then tip toed up for a good smell and she was spooked! Jumped back and ran off. I swore off attractant scents ever since.

Quite frankly, ANY mammal urine is an attractant, even your own.

Do scents work probably - sometimes. But I still say scouting and being as unobtrusive as possible and scent free as possible works for best results.

[ny hunter]

I always use TINKS 69.Not sure if deer ever notice it but I figure it is a good cover scent.I put up a wick in front of me and one behind me.