The Eberhart Experiment

Here is my getting winded story that left an impression. It was in December and I spotted a big whitetail in a field from a long ways off. The next evening I was on a hill 400 yards from the field. The wind was less then ideal, barely blowing, but blowing in the direction of the field. I decided to see how the deer would react. It it was negatively I would leave. As I sat there does and some younger bucks left the brush and made there way across the field. Absolutely zero reaction from any of the deer. Later some of the older bucks I had seen all fall left the brush and made there way across the field, again zero reaction. I figured I was good and that my stench was not making it to the field. Later the big buck I had seen the night before left the brush and started across the field, A 160 class buck with heavy antlers and triple brow tines. I had seen this buck during the summer close to 10 miles away on the Custer. It is likely he had just showed up on the river for the winter. He walked across the field and as soon as he hit my sent, nose came up and he turned and trotted back into the brush. Was he older than the other bucks that had passed by unaffected, not really. Did he see more pressure on the forest, maybe, but since he was living in a place where you had to walk into with dense timber, He probably didn't when you add in all the doe and buck hunters on our fields. I think want made this buck different is that he was not used to smelling a human. The deer on the fields get a wiff of humans almost every day, so the small amount of my sent that was reaching the deer from afar was not allarming to them, but the buck from the forest, likley only encountered humans a few times out side of hunting season and even then likely not every day. Lead me to conculde that you can get away with a little sent with deer that are habituated to it. Could be that the sent suits block enough sent so that the deer can not place where you are and if they are used to smelling humans allmost dayly, a little bit of sent is not allarming.
 
@antlerradar I live on my hunting property, house is somewhat centrally located. I have never heard a deer blow at us when we are messing around in the yard, which someone is doing pretty much every evening. Basically a 1 acre yard surrounded by habitat on all sides, so scent is definitely being carried to deer.

You get 50 yards out into the woods with a bad wind, they will blow and spook like deer anywhere else. They know where you belong and where you don’t.
 
@antlerradar I live on my hunting property, house is somewhat centrally located. I have never heard a deer blow at us when we are messing around in the yard, which someone is doing pretty much every evening. Basically a 1 acre yard surrounded by habitat on all sides, so scent is definitely being carried to deer.

You get 50 yards out into the woods with a bad wind, they will blow and spook like deer anywhere else. They know where you belong and where you don’t.
Urban bowhunting in CT taught me the EXACT same thing!
 

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