A buddy and i were discussing the upcoming season and it led to a discussion on scents. Im primarily a stalk hunter and he likes a tree stand. I pointed out that playing the wind is effective, as is good scent cover (i smoke my clothes with pine needles). He ststed that he prefers to be at least 15 feet off the ground, depending on the surrounding hills it may be higher. So, my question: What do you consider the minimum height for remaining unscented by game?
I'm not sure you can achieve being undetected by climbing a tree.. to many variables with air currents and such.
kinda my feeling on it. at some point the scent has got to come down
Quote from: Dave Lay on August 15, 2018, 08:43:42 AM
I'm not sure you can achieve being undetected by climbing a tree.. to many variables with air currents and such.
This^^^^^^^! It all depends on which way the wind currents are floating.
Bisch
Maybe in an airplane?
Agreed. But, the higher one goes the less likely the scent will reach the critter. However, the higher one goes, the more acute the shot angle becomes making an accurate hit less likely. In a tree, I like my feet about 12 feet off the ground. That means the seat is about 14 feet off the ground.
Ive spent the majority of my time hunting from 8-10 foot tree stands and the ground. Movement gets me busted more than scent. I've had does lick my boots from the ground and bucks at the base of the ladder.
I mostly hunt edges, so low cover isn't often an issue.
My closest shots have been 8 yards for both stand and ground, both down wind. Granted, the ground kill was a younger buck of around 2-3 years.
My stands were always from 10-14' up and usually 12'. I placed several around the property so I could take advantage of the wind on most days and we usually have some air movement here in Southernmost Illinois. Depending on the stand site I had anywhere from reasonable down angle to a flat shot to a ridge in range. I should say that the deer in our (my) area are quite accustomed to human activity and thus scent. As was posted above movement will get you busted, I think, quicker than scent flow.
As of this year I will be doing most of my hunting from the ground after being dropped
off (thanks wife). I will still have two 10' stands but I am not sure, at this point, if I want to climb or not. Getting old sucks......
Just some info.....
Wind currents are fickle task masters. I play prevailing winds, and have multiple stand sites to adjust for the day. That said I never go so high it makes for poor shooting angles, seldom over 12 to 15 feet. Usually use some form of wind system to see where scent is traveling, best is milk weed fluff.
I hunt tree stands but I don't go high. I'm brushed in as well as I can. Scent rises in the mornings and sinks in the evening as a rule I ve found. I dont like the angle of penetration like Orion said if higher. I'm mostly 10 ft or so.
One can not always guess where scent goes. When there are gnats and squitos i sometime like to puff on a corn cob pipe, I do my best to never inhale and I am allergic to bug dope. A few years back I was making a smoke bomb, the bugs were awful. The smoke went low up the slope to the east. Soon after that, far down the slope to my left and into the breeze a deer started snorting and bolted back to where it came. About 5 minutes later, I could see a buck working down that same trail, he got to the bottom and did the same as the deer before. Then looking around in the setting sun and in the ravine that lead to where the deer were, I could see my smoke. My scent went up the higher ground got to the top of that ravine and followed down against the breeze that i was in to where the deer smelled me. if it was not for the gnats, I would have never got the lesson on late afternoon thermals for that spot.
15' works fairly well.
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Maybe 25'+ would work. But I am 12-15'. Never beat a deer's nose due to being in a tree. In fact, sometimes due to thermals a tree is a detriment for scent. Fact for me- 1) I'm mostly in tree so I can see, call in deer if necessary, and get away w some movement. 2) Often, above line of sight means I don't get busted nearly as often.
I gave up trying to beat a deer's nose by any means. If I do its an extreme exception.
My 2c
Dan in KS
Last year my stand was about 14 feet. A doe and a couple of young'uns ended up downwind from me. She could smell me but couldn't pick me out. After a few minutes of this she and the young ones went back to feeding as they left.
Echoing KS Dan...
A lot of what has been discussed so far is subject to more than how high yer stand is.
As alluded to previously here - "thermals"... the movement of warm air upward (crawling up the face of a previously warmed incline) being replaced with cooler air causes a helluva problem depending where and when you hunt that kind of topo. I have been busted by Whitetails WAY too many times when hunting seemingly perfect sloping terrain.
I only go as high as needed and I verify it with milkweed seeds. I love a cold clear November morning when I drop a milkweed seed and it goes straight up. Game on.
Too many variables to nail it down. I don't like to go over 12' because of shot angle. I want both lungs.
Height should never be a consideration when discussing scent. Wind direction is bowhunting 101. Wind can fall at dif rates and sometimes it goes straight down almost. I don't smoke but watch a cigarette when thrown to ground. Sometimes the smoke stays down, sometimes it's pushed up.
Gonna tell you another one. I run rabbit dogs. I run em all year. These are conditioned, trained dogs. The deer are conditioned as well. Some days though the scenting is better than others. Just that simple and another one, biologists say deer can smell dead skin cells fall off as we sit. The wind needs to be taken into consideration.
Wind direction, any shifts, entrance and exit strategy are way more important than height. Now if you were discussing sight, 15 feet up in open hardwoods could be almost sitting on em yet in those same hardwoods put a treestand in a tree w a sapling growing next to it, somewhat wrapping the tree w leaves. You'd be pretty invisible
The wind is the wind. Height, cover scent, scent lock.....none of it can beat the wind.
Quote from: Roger Norris on August 17, 2018, 09:13:37 AM
The wind is the wind. Height, cover scent, scent lock.....none of it can beat the wind.
THIS ^^^
I will add , if you have a field cornering into timber and can catch the wind blowing INTO said corner and get there without being winded, you will most likely be sitting pretty.
The deer love to cut thru at the corner and the wind blowing into the trees will most often lift to go over the brush taking scent with it.
You need a hundred yards of timber or so to keep it up so it doesn't curl back over and right into the brush with you.
If you sit on the downwind side of timber(as I did for awhile) waiting for the deer to come to the open , they will most likely win, because the wind will curl right over , down and back in with them.
Get some milkweed fluff, it's free , not noxious weed, butterflies need it , and it is something to do and learn during slow times. :thumbsup:
Wind is wind for sure but the wind is often doing something very different at different heights in the tree mostly due to topography. One of my best stands I only sit in it when the wind is at my back. In this situation the wind blows over the top of the deer. On the ground it's blowing the opposite direction. I've killed 2 p&y bucks out of this tree with the wind at my back yet blowing over the top of approaching bucks. Because of land contours the wind can be blowing a completely different direction up in the tree vs on the ground. If you check these things with milkweed seeds or smoke bombs you can often hunt in a tree that you would think you would get busted in.
I don't have confidence that any height is going to solve the problem. I think it is a matter of hunting the wind - period. Unfortunately, swirling winds make it all a crap shoot. This makes stand location very crucial.
I use scent control soap and spray as well as skunk cover scent. There are plenty who brush it off as gimmick but it's worked for me for years.
That said I still try to sit where the wind is right because in the end a deer has a nose that is tough to fool. A pig has one that is impossible to fool.
Deer in Texas seldom follow a trail. They come in from all directions and from many trails. You an learn to minimize your scent and use effective cover scent or listen to the doe blow at you.
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