The deer scent/lure market is huge. There is a growing arsenal of available scents that go far beyond the old standby (pee) What are your expectations? You work hard for your money and don’t want to waste it so how do you meter your expectations? Are your expectations based on the sales pitch and the claims made in ads and on the packaging? How do you determine whether you made a wise purchase and whether or not the product worked and met your expectations? In nearly 40 years of hunting I think I have bought and tried them all. I have been impressed by some and let down by others but were any/all the successes or failures based on luck, happenstance and the right place at the right time??? When we buy a knife, boots, bow, treestand, etc, we use them and are quickly able to determine whether we made a good purchase but with something less tangible and mystical like a scent product, where the results of effectiveness are not entirely based on you, (providing you followed the directions) where one guy can swear by it while the other guy decrees it as junk, how do you gauge the effectiveness?
I usually depend on the opinions of guys that I know that are very successful hunters. Ones that I know will only talk up products that work for them.
I don't have any expectations of deer scent products, I don't use any. I walk in the woods, set up, and hunt.
Endorsements and recommendations by people you trust can certainly get you to make a purchase but then you still have to rate the success or failure or effectiveness of the product based on your own use. Its certainly possible others that you trust could have positive results and then you use it only to have poor or negative results. Do you still go forward with te product after you determine it didn’t work for you but you were told by others that its working for them?
I have done this with a few products like Obsessions Bowhunters Blend as an all season cover scent to spray on boots and it worked well. The other was Ozonics and it has worked for me as well. Another friend was having great luck with alfalfa pellets early to get picks and hunts about 10 miles away. Deer at my area would not touch it. I guess the indorsement makes it more likely to give it a try to see if it works for me. If it does not work for me, I will drop it.
I'll only go by what my uncle tells me has worked for him. He trys just about everything out there and hes got plenty of deer on his land to see if it works well. Personally, i havent really given scents too much thought but im open to new things
My expectations are that dozens of bucks will come running in looking for that hot doe. I'm usually disappointed.
I absolutely hate marketing. Can't stand ads period. I am often telling my wife that the internet is worse now with that crap than television is. I trust hunters that have had success with certain products, as well as, products that I check out for myself. It is a good argument when discussing products that work for 'me' and don't work for 'you'. I believe that that is just how it goes. That happens. Not much can be done about that.
I take anything I hear on TV, or read in a magazine regarding them and throw it out the window. I very rarely use them anymore.
I trust hunters that have had success with certain products[/quote] How do those hunters have the confidence to purchase in order to be able to pass along their results? But how do you quantify a good or a bad scent product? If you buys a scent what makes you have a positive opinion of it? Does it require a harvest? does it require increased sightings? Would those thinga have happend without the scent? Its not like a tangable item like boots. You buy them and they either work or they dont based on your expectations of how the boot was sold to you and how it performed. What about scent/lure products?
I buy a buck bomb or two every year, not so much for hopes of bringing in a deer but I'll spray a burst every now and then hoping to help cover my scent. I'll spray it on tree limbs and leaves if still on all around me. I've only used bottled stuff a couple times, was a tally a mention of it by a member here, Will, when he came to central IL hunting. I didn't even know about the place but they're about 35 minutes away and bottle their own. I bought it two seasons in a row, but can't confirm or deny it's success. I killed my best buck ever having wicks hung up with it, but nothing I seen led me to believe it was actually worthwhile. I stopped buying it after th é were on either Dirty Jobs or Larry the Cable Guys show, only in America? Induced estrous I guess is possible, but wasn't really impressed by it all. Nothing against the company or product, but I guess it's one of those things that some things are best left unknown. Now I worry about my own scent and what will scare them away rather than bring them in and use it as more of a cover scent than an attractant.
No expectations here , I do use them on rare occasion but mainly to help cover my scent . The way that I see it , if I hunt the right stands for the right wind the bucks will never smell what I'm putting out anyway .
I go off of reviews for about any product. Although I really have never looked at reviews for scent control products. Not sure why? I usually research stuff too much. It is a smaller purchase too. I've used several and don't have a favorite. I use scent products a lot, but don't expect them to totally eliminate all my scent. Downwind deer is still a bad recipe for success.
I try new things often. I usually set a camera up and put the scent out and see if anything comes in to check it out. One that has worked for me within 2 hours was tinks #69 gel. I put it out after taking a doe last season and going to track her. When I checked the camera the next morning before my hunt I had several bucks on it within 2 hours and they continued to come through. After that I was able to take a nice 8 point that morning because I freshened it up. After I got into my stand not even 15 mins later he came in running. However it was also the peak of the rut. But it worked well in my area of Missouri last season. Not too sure how it will work in Ohio this season.
Fred Trost (Google search the lawsuit a leading scent manufacturer leveled against him) from MI Outdoors had a great article/show on this. Basically, he was able to prove that most of these products are gimmicks that are nothing more than powdered urea and water which gets bottled. Its the pheromones, not urine, that attract deer. Unfortunatly, he was successfully sued for libel and lost a big chunk of his business.
Well... for one. Never trust the review of the company trying to sell you the product. I think that is what everyone is saying. Secondly, there isn't a product made that will mask stupid. Third... it can be hard to tell if a deer actually came to the scent or would have come anyway, so I'd be careful of any claim based on only a few experiences.
I worked at ****s sporting goods for a time and when something went on sale I would buy it along with my discount and usually get them pretty dern cheap. Increased sightings would be what I used to determine if it worked well. Or if I could draw them in from downwind
My expectations when using scents...hopefully they work...even if its just enough to get a deer in range and/or to stop...I have had mixed results with using scents...one area I hunt the deer want nothing to do with it and end up avoiding the area so I dont use scents thee ever...and another property they come in on a rail...I'm planning on trying evercalm this year we'll see how it goes.
All about effectiveness in seeing deer activity. I will also go with confidence. It is crazy how much is a mind game. If you have confidence in your setup then you are more likely to stick it out.
