What’s the difference when it comes to scents? First determine which you want to achieve, covering human odor or attracting more wildlife. Then look at synthetic products versus natural ingredients.

Baking soda as a laundry detergent is a great scent free treatment. It is an affordable alternative to other costly options. Hunters Specialities makes a antibacterial body soap and shampoo that kills the bacteria that causes body odors. Just a few dollars buys 12-ounces of green Scent-A-Way soap.

The cedars in Missouri offer a great bedding area with exclusive wind break advantages. So breaking branches and enclosing them with your scent free clothing bags work wonders as a natural cover scent.

When used properly cover scent and attractants are both excellent for reducing human scent and luring deer to specific areas. Manufacturers of urine products make quite a profit from the success hunters have using their cover and attractants. Use extreme caution! Real ingredients make a dangerous combination blowing on the wind.

Use a mini-chopper to make your own scents from natural ingredients. Water is a nice carrier to mix and spray your solution. Grind soft oak or hickory twigs and blend them with a touch of real vanilla and pour into a spray bottle. A very small amount goes a long way. Too much will overpower the subtle effect and startle the deer.

Experimenting with sweet scents can be a lot of fun. Once you find the right one to lure in the deer it’s like a silent deer call. Eventually a deer comes in, lured by the bait.

Just after the acorn harvest begins to fall from the oaks is the best time to see deer. They love the white acorns best but after they eat those they will find the other varieties to eat. Do you know the difference between white oak leaves and red oak leaves? The deer do. They have, an instinctive aptitude in returning to those food sources that they filled up on last year. The smaller leaves of the white oaks are branched together and shaped differently than the leaves of the wider-lobed red oaks. When you find deer sign near white oaks in the fall you can believe that the deer are just waiting for the food to fall from the sky (well almost.)

The use of an attractant is smart practice for hunters who use them correctly. The increased wildlife sighting in areas sprayed with scent attractants will show the hunter that they have used the right scent. White oaks in general will drop an acorn harvest every year if the spring is warm and summer rain fall is right. Red oak acorns take two seasons to mature on the tree. The red oaks drop acorns every other year. That is the reason hunters notice that some trees drop acorns the same year that other trees do not. Using a general acorn scent will likely bring a hunter results in a deer hunt when used under any oak tree. Knowing the source of the scent and recognizing one oak tree from another helps the hunter understand the route a deer is likely to take toward the scent.

Fall apples are a great treat for deer. They will nibble them right off the tree. The only problem with choosing an apple scent as an attractant or a cover scent is the abundance of apple trees in the area you plan to hunt. Let’s say you plan to hunt near the old house place that has long since fallen down. Before you approach your set up, you spray an apple cover scent on the bottom of your boots, and then let’s say all along the way you choose prime spots where game trails intersect the main deer trail offering you a great shot opportunity from your stand. Now if the old house place has an apple orchard, the deer are familiar with that scent and you’re good to go. However, if the deer in your neck of the woods do not recognize the scent of apples due to a lack of apple trees on their turf, your apple scent will spook them and then you have a repellant not an attractant.

Some of the minerals and salt lick that deer naturally crave are great for those open areas on the deer trail that just need something to stop a traveling deer just long enough to make an archery shot. The funny thing is that an attractant like C’Mere Deer is also visited by squirrels and other wildlife. Start the deer lick well before the hunting season starts and when there is no rain carry water to the mineral lick every three weeks to actively reduce the block or soak the product into the surrounding soil.