Countless volumes have been written about whitetail deer and their ultra keen senses, which make them one of the most challenging game animals on earth. Sure, their cousins, the moose, elk and caribou, all are awe-inspiring when encountered, but nothing compares to the heart-stopping thrill of a big whitetail buck rack.
And hunters go through body- and clothes-de-scenting rituals to help elude the deer's sense of smell in order to get within bow or gun range. We buy special soaps, sprays and deodorants and, unlike the old days when you didn't take a bath for a week in deer camp, we now shower and de-stink ourselves at least once a day during deer season. We also use masking scents, like fresh earth, pine and fox pee to cover any trace of human scent left on us.
There's even a theory that deer can smell the faintest trace of gun oil, so guns are wiped clean today. Not like years ago when everybody sprayed their guns down with WD-40 before heading into the woods.
Deer hunters even go through such pains as to keep their own urine contained in a bottle when they're sitting on their stands. Honest. Some hunters are so afraid that deer will smell their pee and get "busted" (discovered by the deer), that they keep a plastic bottle up in the tree with them. There's even a jug you can buy with some granular stuff in it so that, when you pee in it, it turns to gel and won't spill.
It's gone unwritten (except for now), but upon finding another hunter's stand in your favorite spot, we've all muttered under our breath, "I'd love to go p--- all around his stand" in hopes that he will not get the big buck you're after.
I, for one, discount that theory of deer spooking at urine, so you don't have to worry about me p---ing on your stand, which is why I'm writing this story. It's widely believed that our urine is loaded with human scent and that deer will head for the hills when they get a whiff of it. Home remedies for keeping deer out of gardens include urinating around the perimeter of it. Yet there is research that indicates some deer may not be bothered by it at all.
According to an article in Hunting Lease Magazine by Ben. H. Koerth, human urine does not frighten deer. On a large lease, mock scrapes were created and different lures were used to attract deer. Scrapes are spots where bucks paw the ground down to bare earth and then urinate in them. This is used to attract does, which also urinate in the scrapes. Bucks usually come back to check their scrapes and smell them for does that are in, or near estrous, and ready to breed.
"Treatments for this study included mock scrapes with rutting buck scent, mock scrapes with estrous doe scent, and mock scrapes with human urine," wrote Koerth. "Interestingly, I photographed just as many bucks on mock scrapes with human urine as I did on mock scrapes with store bought deer urine. There was no indication at all that human urine in the scrapes scared anything away. So much for that old wive's tale, huh?"
Lou "Skip" Hambly, avid hunter, wildlife biologist and retired district manager for MassWildlife's Southeast District, who has shot plenty of deer, agrees.
"It (human urine) doesn't bother them (deer) a bit," he says. "Human scent will send deer into the next county, but my experience is that our urine won't. I've watched deer come and smell the spot where I just 'went.'"
And I agree with Hambly. I fully understand the concern of hunters who worry about urine. I always try to take care of business as soon as I get into the woods and long before I reach my stand. But years ago, if I had to go and didn't feel like holding it, I would climb out of my stand and take care of things a long ways away, which probably spooked more deer from the area than a puddle of pee under my stand. I never liked bringing a bottle up there with me.
But two years ago, I got in my stand late in the afternoon on a raw day during a light rain. My feet got cold and when that happens, I gotta go. It was getting close to prime time about a half hour before sunset and I had to go. Rather than climb down, I went right from the top of my stand.
Hunters know that damp or wet ground holds scent better than dry ground, so I resolved myself that I probably wouldn't see any deer that afternoon. Ten minutes later, one of the biggest bucks I've seen, stepped within 15 yards of that spot. He was disinterested and unalarmed and offered a broadside shot. I drew the bow. He was a heavy-racked nine-pointer that dressed out at 195 pounds.
Another time, I "went" about 10 feet behind my stand one afternoon. I sprinkled a few drops of doe in heat scent to mask my own smell, just to be on the safe side, and climbed up. Didn't see anything that evening, but when I returned in the morning, the leaves on the ground where I had "gone" were turned over where a deer had been nosing around. And there was a fresh scrape, made during the night, only 15 feet away. I used that spot to "go" again and arrowed an eight-pointer two afternoons later, not 25 feet from my tree, and about 15 feet from my "spot."
Bill Woytek, MassWildlife biologist and deer project leader still is undecided about the matter.
"There is some evidence that suggests it (urine) will spook deer, but there's also evidence out there that discounts that theory," he says. "Personally, I'm not sure and haven't been sold on either one. Naturally, in areas of high human population, deer are more used to smelling human scent all the time and may not be frightened by it, but in remote areas, like the high ridges up in the Berkshires, deer may be more apt to be alarmed by it."
In general, deer will become alert and even alarmed at an unusual scent. But for every whitetail theory, there's another that contradicts it. Because deer, while wary, are also curious. And while some deer may bolt at the slightest hint of a different smell, others may want to investigate.
"Curiosity killed a cat, but it's also killed plenty of deer," muses Woytek, who suggests keeping scent free and taking care of business before getting in the woods, rather than taking the chance of alerting deer. "Nothing is a sure bet with deer."
Hunters should not wear their hunting clothes in the vehicle, house, restaurants, gas stations, etc. where they can pick up scents. I keep mine in a large, covered plastic box in the back of my truck where they can't be tainted by smells from the cab, such as my gun dogs. Sitting on the seat where your dogs were sitting when you went duck hunting will make you smell like a wet dog. Deer don't like dogs.
When I get to my hunting spot, I change clothes there. When I'm done, I change clothes again and put them back in the box before driving home. In the box are leaves and pine branches. When I hunt an apple orchard, I throw some cut apples in the box too, but apple scent will alert deer if there are no apple trees in the area.
"Rather than using anything that will focus the deer's attention in your direction, where they can spot you, be clean and scent free as possible and let deer continue on their normal route unawares," adds Hambly.
And my advice, if you have to tinkle, look around so you don't offend anyone, and pee freely. If you're worried about the scent, put a few drops of doe urine in the spot. It may help you bag that buck.
Then again, it may just scare the hell out of him.
Marc Folco is The Standard-Times' outdoor writer. E-mail him at
This story appeared on Page E9 of The Standard-Times on October 30, 2005.
