Sporting goods manufacturers offer a wide range of scents designed to help deer hunters to be more productive in the field. However, just like every other tool that a hunter uses, scents must be used properly to be effective. Hunters should understand the purpose of scents and avoid the mistakes that most hunters make with scents.

Scent Purpose

Scents designed for use with deer hunting have two primary purposes: to mask human scent or to attract deer. Scents that are designed to mask human scent are referred to as cover scents. These scents help to make a hunter less noticeable to deer. Cover scents work to defeat a deer's sense of smell like camouflage works to defeat a deer's sense of sight. Common cover scents include urine from common woods animals that are not deer predators such as foxes as well as natural scents such as pine and earth. Attractant scents include doe urine, doe-in-heat urine and buck urine. These scents work to attract deer to the hunter. For example, buck urine is often used in a mock scrape. This combination of a mock scrape and buck scent will make