Busted....

[Steelheader323]

After an unsuccessful archery season and with regular firearm season being used as a cool down I went back at it with my muzzleloader here in Michigan this past week, his area I'm hunting is new to me as of this season and I was waiting for a buck during archery season and never seen one, seen over 12 doe mixed in with yearling doe and button bucks a night every time I went in the evening and even a few times in the morning hey would come through, it's only 17 aces surrounded by homes and such, but the deer are plentiful I just don't ever see bucks, got them on trail camera at night and that's it, 5 different bucks from 2 fork horns to a nice 9 pt, well being late in the season I decided to take one of the does for some meat in the freezer, had a nice one at 30 yards and when I pulled up on her she caught me, busted me getting the attention of all the surrounding deer and I had never been so still, had a stand off for about 5 minutes Til they wandered off tail up, gave it 2 days an went back with my ground blind and without even seeing them come in 2 deer got around me somehow and winded me, or they were just wondering why the dark blob was since the camo on this blind is very dark, today on my lunch I snuck in and moved my stand about 50 yards down the path they normally come in, hopefully his works and I can get one tomorrow!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[emrah]

Stay with it. I've had no luck with archery (though I haven't gotten out much), and I wasn't home during our firearm season (traveling for work). Last Saturday was the one and only day I could muzzleloader hunt all year (again, work and family commitments). Saw nothing all day. Was packing up my stuff getting ready to get out of the blind and call it quits at the end of the day, when out steps a little 4-point forkie at about 35 yards.

One head shot and my season goes from woe and frustration to elation and tender meat in the freezer.

Like you always hear people say, hunt till the very last minute you possibly can. An entire season can change in just a few short seconds.

Emrah


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[willie14228]

If I may make a suggestion, take some of the pine needles or other dry leaves and smoke your hunting clothes. Bring a cleaned out vegetable can with some more leaves into your blind and smoke the inside.
doesn't take long and it doesn't have to be thick smoke.
I bow hunt from a cheap walmart blind. The humidity is high much of the deer season and the moisture from my breathing would condense on the walls this transfers scent to the walls.
I kid you not smoking your clothes will amaze you at how close you can get to deer. Smoke will kill all bacteria and provide a good long lasting cover scent that is natural to deer. I have a closed in carport that makes it easy for me to take a small bbq grill and use it to make a small smoke house.
last year I actually had a 6 point buck walk so close to me sitting on a stump I could have slapped him on the ass...... I decided I didn't want to go to a dentist so I refrained.

 

[MI_Bowhunter]

It only takes one! Something my dad told me as a kid and I still repeat today.

I had a hunt last year where i was running late and less than an hour to hunt. I had worked all day, hadn't showered but decided I would spend the last hour in the woods anyway. I got there got set up and 15 min before dark I knocked something over in my blind that made a hell of a noise. I figured I had just scared off anything for miles so I start to pack up. As I reach up to close my windows a nice 8 point and several does step out of the woods on the edge of the field where I hunt. Twenty minutes later I was following a blod trail to recover my buck.

I also had two trail cameras set near this blind for months prior and this buck never appeared on them

It only takes one!

 

[Squeeze]

There is something to that smoke. A few of the most consistent meat hunters I know are smokers.

 

[willie14228]

It has worked for me more than once.,
I kind of think of it this way, all of those commercial scent blockers are mass produced. Nothing is truly scent free and cover scents out of a can are also mass produced and have the exact same scent.
that Russian scientist Povlolve or whatever his name was studied how if he rang a bell every time he fed a dog could then make the dog salivate every time he rang that bell.
So why wouldn't the same apply to these scents in a can. Deer smell it sees a hunter and links it to danger so avoids it from then on.
The fact is I have spent hundreds of dollars on scent products and have never seen any real benifit. 15 minutes gathering local leaves needles and branches and another hour smoking clothes at home however has worked for me every time, I've gotten busted yes but because I walked up on the deer without seeing it or in one case sitting against a tree slapped a mosquito only to get a loud snort behind me.
I should mention my wife and I are dog lovers they ride around with us, sleep in the house, and get their scent all over the place. If I can block that anyone can.