Be Wise about the Weather and the Wind to Take White-Tailed Deer
Day 1: What Hunters Know about Deer and Their Sense of Smell
Editor’s Note: Sometimes a buck deer will see you or hear you – and you’ll still get a shot. But if he smells you – color him gone.
  “I was hunting a narrow strip of woods between a cleared field and the river,” Dr. Robert Sheppard of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, an archer who takes five or six bucks with his bow and arrows each year, remembers. “The area I was hunting was about 60-yards wide and about 400-yards long and separated two large hardwood bottoms. That small strip of woods ran north and south. The only way to approach the land without having my scent mess-up my hunting site was to approach it from the west, which was the river side, or the east, which was the field side.
“On this particular morning, I walked into this strip of woods from the east with a west wind in my face. Then any deer moving through the woods wouldn’t pick up my scent, if they were walking either toward the south or the north. I got into my tree stand just at daylight and had been sitting there for about an hour. I spotted a real nice 6-point buck coming from the south side of the woods, moving north. The deer walked to within 15 steps of me and never picked up my scent. I let my arrow fly and struck the deer just behind the shoulder. Immediately he bounded away and over the side of the bank. I found him right on the edge of the river. I’m convinced that if the buck had smelled me, I never would have had the shot.
  “The deer’s best defense against any predator is his nose. Many bowhunters will tell you that although a deer may be able to see you, he may walk up, look straight at you and then walk on past as if you don’t exist. That same group of bowhunters may tell you of instances where deer have heard them, or they’ve shot arrows more than once at the same buck, and he’s never moved. But you rarely will find an instance when a deer smells the hunter and presents anything but a hindquarter shot. So many times a deer may be able to see you or hear you – but you still may be able to take your animal. However, if he smells you, I’ll lay odds that you’ll never get a shot.”
For more deer-hunting tips, get John E. Phillips’ Kindle eBooks “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro,”How to Hunt Deer Up Close: With Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows,” and “PhD Whitetails: How to Hunt and Take the Smartest Deer on Any Property.” Too, you can go to www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the name of the book and download it to your Kindle and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.
About the Author
John Phillips, winner of the 2012 Homer Circle Fishing Award for outstanding fishing writer by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA), the 2008 Crossbow Communicator of the year and the 2007 Legendary Communicator chosen for induction into the National Fresh Water Hall of Fame, is a freelance writer (over 6,000 magazine articles for about 100 magazines and several thousand newspaper columns published), magazine editor, photographer for print media as well as industry catalogues (over 25,000 photos published), lecturer, outdoor consultant, marketing consultant, book author and daily internet content provider with an overview of the outdoors. Click here for more information and a list of all the books available from John E. Phillips.
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