Scent cover at 15-20ft up in a tree.


Scbasshunter

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I've been told that as long as you are 15-20ft up a tree, you don't need much, if any, cover since the deer won't be looking up that high or even paying any attention to something that high. I have a feeling I know what everybody is going to say, but I figured I'd ask anyways: If you are 15-20ft up in a tree, are you above the nose of a deer? I have heard that you are and I have heard that you aren't. I am not trying to say that scent elimination is not important, but I can see the argument for both sides.

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Scent cover at 15-20ft up in a tree.

Sc

The deers nose is his best defense. They can smell up to 7 scents at once and have a nose better than a bloodhound.. There is not a height to beat a deers nose. I could show you study after study disproving that. The real reason for height is to dissipate scent and use thermals and natural winds to your advantage, not to mention getting out of a deers line of sight. Also deer will look up and often do during hunting season. Hunters have trained them to:). A deer that doesn't learn early in life to look up wont live very long.

It might appear that some deer are walking downwind of you and not smelling you. Chances are they are yearling deer and fawns that don't know to completely trust their nose yet or thermals are unknowingly helping you.

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hoosier covered most of what I was going to say. You've probably heard someone talk about thermals rise in the morning and fall in the afternoon. This is true, however thermals rise in the morning after the sun comes up and begins to warm things up.

Wind speed and obsticles they encounter will mix your scent too. When wind hits trees it's deflected up, down, or to the side, especially a wall of trees on the side of a field. Even the type of tree can move wind one way compared to other trees. Most trees have limbs angling up which directs wind down. The only exception I can think of is some evergreens that have sagging limbs. Wind moving over a ridge can cause wind eddys to swirl wind much like water does hitting objects in a stream.

If you're 20' up a tree and it's dead calm around 8:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day, there's a good chance your scent isn't falling. Other than that though...don't bet your hunt on it.

Edited by Rhino
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good advice given. here in upstate NY there's a guy Charlie Alsheimer that has a fenced in farm where he studies deer behavior. Several hundred yards from his farm there's a large wooded ridge across the valley on the other side of town. doe can be spotted bedding there. once they start to come in estrous, the bucks all the way back in his enclosure will start to pace the fence on that side over and over again. Just think of the difference in elevation compared to your 20' and how much there scent is mixing with anything from the town by the time it gets to Charlie's penned in bucks. However, they still know what they're smelling. I highly recommend his book... "Stratedgies for Whitetails"... Strategies for Whitetails: Charles J. Alsheimer: 9780896893313: Amazon.com: Books you'll be an educated hunter then. covers a lot, including what was said above.

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BTW...your best bet is to ALWAYS try to hunt with the wind in your favor anytime of the day and try to reduce your scent profile as best you can. By reducing your scent profile you can at least cut down the distance that a deer will be alerted to your scent if it passes downwind of your position.

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