Scents when rifle hunting

[Bear1959]

My question is!
How important are scent blocks if we are pushing a bush. I hunt in Ontario for white tail. Typically we would set our watchers and then we would have a few guys and dogs walk through. More times out of none the deer are flying when they get to the watchers.
Hence my question. When they are on a run like that, are they really paying attention to smells or just trying to get away from what spooked them (watchers).
Thanks.
Ps. 12 days until rifle season. Yea!!

[Deerhunter022]

The way i see it, men killed deer all the time way back in the day without any sent blocker and they were probly even smellier then you and i.. Thats not to say that it wouldnt help increase your chances but i prefere to hunt the old style, just me and my gun

(not that i know much, being a 16 year old boy ; )

[timberghost]

I believe that a deer does use their nose when in a full sprint across country. Everyone would agree that the nose is the most valuable piece of equipment for a deers survival. I can relate to your push and I noticed that depending on how far back your pushers are the deer make a sprint for maybe 60 yards or so then trot it down a little bit. But when they get a whiff of danger they will hightail it hard again because they are already on red alert from the pushers. I would have the watchers be scent free so the deer will hopefully be slowed down enough to get a good shot off. Remember that this is just my own experience and I can't call it a whitetail fact. Hope this helped you out a little, GOOD LUCK to you.

[AJHunter]

Hi Friend,

You can rest assure that a deer uses it nose all the time, even if they are forced downwind. I would guess from what you stated, that either your shooters were to close to where you started your push, or the dogs played a real big role in the scenerio, or maybe both factors, comes into play.

If the deer feel really threatened they will hightail it out of the area, until they feel unthreatened.

Under normal stalking they usually won't go only 2 or 3 hundred yards or so, and then will settle down and use their senses to determine if further action is required.

But you are talking about pushing them with people and dogs no less. Coyotes and wolves are predators and dogs. I don't think they want to hang around for the finally, would you?

AJHunter