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Most bowhunters who hunt black bears hunt over bait.  Although there is nothing wrong with that, spot and stalk black bear hunting is more difficult and more fun. The nose of a black bear is second to none, which makes outsmarting a bear challenging. No one knows that better than Shane Mowery from Bone Maniacs. Shane calls Idaho home but hunts black bears in multiple states every year. One of his favorite ways to hunt black bears is by glassing them with binoculars and slipping within bow range. This requires a lot of patience. “A successful stalk can take hours,” said Mowery. “One mistake I see many hunters make is trying to rush and they end up being busted by the bear.”

Spot and stalk bear hunting requires patience and attention to detail. “One detail I never ignore when bear hunting is the wind direction,” Mowery explained. “I think many hunters don’t give bears enough credit.  The reality is their nose is far superior to the nose of a whitetail and a little bit of human odor will cause a bear to run away. I always hunt the wind if possible.”

Out west, the wind is constantly swirling and it isn’t always possible to hunt with the wind in your face. To lower his odds of being winded by a bear, Mowery uses a Wyndscent unit and an Ozonics machine. “The vapor from a Wyndscent unit travels hundreds of yards and does a great job of providing a cover scent for me. The Donut Shop scent smells like donuts and we all know that bears love to eat donuts. I know that the Wyndscent isn’t going to completely overpower human odor, but it can cover up my scent enough to possibly confuse a bear.  I use an Ozonics machine when I am hunting which helps eliminate my odor. Between the Wyndscent and the Ozonics, I am able to greatly reduce my odds of being winded on a spot and stalk hunt and increase my odds of success.”

Recently Mowery was hunting in Washington state and was able to kill an amazing black bear while bowhunting. “In the fall, I love hunting black bears in old fruit orchards because bears spend a lot of time in orchards this time of year. They will feed on fruit for hours at a time, bed nearby and get up again later in the day and feed again. A hunter who is willing to play the waiting game with a bear will often succeed. The bear I killed recently was eating in an apple tree and wasn’t paying attention to me as I slipped within shooting range. I had my Wyndscent mini and my Ozonics running. With my odor destroyed and the bear distracted by apples, I was able to easily slip within range and make a great shot on the bear.”

The big bear was a sow that didn’t have any cubs. The bear could be a new world record for a sow killed with a bow. “She was a giant,” Mowery said. “Killing a big bear like this requires effort and a little bit of luck.  I am glad I was able to make it happen.”

Each year Mowery kills over a dozen big game animals with his bow. Regular practice with his bow, attention to detail, and hard work allows him to consistently fill the freezer.

The rut is the best time of year for us whitetail hunters. Bucks throw caution to the wind as they chase does through the woods. Scents can play a key role in being successful during the rut. Knowing when and how to use each type of scent for the different rut periods is very important.

Pre-Rut

During the early season deer movement is usually pretty predictable. Deer are still on their food to bed patterns. You wouldn’t want to use a rut scent like doe in heat during this time as it would just confuse the deer. A great choice for early season would be either a cover scent or a food based attractant like apple, sweetcorn, acorn.

The first stage of the “rut” would be the pre-rut phase. During the pre-rut phase bucks will starting breaking up from bachelor groups and will start becoming more territorial. You’ll see bucks making more scrapes and rubs marking their territory. Does aren’t in heat yet buck the bucks are starting to show some rutting activity.

A great way to use scents for bucks during this time is to challenge them to come in. Pre-rut is a great time to use buck urine scents like P7 Stud, Conquest Rutting Buck, Pure Whitetail Cash, or Rack Getter Dominant Buck. Using a buck urine along with a buck decoy is also a fantastic plan.

Here is a video of Larry McCoy with Respect the Game using the Wyndscent unit with a decoy. The scent along with the decoy gave the buck the confidence to commit and come right in.

Seeking

During the seeking phase of the rut bucks will be trying to locate does. Most of the does will not be in full heat yet but the bucks will be on their feet more looking for does. Buck scents are effective during this time as well as normal non-estrus doe urine. To get the best of both worlds, the P7 Crossroads scent includes a buck urine, a doe urine, and a little flare of doe in heat.

Here is a video of Victor Guarisco with Crimson Trail talking through his Wyndscent strategy. He shows video of a buck coming right to the unit and putting his nose on it.

Chasing

The chasing phase of the rut is the most exciting to hunt and is the most effective for doe in heat scents, decoys, and calls. Its in this phase that you’ll have the highest chance of luring in rut crazed bucks. Now is the time to bring out those doe in heat scents. Wyndscent offers lots of different doe in heat scents from multiple brands. Using a doe decoy along with a doe in heat scent is a great tactic during this time.

Scents not only lure in bucks during this time that aren’t on the tail of a doe but they also help stop a buck in your area if they are actively chasing a doe. I don’t know how many times I’ve had a doe come in really quickly in range of my stand. I get all set and ready to go. Then I see the buck sprint in, but he runs in and out of range too fast to get a shot off. Having something that catches that bucks nose and causes him to stop is great. We’ve seen that exact thing happen running Wyndscent. We had a buck come in chase a doe. He caught wind of the Wyndscent unit, and it caused him to stop and sniff it for a bit before he got back to chasing that doe. Its wasn’t quite a buck we wanted to harvest but none the less it was a really cool encounter.

Here is a video of that encounter.

Lockdown

The Lockdown phase of the rut can be tricky to hunt. Bucks during this time will often stay close to their bedding. It can be hard to pull away a buck during this phase but it can happen. Doe in heat scents can be effective during this time along with buck scents.

Second Rut

As you start getting into the post-rut and second rut phase, not as many does will be in heat but a few will. Using doe estrus may yield some result but not as good as it did in the prior parts of the rut. As bucks start to get worn out from chasing does and as it gets colder, bucks will start to get back to their food to bed pattern. That is a great time to switch back to those food based attractants or to cover scents.

Cover Scent Strategy

Using cover scents is effective during the rut. I love morning hunts in the woods during peak rut. I’ve been covered up in does on those hunts and knowing that a buck may come cruising in anytime is fun. During the rut does are often more cautious than the bucks and keeping them calm will be key to getting a shot off on a buck. Using cover scents can really help with masking human scent. I always hunt the wind, but deer will still go downwind. I’ve had lots of times where I’ve had deer go down wind of me running a cover scent and the deer haven’t been bothered.

Levi Morgan is a huge fan of running cover scents to keep the deer calm. We’ve partnered up with Levi to offer a couple of super effective cover scents called “Chill” and “Chill Hardwoods.” Chill can be used anywhere and Chill Hardwoods is specifically designed for the woods.

Watch Levi explain his cover scent strategy below.

Scents Are An Effective Tool For Many Species

Scents, when used properly, can be a very effective tool for a variety of species we hunt. So many animals rely heavily on their nose. They might not see you, but if they smell you the game is often up. On the flip side, animals are often attracted by the correct scent. If an animal has a visual but they don’t smell the proper scent when they are downwind of the visual, they get nervous because things don’t seem realistic. The same thing applies while using calls. If you call in an animal, they often approach from the downwind side. If they don’t smell the critter that they think they hear, they are often undeceived.

Many people are very familiar with using scents for deer hunting. Hunters have been using scents for deer hunting for generations, and it has been proven to give you an edge that you otherwise wouldn’t have. There are 2 ways that whitetail hunters use scents. The most common way hunters use scents is to use them as an attractant. The smell of a hot doe is hard for a rut crazed buck to resist. The other way whitetail hunters use scents is to help mask human scent. We try to do everything we can to be scent free, but also running a cover scent can often be exactly what it takes to keep downwind deer calm. Scents are effective for whitetail hunting as cover and attractants, and the same principles apply to a variety of species including coyotes and other predators.

Use Scent With Your Call

Predator calls have a remote for a reason. Most predator hunters place their calls a ways away and control them remotely. Placing your call a ways away helps for several reasons. First of all, you don’t want coyotes to be looking right at you. Placing the call away from you keeps coyotes focused on the location of the call and not the hunter. Secondly, having the call further away means that sometimes the coyotes will be downwind of the call but not downwind of your position. This situation presents a perfect opportunity to use scents. If a coyote is downwind of the call and you have scent at that location, he will be even more convinced that the critter making all that ruckus is actually there. Often that is what it will take to bring that coyote into range.

Using a tool like Wyndscent to vaporizer your predator scent is even a more effective way to use scents. Wyndscent vaporizes the scent making it small stronger, last longer, and travel further. Another advantage of the Wyndscent unit is its remote controlled meaning you can control both your scent source and your audio source (predator call) remotely.

Pic courtesy of Bone Maniacs

Hunting High Pressured Areas

Animals in high pressured areas are often more leery of calls. That again is where scent really helps. Scent completes the deception and gives predators more reason to come into range.

Keep Track Of The Wind Direction

Keeping track of the wind direction while coyote hunting or any type of hunting for that matter is critical. If you are using an attractant scent, make sure to position the scent where it isn’t blowing in the same direction as your downwind side. If you are using a cover scent, placing that next to you works great. A cover scent often buys you a little extra time to get a shot off before the predator catches your scent.

Using Scents In The Cold

I went coyote hunting recently, and it was COLD. A lot of us that live in the northern US coyote hunt in cold conditions. Using scents in the cold has long been an issue because scents freeze up in the cold. That problem has been solved with the Wyndscent scent vaporizer. Wyndscent heats the scent up and vaporizes it out. Wyndscent is very effective even in cold conditions. The Wyndscent 2.0 unit comes with a high powered, rechargeable vape battery that works well in frigid temps. If you want to up your scent game while predator hunting, make sure to check out Wyndscent. Wyndscent offers rabbit scent for predator hunting along with several great cover scents including earth and pine. If you whitetail hunt as well, Wyndscent offers a large variety of cartridges that you can use on the same vaporizer unit.

Scents can be very effective for both critters that eat grass and the ones that eat the ones that eat the grass. If you try using scents for your next predator hunt with Wyndscent, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

The coyote from one of our recent coyote hunts.

By Tracy Breen

Like many hunters, Levi Morgan has had a love/hate relationship with deer scents. “I have known that using deer scents has some benefit, but using deer scents also has many drawbacks,” Morgan said. “For starters, deer lure is smelly and messy. Once a bit of scent is on your boots or clothing, it is there to stay. I am hesitant to use it because it is so messy. The Wyndscent unit has changed that.”

 FORGET THE MESS

A Wyndscent uses vaporized scent and the scent is contained in a cartridge, so deer hunters don’t have to worry about deer urine spilling in the truck, getting on their hunting clothes, or contaminating a hunting area with old lure that could in fact spook the deer. “Until Wyndscent came along, using deer scent was very final,” Morgan noted. “Once it was on the ground, on my boots, or clothing there was no putting it back in the bottle. What I love about the Wyndscent is I can carefully place the unit in the field and with the remote, turn the unit on and off from the stand without worrying about getting human odor on the ground. I can turn it on and off when I want to.”

 VAPORIZED SCENT IS BETTER

Another reason Levi Morgan enjoys using a Wyndscent is because the vaporized scent can help him outsmart big bucks. “The wind is never perfect when hunting. You never know exactly when a buck is going to come in on the downwind side and bust you,” Morgan said. “I like having two Wyndscent units out and have the scent blowing to my downwind side so if a buck gets a little human odor, it might also catch the scent from the Wyndscent. If I can confuse a buck for a minute, sometimes it is long enough to get a shot.”

 
WYNDSCENT AND DEER DECOYS

Levi Morgan enjoys hunting over a deer decoy. “Hunting over a decoy can be a lot of fun. The downside is when a buck comes in, he expects the decoy to smell like a deer. To add a bit of realism to my setup when I am hunting with a decoy, I like to put a Wyndscent unit under the decoy so when a buck approaches the decoy it smells like the real thing. All the little details can make a big difference when hunting deer and using a Wyndscent makes a decoy setup more realistic which can increase my odds of getting a buck within bow range.”

 VAPORIZED SCENT TRAVELS FURTHER

One of the greatest advantages of hunting over vaporized scent is that testing shows that heated vapor scent can be smelled by animals hundreds of yards away. If you are looking to get the most out of your deer scent this year, do what Levi Morgan does and hunt with a Wyndscent unit.
 
Many of the most poplar deer scents on the market are available in a Wyndscent cartridge including Conquest Scents, Code Blue, and many more.

One of the most recognized faces in outdoor television is Roger Raglin from Roger Raglin Outdoors. Raglin has been on outdoor television for decades. Raglin has hunted across the world but one of his favorite places to hunt is in Southern Texas. “Texas holds lots of large bucks and I have a few ranches that I really enjoy hunting,” Raglin said. “I’ve been hunting at one ranch in particular for twelve years because there are a lot of large bucks on the ranch.”

The problem with this ranch last year was the ranch was partially flooded which forced Raglin to hunt a different part of the ranch. “There is a certain blind on the ranch I like to hunt out of, but the area was under water last year so I had to go to plan B,” Raglin noted.

Plan B required a north wind but Raglin really wanted to hunt the stand so he brought his Wyndscent unit with him on a day when there was a south wind. “I really like the Wyndscent because the vapor scent is extremely strong and I believe it helps outsmart big bucks and cover my scent when the wind is questionable,” said Raglin.

When Raglin climbed into his blind last fall, he turned his Wyndscent unit on, placed it out in front of his blind, and let the unit go to work. “I love the unit because I can just hit the button on my remote and dispense scent whenever I want to. Wouldn’t you know it?  A big buck showed up and I am sure the Wyndscent unit helped me outsmart the buck.”

The buck that the Wyndscent helped outsmart wasn’t just any buck; it was the largest buck Raglin had ever seen on this ranch. “The buck ended up being a160-class toad! I couldn’t believe it!  Everything has to roll your way to kill a buck like that and wind is often the one thing that is out of our control that ruins many hunts. The strong vapor scent that the Wyndscent produces often helps me outsmart bucks when the wind in wrong.”

The Wyndscent unit has many advantages over traditional scent which is why Raglin uses it. “I have always been a fan of using deer urine when hunting.  The Wyndscent brings deer scents to the next level.  Heated vapor scents travel further than scents you pour on the ground. You can operate the unit remotely from a stand or blind so there is less human odor contamination near the area where the unit is placed verses when scent is poured onto the ground. The benefits are many,” Raglin noted.

Watch the whole hunt go down here.