Coues Deer and Scent Attractants

[az4life]

I have wondered about this for some time and saw the topic posted elsewhere with no answers.

I know folks here will have some info, and short of giving out your secret recipe, what opinions do you all have?

 

My personal opinion is mixed. At certain times, Just Before and during the rut, I know the bucks go crazy keeping up with the does. Scents I am sure help keep them moving to, with and around the does. They sort of lose their mind and seem to have very little fear when the rut peaks.

 

Other times of year I think the commercial scents (mostly sold as white tail scents) are somewhat of a warning flag to coues deer since the smell is not from a coues, (and not natural to their territory) and they treat the new scent like a whif of aftershave or a smoking cigarette.

Stalking these deer is a challenge, and my Personal experience is, Several times (not during rut) I have been able to get within 20 yards of small groups of coues while hunting, but never while using these scents.

 

Anyone else have opinions or observations?

[mikep35]

My opinion is that all the scents I have ever seen out there on the market are whitetail scents. This is totally different than coues deer scent and it will only sound off the alarm. Your best bet is to just glass, glass, glass.

[CouesWhitetail]

Coues deer are a subspecies of Whitetail. Subspecies are defined by geographical isolation not by an inability to interbreed. All whitetail subspecies can breed with each other. They have very similar reproductive behaviors and although I don't know this for sure, I think their scents are probably very similar. Heck, Coues Deer can even breed with Mule Deer. So I think that other whitetail scents should work. Deer are very curious and will check things out.

 

I don't know anyone that uses scents in Coues deer hunting regularly, but I think a good way to find out a Coues deer's reaction to the scents is to put up a trail camera around some scent. See if they are attracted to it or act scared. Maybe some of you have already done this.... what did you find out?

 

I think the only way the deer would be really scared of the scents is if there was human scent associated with it, so make sure you use some scent elimator before you put the stuff out.

 

Amanda

[huntlines]

OK here is my two cents and from experience. I have read article after article about how scents are good or bad. One of the best ones was from a bowhunting magazine where some deer biologist put out lost of different scents not only in areas with pinned deer but on free ranging deer as well. They found out that during the rut just about anything works including air fresheners! Now coues deer are a little different in my opinion due to their spooky nature even during the rut.

 

What I have found and don't ask why I ever thought of doing this but I tried it and watched from my tree stand as bucks checked scrapped and remarked the scrap after I did this. I have always thought the scents on the market are a little strong for coues so one time while freshening up a scrap I put a few drops of doe in heat scent down then I urinated in it. I know, why right. But let me tell you it worked. I watched a BIG two point check the scrap and freshen it up. It was January and I didn't want to shoot this BIG two point even though he was the dominate buck in the area. A few days later I watched a small three point check and freshen the same scrap after I repeated the before mentioned.

 

Just an idea you may want to try yourself. Urine has a PH factor that I don't think matters if it is human or animal, mixed with a little deer hormones and I think it works.

[bobbyo]

OK here is my two cents and from experience. I have read article after article about how scents are good or bad. One of the best ones was from a bowhunting magazine where some deer biologist put out lost of different scents not only in areas with pinned deer but on free ranging deer as well. They found out that during the rut just about anything works including air fresheners! Now coues deer are a little different in my opinion due to their spooky nature even during the rut.

 

What I have found and don't ask why I ever thought of doing this but I tried it and watched from my tree stand as bucks checked scrapped and remarked the scrap after I did this. I have always thought the scents on the market are a little strong for coues so one time while freshening up a scrap I put a few drops of doe in heat scent down then I urinated in it. I know, why right. But let me tell you it worked. I watched a BIG two point check the scrap and freshen it up. It was January and I didn't want to shoot this BIG two point even though he was the dominate buck in the area. A few days later I watched a small three point check and freshen the same scrap after I repeated the before mentioned.

 

Just an idea you may want to try yourself. Urine has a PH factor that I don't think matters if it is human or animal, mixed with a little deer hormones and I think it works.

 

So the obvious question is: How much for your urine? I need about a quart to last through the season.

Bob

[Hunterjohnny]

OK here is my two cents and from experience. I have read article after article about how scents are good or bad. One of the best ones was from a bowhunting magazine where some deer biologist put out lost of different scents not only in areas with pinned deer but on free ranging deer as well. They found out that during the rut just about anything works including air fresheners! Now coues deer are a little different in my opinion due to their spooky nature even during the rut.

 

What I have found and don't ask why I ever thought of doing this but I tried it and watched from my tree stand as bucks checked scrapped and remarked the scrap after I did this. I have always thought the scents on the market are a little strong for coues so one time while freshening up a scrap I put a few drops of doe in heat scent down then I urinated in it. I know, why right. But let me tell you it worked. I watched a BIG two point check the scrap and freshen it up. It was January and I didn't want to shoot this BIG two point even though he was the dominate buck in the area. A few days later I watched a small three point check and freshen the same scrap after I repeated the before mentioned.

 

Just an idea you may want to try yourself. Urine has a PH factor that I don't think matters if it is human or animal, mixed with a little deer hormones and I think it works.

 

So the obvious question is: How much for your urine? I need about a quart to last through the season.

Bob

 

A new side buisness is born.

[rcdinaz]

 

So the obvious question is: How much for your urine? I need about a quart to last through the season.

Bob

 

 

Now that is funny!

 

Even funnier to think you could pee in a bottle and probably sell the stuff as a secret formula and make money. You could call it Coues doe estrus "activator", works with any standard doe scent. About $20 an ounce would probably be about right!

[Coues&Bass]

I have used the whitetail doe in rut and have had limited success with it. I have had bucks walk in behind me while I was glassing due them cutting my trail. The bucks were not big but they did react to the smell.

One year a buddy of mine stepped away from where we were glassing to take care of some paperwork if you know what I mean. He heard something behind him and looked under the tree to see deer legs. He tried to get to his rifle and move around the tree and the deer moved 180 away from him like playing cat and mouse. Finally the small buck decided that he had enouph and took off. We hunted in the general area and picked the buck up again following our trail. Unfortently he was not the buck we were looking for.

I was using the doe in rut when I shot my buck On December 26th 0f 2009. The sun was in my eyes so I had to wait to shoot, the deer seen me but did not react, although I was up wind the deer did not seem to care of my presence. So when the sun was low enouph I let the air out of him.

 

My 2 cents

[mje1]

I shot a 100 inch buck two years ago while sitting in a ground blind, I had a tinks scent bomb with tinks 69 in it and this buck came running into 15 yds in front of me. He wasnt spooked and I really think he was coming into the scent although it hasnt worked again I think you just have to have the right buck around that it will work on and a good amount of luck also.

[TAM]

I know Treestandman tried many of the commercial scents and his favorite was Code Blue. His opinion was that the scents worked but conditions had to be just right. He also thought that peeing in the scrape seemed to work pretty good and he would often use that technique to start new scrapes instead of using the expensive store bought stuff. He sent me an email one time with pictures of a 110" type buck that checked on a scrape that he pee'd in. The key was finding an area where bucks were actively chasing does.

[buckhunt3r]

Early in the year i was curious about this exact same question, as there is little information about this part of coues hunting. so i put doe in rut scent in front of the camera. this very night was the first time i got a buck on camera.... i dont know if it is definately because of the tinks... but it is hard to ignor the fact that my camera had been up there seeing thousands of does and not a single buck until that night....