Can deer be conditioned to accept a specific odor?
Filed under: Ask Grant, Deer Biology, Hunting Tactics
Is it possible to condition a deer to a specific smell? for example Could you apply your scent cover at your stand year round and condition a deer to that particular smell? Where I hunt the wind swirls almost always. I know that the best option would be to have a sealed blind.
Deer in research facilities do become conditioned to accept and not become alerted to certain individuals or smells that would alert wild deer.
Deer have an incredible sense of smell. I suspect they can be conditioned to accept any cover scent. However, when the hunter was present the deer would most likely smell the human and cover sent. I don’t believe the cover scent will mask all odors given off by the hunter – including the hunters breath, ongoing death of bacteria, etc.
Cover scents have been around for decades and still hunters commonly get busted by deer.
Enjoy creation!
