Some of the best scent money CAN'T buy!
Wisconsin
Thought I'd share a very easy method of obtaining very real deer scent. It can be used as a cover scent, or a drag rag. Simply use an old spray bottle, and I promise it will make deer curious and will often settle them down. Time-tested, it works!
First thing I do, is cut off the tarsal gland area on every deer I harvest, or any that my friends won't use. Their loss, because this stuff freezes well, and lasts forever as long as you keep freezing it, and don't let it spoil. Once you cut off the tuft of hair at the tarsal glands, simply put it in a ziplock. Add about 2 ounces of water, and swish it atound, working the water in the hair, and flushing all that urine and tarsal scent.
After sloshing the water around, you'll notice the water gets muddy colored. Squeeze the hair to the corner of the bag, then tip it and cut a very small hole in the corner. This will be drained into a bottle and be frozen. I suggest putting it in a freezer bag as secondary containment in case it cracks as it expands. Thaw it out on the way to your stand in the defroster vent on the dash of your vehicle. I use a spray bottle, as it aspirates much better than pouring. I will use this as a drag scent, and cover my scent with red fox urine and this stuff as a combination. I spray doe urine around my area including my tree as I get to my stand.
Here's a vial full of the scent ready for the freezer. I'm confident this is real. I'm confident it works. I'm confident it has a more musk smell than simple urine. I have several bottles of it from friends or myself who kill a deer. Often I help buddies butcher their deer. I ask for the tarsal glands every time.
I like the extraction idea; might have to give it a try.
I've been skinning and removing the entire tarsal glands off of bucks for years. I usually put them on my decoy with a rubber band or hang them in a nearby bush. I also sometimes hang the glands on brush while I'm rattling. I freeze the entire glands in freezer bags and keep them in my garage freezer with other gross stuff. ;^)
Cool stuff there Pete. Thanks for the tip.
I like the idea but I can't ever kill a deer to get the glands from:-(
Nice.
Just to clarify...
You cut off the skin and the hair in the gland area?
Do you freeze that whole thing? Or do you do the extraction and then freeze the extract?
Do you do anything with the hair and glands after extraction? I've tied them to strings and drug them behind me while walking to the stand.
Mad, yes, skin and tuft of hair. There will be no blood if you cut just deep enough.
I only freeze the vial after cutting a very small hole in the corner. You can filter it through a coffee filter if your worried about the aspirator getting plugged.
I extract the musk and urine from the tuft of hair, and then I toss the tarsal tufts after that. There might be more scent on the tufts of hair, but you will remove the majority of the musk with the sloshing effect.
Freshest n best scent ever!!!
I have taken urine out of harvested deer before, but I may try this and mix them together
I have taken urine out of harvested deer before, but I may try this and mix them together
Do you shave the hair from the hide? Doing that should get rid of the meat, blood and decay sources and give you purer scent.
There's no blood at all. Decay? None. This is removed from a freshly killed deer. I always quarter the same day of harvest, and butcher the deer after a cold refrigeration overnight. This tuft of hair is removed the same day....like within a couple hours of death. I wouldn't shave the hair, because this tuft of hair is heavy with urine and gland secretion, and I believe there's a far greater chance of recovering more of the available scent by leaving this collective tuft of hair that acts as a sponge soaking up more of the urine and glandular scent, to be extracted by using the water as a surfactant to capture the essence.
Try it. Smell it. If it doesn't trump any store bought scent you've ever smelled, I'll be shocked! I can promise you this. It's purely natural, and I know with many years experience, it works (if for nothing else) as a natural cover scent. This applies to a doe you shoot as well.
The urine from a deer can be removed as well, if you're prepared and available, but quite often upon death, the deer will empty its bladder.
I'm one of those people who thinks outside the box. I'm not cheap, I'm really about using things that make sense. If a deer is killed from the woods you hunt, and you use its sent to cover your stink, it has to improve upon the odor you put out. I've really never seen an ill effect unless it went sour. Freeze it, and thaw it the day of the hunt, and it seems to work. That's the best I've got? I've seen far more negative reactions from that store-bought crap that costs big money. This is free, and I want you to take advantage of something that works, potentially adding even greater value to the hunt, paying forward to the next!
There would often be a guy hanging out at the deer registration station that were 'collecting' tarsal glands. (They never got ours) This was even back in the 70's. Some of the best hunting techniques are simple and used quite effectively in the old days.
I just remembered that my great-grandfather who was half Cherokee told me that they used to dry the glands out and grind them into a powder and sprinkle around the area they were expecting deer.
Correct jeffinmn, we have been doing this since my dad was doing it back in the 60's. Right now I have 8 pairs in the freezer for next year.
Pete, we followed your directions to the tee! I'm taking my son before school tomorrow and we are going to saturate the area with the scent. My buck was stinky as all get out so I'll post our results. Thank you very much for the directions either way. I never would have thought to utilize that part of the deer.
Glad to help. Although I wasn't taught this by anyone, it's nice to see other people utilizing the fragrance. I hunted yesterday, and sprayed down the area. I had a doe and fawn eating alfalfa downwind of me, and they never batted an eye. Seemed focused on feeding, but normally a doe with a fawn will not tolerate human stink...especially daylight hours on the third day of gun season. I'm not suggesting you'll kill a monster, but I'm hoping it will settle a deer for you long enough to get an opportunity. We are a creative species, and when we think we might have come up with something neat, we realize that this "idea" was already an idea many many years ago. I wasn't looking for the patent rights, just trying to share!
I still say my deer call is better than anything anyone has, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this idea as well lol. I'm just never satisfied with things that fall short, or don't fit the bill, and I don't mind tinkering with ideas.....can you relate Ron?.....yes, I see you there. It's hard for you not to share, with all your creativity!
here is another trick I have used....... you place a stick, a few feet high, stick it in the ground......
Cough up a big goober, on it........ guarantee if a buck does come by, he will stop to smell it....
I also agree with the above posts
C2D, That is worded poorly, but it is actually talking about possession of white deer and albino deer. But if you read it again, it says: except for the hooves, tarsal glands, head and parts of the head of those same white deer. In other words, it says no other parts can be taken from a white deer without authorization, which is odd to say the least?! We've had guys collect and purchase deer tarsal glands at the registration station before, in the presence of wardens. So back to using those glands.....even from poached albino deer I guess? I mean how else would you possess those parts if they are illegal to hunt in the first place.....never mind, road killed albinos lol. I sure don't write the rules, I just laugh at the rules written so poorly!
possess deer antlers in velvet, spotted hides, albino or all-white deer which are entirely white except for the hooves, tarsal glands, head and parts of the head unless special written authorization is obtained from the department;
Great info thanks, doesn't happen very often on this sight
Pete, you should send that into Outdoor Life. Thats a good simple idea should get you a Buck knife for sure
I don't think the regulation is poorly written or that hard to understand. It has nothing to do with keeping parts of deer, it's about possessing white deer, which is illegal.
It's saying that you can't possess deer that are all white except for their hooves, tarsal glands, head and parts of the head (which may not be white).
White deer will have hooves that aren't white, their tarsal glands will be dark due to the secretions and their head may be stained dark due to rubbing trees and secretions from glands.
The intent of the regulation is to protect white or albino deer and its illegal to possess them even if their hooves, tarsals and head are not white.
The regulation has nothing to do with keeping tarsal glands off of normal deer.
Thanks Mike, I had three guys at work read it, and it sounded like it was saying except for the hooves etc. of those white deer. After rereading it, it makes perfect sense, but damn, we had three different thoughts come from a single phrase. It could have been written a bit more clearly by saying something along these lines.
It is illegal to possess deer antlers in velvet, spotted hides, albino or all-white deer which are entirely white. Often times white or albino deer will have stained tarsal glands, preorbital glands, and dark hooves. Under the authority of this possession rule, white deer with this normal staining are still considered albino or white. These cannot be possessed unless special written authorization is obtained from the department.
I completely read it correctly now that you pointed out what was obvious, but you can clearly see that not everyone read it quite the same way, and as far as I'm concerned, my explanation as written makes far more sense. There are plenty of these rules written with some interpretation that gets people's titty in a twister!
I kept mine from the buck I shot This fall thanks to this thread. I never would have thought of it myself. They are in my freezer in the garage right now and my son and I will be using them next fall.
A quick question though. Should I wait until closer to the rut or can I use them early season too?
I would not use it until the rut is on. I recall your buck was shot in full rut, and I'm afraid that seasonal scent in your deer's tarsal might alarm a deer? Now the end of October might be worth a try when the bucks are on their feet searching for a potential fight or an early hot doe. Man, I cannot wait!
I have been using them for years
Baiting and feeding deer page 28 of the deer hunting regulations. It is illegal to place use or hunt over any bait or feed material that - Contains any animal part or byproduct -Animal parts and byproducts include honey, bones,fish,meat,solid animal fat,animal carcasses,and parts of animal carcasses, but do not include liquid scents. So the way I read this is you would be legal to make scent from the tarsals but not legal to cut off the tarsals and hang them by your deer stand.
I think you are right but its the phrase in there about using parts of animal carcasses that make me question the legality of using tarsals while hunting.
I went on the dnr customer service chat and was told that it is not legal to use tarsal glands as an attraction but you can use the scent from them.
And that's why I use my extraction method.....lol.
This is a sketchy situation. There are guys using tails of deer on their decoys, they are using mounted turkeys as decoys, they are using rattling horns, they are using the skin of a deer and wrapping them on decoys to have the look of an actual animal. All these things are likely considered attractants, and could possibly be construed as "baiting" if you were to word-twist them? When you use these examples I listed in the context of feeding however I would disagree that they apply, but when interpretation is in the hands of the officer as well as the hunter, people technically could see themselves in a sticky situation simply because of the wording. I can go through the regs, and find several examples that could be construed one way versus another.
Neat thread! Keep them coming.
Pete-pec,
I see what you're saying in your post above regarding the wording of the white deer issue. Your version is clearer and removes doubt.
In regard to the tarsal gland question. Bait and feed is intended to be eaten and I would argue that since tarsal glands are not intended to be eaten they are not bait or feed. I also agree that you could make the argument regarding deer tails and hides on decoys and rattling antlers. Rattling antlers are being used to "lure" the deer similar to using tarsal glands to lure the deer but neither one of them are bait or feed.
and they are taken out with you, as you leave for the day..... as usual cheesehead, comes thru with common sense.......
