It happens every deer season. Someone walks down the hunting aisle of a local sporting goods store, sees the deer scents and attractants section and begins to wonder how they can tip the odds in their favor during their next hunt.

When it comes to using scents and attractants, success comes from knowing the right scent to use at the right time. For example, you might not want to use an estrous scent in October, but it might be the best thing to use in Mid-November.

Let me give you an example…

It’s not just the scent that’s important… it’s using the right scent at the right time!

A Lesson In Scent Usage

It was the third week of October in Indiana, the pre-rut was on, and the deer were fired up. I had just climbed into my ladder stand, hung up my backpack, and pulled up my bow. As I prepared for this afternoon hunt, I had no idea what was about to happen.

I had just pulled an SD card from one of my trail cameras on my way to the stand. I had gotten to the stand a little earlier than normal, so I figured I’d have time to go through some of the pictures and check activity from the previous couple of days.

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12/25/2024 11:55 pm GMT

Mock Scrape Magic

I had hung a dispenser of a new scrape blend scent that we were trying out and the results were extremely positive. I had bucks coming to this mock scrape nightly, but a new buck had shown himself that I had not seen before.

As I was going through the pictures, I randomly picked my head up and scanned the woods I was hunting, as well as a nearby cornfield.

Then, I saw movement.

I got ready and then a deer came into full view. It was a spike, and he was on the move. So, with the opportunity of some interaction, I let out a few soft grunts. He stopped and looked, but that was all.

I decided to see what he would do if he heard a bleat, so I did. He turned and came in on a string.

Now, on my way to the stand, I had broadcasted some Battle Ballz in front of me. When the spike hit the scent; he walked in figure 8’s trying to pinpoint the source.

Success using scents and attractants comes from not just know what scents to use, but specifically when to use them.

Bleat, Grunt, Broadside

That’s when the hunt changed even more. While watching this young buck walk around in circles, I looked to my left and saw a second deer. It was him, the 9-point buck I had seen on my SD card just saw on my SD card just moments earlier!

I grunted at the buck and he put on the brakes. He didn’t look like he was going to commit, until I bleated once again. This bigger buck wasn’t about to let a little spike be near a willing doe, so he turned and walked in.

The buck gave me a clear, 35-yard broadside shot. Let’s just say I recovered him 125 yards away.

Thanks to the scent I had spread on the ground earlier, those bucks were able to keep their minds and their focus on other things. The grunt call, coupled with the scent, allowed me to take this nice 9-pointer.

As you can see, each “tool” we haul into the woods can make or break our success and overall hunting experience. In this case, the scent was the difference maker. But it’s not just the fact that there was a scent involved. It’s that it was the right scent at the right time.

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12/26/2024 12:27 am GMT

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You see, this was mid-October, and my scent selections were a scrape blend, and Pay Dirt, a fresh earth scent, (I also used a dabble of another scent we were also testing for the next season.) As scrapes were popping up daily, one of our buck tarsal scents could have been another good choice.

On this hunt, the cover scents proved extremely effective, as a slight breeze was blowing straight toward those two bucks that afternoon.

Please note that it’s very important to follow your state’s laws when using scents and attractants. For example, Indiana’s game laws dictate that you can’t pour scent on the ground, but you can use in a scent dispenser which, makes the scent non-edible.

What Scents To Use… And When

When hunting with scents, I recommend the following guidelines, to ensure the best hunt possible.

Beginning Of The Deer Season

When deer season starts, regardless the month, use food scents!

Food scents are what separate a scent company from a urine company. What do I mean? Well we all know that urines have a time and place, but urines (deer, fox, skunk etc.) are used mostly during hunting season. A food attractant, however, can be used any time of the year.

Now, why would you want to attract deer any time of the year? The answer is simple, scouting.

Food Scents + Minerals

Scouting cameras are used more than ever before, and having a way to attract deer to those cameras are just as important as the camera itself. Lots of people say they use mineral or salt licks. Yes, using those is a great idea. Food scents however, can last for such a long time – even longer than mineral – because when used in a scent dispenser, the scent is protected from weather, such as rain or snow.

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Now, using scent with mineral is a deadly combo. We’ve found that using scent at your mineral site attracts game to that location faster, and from a further distance. This is helpful when taking deer inventory, promoting antler growth, and scouting for sheds. As I like to say, “the scent brings them in, but the mineral keeps them there.”

Pre-Rut

In mid-to-late October, as bucks are starting to rub and scrape, and pre-rut action is in full-swing, use scrape and tarsal scents.

During this time of year (pre-rut), scrapes are one of the best locations to use scent that you could ever ask for. The reason? Well, because scrapes are spots that you can predict bucks will visit.

I’ve kept a scrape active for months by changing my scents up through the various stages of the rut, drawing in countless big bucks. Use multiple scents together to simulate buck and doe activity. For example, when using a scrape blend or buck with tarsal, try adding some fresh dirt as well. By doing so, you will give the impression that the buck was just there, and you might just be able to get that dominant buck to shrink his home range and visit that scrape more often.

During The Rut

The beginning of November is a great time to use this estrus doe scent. However, because all does don’t come into estrus time, Buck Nuggets and Battle Ballz are also a great choice through first of December, or what is sometimes referred to as the secondary rut.

Post-Rut

Post rut, in my opinion, is one of the hardest time of the year to hunt. Temps are dropping, deer are tired, and food is scarce. During this time of year, I switch gears and go back to the food scents, using them like I did in the early season. Remember, tree foliage is bare during this time of year, and anything you can do to draw the eyes and nose of a whitetail is critical.

Hide Yourself… With Food

One tactic is to hang a dispenser of food scent where I would want to attract the animals, and hang the same scent in the stand or ground blind with me. Now I’ve doubled the attractant and doubled the cover scent at the same time.

Food scents are a good cover scent as well. So what if you walked into the woods smelling like apples, sweet corn, or acorns? That doesn’t sound too bad at all!

A comment I hear a lot is… “How will apple scent work if you don’t have apple trees on your property? No way Jose!”

Well, let me ask you a question. Do you know what a steak smells like? If all of a sudden you smell a steak, what’s the first thing you think? Probably something like, “Man that smells good… where’s that coming from.” You don’t think “nope, that couldn’t be a steak… there’s no butchered cows around her.”

Well, deer have the same thinking.

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Scent Control Is Key

Proper scent control starts at home! Clothes stored in a sealed container with a food or cover will lessen the human odor you leave while walking, sitting, working or scouting in the woods.

Tips To Remember

• Use food scents as an attractant as well as a cover scent.
• Use cover scents all year long
• While using scent in or around a scrapes, use multiple scents. Try using a buck and doe combo in your scrapes. Another trick is use a buck scent and dirt scent at the same time.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment with different scents, even in the off-season. Scent sites are very effective ways to scout shed heads after the season ends.

In Conclusion

Hunting scents surely have a time and place. Keep in mind that your camo, tree stand, bow, and hunting scents are all tools we as hunters can use to have more success in the field and possibly create opportunities you’ve never had before.

So, there’s a lot of discussion in the archery/bowhunting world surrounding shot angles.

When it comes to this hot topic, there are several subtopics like, “how to,” “where,” “which angle,” and “the best.”

Angles aren’t just important in Geometry class, they are “vitally” important when considering shot angles on deer and other game.

And, of course, there’s the chatter surrounding what arrow and broadhead to use (I have some not so humble opinions on that!)

But, very few shot placement discussions answer the only thing that matters… “Why do you shoot any shot angle?”  

Understanding “why” in regard to shot angles requires practical application.  So, keep reading and find out!

The “why” is important when contemplating shot placement

Just so you know, I drove my teachers crazy in school when we did math equations or wrote papers for English class. Over and over and over again I simply wanted to know… “why are we doing this!?” 

The answer was usually, “because that’s what we are doing today!”  (which still falls like an anvil on my reasoning capability.)

I just kept thinking “we’ve been doing that stuff the past few days and I am moderately proficient!”

But, “why” requires practical application.  So, keep reading and I’ll cover some of that stuff.

So, what is a quartering away shot anyway?

If a deer is facing away from you and you can see daylight between its front legs… it’s quartering away.

First, let’s make sure we all understand what “quartering away” looks like. Since a large number of bowhunters are after whitetail, that is the example I will use.

Yeah, Yeah, there can be severe quartering, or more toward broadside but quartering. Here’s the simple way to know IF THEY are quartering. Look at the front legs.  If you see daylight, it’s quartering.

Why the quartering away shot is best

Now that we have that settled, let’s discuss why this shot is the best shot angle.  I’ll set this up in order of operation.

They are looking away

Put simply, the act of drawing a bow requires movement.  The animal is looking away from you, so that puts you at a significant hunting advantage.

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12/25/2024 11:12 pm GMT

The ears are pointed the other way

So, there’s some debate on a quartering away shot being better because a deer’s hearing would be reduced with its ears pointing away as well. A deer’s ears are cupped, so theoretically, if you make noise, this position would in fact be better.

My example above, of course, has an ear rotated back, just to keep me honest. Anyway, the ears aren’t toward you and that can’t be a bad thing!

The lethal part of the critter, any critter, is exposed in a quartering away stance

In the quartering away stance, there are no shoulder blades or ribcage to hit in most cases, even from a treestand. But, the big “kicker” here is that the arrow is traveling forward. Physiologically, and FACTUALLY, the arrow will be moving toward the more lethal parts of the animal. 

So, a little anatomy lesson.. Below is a basic diagram of the broadside of a deer:

Now, you’re going to have to play along with me in this diagram and just imagine the deer is quartering away. 

Each “arrow” represents a shot angle (from top to bottom), i.e. a tree stand, low tree stand, or downhill and ground level.  That’s why I have the “arrows” as long as they are.  They represent a possible wound channel.

But, no matter if the arrow hits the rear of the lungs or the middle of the lungs, the arrow is constantly moving toward the heart, lungs, and major vessels.  This is key to WHY! 

So, why does this matter Fowler??

Well, I’ll tell you.

Keep things moving forward, folks

The most forward part of the animal, (where all 3 “arrows” intersect and I have placed the “broadhead” in the picture above), include much larger vessels and airways. 

Put simply, “it’s legit,” but it’s a bit more complex than that. So, here’s the redneck version… 

Your potential to cut “bigger stuff” increases exponentially every inch that the arrow moves forward (let’s hope you’re shooting an adult arrow and hitting the Earth after blowing through). 

Anyway, with the quartering away shot, Joe Bowhunter’s success percentage goes up and tracking distance goes down. WIN!

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12/26/2024 12:28 am GMT

The wound channel is long

It’s pretty simple: The wound channel of a quartering away shot is long.

I laugh when I see these “wound channel” measurements.  Mostly to justify a 3” wide mechanical penetrating only 9”.

Mathematically, sure, I get that. But come on man. Can’t we just shoot through a deer? 

Anyway, this next part does apply to “flappers” (mechanicals) and low penetration systems.  As you might know, I advocate for maximum penetration because that’s all an arrow can do… penetrate.

Because an arrow only gets one try, long wounds increase damage.

Let me step off the soapbox now and give 2 examples that will be pretty clear. 

So, let’s get down to my level.

I am a simple guy.  Below is a basic sponge. It’s an excellent lung example because it’s full of air and holes that represent blood airways and blood vessels, they’re longer than they are wide, and because, well, everybody has handled one.

A perfectly normal lung, with no damage, would feel very similar when compressed.

This sponge and tape measure help to illustrate wound channel length during a broadside shot.

And now, using the same methodology, a quartering away shot. The wound channel on a quartering away shot is longer than that of a broadside shot.

As you can see in the picture above, we get really long wounds with a quartering away shot.  Again, the larger vessels and heart are forward, so that’s improving per the “lethal part of the critter” discussed in #3 above. 

I’m not saying that broadside shots are bad, so stay on the rails here, this is a quartering away discussion! 

But, just look at that wound length. I think it’s pretty clear. 

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12/26/2024 01:33 am GMT

Why the longer wound channel matters

Now, another thing your favorite professional bowhunting guru doesn’t recognize is basic physiology. Now, to be fair, few of them have had a cadaver to help clarify why this works.

The largest percentage of vessels in the deer or other animal are going lengthwise, (i.e. front to back in the lung), and have a little wrapper around them. 

Imagine that sponge is inside a balloon but yet stays the same shape. The balloon is perfectly adhered to the outside of the sponge. This means all the air and blood have to enter and exit somehow.  That “somehow” is tubes. And all the tubes go in and out of the front of the lungs and then to the legs, neck, head, etc.

That’s a fact. Separate systems for oxygen and blood, with their own committed tubes, running ’round God’s cardiothoracic plumbing system. 

As an example, if you didn’t have pipes in your house, water would go everywhere. We have clean water pipes and plumbing pipes doing two separate things. But nope, the water comes in from the city, runs in a big pipe, then enters your house, in smaller pipes, then leaves. 

A quartering away shot is more devastating than a broadside shot because the the blood vessels are running to and from the front, which is where we want that arrow headed!

In a lung, the air and blood flow is lengthwise because the entry and exit is in the front. 

Just. Like. That.

Where to aim on a quartering away shot | Tic-Tac-Toe!

So, you can use this simple example for any shot angle. 

Imagine the board from tic, tac, toe. The front legs are the vertical posts.  Imagine a line running on the spine (we prefer not to hit that).  Then, another line on the brisket.

Now, shoot the middle of middle box.  On any angle, the middle box widens or narrows.  Shoot the middle of the middle box.

An imaginary tic-tac-toe board can help provide guidance on where to shoot when taking a quartering away shot.

Conclusion

Ok, I hate to be so brief and leave so soon, but it’s really that simple. Of all these concepts, the long wounds are the most important.

Arrows do NOT have any cavitation or expanded wound channel by sheer velocity and shock waves. 

Not one.

Not even the broadhead companies that claim to have cavitation, actually have cavitation.  

100% fake news!

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So, the best thing an arrow can do is travel as far as it can, cutting as many different airways and blood vessels as possible and then exit. 

Wait, that’s not the best thing, it is the ONLY thing!

One note, if you have dull broadheads, or just trust your brand to be hunting sharp and you don’t check them, that’s on you. Please take the responsibility to sharpen your broadheads!

The quartering away shot has many advantages. It’s certainly the best shot angle.

Now, if your arrow system fails, none of this matters, so…