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Hunting Cover Scent – Types and Uses

Hunting cover scent comes in a dizzying array of types and smells. It can be confusing to say the least. I am going to try to go over the varying types and how they are best used. While I have formulated some excellent cover scents, they do tend to be what I personally favor. That doesn’t discredit the other types available so I will try to keep my bias level down.

The first type of cover scent mimics the actual animal you are hunting. This can simply be using a standard real or synthetic urine product, or something designed to be used more to cover your scent, like the popular Ever Calm. These types of cover scents are used to make you smell like the deer you are hunting. While many of these products’ main use is as an attractant, they do double as an effective cover scent. However, DO NOT put estrus or other rut scents on your body. Deer can be unpredictable in their reaction to such scents. One of our attractants that also makes a great cover scent is Lucky 7 Synthescent Whitetail Deer TRAX. Its stout odor effectively covers human scent when used near your stand.

The second type of cover scent mimics another animal in the woods. There are fox urines, raccoon scents and even skunk scent. This covers your odor with one that the deer encounter nearly everyday and will not spook them. The one I take exception with is skunk. Why does a skunk spray? Because they are scared. I used to use this when I was a kid, and I saw more than one deer become a bit nervous when detecting it. I no longer use it. Your experience may vary.

The next type of hunting cover scent is one that smells like a food source to the deer. There are a broad range of natural food scents that work such as acorn, apple and persimmon among others. Another version of food cover scent are items you would not expect in the woods, but deer truly seem to love them, such as vanilla. These scents not only cover your odor, but act as attractants as well. Our Lucky 7 Cover Scent and Spray Attractant products are good examples of these and perform extremely well. These scents are also not the best to spray directly on your person, especially if bears frequent the area. You want to cover your scent so deer don’t know you are there, not become a Sunday Buffet for wildlife.

The last type of cover scents I will talk about are the ones that make your smell blend in with the natural environment. These would include dirt, cedar, pine and other natural non-food environments. Some, like dirt are universal. However, a pine scent may not hide you in an oak woods. It may instead alert deer to your presence. Choose something that is natural to your environment. Our Lucky 7 Premium Cover Scents offer a couple great choices to hide your odor.

These cover scent sprays and sticks can help you harvest more deer by hiding you from their noses. However, they are not a cure-all; you must also try to eliminate your odor. Using ozone on your clothes, scent free detergents and scent free deodorants will help reduce your smell. So will a good scent killer spray. Our favorite is Scent Eradicator by Whitetail Alchemy. It has several modes of action, fights a broad range of odors and works when dry. It really reduces the odor of your clothes and gear.

There are other important aspects to scent control. Play the wind. Place your stand higher in the tree. Don’t dress so that you overheat. But, used correctly,  great cover scents and scent elimination sprays can fill in the gaps, giving you a better chance to stay invisible to a buck’s nose and allow you to harvest your trophy.

Huntin Cover Scent

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