Best regards,

Christopher L. Slike

Carlisle, PA"

sittingbull - posted on Archery Talk Forums Click here to view post

There will always be nay sayers and I'm no one to anyone here..not a frequent poster to this website or debater of arguments, so I don't blame you for questioning me about my success.

I have hunted for deer for over 30 yrs, though...if that counts for anything?

From mid Oct to the end of Oct, I was definitely scented by one nice buck and very well may have been scented by the dominate buck in the area. He had come within 20 yds of my stand, from down wind, responding to my bleat call, but refused to come out of the corn and slipped away. He sensed or smelled that something was just not right.

I realized if I was going to get a shot at this buck, I needed something to bring him closer.

Breaking a rule I had established for myself some 5 yrs ago when I had concluded that the scents available were not consistent in quality or ingredients, from one bottle to the next...sometimes they worked...sometimes they didn't work. I stopped using all commercial scents and concentrated on my own methods of covering my scent.

But I needed something to bring that buck closer...I started by doing a Archery Talk search of scents.

That is how I came across this thread and began to digest the information. The StoneyCreek information interested me so I decided I would talk to the fella who posted the information. What John (I think that's his name) said made a lot of hunter sense to me...using a scent directly from the doe or buck and shipped under cooled conditions and kept fresh in your frig until ready to use.

I ordered the scents on Nov 30, they were shipped on the 31st and I received them on afternoon of Nov 1 and used them that evening.

I used the doe pee scent on every hunt..laying down scent trail on my way to my stand. I did doctor a mock scrape I had made near my stand with the doe in estrus scent and the buck scent a couple of times.

My scent trails were through a huge standing cornfield that bordered the woods where my stand was located. I had made a path down one of the wider cornrows and used that one path in and out each time I hunted this stand.

I used this same stand last season to take a large nine point buck at 30 yds of my stand and downwind of me.

The biggest difference between this year and last, the field was standing corn now and not stubble like last season. To get a shot, I had to get the deer closer to the edge of the woods and in the open which was 10-15 yds from my stand.

Where this stand is located, I had to be scent free as the wind swirled and the deer traveled in all directions as one major trail was 30 yds down wind of the prevailing winds for our part of the country. I had been successful with my own homemade methods of covering my scent and was convinced that I could do it again this season.

I had several deer interact with the scent trail I laid down through the cornfield on my way to my stand. I had deer track the scent through the corn to my stand...I had a decent 8 point buck intersect the scent trail 10 yds from my stand and back track it out into the corn.

After laying my scent trails, I hung the drag on a small bush 5 yds from my stand to act as a cover scent.

IMO, the doe pee works great to lay down a scent trail to attract deer and to cover ones scent when entering the stand. It also worked great as a cover scent in the area of my stand. Not once did I have any of the deer that smelled the scent raise their tails, act alarmed or scared in anyway..not one snort.

It's my opinion, the deer acted as if it was just another deer in the area...but a deer they were not familiar with. There was enough interest in the doe pee to get deer to follow the scent. I had bucks, mature does, immature bucks and immature does interact with the scent, and the story was the same for all of them...relaxed, unalarmed when smelling the StoneyCreek scents.

I used the doe in estrus scent and the buck scent in a mock scrape I made near my stand and not one time did a deer spook or raise their tail. I only used the buck scent and doe in estrus scent a couple of times.

I did have a buck hit the mock scrape during the night after I doctored it in the evening and hunted the stand again the next morning. He had pawed the dirt and left his calling card, which was a nice sized hove print.

I did not get a visual view of a bucks response to the Buck and doe in estrus lure so my experience with each is limited. I do know that deer that came into contact or near the smell of each scent did not spook or become alerted at the smell and a buck did respond and freshen the scrape during the night.

I only had one week to use the scents and IMO, they worked for me each time. The more interaction I witnessed the more confident and relaxed I became as a hunter. I became comfortable knowing the deer were not going to spook and would remain relaxed while very close to my stand, even when down wind of me.

On the morning of Nov. 7th, I looked back to the west and there he was, standing a couple of rows into the corn, facing my tree but gazing into the woods..15 yds away...NO SHOT...

I believe he was responding to my bleat and buck grunt calls I had made just minutes before.

Unlike 3 weeks ago, when I called this buck to within 20 yds of my stand on an evening hunt...this time,he was relaxed and within bow range. Where he was standing, the mock scrape was behind the buck and scent trail I laid down coming into my stand that morning was just a few yards in front of the buck.

He moved toward the scent trail, crossing it, stopping to drop his head and smell, but he's quartering toward me...NO SHOT. He again moved, briefly giving me a broadside but not long enough to take the shot. Now he's standing behind some tree limbs and some brush at the edge of the cornfield and nearly down wind of the scent drag I had placed on a bush just a few yards away.

The buck turned around and took a step back toward the scent trail and the drag hanging on the bush. A couple of more steps and he will be in an opening, so I slowly draw, holding for a few seconds, the buck started walking and entered the opening and everything went into automatic.

The buck ran 40 yds stopped, wobbled and dropped over dead...my season was over.

The buck had 9 points on one side and 5 points on the other side with an 18" inside spread...non typical on one side and typical on the other.

Was it the Stoney Creek scents that made a difference or played a part in getting this buck close and relaxed?....I have little doubt in my mind.

Stoney Creek scents worked for me...you might want to give them a try if your in the market for deer scents...sittingbull

jbp - posted on Archery Talk Forums Click here to view post

I ordered my SureDraw hunters pak on Friday,Oct. 26 and received it on Thursday, Nov. 1. I ordered it to carry with me up to Virginia to finish the archery season on Friday and open the muzzleloader season on Saturday.

This is how my archery hunt turned out. I put the Maximum Draw on my boots to walk in to my stand location. At my stand location, I sprinkled out some Total Draw and Buck Draw to get the scent out as much as I could. The wind was blowing the scent into a bottom. About 30 minutes into the hunt, I noticed a 6 pt. buck coming out of the bottom and heading straight for the path I walked in on. When he hit the path, he put his nose on the ground and started licking the leaves and his nose. He started walking down the path heading straight to me. When he got to the area where the Total Draw and Buck Draw had been put out, he put his tail up in the air and started looking. He then turned right in my tracks and started walking to my tree. I stuck him with my Desert Stryker at less than 5 yds. from the base of the tree I was in. I put the dot right between his left shoulder and spine. The 100 gr. NAP Spitfire did the rest. I heard him crash less than 50 yds away. I was pumped!!!

Saturday morning. Opening day of muzzleloader season. At first light, I put some Maximum Draw on my boots again as I walked into the area I was hunting. About 10 minutes into my hunt, I saw a long spike buck. I let him go hoping to see something bigger. About 20 minutes into my hunt, a nice 8 pt. come running down my tracks with his nostrils flared and licking his nose. He stopped about 30 yds. from me when he ran by where I had made a turn. Perfect broadside shot, he fell in his tracks.

To add to my story, I came back home on Saturday afternoon, but I gave my hunting buddy some of the Maximum Draw and we soaked some Total Draw on a scent wick. Right before dark, his son shot a 4 pt. who came in to the scent wick.

As soon as my hunting buddy's wife e-mails me the pictures of my bucks, I will add them to this post.