Your whitetail hunting location may be as expansive as a national forest or as small as an uncle’s 40-acre woodlot. In either scenario, whitetails have a knack for slipping by just out of shooting range. Whether using a firearm or archery equipment, you do have options to lure whitetails closer. Consider setting a trap this season for your best opportunity at an ethical, in-your-face shot.
Road Construction
My first trapping undertaking occurred on a river bottom that exhibited both open sections of timber and dense stands of willows. Scouting quickly revealed that the bucks preferred traveling along the willow edge and then snaking into the jungle for refuge. Placing a treestand along or in the edge of the willows had to be the answer except for the number of trails, not to mention the shooting obstructions created by branches reaching for the sky.
Armed with a pruner and machete, I solved the problem. I renovated an existing trail near my treestand. I made it more inviting by chopping it wider for a length of 20 to 30 yards, beginning at the open timber and extending into the thicket. The wide trail served two purposes. First, it flashed like a nighttime “Eat at Joe’s” diner neon sign for a can’t-miss exit into the sanctuary. Second, the trimming cleared away many of the towering shooting limb obstructions.
Almost immediately deer began using the trail with regularity and on a weekend hunt in late November a mature whitetail buck with several broken points walked right into the trap. Since then, I’ve used the trail detour trick while manipulating cattail trails in Midwest wetlands, brush paths in Kansas woodlands and pathways coursing through Russian olive thickets in Montana.
Before trimming too much, be aware of public land regulations, and always gain approval from any landowners. Some trimming may require just removing a handful of branches to widen the path through dense cover, and others may call for the removal of saplings. Pruners handle all the minor trimming, and a machete clears any tall grass to tempt whitetails into the trap. And always maintain a scent-free presence by spraying all gear, clothing and footwear during trap setting.
Smells Inviting
You have a pretty good nose for smelling a bucket of fried chicken at a picnic or a pizza sizzling in the oven. Still, you have nothing on whitetails. They have larger nasal openings than you, more molecular scent-catching material and exponentially more olfactory scent receptors to analyze the air intake. You have about 5 million of these scent receptors called olfactory epithelium. Whitetails have nearly 300 million of them!
Biology class is over, but understand that smells equal everything in a whitetail’s world from food to security and to proliferation of the species. A scent trap has significant power to entice a whitetail closer due to its inquisitive nature when it comes to appealing smells. Today’s market of deer scents takes up entire aisles in sporting goods stores and ranges from buck to doe smells, plus curiosity scents with anise or even vanilla included.
To make scent trap setting simple, consider what is occurring in the woods at the time you set the trap. In November that’s easy for most of whitetail country. It’s the rut. Focus your scents on dominant buck scents, hints of estrus females, tarsal traces and combinations of all for scrape-noticing concoctions. On public areas where others may be wafting gallons of scent around the woods, switching to a simple smell of acorns or sweet corn in bottled form could do the trick.
The success of any scent trap relies on perfect dissemination of the scent. Mother Nature helps with a good breeze, but your scent needs to be positioned upwind of where you wish to lure a whitetail into a shooting lane. Place it only a few feet upwind or directly adjacent to a trail as too far off could lure a deer into difficult shots. Except for mock scrape scents, scents should be hung or sprayed at nose level. Remember that. Make them run into it. Scent that is broadcast too high may drift over a deer, and I often see deer walk right over scent on the ground unless a scrape grabs their attention.
Use your hunting app (huntstand.com) to determine wind values for the day and either mist, hang a wick or refresh a scrape with appropriate scent. Lastly, study all regulations as some states and provinces prohibit the use of real scent. Fortunately, many scent manufacturers offer synthetic versions (wildlife.com) that are even more powerful than the original brew.
Who’s That?
The first two traps play to a wide field including centerfire, muzzleloader, crossbow and archery hunters. This next one has more focus on the arrow flingers. It centers on the use of a decoy. In very controlled settings of highly managed properties, you could use a decoy during firearm season, but use discretion. In any season, carry the decoy wrapped in blaze orange for safety’s sake.
For the arrow crowd, decoys provide a visual that November deer have a difficult time snubbing. A whitetail buck’s entire existence during the rut is focused on mingling and propagating. They should take your traffic detour or follow the scent particles drifting on the wind. However, when they see a member of their species it’s practically hopeless for them to ignore the chance to check for breeding opportunities.
Buck decoys (montanadecoy.com) work wonders in the early, pre-rut portion of the rut as bucks continue setting the pecking order. Place your decoy upwind and broadside for a perfect trap. Never set it too far away; 20 yards is ideal, as any buck walking into the trap will be laser focused on the deer, not its peripheral surroundings. Later in the rut you can continue with a buck decoy or switch to a doe decoy as breeding commences. Place the doe decoy upwind as well, and facing quartering-away. Any buck will approach it from behind and this provides you a quartering-away shot.
Scents, tail wagger kits (tail-wagger.com) and positioning a buck’s ears in the laid-back position all add to the realism of decoys. Field-edge setups work well to bring a deer across a field or closer along an edge. Nevertheless, I’ve had my best luck with traps set in a shooting lane surrounded by thick timber. Having the decoy just peeking from cover imitates the character of breeding deer hiding out from the competition.
Nobody has handed me a shooting award yet for firearm or archery skills. That’s why I work to secure the closest shot possible. Whitetail traps work for me.
