just got permission to hunt a strech of hardwoods laced with horse trails.
the landowners wife owns a tackshop and lets people ride on the land so there is hardley a time when you dont see shoe marks on the trails or muffins.
what do you think the effect of these horses and rides on the deer population?
what about the horse smell.
would the deer see this odor as alarming or as natural?
there has probably been people riding the trils for 10 years.
yesterday i found a decent rub line that actually crossed a trail that had shoeprints in it and a really good rub about 15 yards from a horse muffin that was recent.

I don't know why you would be concerned. Deer could care less - they are well acclimated to them if they have been doing this for months, never mind years.

Brent

I have read that horses wre good for hunting. If they have been doing it that long you won't have a problem!

im wondering if i should carry some hunting cloths over to my buddies stable and hang them up around the horses to get smelly.

Hunters are pretty much suckers for the scent issue.

You cannot mask scents. If you could, a drug or bomb dog would be lost in an airport. A coyote could never track down a jackrabbit, and a komodo dragon would starve to death.

Brent

The deer are in our pastures with our horses all the time, they don't give them a second look. And, yes, using a little horse "perfume" on your boots or hunting clothes when hunting where horses are found is a great idea, and it works also with cow flop where the cattle haven't been taken out of a boundary for very long before you hunt. We use it and it works, the only "masking scent" I've ever had that really works, and I've tried them all for the magazines.

i figured since they are hunter stupid and 99 out of 100 times they come into contact with the human scent they also comeinto contact with the horse smell then i can not mask my scent but mix it with the horse smell to put them in a calmer state.

I have been on a horse in a National forest in Idaho and had a buck stand less than 30 yards and away watch us ride past. There was no alarm nor interest in us and I assume this would be true as long as we didn't make any sudden moves or turn in his direction.

quote:

Originally posted by KSTEPHENS:
i figured since they are hunter stupid and 99 out of 100 times they come into contact with the human scent they also comeinto contact with the horse smell then i can not mask my scent but mix it with the horse smell to put them in a calmer state.

That sounds reasonable enough to me. Could just toss a few muffins in a bag to open on the stand. Step in a few piles on the way in. That sort of thing. Makes sense anyway.

Brent

quote:

Originally posted by Brent:

quote:

Originally posted by KSTEPHENS:
i figured since they are hunter stupid and 99 out of 100 times they come into contact with the human scent they also comeinto contact with the horse smell then i can not mask my scent but mix it with the horse smell to put them in a calmer state.

That sounds reasonable enough to me. Could just toss a few muffins in a bag to open on the stand. Step in a few piles on the way in. That sort of thing. Makes sense anyway.

Brent

i,v been stepping in piles here for weeks.

hi kstephens

i use my horses all the time to check up on the deer in the area, its the best way to get in at axe chopping range.
try to get on a horse and go see the deer up close, get of the horse and shoot the deer you want. as easy as that.

peter

This is a perfect situation for you. The deer are probably pretty tame and used to human scent also. Obviously these horses aren't riding themselves down these trails.

quote:

i figured since they are hunter stupid and 99 out of 100 times they come into contact with the human scent they also comeinto contact with the horse smell then i can not mask my scent but mix it with the horse smell to put them in a calmer state.

I believe that over a large part of the U.S., white tails are never completely out of sight/sound/or smell of humans.

You will probably do good just going in and hunting as you normally would and letting yourself sort of blend in with the way things are on that particular property. JMO.

in this are people just dont hunt. in fact there used to be a law on the books that gave horse riders authority to ride through peoples private property without permission. it dates back to the fox hunts that used to common in that area.
last sat evening. i heard 2 shots from miles away. 40 miles west of there a buddy who was hunting said the woods sounded like Iraq. the deer prossesers are so full they have stopped taking deer.
yesterday i saw a decent doe standing under a red oak on the side road eating acorns. she looked at us as we walked to the truck and got in and drove away.
they dont care about people i guess.
they have plenty of food and plenty of water. they have pastures, thickets and bottoms. its really like a sanctuary for them.

As a rider, I would add a little cautionary note to what has been said. If you take others with you be sure that they know to not shoot unless they are sure it is not a horse and rider. I am suprized each year with the horses shot for deer. Also the riders should be aware of the hunters so when you let go with that .308, the horse does not jump out from under them. Horses and deer get along just fine and we often see them together.
Judge Sharpe

since we wont be killing any does we just shoot ones with antlers and hope for the best, ok?

As a boy I grew up in an area where there were "bridle trails" that ran through deer woods. Also there were fox hunt clubs (horseback riding to hounds). The deer could'nt have cared less.(From our house we could see deer on the edge of the woods about 300 yards away licking at cattle salt licks in a high field -and distinctly hear the hounds in the woods on a fox hunt -and the deer paying no attention. (IN those days there was no foxhunting with dogs allowed during deer season) (BTW, I'm with Brent on this overselling of the "scent issue". The only scent I ever noticed that deer were repelled by was gasoline/motor oil. There's a multimillion dollar industry in selling hunters on the virtues of using fox urine and whatever on their boots. I'll pass on that -even if I probably lost a shot at some 8 pointer in love with fox piss)

For what it is worth I've been riding since before I started school and I'm looking a retiring in the next couple years. When mounted you can ride up to damn near any wild game you want to,deer ,elk and even moose and they pay very little attention to you. Dismount and they recognize a human pretty quick and are making tracks like right now!

I just finished a mule deer hunt north of Ely. We saw lots and lots of deer up there at a pretty high elevation. I was seeing lots of horse droppings too thinking are hunters riding this area and was told there are wild horses up there. I never saw one but there was ample evidence of them.

Works well with a mountain bike too. Deer don't become alarmed at anything except humans and hogs.

Alan