This is the most dangerous thing a hunter does

This story was originally published in August 2024.

As most deer hunters learn, their prey is blessed with an almost uncanny danger detection system comprising hearing, vision and an acute sense of smell.

Experts can differ on which of these senses the deer most rely on. When weather conditions are favorable, most agree that a deer’s olfactory mechanism trumps vision and hearing.

This is why die-hard deer hunters will go to impossible extremes to avoid being picked up by a deer’s keen nose. We play the wind. We learn about thermals. We bathe with special soap, or we spray our hunting togs with an earthen scent.

And many of us climb up, way up, in trees to get our scent off the ground. We are the intrepid tree stand deer hunters.

In more than 50 years of tree stand hunting, I have neve