How far can a deer smell you?

[fairchaser]

How far do you think a deer can smell you in ideal conditions where you hunt?

All of us have had deer dead down wind at close range who never smelled us. This anomaly leads us to think we can get away with more than we may think. As our scent fans out to an ever increasing cone, it covers a larger and larger area. Somewhere downwind, a deer smells us!

They may not react if we are far enough away but they will be aware and keeps their other senses focused.

The area I hunt is typically flat with only subtle changes in elevation broken up by creeks and vegetation like pine forests and hardwoods.

In ideal conditions, I would think deer could smell and would be on alert 1/2 mile.

If you think about this, it really dictates everything about where you park, how you approach and where you hunt.

 

[knightrider]

I know for a fact ive had deer within 50 yards down wind that my scent went over top off and had deer near half a mile across the river blowing at me

 

[Rakkin6]

I may be the wrong person to answer this because I am super anal retentive about scent. But I think it depends on if you take precautions and how used to human scent they are. But if the wind is blowing straight downwind to them and you haven't taken any precautions I would guess a few hundred yards. I hunt about 25' up in hopes that my scent stays above them. It seems that I get busted more from movement than anything. Especially when the squirrels are super active lol.

 

[deerhunter10]

A long ways. How far I don't know if anyone truly knows that number. The thing is, people think if a deer smells them they blow and make a scene. When most deer never ever let know.

It's been said by several people before and it's true there's deer that worry about smelling you and there's deer that don't. But you can't fool them down wind it's just a fact. Thermals may help you and terrain but if they get a whiff it's the the deer that determines how wierded out they are.

 

[JJ3]

How would you define ideal conditions (from the deer's nose)?

I'm thinking for a deer that a steady 8 - 10 mph wind from a fixed constant direction probably carries scent the farthest?

We see fewer deer in stronger winds like 15 - 20 mph and the ones we see are usually at first or last light — just before or after legal. I've always felt this was because a deer's primary senses are smell and hearing and on very windy, gusty days neither are reliable. In high winds that scent field will get blown apart and the cone wider very fast with more mixing currents that happen as winds hit trees, hills, etc.

We sit fields a lot. I know that with an 8 - 10 mph wind directly at my back, if a deer crosses 100 - 200 yards out they will likely catch the scent. They may just pause, push their nose in the air, turn and look to the source. If they don't like what they smell, besides the normal reaction if head bob, and stamping, they will often and turn and go with the wind as they decide to trot off. But I had a number of times this year where after detecting a smell that stopped them, they would resume their path. Rarely do they outright bolt into a full speed getaway when they hit the scent line. They almost always stop and check it out.

Lower winds are more problematic as a hunter because they tend not to be steady and it's hard to project exactly where downwind is. And your scent probably stays more concentrated at lower wind speeds.

But where we hunt there is probably some level of human scent around most of the time — depending on direction there are houses or people within 1/2 - 1 mile in almost all directions.

 

[useyourbow]

I had an occasion in Kentucky while hunting the corner of a cut corn field where I witnessed a big nanny doe step out into the corn field down wind at no less than 400 yards. She threw her head up, tested the wind, turned and leaped back into the woods.