2009 Update

It has been a while since I updated this review and it is long over due. I have been using the Gland and Rutt since the first review we did back in 2001.Each year I have been experiencing a lot of deer action, with both bucks and does following my tracks after I put a couple drops on my boots. I have started using a home made decoy and i always give it a shot of gland and Rutt when I set it out. The reactoins of the deer when they come across "Buckie is quite amusing, and comical when they become agressive to him.  This fall I am out of scents and i am not experiencing the great success that I have become used to. I have not seen deer following my tracks, and they are not wanting to attack the decoy any more.

This is the first time I have not had deer follow my footprints in the snow.It is also the first year I am out of Buck fever scents.

 The original review is still valid, and if anything it is an understatement.

 I will not try to re-write it , but instead I will add a few success photos of more deer that I have taken wearing and using the Buck Fever  scents. So far this year I am without a photo, but I am also out of scents.

 

When Pete brought over the SWISS MILITARY BOW to the range, I was amazed how the lamanations flowed from the riser to the limbs. When we started shooting it, there was no hand shock and was whisper quiet. I set the bow up with 29” internally

weighted Carbon Epic 400 arrows, weighting 650 grains tipped with a two blade Magnus broadhead. At my draw length the bow was pushing them out at 165 feet per second for 39 foot pounds kinetic energy. I could not wait to try it out this hunting season.

I was not able to do any serious hunting till November. I managed to get a couple days off work to go in late season elk. In five days, I hiked over 100 kms looking for a big bull elk. I saw elk ever day but only one bull. He would not come closer then 50 yards. I had dozens of cow elk at under 10 yards but my tag was only good for bulls.

Finally, on Saturday November 22, my luck turned. The problem was that it was -30 degrees Celsius. I arrived at my hunting spot two hours before daylight since it takes 1 ½ hours to get to the fields where the elk are feeding during the night. I set up on their trails and try to ambush them as they walk to there bedding areas. Just as the sun was coming up two cow elk came down the trail and past by me at 7 yards. I was hoping that a bull would be following them so I sat for another two hours with out any more action.

My toes and fingers were frozen solid. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to pull the bow back. I had to get moving and warm up so I started still hunting my way back to my truck. I stopped to call every 500 yards with my buck grunt call and doe bleat. On the fifth set up, I found a swamp that was full of tracks. I set up on a log that was laying between two of the main trails and started calling. About five minutes later, I heard something walking through the bushes to my right. I saw patches of brown moving through the white limbs. When the deer crossed my trail, he smelt the Buck Fever Synthetics sent that I dripped on my boots, put his nose down and walked in my direction. I saw that it was a nice 4x4 whitetail buck. I turned my body to the right so I could get a better broadside shot. The buck walked right pass me at 5 yards with his nose to the ground. When he was quartering away, I came to full draw and released my arrow. The arrow passed completely though the buck and he ran though the swamp and out of sight. I would like to say it was a perfect heart shot but it wasn’t. It looked like the arrow might of hit the liver and maybe the far lung.

It took 30 minutes to find the arrow in the long swamp grass and snow. The arrow had snow frozen on the blood so there was no clues on what kind of hit. I waited another 45 minutes before I started to track down the wounded buck. There was a consistent blood trail but after 300 yards I started to get worried that it might not have been a fatal hit. I started to go slower with an arrow ready just in case I jumped the buck at close range. A hundred yards later I finally found the buck in the middle of the trail. The Magnus broadhead had hit the last rib going in and exited the back of the right lung. After pictures I still had to drag the buck 2 ½ kms out of the bush to my truck. Even at -30 degrees Celsius the Merlin Swiss Military Bow performed flawless and was a treat to carry all those miles.

SHANNON KUZIK

"A 5 X 5 WHITETAIL FALLS TO THE SMB"



November 28, only two days left of the 2003 hunting season, I had to get out to one of my favourite tree stands in search of whitetail and moose. On the way to my tree stand, I put a couple of drops of Buck Fever Synthetics scents on my boots and a scent pad 10 yards from my tree stand. When there was enough light to see, I called a couple of times on my grunt call and doe bleat. About 15 minutes later, I saw a whitetail doe walking down the trail I had walked in on. The doe came in to 10 yards and started to lick the sent pad. When she turned broad side, I came to full draw, released my arrow and missed just under her chest. I thought how could I miss at only 10 yards but I guess buck fever works with does too.

About 45 minutes later, I noticed movement to the west. Looking through my binoculars, I saw a 30 inch bull moose walking through the bush. I watch him bed down in a willow flat about 400 yards away. If he would stay bedded there till noon, I would climb down out of my tree stand and put a stalk on him.

Just as I was sitting back down, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. 125 yards away, a buck was looking in my direction. Looking through my binoculars, I saw he was a 140 class 5x5. I grunted at him and he started to walk slowly in my direction, taking his time, smelling every branch he walked by. A couple of doe bleats and he picked up the pace. I grabbed my bow and got ready for the shot. He was going to walk on the right hand side of my tree stand so I had to turn and face the tree. At 15 yards he turned 90 degrees and started to walk behind the tree. I came to full draw and released the arrow right over his back. The buck did not react or run off, he just kept walking. By the time I pulled another arrow out of my bow quiver and put it on the string, the buck was standing over my first arrow and smelling the scent pad hanging on a branch. I came to full draw, anchored and released in one fluid motion. The arrow flew true, entering the back of the rib cage and punched though the far shoulder. The buck jumped and ran down the hill 50 yards before he expired. I couldn’t stop my right leg from shaking; my adrenaline was pumping from all the action. After the pictures and field dressing, I found that the arrow had gone through a rib on the way in and completely through the shoulder blade, stopping on the hide.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get my bull elk or moose this year but I know the Swiss Military Bow would have no problem penetrating any big animal. It was a pleasure hunting with this bow this year. Merlin put a lot of pride and thought into building this bow. I know you would enjoy shooting one too.

SHANNON KUZIK



Due to space limitations I will show you a few pictures now of some other game we took in 2003 while using BUCK FEVER SYNTHETICS. In almost every case the animals seemed to be traching us or they did not seem be alarmed when they should have smelled us.




Pat ward {first bow kill} & "The Manitoba Crew"


"2001 GEAR REVIEW"


{SEE THE 2002 REVIEWS BELOW} I received a sample package of BUCK FEVER SCENTS to test this fall after making some inquires about their products. As the season was well underway the testing began immediately with some hastily made mock scrapes in the areas that I had been hunting. I was surprised to find that these scrapes were being visited by deer within a week of being made. This initial test had a 50% visitation by the local deer. Not all of the mock scrapes were in ideal locations, however the results were promising.

As archery season was in mid swing I was out nearly every day in a quest for moose and whitetails, along with a trip for mule deer in southern Alberta. I began using the "PRE/POST RUT" scent as a cover scent and applied it to the soles of my boots after a spray down with "VANISHING HUNTER” before getting dressed to hunt. At first it seemed coincidental that I was jumping a lot of deer on my way back to the vehicle after some short walks. I began to pay more attention to the times I used the scents and the number of encounters I was having. I normally see a lot of deer and pay attention to the wind direction while hunting but as you know the wind shifts and you must also return to the place where you started.

By now the rut had begun in Alberta and I had setup a couple of blinds near established trails that are used year after year. I made a couple of mock scrapes as directed on the bottles and now used the "rut” scent in each, followed by a spray of "gland " on the overhanging branches. Deer came in readily each night, and the scrapes were growing. I then began spraying the "gland” scent on other branches near the scrapes and found that each branch that was sprayed along the trail soon had a scrape made by the visiting deer. This stuff seems to be working!

I had also started putting a small amount of gland spray around the blind as a cover scent and had deer trailing through my blind while I was away at night, which was evident by the tracks on the ground. Several times I failed to capitalize on incoming deer but that’s bow hunting. I did however manage to take 2 whitetails and a mule deer while wearing the scents for cover scent. One of these came in downwind of me returned 3 times to a call. It should have smelled me and fled but it didn’t. I began to notice that I was able to frequently stalk within bow range without alerting deer which were sometimes downwind of me. Although they did not always present themselves for a shot the fact that I was able to close the distances in unfavorable conditions indicated that something was holding their attention.

I was impressed and sent a sample of the remaining "PRE/POST RUT","VANISHING HUNTER" AND "GLAND" scent to my brother in Manitoba to try. Three days later he called to say the box had arrived and he would let me know if they had any success. The next night the phone rang, it was Doug with news that on the first day they had taken 2 bucks, both had come in downwind to within 20 yards. They had been using the scents as an attractant in front of their blinds and had used the "gland" spray as a cover scent. Both Doug and his partner Joe had sprayed themselves with "VANISHING HUNTER" and had used the "GLAND "SPRAY AS A COVER SCENT.

I am impressed with the results I have had with these products and highly recommend them. Hopefully next year I will have some supplies prior to the season opening and a better chance to put them to the test of conditioning the deer’s behavior to visit the mock scrapes on a regular basis and with any luck have more success in tagging one of the wall hanger's that slipped by this year.



Pete Ward:

"WELCOME TO MY OUTDOORS WORLD"




PETE 2001



BRIAN AND DOUG 2001



DOUG 2001



DARCY JOE DOUG 2001



"2002 ANOTHER GREAT YEAR THANKS TO HAWGS SCENTS"


PETE WARD 2002 "8 POINT"


DOUG WARD 2002 "8 POINT"


JOE MCNEIL/DARCY WILTON/DOUG WARD 2002
"10 POINT" "8 POINT" "8POINT"

The 2002 season was a complete success thanks to our good friends at "BUCK FEVER SYNTHETICS". By using VANISHING HUNTER to eliminate our scents and a light mist of BF GLAND as a cover scent we all experienced deer approaching our mock-scrapes down wind of us again this year. They seem to be drawn to the scrapes and scent trails we made without paying attention to the human scents that must be present.

My buck this year was taken during the Rut in mid November at 30 yards as he crossed a trail downwind of me. He never reacted to my presence at all as he stopped to check out what he thought was another deer's scrape. This is the second year that I have used HAWGS SCENTS and I am now a firm believer in their ability to fool a wary whitetail. During the season again this year I had the opportunity to watch Deer and noose downwind at close range without them showing signs of concern. One evening while sitting in a ground blind that I hastily threw together I had a bull moose walk within 15 feet of the blind. He approached from down wind, following the trail I had just walked along. ether it was the scent trail left from my boots or the lack of human scent I am not sure. What seemed to be constant was that I always put some rut or pre/post rut on the soles of my boots before going out hunting and I frequently had animals walking along the same trails surprising me from behind. I set up mock scrapes and at least 60 percent of the time they were visited by bucks, unfortunately a lot of those visits were at night, which was evident from the fresh tracks in the mock scrapes in the morning.

I was unable to make the trip to Manitoba this year so I was relying on My brothers party to test the samples I had sent to him.Their results were again very good and they report to me that with the use of BUCK FEVER SYNTHETICS they again had bucks and does frequently coming in from downwind and visiting the scrapes that they made.

Joe Mcneil, was one of the party from Manitoba that used these products again this year.Joe had setup scrapes along known trails and sprayed himself with VANISHING HUNTER, followed by a light spray of BF GLAND as a cover scent.During the season he had oportunity to watch large numbers of bucks and does aproach his scrapes and rubs from all wind directions.The deer would sometimes walk within 15 feet,seemingly unaware of his presense and go the scrape that he had made.Finaly a "keeper" as he puts it did the same thing and now is cut wraped and frozen.

I will copy the e-mail I received from Darcy describing his experience with these scents and scent eleminators.

Darcy writes

Pete

"I have to admit that I was a little sceptical about all these scent blocking products and due to my work schedule this year, I never got a chance to make up any scrapes after getting the bottles of Buck Fever Synthetics, On the Saturday before the last week of rifle season we tried a good old fashion deer drive down in my pasture. A big buck was seen sneaking out before the point men were set up. After the drive Doug said he had seen a huge rub with fresh shavings under it and a nice big scrape beside it . The next morning I followed Doug's Tracks back and found the scrape . I Poured some BF-Rut in the scrape and sprayed some BF-Gland on the tree with the rub. Again due to work I never got back until Wednesday and only had about an hour and a half that I could hunt.

I sprayed myself down with vanishing hunter and went to check the scrape. Wow there were four more scrapes around it. I walked back to a natural blind and set up for my short hunt. I had only made one series of calls on my doe bleat and instantly saw movement. Four Does came out on the trail, past the scrape and walked right down my path, less than five minutes after I had walked on it. One stopped no more than fifteen feet from me and browsed for a few minutes before wandering off .

I went out again on Friday the second last day of the season but never made it to the scrape. A small buck walked straight up wind Towards me and I put my tag on him. I told Doug about the activity at the scrape while we skinned my deer, and he decided to go to it that afternoon.

He had sprinkled a little BF-Rut on his boots in the morning and was surprised to find a nice buck following him up his trail towards the scrape. A well placed shot, finished off Doug's season and made a firm believer out of Doug and I that these scent's really work. You can bet I will be busy making scrapes and using Vanishing Hunter In archery season this year when I have more time to see just how good these products really are."

Darcy Wilton

A important feature of the HAWGS SCENTS is that they are TOTALY SYNTHETIC. With all the problems with CWD and the banning of any scents that contain urine or deer glands in Manitoba and other provinces and states you can be assured that you are not contributing to the spread of diseases like CWD when you use BUCK FEVER SYNTHETIC SCENTS.[HAWGS].

During the past 2 years we all have had great success while using the BUCK FEVER SYNTHETICS "HAWGS" PRODUCTS. I have found these scents to be excellent attractor scents as well as superb cover scents. Again this year I will give these my highest recommendations.

"HAWGS" WORKS.



Pete Ward
"welcome to my outdoor world"