“One of the best deer hunters I knew was named Rusty Priest. Most knew him as “Uncle Rusty” and he taught me a few valuable lessons about deer hunting, including covering scent and letting the young bucks walk. Before the shelves at your local sporting shops had cover up scents, old time hunters had to create a secret potion of their own. Uncle Rusty’s was one part vanilla extract to eight parts water applied with a spray bottle inside and out of the hat, on the outside of boots and clothes. On Dec. 28, 2021, it was a warm morning in Saint Francisville with a south wind, so I took a stand looking into a field east, so everything east and south should provide good opportunity of not being detected in those directions. At 7:15 a nice looking young 8-point walked south of me heading west looking for some lonely does. The morning went on and at 8:30 I hadn’t seen any further activity. Then appears this mature 8-point standing dead down wind of my stand to the north. He made it out of the woods about 125 yards from my stand and allowed for a perfect broad side shot. The deer had been running pretty good and appears to have lost some body weight, weighing in at 167 pounds and carrying a 17-inch inside spread rack. Thanks for the tips “Uncle Rusty”. May you Rest In Peace!
-David Young