I Am Not Much of a Conspiracy Theorist, BUT...

...maybe there is something to at least some of these conspiracy theories after all. Nope, I am not talking about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. What I am talking about is not quite as evil as that but certainly may go a long way to explain something that has been happening in my life over the past several years during the fall season. As you probably are aware, if you read this blog at all, I like to go hunting when I can, especially for whitetail deer. That regardless of the fact that for about the last 7 or so years, the deer where I hunt just laughed whenever they realized it was me in the forest. Yes, that means I have not bagged one in too long a time. I have oft times wondered, relative to me not bagging one each season, things like:

Is it that there are not that many deer where I hunt? Nah, it can't be, there is too much sign of them.

Perhaps that I did not have a doe permit and the antler size restrictions have affected my ability to bag one but alas I have not seen that many bucks to begin with.

Or could it be that I am doing something wrong and giving away myself, as I hunt, by scent or some other indicator. Well, I try to be pretty quiet in the woods, cover my scent by washing with scentless and odor masking soap, use laundry detergent specifically made for hunters, spray scent eliminator on my boots, and pretty much get rid of my man stink. I also wear blaze camo clothing. I do wind up walking up on deer, or see them from my stand, almost every season. This year was no exception, I saw 5 deer while afield, but they were all does and this year I spooked a couple of them even though, as far as I was aware, I was pretty much scentless, was being quiet and moving slowly (only a few steps at a time and pausing for several seconds before moving again) and had taken all the usual precautions.

I just could not figure my long deer-less streak. That is, until this evening. A few minutes ago, I spotted evidence that there is at least one member of my household that may have been sabotaging my efforts to bag a deer by leaving a scent behind that deer avoid. This family member may be acting alone or in concert with other family members but my bet would be that others are in on it. I say that because the one I caught in the act is the latest addition to the family and must have learned how to sabotage my hunting trip from somebody else before actually doing it too. Then again, for all I know, my family member maybe somehow was in contact directly with the deer and was instructed on what to do by them; those deer are wily critters. What was done was to add a scent to my hunting clothes after I just washed them in a scent free and odor blocking hunter's detergent. I would not even think of spraying down my hunting jacket before my next hunt because I would expect it to still be scent free but man oh man would I have been wrong on that one. 

The fact that I was being sabotaged is plainly evident, see for yourselves:

 
The evidence could not be much clearer than that - caught in the act of leaving a scent that deer dread maybe even more that man stink. It was the evil - dog stink! The culprit is Abby, our long haired (and fat) Chihuahua who is atop my hunting clothes inside the plastic bin in which I store my gear. I had just put it in there and was about to get the rest of it to put in too, when I was distracted for a few minutes. When I turned back around, there she was looking fat, happy and very comfortable. That was until I asked what she was doing on my hunting clothing, at which point she put on that 'Who me?' puppy face. I just know that one of the other dogs, or maybe a deer, somehow told her what to do.

All the best,
Glenn B