To Pee or Not To Pee?

Ohio Outdoor News (Sept. 2007)  by Tony Seals

    There you are, perched in your favorite treestand, the forest coming to life before your eyes.  It’s show-time.  At any minute the buck of your dreams could come strolling into your set-up.  Just then, it hits you, that second cup of coffee is starting to kick-in.  What is the best way to handle this situation without spooking deer?  Do you try to hold it until you leave the woods;  do you use a sealed pee-bottle;  do you climb down and move a “safe” distance from your stand before relieving yourself;  or, do you take a quick look around before letting it go right from the stand?  Lately, questions have arisen as to whether or not the presence of our   pee in the  woods bothers deer at all.  I have even heard hunters tell of using their own urine as an attractant.   So, out of curiosity, I did a little research to find out what a sampling of the country’s leading whitetail hunters do when nature calls.  The results were surprising.   

     Michael Hanback, book author, contributing writer and whitetail-hunting columnist for Outdoor Life Magazine, has been around the block a time or two when it comes to hunting whitetails.  He has spent more than 25 years chasing whitetails throughout this country and several Canadian destinations using bows, modern firearms and muzzleloaders.  For years he relied on a pee-bottle as part of his scent control measures, feeling that a mature buck would surely spook at the first whiff of human urine.  But, after being convinced by some of the nations top deer biologists that urine is 95% water and virtually free of toxins, depending on what you have eaten, he began leaving his pee-bottle at home and “letting it fly” right from the tree a few years ago.  Since then he has harvested several trophy-sized whitetails that were not at all concerned with his urine.  Michael recently stated in his “Big Buck Zone” Q&A forum that he would not use pee to attract deer, but he has learned that the scent of it doesn’t seem to spook them either.

     Professional whitetail bowhunter, Steve Bartylla, from Marshfield, Wisconsin is quickly becoming a household name among whitetail hunters through his books, videos, and many nationally-published, deer hunting articles.  My wife and I had a nice discussion with Steve at the 2007 Deer and Turkey Expo in Columbus.  He is a wealth of deer hunting information.  When I contacted Steve for his thoughts on this subject, this is what he had to say. 

     “I’ve conducted many field experiments where I’ve urinated in mock scrapes.  I’ve even had bucks work scrapes doctored with human urine in July.  My belief is that once it breaks down, it smells similar enough to deer urine that it can be effective.  However, it takes several hours for it to get to that state and I do believe that deer realize that fresh human urine is not deer urine.”  In response to the question of whether or not fresh human urine spooks deer, Steve added this.  “I believe the answer is no…and yes.  Each deer has its own tolerance level and, over the course of its life, is trained what to fear and what not to.  I don’t believe that most deer fear human urine.  The problem that I see with urinating from stands is that the few deer that do fear it are very likely to be some of the older, more mature animals.  When that happens to be a shooter buck, and he is running the other way, does the hunter really care that most other deer aren’t afraid?”  For Steve, a pee-bottle and a steady aim is the way to go.

     Finally, the general consensus among other successful hunters, when asked whether you should climb down from your stand to relieve yourself, was a resounding no.  Most believe that the extra human scent that would be distributed around the area of your stand by climbing down, walking out, returning to the area, and then climbing the tree again would be much more of a deterrent than simply going from the tree.  As for holding it until your hunt is over, that rarely works out.  Hunting is supposed to be fun.  In my opinion, it would be better to choose any of the other options before the experience is ruined by the discomfort of a full bladder.

     To sum it up, if you want the absolute best chance to kill a deer that has been programmed to associate fresh human urine with danger, then it’s best to keep from urinating around your stands.  But, for most hunting situations, peeing from your stand shouldn’t adversely affect the outcome of your hunt.

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