Tired of deer always scenting you? Peter Jones reviews the Primos Wind Checker.
Put simply, if you’re not already using one of these then I’d recommend that you get one.
As we all know Deer have an extremely sensitive sense of smell and so to check the direction of the wind in the past I would carry handfuls of dry grass in my pocket in the summer, and in the winter would simply rely on ‘huffing’ my morning breath into the cold air to see in which direction it would drift....usually in my clients face....not very sociable!
My methods in the past worked OK, however for sheer ease of use I now carry a ‘Primos wind checker’ in my pocket. Clients that stalk with me will see me regularly giving the little bottle a squeeze every fifty yards or so in order to check the direction of a gentle breeze or 'eddie'.
A squeeze of the bottle sends a small jet of fine white powder into the air, which drifts away in a white cloud on even the most gentle of breezes, a cloud that is easier to spot than my morning breath, and much finer than handfuls of dry grass.
At first when having been gifted this bit of kit, I was suspicious that I simply wouldn't bother to use it, however now more than a year on it is one of the essential bits of kit that I have with me before setting out on an outings deer stalking. Currently they are sold by outlets such as 'BushWear' online for £5.99. Why they are this much I don’t know? However I’d suggest that once you have the bottle you might simply top it up with flour or another non scented powder in order to save a few pounds and the fag of having to reorder. At any rate it is a very cheap bit of kit and extremely useful.
If you need further convincing, I have already written at length about deer’s sense of smell in my article ‘Scent of a Hunter’, so to find out more about just how sensitive this sense is, and how it works, click on the following link to read the article:
"It is estimated that whilst we humans have just 5 million Olfactory Receptors, deer possess in the region of 250 million!"....Click here to read more: how-good-is-a-deer-s-sense-of-smell
