Eddie McRae has bowhunted the same Georgia farms for 40 years — and he says he hasn't been smelled by a deer in nearly a decade. No ozone units, no expensive sprays. Just a scent system he runs 365 days a year and a theory that most deer don't even know what a human smells like anymore.
In this episode of The Southern Outdoorsmen, Eddie (of Riverman Custom Calls) breaks down the self-taught, low-pressure approach that's put six mature bucks on the wall in the last four years. We cover deer this time - turkey's coming in a follow-up.
What we get into:
- How Eddie taught himself to hunt with no mentor, and why he switched from gun to bow in the late '80s
- The bow record he almost can't explain — hundreds of deer, and his take on staying calm at full draw
- Paper tuning, shooting at 60–80 yards, and building form you can repeat 100% of the time
- His arrow setup: 200 grains up front, high FOC, and why he thinks ultra-heavy arrows are a mistake
- The scent system in full — unscented everything, baking-soda washes, clothes that never enter the house, dog fennel cover scent, and the e-bike
- Why he believes deer have stopped recognizing "clean" human scent altogether
- The UV/detergent glow rabbit hole — the glove that busted him, the black-light test, and Dr. Karl Miller's UGA deer-vision work
- The four kinds of deer (wild, suburban, managed, public) and why behavior — not bait — drives everything
- Hunting a 400-acre farm like a sanctuary by doing the exact opposite of pressured neighbors
- Why mature bucks lock into tiny core areas — the 11-acre buck that never showed on another camera
- Cutting a ground blind into the nastiest cover on the property, and building a staging spot to kill a blown-out buck
- Hunting major weather swings and "hunting from the sofa" until a deer tells you it's time
- The get-in-get-it-done-get-out access philosophy (h/t Bobby Worthington)
- Eddie's most controversial take: why he doesn't believe the South has a definitive rut, and the fawn-drop evidence behind it
Check out Eddie's calls:
Riverman Custom Calls — https://rivermancustoms.com/
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