If you carry a pee bottle into your deer stand, there’s a less messy and more sanitary, albeit more expensive, way.
The Travel John features a unisex “spill guard” attached to a plastic bag that contains a fabric LIQSORB pouch. Pee into the bag and the polymer pouch immediately turns the urine into an odorless, biodegradable gel that won’t spill on your hands or clothes or in your daypack as you hike out. When you get home, simply throw the bag into the trash.
I tested several Travel Johns and they work as advertised. After peeing, I immediately turned each bag upside down, and not a drop spilled or leaked. Each bag is reusable. Depending on how much coffee you had that morning, you can get 2 or 3 pees per bag.
A box of 6 disposable urinals sells for $11.41 from Amazon. More than 300 reviews from Amazon customers give the Travel John 4.7 out of 5 stars.
I would use the Travel John if I still carried a pee bottle into my tree stand or blind…but I rarely do. Now, I look around to make sure no deer are coming, then let fly off a stand or out a ground blind’s window. Several of the country’s top deer biologists have convinced me that urine is 95% water and with little odor, depending on what you’ve eaten (confirmed by several medical encyclopedias). One scientist from Auburn University went as far as to say that human urine is actually a mammalian attractant. I do not pee to attract deer, but in my experience it does not spook them.
But the movement and noise of peeing might, and that is another reason to consider the Travel John. To urinate off a tree stand or from a fabric blind, you have to stand up, move, shuffle and let fly. Urine hitting the ground makes noise. With the Travel John men can urinate sitting down, greatly cutting down on noise and movement.
Come to think of it, I’ll carry some Travel John bags with me and use them on those brutal 10-hour sits in a blind in Saskatchewan this November. No doubt my cameraman and I make noise when we stand up 2 or 3 times a day to pee.
No doubt the best deer hunters I’ve hunted with over the years are split: some urinate right off their stands, while others would never do that.
What do you do?
i was taught the old school of pee in a bottle. Not necessary. I have peed out of stands hundreds of times. I concur above and have had deer come to it. Curious? I dunno. I have watched them bed in it under my stand literally minutes after I had gone. That said, maybe one day it will cost me a smart OL buck. I know Coyoyes don’t care for it. I think the mention of using that bag in a blind is awesome tho. Maybe it will replace my jugs
I am with the rest of the squad saying that I don’t think deer recognize the differnnce in human and other urine. I have doctored scrapes myself and not spooked the deer as long as I had my boots descented. So….let ‘er rip….you will hold still better and the deer don’t mind!
Curt…….LOL…….Whether you have to move to pee or not, it is always a good idea to take a look around and when the coast is clear take the time to stretch out the legs and arms at least once an hour. This will help with the stiffness and boredom and make you better prepared when the time comes for the shot. I too, just wiz where I am at and have never had an issue. Of course drinking apple juice the night before guarantees no problems.(sarcasm)
I tie a knot in it! Just sayin’………..
I’ve seen many deer while “relieving” myself from the stand. I actually think if they are close enough to hear it, that they perceive it as a natural sound in the woods and sometimes come to investigate. As for the smell, unless they’ve been around humans enough to differentiate between a human’s urine any other animal’s urine, it won’t matter. I once told a buddy that I put a little doe urine in my steak sauce the night before I hunt, so that way my pee smells like a doe in heat. He almost tried it, but I was nice enough to stop him before he ruined his steak.
I let her fly. I’ve never had any deer spook from it, and have had a few go out of their way to come and sniff before continuing on.