I haven't shot a wide enough spectrum of deer to know, but do deer tarsal glands always smell, or just around the rut? They smell in mid-october, they really smell in late october, I can smell them before I see them in November, and I can't really remember the smell of my December buck enough to say if it still had it. Is that smell always present? Or does is signify pre-rut, and coincide with pre-rut rubbing? I ask, because I was surprised to smell it on a mid-October buck.