Odd Preparation Habits

[Roadkill]

When I was back East I did clothes in tubs with leaves and limbs, baking soda to the teeth and pits and non scent spray as I got out of the truck
Here we do a little but spot and stalk mulies it is wind favorable at all times

[KentuckyTJ]

Originally posted by Shawn Leonard:
I am a scent control freak. Take chlorophyll tablets starting a few weeks before and bath in no scent soaps, seal all my clothes in scent proof containers. The one I really need to have is apple-flavored gum, I believe your breath is our biggest concern on stand, brush teeth and tongue before leaving the truck with baking soda and chew 3 pieces of apple gum while on stand, hows that for strange? Shawn

I agree Shawn, I need to do something to mask my breath this year and see how it works. I can't quit my coffee in the morning. Gotta have it.

I have always wondered if breathing through your nose instead of your mouth was better as your exhale doesn't go through your stinky mouth.

[USN_Sam1385]

Every year I do an experiment scent control wise.

I stopped using the expensive H.S. laundry detergent and replaced it with "All: Free and Clear". It is free of dyes and perfumes. Same stuff if you ask me... same effect on the deer if you ask me...

Replaced the clear liquid in my H.S. scent killer spray with water... pretty sure that stuff WAS water anyway. Plus the experts say that rain washes away the scent, and so hanging a stand just before rain etc. is smart... So why not just spray rain (a.k.a. water) on urself???? Has worked well so far..

Wear a mesh hood. Covers my face AND keeps my breath from traveling away from my face as well. Seems to have worked well.

Stopped worrying abut peeing in bottles and just went RIGHT off the stand. Never had a single deer spook from the scent and had them walk within 5 feet of it and pay no mind... I think our kidneys process it enough that it smells like any other animal urine...

Coffee: Love it, and never notices any negative effects around deer. Had deer walk past me at 20 yards while I had a steaming thermos in my hand. However, coffee makes the bowels a little loose sometimes, so I replaced it with hot apple cider. Wife buys the gallons of apple cider around October time, and I heat up a batch in the microwave and throw into the thermos. Smells like apples, doesn't mess with the tummy, warms you up, and tastes delicious. Also think that it might attract deer as I see the most while drinking it.

Started using imitation vanilla extract as a scent. I put it in a few places around my stand. I swear it has brought deer in.

Finally, I use the HS scent wafers. The only HS product I think is really worth anything. I use the fresh earth version, and keep it in my bag with all of my clothes 24/7. I then hang the wafers around me in the stand or on the ground. Never busted while using them.

[KentuckyTJ]

Sam, I think the "Rain washes away scent" statements is one of the biggest myths about deer and deer hunting. From my years of training bird dogs and partaking in and watching field trials full of top notch dogs, I can tell you that when the humidity is very low a champion quail finding bird dog can't smell a bird when they are standing on top of it. On high humidity days the same dog will point them from 50 yards away. Now this is assuming a deers nose works the same as a dogs nose which I would believe it would.

I believe this as I have had deer very close downwind of me early in the season on very hot low humidity days and they have had no idea I was there. I also believe this is a big reason bucks lay low on these type days and sighting rise on the moist days. My favorite time to hunt is an early season 90 degree day with low humidity.

[Red Beastmaster]

I will pick my hunting bow around Labor Day and stick with it throughout the season. I won't shoot another bow during that time.

Before season I'll do a good bit of roving with a Judo. This is the best practice, just walk around shooting at leaves and grass clumps.

[bsoper]

Originally posted by RC:
I start by being extra nice to the Wife and doing a lot of "honey do`s". wanna go to the beach dear? You know stuff like that .....cause in a few more weeks it may keep me out of the doghouse.RC

Haha! exactly this!

[PaddyMac]

About two weeks or so before the season I stop and survey the wreckage of getting where I am. There is a small pile of broken nocks, inserts, foam, feathers, chewed up things I've used for targets and a broken arrow or two in front of the target. There are tabs and gloves and hunks of leather and velcro everywhere. Field points, blunts broadheads, files, unused footings, a menagerie of things I've tried that didn't make the cut. Camo is clean and sealed up. Knives are sharp and out where I can see them. An empty pack is on the floor by the bed, ready. Old elk diaphrams are laying around. Plastic containers of HS cow elk urine and pine. Arrows are tilted up in every corner. There is a path of bare dirt to the target. Stringers, strings, limb bolts, peeled off strike plates and rest leather. nock points. How my wife has put up with all this, I have no idea. A sock in the living room won't be on the floor 3 second before the screeching starts, but a half dozen 175 gr crusty blunts on the cherry coffee table? No problem.

I just take a moment and survey all that, and that's when I know it's time and I'm ready.

[3arrows]

Seen on the internet cinnamon gum like big red works best on bad breath.

[ethan]

I usually mask my breath with copenhagen.  Deer love the smell of snuff!!  

[SheltonCreeker]

One of the craziest things I have used to do not so much any more cause I don't do the laundry. Was wash even my washcloth and towel in the same stuff I washed my hunting clothes in. I had some house guest ask why my towels smelled like dirt. Told them those weren't for them! Laid the wrong ones out!

[tradtusker]

I dont go fanatic with the sent free thing, it can help a little in the odd case but most of the time, in my experience you can 'not do enough' to truly eliminate your sent.
But if you can, go for it.

for something Odd, when i go out to hunt i always pick a leaf or small flower, even sometimes a little stone and put it in my pocket, and when im walking around and i see dung, i always squish it with the toe of my boot.

[Shedrock]

I don't do the scent free thing either. I spend my time sharpening heads, scouting, and polishing my binocs and spotting scope. Nothing odd here, except I may iron the wrinkles from my plaid shirts.