Washing your hunt gear???

[DarkeGreen]

Originally posted by Guru:
Dark, You figured out a way to make the wind blow the same way all the time and make the deer come in upwind everytime?  Let us in on the secret            

We all try to hunt with the wind in our favor, it's the deer that don't cooperate that we all need to worry about scent control for......

A lot of good advice here....

I spend a bunch of time looking for the perfect setup. Most of my shots are under 5 feet away on the ground. Setting up in a tree would make the job much harder and that is one of the many reason i don't.

Even on days when the wind isn't constantly blowing one direction you can setup beside landscape that directs it one way. I could take you to one place I  where the wind always blows north regardless of what it is doing everywhere else.

Mostly I hunt places where I know deer always travel the same path and either can't or won't come from any other direction. There have been many days I've had to put down lunch, my coffee or other hot drink, and yes even smokes to shoot a deer. My biggest deer to date was shot 3 feet away while I was smoking. people I hunt with get mad when they see where I was setting and how far away the deer are. The first few times they just thought it was luck.

I think you'd also be surprised at what you scent does in the wind. If you have a 5 to 10 mile per hour constant wind your scent trail is only about 7 to 8 feet across. Some times I hunt up wind and just know I have to shoot before the deer reachs that spot. Take some some bombs or anything else you can use that smoke out in the woods and study it. it is amazing what you can learn.

When you're up in a tree your scent can drop, rise, be deflected by trees, betray you 100 yards away or other crazy stuff. Control the wind with the landscape and you don't have to worry about it. if that isn't an option setup in front of stuff so thick the deer can't get in it. heck that's where deer like to hangout anyhow.

BTW, that one spot where the wind only blows north also has a trail that runs cross wind. In 15 years of hunting that spot I've only had deer come thru there off of the trail twice. Double bonus! I hunt that spot a lot and it produces several every year.

[DarkeGreen]

"But at bow ranges I don't know if it's relevant for the simple reason we all have to breathe. "

True but it doesn't have to smell like something that will offend the deer. kill the germs, brush with baking soda, eat apples, nuts, chew pine scented crap, or whatever is natural to where you hunt. You also can filter the moisture out with a pull over mask.

...but it's easier just to keep the deer in front of you.  

BTW, it works for on girls too.  

[Plug]

Originally posted by DarkeGreen:
True but it doesn't have to smell like something that will offend the deer. kill the germs, brush with baking soda, eat apples, nuts, chew pine scented crap, or whatever is natural to where you hunt. You also can filter the moisture out with a pull over mask.

...but it's easier just to keep the deer in front of you.      

BTW, it works for on girls too.    

I don't think you can mask it.  To loosely quote Gene Wensel from "Bowhunting Rutting Whitetails", "If someone uses the bathroom and sprays pine scented deodorizer it just smells like someone took a dump under a pine tree."  

If one were to commit to a bland vegetarian diet you might be able to eliminate breath odor that alarms deer, but if you eat meat and or spicy foods... no way.

It doesn't work on girls either.  I can brush and gargle but she can still tell when I have a cheesesteak/wit for lunch.

[DarkeGreen]

Then you're not doing it right. The first thing I noticed was that I no longer got bit by misquitos. That was huge for me because I get bit when no one else is. When the bugs can find you, the deer won't either.

That stuff you're eating isn't going to your lungs so if the smell is there you didn't remove the source. At that point you would be correct you're putting pine scent on a pile of crap.

You have to be clean first, kill the bacteria second, cover up, and then capture. It works, no doubt about it.

Like I said you have to start a month before you need to be scent free.

[Missouri CK]

Interesting thread to say the least.  I think it comes down to doing the best we can in the circumstances we are dealing with. I personally think a deer's nose is so genetically superior to ours that I'm not sure the stuff we used to kill our scent is doing what we think.  I have a hard time believing that those scent kill sprays that have no perceptable smell to us have the same effect on the deer.  They lack odor to our relatively unsensative noses, but I would think deer can perceive them as chemical odors that are foreign. Especially the ones that are supposed to smell like apple or acorns.  I would think deer would perceive those much like a sweet smelling cologne.  It might smells sweet but is sure isn't natural and they have never smelled it previously.  So it would be a strange scent.

I agree with most of what I have read here about controlling scent by washing in scent free detergents and using natural flora to a scent on our clothing.

My only addition is using rubbing alcohol for a washing detergent.  Alcohol kills bacteria about a good as anything and is a wonderful scent neutralizer.  It's our own natural bacteria that produces body odor and gets into our cloths. Alcohol also evaporates so most of its residue is gone after the cloths dry.  I pour a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the washing machine with some towels first.  Then another bottle with a load with my hunting cloths. Then I hang them outside to dry.  After each hunt I spray the cloths down with an spay bottle that has alcohol in it this will kill the bacteria on the cloths about as good as possible.  Then back in the plastic bags with walnuts or pine needles.

Lets keep discussing this topic.

Chris

[chrisg]

I've lived with vegetarians, ok we were in love! Anyway they said you could easily smell a meat eater. There were no smokers in our home, so I tried a pure veggie diet, sauteed,steamed and baked food but no fries or preservatives, alcohol, coffee or strong spices for three months. I was pretty fit by then and healthy too. Bonus! Guess what? They were so right, you can smell a smoker 'a mile off' and meat eaters if they are in the same room.Have you ever had a small child tell you the milk is sour a day before you can taste it? We mess up our sense of taste and smell by eating too much spiced and fried foods, too little raw stuff, and of course smoking and drinking alcohol and coffee. Drive around the town and you will smell a fast food outlet blocks away with your polluted nostrils, imagine what you smell like to a wild animal?
There are many 'primitive' peoples that have bans and taboos around the pre hunt days, including sex. Hormones and pheremones are powerful and a dead giveaway. We are only doing a half job if we wash our gear but fail to manage our own body odours. We have a wild plant here in SA that is known as 'duiweltjie, duiweldooring' or'seep plant', the plant is a magical soap and is odourless, great for washing you, your clothes and everything else -including pots and pans!
chrisg

[Missouri CK]

I guess I'm not willing to give up meat or spicy foods so what about the chlorophyll pills or alfalfa supplements that are sold?  I guess the premise is to make to make yourself smell like herbivore.  I've tried them because I was curious about what affect they might have.  I know one thing if you take a bunch your scat starts turning green.  

Not to take this thread another direction but for those guys who used cover up scents how many times do you get busted by deer down wind and how many times are deer down wind and you get a shot opportunity?  Of those encounters were they young deer or mature deer?

One more thought.  The reason I don't use many of the scent killing options on the market is their price.  Before I buy one I always think to myself.  Did this company really research the issue or are they just trying to make money off a gimic.

Maybe the enzyme scent eliminators could actually have an effect but I'm just too cheap to pay for them because I feel like anytime a deer is truely downwind (currents actually coming from me down to the deers level) I'm going to be busted.

Chris

[chrisg]

Yes I understand about the foods but it was an interesting experience and I was not an animal hunter then - I did it to 'prove,' (disprove?) the statement that 'you can smell a meateater'. You can, but if you do eat meat then be super aware of the wind and move slowly. I eat very little meat before a hunt and hold the coffee and alcohol. The fancy supplements we don't have but on another thread someone spoke of eating asparagus, artichokes or broccolli to 'load your scent' and then peeing close to your stand. If you can't beat em join em!
Another thing that interests me is how often do we give ourselves away with an unconscious movement and then assume it was a bust from scent? It's a nice puzzle to explore and the best part is you have to be out in the bush to do it    
chrisg

[SOS]

If the mosquitos aren't finding you, you've quit breathing.  They find you by smelling true, but also by the CO2 you exhale is what the scientist say.  Diet may help...but dying is the only way...except for your Thermacell.

[DarkeGreen]

Yep I know that's what they say but try it for yourself and you'll be convenced too.

The soap and mouthwash I used isn't available i sports stores any more, at least not around here. You can use the antibacterial soap used by doctors before operating. Just remember, like taking antibotics it takes about 10 days. They recommend you only use these products to bath with and start 1 month before season. Normally I get eating so bad I have to use some kind of repelant and they still get in my eyes, nose, mouth, and tear up my back and legg. After using this stuff I got bit twice without using anything to keep the bugs away.

Along with killing the bacteria that creates smells you still have to do all the other stuff. Baking soda wash and dried clothes, no smoking, etc. I would keep my hunting clothes in a bag full of oak leaves and dirt from the area I hunted, and always wore a sock hat that pulled over my mouth and nose impreagnated with baking soda. As you walk in look for mud to walk thru and othewise cake on your boots and fill you pockets with leaves and acorns. You can mash the acorns up and mix with distilled water to use as a cover spray if you'll be hunted in areas with them naturally.

When you have 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 year old buck walk past you under 5 feet away without so much as a glance it make you a blevier. One time I had a young buck pass under 3 feet away.

It's a lot of work and became more like a job than having fun. Over the years I quit a little at a time and now I don't do any of it. Hunting is much more enjoyable for me today too. heck I take a shower in the morning with regular soap, brush my teeth with real tooh paste. Then I go to the closet and grab my hunting clothes and go hunting. Most years I shoot 4 or 5 deer and I'm happy. Sometimes they are big and some times they are little. Early in the year I shoot whatever walks by, late in the year i get a little more picky because I know the freeze is full.

I still shoot 95% of my deer less than 10 feet away and everyone of them I've shot in the last 20 years has been eye to eye on the ground.

[Plug]

Originally posted by DarkeGreen:
That stuff you're eating isn't going to your lungs so if the smell is there you didn't remove the source. At that point you would be correct you're putting pine scent on a pile of crap.

You have to be clean first, kill the bacteria second, cover up, and then capture. It works, no doubt about it.

Like I said you have to start a month before you need to be scent free.

Been aa while sense I checked this thread.

Come on DG!  Sure the smell of foods goes to your lungs.  The chemicals which cause the smell enter into your system including your bloodstream.  As you respire your exhalations carry the smell.  You eat garlic your breath will smell like garlic no matter what you do.  The smell doesn't come from the inside of your mouth.  It comes out of your respiratory system.  

It might be possible to "purge" your body of offensive odors but I believe that would involve eliminating a lot of foods I won't eliminate, red meat for one.