Natural Scent Camouflage

[Wednesday Caste]

Newbie hunting question...
Can you camouflage your scent with a natural scent.  I've read that smoke is a natural scent that deer will tolerate and hunters use it as cover.  In my area there is sage brush everywhere and it has a very nice aroma and I thought about taking my desert camo BDU out and beating it thru a brush to scent it and masking my ripe scent.  What do you think?
Quinn

[robslifts]

sounds like a good idea to me years ago they did not use anything for scents except what you are thinking of doing!!

[elk ninja]

Quinn,
Without a doubt in my mind, a natural scent is the way to go.  Keep in mind though, no matter what, if you don't hunt the wind, it won't matter.
That said, every year I brew my own scent.  I cut fresh sage twigs and boil it (outside on the sideburner of my bbq) in water and make a "tea".  Pour it into a $1 store spray bottle, viola, natural scent.  If I was living in hardwoods, I'd do the same with oak or whatever was around...
Mike

[Swamp Pygmy]

Kind of an odd story but I watched a video from a disgruntled ex drug cop from texas who was showing smugglers how to hide stuff in their car. A lot of the video is dealing with how an animal smells, what it smells, what it can't, etc from a guy that used to train top drug dogs. Which in my mind is relevant to how WT deer smell too.

anyway that video has alot of info on how animals smell but long story short he said trying to use any type of cover scent at all because of how the nose works only tells them there is even more things out of the ordinary here. It doesn't decrease your smell at all, only adds the smell of something else with it. Our noses will pick up the heavier scent- theirs will simply smell them both and run off.

After watching the movie I learned alot of from something really unexpected but it made me realize the only real effective cover scent might be one of those general deer scent attractants (no estrous or buck urine or anything. You can't stop him from smelling you but you might convince him other deer have already gone ahead and its safe now.

[sendero25]

I think I need to use diesel and gear oil for a scent. Where I hunt, when the timber company comes in and cuts an area, it is only a matter of a few hours that the deer come out into the newly cut area to investigate!
Seriously, I think the newly cut trees and freshly disturbed earth attract their curiosity.
Maybe I should bottle "diesel skidder" spray!

[Orion]

Think you've got something there sendero.  Also need to take a tape player along with the sounds of working heavy equipment.  

[Fletcher]

Cover type scents aren't going to hurt anything, but the deer, and most all other big game, will smell you right thru it.  Work with the wind and thermals and keep yourself and your gear as clean as possible.  Scent killer sprays seem to help a bit, but the only thing that will keep a deer from smelling you is to be downwind.  Enjoy the journey, Quinn.    

[celticknot]

i use baking soda to wash my clothes in and hang them up for a 2-3 days before i hunt. i also use the cover scent soap from 3rivers but it really driesout my skin but it all works because ive been 10 feet from deer and they didnt even know i was there and i ground hunt

[kadbow]

I always store my camo with sage or pine branches.  It is free and it can't hurt.

[Swamp Pygmy]

yeah always remember though I've gotten within 15 yds of two mature feeding does while I was smoking a cigarette and talking on the cell phone too. During hunting season. A week after rifle season. Granted it was on a nature trail part but less than 200yds away you can hunt.

It's hard to say why deer do or don't do anything.

Not to dismiss how finicky many can be about scent, I'm just saying you never really know whats going on in their head.

[Arwin]

I like taking a handfull of green pine needles and crushing them in my gloves and wiping over my suit. I mainly do it for good karma, and I smell good too ,LOL!

[AMB]

I do the pine needle thing too, I usually crush some and place it on the ground and rub it with my boots.  I also have a stand across a pasture and I always look for a fresh cow pie to step in on the way.  Cedar is another good one to rub on your clothes.

[Swamp Pygmy]

I think filling your wind checker with baking soda and squirting in on heavy sweat spots as you hunt to turn liquid to solid and absorb odor would work.

[Wednesday Caste]

I had a suspiscion that a deer could distinguish between the natural and my ripeness LOL.  "Free and it can't hurt." is my thought too so I'll just go ahead and try it- at least I'll cover enough that I don't have to smell my self.  It should be a scorcher hiking around here in August even in the early morning.
I'll have both scent and visibility as my enemy being in the high desert area w/very few trees.  Thanks gents for your input!
Quinn

[Earl E. Nov...mber]

My dog loves to chew on rawhide cow's ears, We can get groceries, and if there is a bag of ears in the mix, even though they are sealed in plastic, and inside the grocery bag, he knows it as soon as the bag is in the house.
It never hurts to control the amount of scent we disperse or leave behind, but regardless, they will smell you and they will smell where you have been.. To me that is a bigger concern than them smelling me directly.. I can play the wind, but am helpless in dealing with the scent left behind from walking and touching things I cannot avoid.

[Danny Roberts]

Wash with Ivory soap before you hunt.

[Wednesday Caste]

Ivory soap?  Am I missin' sumpin?
I wash, hike, stink and need to wash again...???

[brettlandon]

It's all about the wind and what's natural in their environment.  If I go deep into the woods and don't play the wind properly, I'm busted before I see anything.  But if I wait for them to enter my environment, closer to the farm buildings and machinery, the smells are exaclly what they expect and here I am almost invisible.  I got my doe at twelve yards last year without camouflage and I smelled like sweat and welding rod.  I had two does walk upwind right to me.  One survived.  :confused:  

-Brett

[Bakes168]

I've had deer walk right by where I walked in and they did'nt do anything. I don't think there is a concrete statement that says exactly what deer will/won't do if they smell you or smell a branch you touched, etc... It all depends
Think about the old days with Fred Bear, Howard Hill, Pope & Young, etc... None of them used any type of high tech spray on scent control and they got along fine.

Other than leaving your clothes outside and rubbing pine neeldes on yourself I did read in a magazine that you can make a few of your own scent masking things though.
1.Put some leaves/pine needles in a burlap sack and put them and your hunting clothes in the dryer and run the dryer.
2.Put some crushed acorns and crushed up pine needles in a big pot and add water. Then boil it for half an hour. When done strain it and put the liquid in a spray bottle. I did it last year and only boiled it for about 10 mins and it was still strong!
There were other ones but I forgot   :rolleyes:  
Bakes