can you really stay scent free???

[adkmountainken]

ok couple questions here. i have learned to play the wind at about all costs as it most definitly is huge. now to stay scent free and keep my clothes scent free seems virtually impossible and heres why. my favorite place to hunt is a 45 minute straight up a rocky mountain top. i tie my heavy items like sweater and jacket around my waist. no matter how easy or slow i take it by the time i get to where i want to be i am in a fourth quater sweat and i mean a good lather! i do bring scent elim spray but how much is that really going to help? i do play the wind but to hope and stay scent free to the other direction is impossible! same thing on the way down, get a drenching sweat which would make keeping my clothes in scent free bins useless. ok and ideas or help???

[woodchucker]

Nope!!!!!!!!!!

(Now ya know why I quit trying YEARS ago...)  

[lpcjon2]

Some people sweat more than others it's all about how much heat your body produces internally. Thats a body's natural thing to do to cool you off. You may be able to take a supplement that will smell more pleasant when you sweat.Thats the best I have for ya.

[snag]

You can't be scent free...even though some companies who sell products would like you to think so. What about brushing your teeth? I hunt smelling of mint because I brush my teeth. I'm sure that's not scent free. There's only so much you can do. The main thing, like you say, is be mindful of the thermals and wind. I do wash my hunting clothes and keep them in a container with fir boughs. But when you backpack in several miles you don't have the luxury of changing clothes in order to keep "camp odors" off you hunting clothes...? So, there's just so much you can do.  But if you play the wind it doesn't matter.

[Tom L]

No! Hunt the wind.

Tom

[rascal]

Humans will always smell like humans and what ever odors the may have come in contact with.  You might limit some of the smells or manipulate some of them but you arent getting rid of it.

[DennyK]

If you're breathin' you're smellin'.

[metsastaja]

"scent free" is not achievable and not necessary best to play the wind.

[Problem Child]

In the past I did it all.Washed clothes in the expensive sports wash,hung them out to dry,put them in a sealed bag with pine limbs,used baking soda for underarms and toothpaste,etc.

Now all I do is wash my clothes in baking soda and that's only to avoid the UV brighteners in detergent.

I see just as many deer as I did before.

Hunt the wind and enjoy yourself.

[beetlebailey1977]

Never can stay scent free....I just try to do my best to help cut down on as much extra scent as possible and hunt with the wind.

[ishoot4thrills]

Sweat isn't the only thing that makes you smell human. I used to hunt where it was a very short walk to my stand. I tried not to touch things with my hands on the way in but sometimes I accidentally did. More than once I had deer come to a spot where I touched a barbed wire fence with my bare hands and the deer stretched out his neck to smell the fence at the exact spot where I touched it. Both times the deer went ballistic and turned around and headed back the other way. I've had more deer smell where I've been than wind me where I'm at. I try very hard not to touch ANYTHING, including weeds and limbs, with my bare hands when going to my stands.

[Shawn Leonard]

Ken,  I carry a big Bison gear pack and carry all my clothes in most of the time. I wear only my boots and underwear even on very cold days. I carry scent wipes and wipe down when I arrive at my stand and than zip loc bag them. I also take chlorophyll tablets and watch what I eat. Your hair and breath are very important, so spray the hair down with scent killer and chew apple gum or pine flavored. It helps a real lot and I know I cannot fool a whitetails noise but I can make him have his doubts!     Shawn

[Cyclic-Rivers]

If you stay out of the woods they will never smell you so in essence you are scent free in some places.  

[Groundpounder]

my scent free shower is just a shower where i dont use any soap or shampoo. my clothes i was in hot water with no detergent. i do like to use a good earth scent cover spray pretty heavily. and i only hunt twelve feet off the ground. just two nights ago i had four doe under me 1 upwind and 3 downwind they had no clue

[KentuckyTJ]

How much scent your body puts out isn't the issue. From my years of raising, training and running field trial bird dogs and seeing some of the best bird finding dogs in the country I can tell you some days they can smell you and some days they can't. No matter what you put on or take off your body. Bird hunters refer to it as "The scenting conditions". On a hot dry day the best dogs in the country can stand right on top of a quail and will never smell it. The cool damp days they can smell them up to 60 yards away in ideal scenting conditions. Deer noses are the same. Just early this season I had a very nice older buck come in down wind of me and he had no idea I was there, even though I was had been sweating terribly. It was a very dry day above 90 degrees. Needless to say these are some of my favorite days to be on stand. Just the other night I had some does coming straight to me 100 yards away. The wind swirled in their direction for less than a minute and they stopped in their tracks and high tailed it out of there. It was 66 degrees. So to my point it matters little what you do on a cool day. They will smell you.

[adkmountainken]

well i guess i am pretty much doing all i can do as i seem to be in the same boat with waht everyone is doing. i know how extreme many are with their scent free ideas and was hoping to pick up some ideas but in the end looks like the majority ( me too ) say play the wind, which i do.

[TxAg]

I wash my clothes in baking soda and dry them like normal...then toss them in a trash bag. I use scent killer spray if I have some laying around.  In my area it's not the deer I worry about winding me, it's the hogs.

[ron w]

Keep the wind in your face........there is no sent free.

[LookMomNoSights]

use other scents to detract,  drown out,  overpower whatever... your own scent.  I love coon urine!  seems to put all animals that come across it into a daze....not sure why but it works.  Spray that junk on both sides of the wind.   Might just confuse your quary long enough for you to make one count!  

[Buckeye Trad Hunter]

Can't be scant free, you just have to do the best that you can.